Pressing a dubplate?????

Hey everyone! I'm -very- interested in getting a tune this year pressed to vinyl. I know *absolutely* nothing about the process and would like to ask all the local producers here what the basic procedure is. I'd like to hear your stories about your first experiences.

From what I know, dubplates are used to test your track on a big system before pressing a whole bunch. After you master your tune and press a few dubplates, you then have a couple options:

- Send your demo to a label and get them to do all the work
- Do it yourself

1) Doing it yourself
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- Are there any companies in Vancouver that offer these services?
- Post production / mastering .... who is responsible for doing this?
- Are there minimum lot sizes? ie. you must press 300 at a time?
- How much does it cost approximatly? What are the fixed & variable costs?
- How do you market/distribute your work?

2) Record Labels
----------------

- Has anyone here had anything signed with a record label?
- All you gotta do is mail them your demo and hope for the best, right?
- Whats a good place to research different labels?


Anyways, I'm really hoping there are some knowledgable producers here that can answer my questions.

-Justin

[dj_soo]

from what I understand, there's nowhere local to cut a dub and pretty much the closest place is LA or something. Post-prod/mastering is all on you - they only cut the track that you give them. I'm pretty sure you can cut a single plate if that's all you want. It costs around $50 for a 1-sided plate and probably around $80 for a 2 sided plate not counting shipping and handling.

Keep in mind that I'm talking about dubplates *not* records - i.e. acetate dubs that last only about 30 plays before they wear out. If you want to press vinyl, that's a completely different story. (not sure which you mean since you're talking about both dubplates and vinyl in your post).

Best person to ask is Angst as he's the only guy in town that I know of who gets dubs cut on the regular.

However, one thing I would ask is do you really need it on vinyl? If the first thing you want to know is how the tune sounds on a big system or when played out why not just use CDs? CD decks are everywhere now and it's much easier to just give a DJ a CD of your track or play the CD yourself. Besides, after hearing it on a large system, you may want to tweak your tune some more.

As far as the second question goes (I'm assuming you're a jungle/dnb producer from your name), I'd jump into nwdnb.bc.ca and talk to some of the guys there. People like Psidream, Pacific, and Mechwarrior all have multiple releases on various labels and they could probably give you some pointers on getting signed to a label. I'm assuming that having contacts with the label really helps rather than just tossing a random demo to them. Secondly, it helps to strike up relations with DJs that may share your sound. Try posting clips of your stuff on dogsonacid.com as a great many big time producers, DJS, and label operators frequent that site and it will get you more exposure than say here.

Keep in mind that I'm pretty much just a dj/promoter thingy and don't have much experience with production and record labels, but this is just what I've gathered from my friends that do produce.

[ill-esha]

Originally Posted by Junglist

- Are there any companies in Vancouver that offer these services?
- Post production / mastering .... who is responsible for doing this?
- Are there minimum lot sizes? ie. you must press 300 at a time?
- How much does it cost approximatly? What are the fixed & variable costs?
- How do you market/distribute your work?

I will answer as best I can, but the experience with record releases I have has always been through a label. I wouldn't bother getting dubplates pressed, firstly, I've had them done.. they are quite expensive.. I got them for around $30 US apiece, and they only last about 40 plays before wearing out (in case you didn't know a dubplate is completely different stuff than a record, it's a layer of acetate over metal). Just get yourself a pitchable CD deck and take it with you (or, most clubs have them these days) and burn your creations to CD to test them on the dancefloor.

I can't answer about companies in Vancouver, I've never looked, but I'm sure there is, and I'm also sure there is a minimum lot size.. I think I've heard 200, but it could vary from company to company.

Post production/mastering.. if you're doing the record yourself.. you'd be wise to hire the services of a professional mastering engineer. Not just to make it SOUND better, but also.. if your track is improperly mastered, or not mastered at all, the cutting machine will not properly render the track to vinyl, or it will just plain sound like CRAP. I've heard some white label DYI releases where it was pretty obvious they skimped on the mastering, and as a rule in that situation I won't buy it even if the track is great, 'cause I can't stand having to crank my gains, faders and EQs just to make it sound passable. You can try using a VST plugin to master like Ozone isotope or T-Racks and then test it in different locations (regular stereo, car, club) and see how it sounds. But I've got those same plugins, and still occasionally when I play my self-mastered tracks out, they sound quiet or the compression isn't quite right. So... pay the money and get it sounding BUMPIN'... if the track is good and the mastering is good, it will sell. (And build hype for you to get picked up by a label).

Cost, I don't know. Good people to reply to this, rather than producers, would be people running independent labels in this city, like Soda or Wood.

