So you wanna make a record?
Awesome! There's a few things we need you to know to make our mutual project run smooth as a baby’s bottom. Firstly, please use wetransfer.com to send us all related files at one time when evrthing is ready. We recommend you let us master your music if we are going to cut it. Contact us for an offer on your project. We offer discounted mastering rates (for your digi and CD files too).
Art Submissions
General Info
All artwork should be submitted as editable PDF, PSD or AI. CMYK is the required colour format. Do not lock templates, send screenshots with the templates on in addition to your files. Please also clearly name your files so we know what is what.
Labels and Sleeves
Please do not make a hole/white mark in the centre of your label artwork. We do not recommend not using fonts below 10pt or putting text close around the edges. Leave safety margins of about 2-3mm near all cut and crease/fold lines. Labels are 95mm diameter with 3mm bleed. You can watch a video on bleed here.
7” Templates
7” gatefold sleeve outside PDF
8” Templates
8” custom inner sleeve (additional cost) PDF
8” gatefold inside template PDF
8” gatefold outside/front template PDF
10” Templates
12” Templates
Cassette Templates
Cassette label template Adobe Illustrator
Cassette 4 panel J card sleeve template PDF
Cassette 4 panel J card sleeve template Adobe Illustrator
Music Submissions
Alright. This we try and keep simple but it is kinda complex. Ideally we would like to master your files though there are a number of things to consider at mix stage. We need WAV files but can cut from MP3s too if we have to. WAVS should be high resolution. 16 bit 44.1khz is fine. If you have more than one song per side 1 WAV per side of music is the best. E.G. and album would have 2 WAV files - side A WAV and side B WAV. Nice and easy and then you get to put your tracks running as you like from song to song. We can do it but we'll ask you to pay us for our time. Please also clearly name your files so we know what is what.
Every day we get asked about vinyl mastering and mixing for vinyl. It's complicated so here's the express version. Don't over compress or over-limit your mixes. Don't go crazy with the trebles or stereo effects. The stereo image must be in phase, really important. Make sure you don't have stereo bass madness under 125hz, keep it mono. De-ess, records hate vocal sibilance. Let your mixes breath and be dynamic. There is so much misinformation on this topic and yes on a technical level it is complicated but don't stress, follow these simple guides and I reckon you'll go pretty close. We cut all sorts of things and most of the time we don't even need separate masters for vinyl. We can take a listen and of course we master recordings for vinyl every day.
We can cut pretty much any audio to vinyl but let's be clear, if you send us unmastered, noisy, over compressed, super trebly, bass and/or stereo effect heavy stuff vinyl won't magically fix issues. There are limitations placed on vinyl transcriptions by physics and we will do our best and have a history of great feedback and results.
Need to know more? Ask us about things we can do and for more technical info I would recommend making a coffee, getting a notepad and a pen and hitting google or otherwise booking time to chat to a mastering engineer who knows what they are doing. Like us!
