Ken Odeluga: >That company has a lot of history in the D and a lot of friends ... but >despite that I doubt they've ever really made a great deal of money so they >still more or less master today as they've always done ... It all comes down >to (someone) needing to put their money where there mouth is, rather than >merely waxing lyrical (excuse the pun) about Detroit and it's excellent, >highly-credible and sincere mastering company (which has pioneered at least >one feature on vinyl, which I've never seen anywhere else before) and doing >nothing to stop it sliding into oblivion.
Labels not putting their money where their mouths are? That's not fair to the labels that do have their masters cut there instead of having it done at the pressing plant itself (most pressing plants offer this option). If a master is cut, but when pressed doesn't sound right or skips or whatever, the pressing plant has every right to bill the label for the copies of the test run and the cutting of the mother and the metal stampers. Depending on the pressing plant, this is US$200-$300. So when the master is re-cut, you're facing these costs again for the next test run. If you have the masters cut at the pressing plant itself (which is usually not the same quality you get from a specialized cutting house), you don't run the risk of these extra costs because you pay for the package of cutting and pressing. For a small label, extra fixed costs of $200-$300 mean that you can basically banish any thought of breaking even (if you had those in the first place) before you've sold a single record. There's only so many times you can do that.
For the record: I've had all my releases so far mastered there and although I've been through the process described above, the quality of the cutting IMO has been worth it.
Otto Ground Zero / Keynote Records --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
