If you haven’t mastered music for a vinyl record release before, then you may not realize how much nuance the process requires. Most experienced audio engineers would recommend — or insist — that music destined for vinyl should be mastered by a mastering engineer well versed in the vinyl format. And, even in that case, it’s likely that the company cutting your vinyl will make some optimization tweaks, too. Also remember that vinyl is an analog format and doesn’t share the bit-depth or sample-rate limitations of CD or other digital release formats. That means that you can work from the highest resolution master you have, be it 24-bit or even 32-bit masters at sampling frequencies even above 96kHz (192kHz, 384kHz, or even DSD). You can cut your vinyl master from something better than what is optimized for CD.
In this world of DIY music production, what can you do to make sure your mastered tracks are ready for vinyl production? Let’s look at some of the common issues you’ll encounter when mastering your tracks for a vinyl record release.
Why Would I Need to Master Differently for Vinyl?
Listeners take it for granted that, when they place a record on a turntable, it will play all the way through without any problems. However, a lot of work goes into optimizing that record groove so that the needle doesn’t skip out of the groove and so that the groove doesn’t make the stylus react in a way that causes distortion. You may not realize that, when the stylus of a record player is tracking in the groove of a record, it is tracking variations down to one micron (one-thousandth of a millimeter) — in other words, this is an extremely sensitive system. Simply transferring your mixed master into a vinyl record could cause serious playback problems if you do not anticipate how the stylus will respond to the groove you’re creating.
Program Length Affects Overall Loudness
The loudness of a vinyl disc is primarily determined by the program length. Longer programs mean the distance between the grooves must be closer, which means the level has to be reduced and the bass lowered in order to get the grooves to physically fit on an album side. In a related way, vinyl playback has a way of compressing transients, so it is better to set up the cutting master to be more transient than a CD master (it won’t affect the level of the disc because that’s determined by the program length), but it will give the cutting engineer more options on how hard they drive the medium.
Consider the Physical Limitations of Vinyl When Sequencing
It’s one of those physical oddities that most people who play records rarely consider: While the rotational speed of a record is constant (in the case of a 12-inch LP, it’s 33 1/3 RPM, or revolutions per minute), the grooves on the inside of a record (near the label) are drastically shorter per rotation than those on the outer edge — almost by half. That means that the innermost grooves have to fit the same musical information into half as much space. How does that affect the sound? If you were to press the same song over and over on a record, you would notice that high frequencies are lessened the longer the record plays (as the needle gets closer to the center of the record). It’s a reality of the medium that is hard to compensate for. Veteran mastering engineers generally recommend putting faster, more upbeat tunes toward the beginning of each side of the record and placing slower tunes or softer ballads at the end of each side.
Sweetwater’s mastering engineer, Ken Love, likes to get involved early in the process if vinyl is the destination. According to Love:
“I frequently try to get involved in the sequencing decisions if I know that a project is going to disc. The trick is to get involved before the sequence is first established — ordinarily at the CD/digital-release phase of the project. Things tend to get awkward if the song sequence is different depending on the release media.”
Balance the Length of Each Side
No matter how many songs go onto your vinyl, remember that each side is the same physical size. Make sure your project is sequenced so that side times are relatively balanced, otherwise the quality of the short side will be subject to the same signal accommodations that had to be made to get the long side onto the disc. Also, the short side will be louder than the long side.
Avoid Wide Stereo Bass, and Excessive Bass in General
If you picture the groove in a record as a physical representation of your music’s waveforms, then it’s easy to grasp how disruptive heavy bass can be. If you mix your tracks with heavy bass in a digital format, the result will be bass heavy but probably listenable upon playback. If you press that same mix into vinyl, you may cause the needle to physically jump out of the groove during playback. Stereo bass synths can be especially troublesome if phase cancellations exist between the left and right channels and can even cause the groove to disappear during those instances of phase cancellation (the cutter head may physically move so far away from the lacquer that it loses contact) — where the stylus will end up after the dropout is anyone’s guess.
Beware Sibilance
While no one enjoys excessive sibilance, it causes extra issues when transferring to vinyl. Again, in the digital world, whatever you hear upon mixdown is basically what anyone else is going to hear upon playback — you’re making an artistic choice with whatever level of sibilance you feel is acceptable for the music. In the world of vinyl, you need to be aware that excessive sibilance in a recording can cause audible distortion due to your record player’s stylus. Sibilance contains lots of high-frequency content at a relatively high volume. Too much sibilance in the source audio, and the stylus won’t be able to track the groove accurately, resulting in distorted playback.
The Solution? Communicate with Your Vinyl Engineer
The best way to avoid these common pitfalls when pressing vinyl is to communicate with whoever is doing your vinyl cutting for you before you’re ready to submit your tracks. It’s likely that they’ll be employing professional solutions for de-essing, tonal balance, and so on, but they are working within the limitations of the medium. Take the opportunity to reach out and identify some targets to hit regarding overall volume (peak and LUFS values), relative bass levels, mono compatibility, and sibilance. Plan to have a set of mixes for vinyl that are mastered differently than your digital release, and communicate with your vinyl presser of choice to find out what they’re looking for — they’ve seen every common mix mistake you can imagine, and they’ll be glad to help you optimize your tracks. It makes their job easier, too.
Ready to Master Your Tracks?
Whether you’re mastering for vinyl or for your next digital release, Sweetwater offers a comprehensive range of mastering software. If you’re still not sure whether you want to invest in a vinyl release for your music, check out this article on why your next release should be on vinyl. And if you’d like to talk to a pro about how to prepare your tracks for your next release, then give your Sweetwater Sales Engineer a call at (800) 222-4700 — we’re avid music producers, too, and we’re always happy to help demystify the process! And if you need mastering services, contact Sweetwater Studios, and we’ll put you in touch with Ken Love, our staff mastering engineer. He’s got over 30 years of experience in mastering, and his credits include DC Talk, Toby Keith, Billy Currington, Widespread Panic, Bootsy Collins, Switchfoot, and many others.