Vinyl mastering consists of optimizing the final mastered song for the unique characteristics of the vinyl format which include low and high frequency treatment, level adjustment, groove spacing optimization, and if necessary, low-end summing to eliminate undesirable phasing that can occur from stereo effects in the bass frequencies on vinyl.

Our mastering engineer Gil Tamazyan then cuts 10" or 14" master lacquers for 7" and 12" releases respectively, as well as 7" or 12" reference discs, on our custom modified Neumann VMS 66 cutting lathe. We take great care in optimizing the groove spacing and cutting depth to give you the loudest, cleanest cut vinyl allows for your runtime.

The more time you try to fit on a disc, the less room the groove has to oscillate to your music, so the volume has to drop, and the signal-to-noise ratio or fidelity of your recording gets worse and worse.

We recommend all our clients to stay within the best runtimes quoted for a clean sounding record with proper loudness by today's standards. The maximum durations quoted incur additional costs and produces much quieter records with more noise and cracks during playback.

We also provide direct-to-disc recording of live performances cut straight to lacquers with no digital step in the audio processing chain, for the purest and warmest analog sound available anywhere today. More information.

• Neumann VMS 66 Disc Mastering Lathe with Groove Preview and Midi Controls
• Fairchild 602 Tube Limiters
• Shure SE20 Mastering Phono Preamp
• Custom Built FDS Low end Summing Passive System