The web is a powerful tool to promote. Websites like Dogs on Acid or the Breakbeat Science Forums are great places to post your tune and build the hype. As far as distribution, I believe there are distributors out there that might pick you up, although I think they mostly deal with labels. But, you can always establish yourself as a label rather than an unsigned self-released artist. This takes more time though. Music magazines like Knowledge, Mixer, BPM, Urb (too lazy to look for the URLs for those right now, sorry) ... may also help you out if you send tracks, bios and promo packs.

Originally Posted by Junglist

- Has anyone here had anything signed with a record label?
- All you gotta do is mail them your demo and hope for the best, right?
- Whats a good place to research different labels?

-Yes.
-Yes and no. A good way to start networking is by hanging out around forums like the ones I mentioned above. If you are friendly and start posting your tunes and they're good.. people will remember your name, and big names sometimes frequent these boards as well! You may make friends to collaborate on tracks with via email or IM. Basically just get yourself known so you're not just Producer #1090249209 sending your demo in... the guy opens it and goes, 'Oh yeah, this is that kid that posts his tracks all the time on DOA.' Or, at least, you make friends with Jonny, who shops at Breakbeat Science in NYC regularly, and looooves your tracks, so next time he goes in there, he hypes you to the counter guy, who just happens to run a label.

Know what I mean?

Once you get more serious, you may want to consider investing a little bit. Go to the Winter Music Conference and attend the parties, introduce yourself to people (networking via internet is a good idea first to get to know people to meet up with) and come armed with a stack of demos to hand out to label people you might meet. Go to major label cities and do the same thing. Hey, that's what worked for me.

Getting your stuff out, IMHO, is a combination of DIY and shopping to the labels.

[dj_soo]

^ yea what she says too - listen to illesha - she knows her shit :)

Post production/mastering.. if you're doing the record yourself.. you'd be wise to hire the services of a professional mastering engineer. Not just to make it SOUND better, but also.. if your track is improperly mastered, or not mastered at all, the cutting machine will not properly render the track to vinyl, or it will just plain sound like CRAP.

I heard they charge about $200 an hour. Is this true?

One thing I was always curious to know is, when they master your track, do they master a wave file? Or can they actually do all the mastering and eq fixups on your Cubase/Reason project ?

I think its a smart idea to have your track professionally mastered before pressing because EQ'ing is quite a complicated field (RIAA Curves,etc). Frankly, its something I totally suck at (It may be due to the fact that im doing my mixdowns in Reason). I've heard that cubase is spectacular for doing final mixdowns (there are several post production vst's available, like spectrum analyzers, amazing compressors, etc)

[ill-esha]

Cubase is way better - get it, and rewire Reason into it (it's built for that) and then you can hook up channels and use processors from there.

$200 an hour seems a tad high.

If you hire someone to do your mixing/mixdowns for you, then they will fuss with your original project to get the individual levels right. If you hire someone to do MASTERING, they use a mixed-down wav file. But a lot of the time you might hire someone to do both for you, I think..

[automatic]

the first thing to do is really, REALLY be honest with yourself and ask yourself if you think you've got a track that people will buy, not just one that your friends all say they like, or that people on a message board will big you up for. i'm going to be honest with YOU now and say that if the track you have in mind is the one you have posted in the music section on here then.....don't bother. not a bad track, but certainly not up to the standard of any record label i know out there, and from a songwriting point of view it's almost totally devoid of a hook. a good first effort maybe, but as a commercial release, no. i'd say if that's the standard of your work so far put a lot more time and make a lot more tracks before you even think about taking the next step.

sorry if i burst your bubble, but that's my opinion.

Haha, yea I'm aware of that. No offense taken. I've only started producing 3 months ago from scratch, and I feel that with every track I make, it far exceeds the one before it. After I make my next tune, im sure i'll look at my current one and say... hmmm thats total shit.... thats just the way it goes.

Regardless, I love production! I like the fact that you can create something out of nothing... just a notion in your head.

Thanks for your input! You've been around the scene for a while so i trust your wisdom

The one point I'd like to make however, is that there are soooooo many shit tunes out there... I sometimes question how on Earth some of these tunes get signed with labels. But I guess it's all a matter of opinion, there is no universally good melody/sound/beat... and if there was, music would lack diversity and be pretty boring.

[automatic]

the fact that you didn't get offended by someone telling you that your track wasn't up to snuff is probably the most positive sign there is for your future. writing music is like writing fiction, you've usually got to be prepared for a lot of rejection before you get your shit published.

[G-Style]

Contact POOL WEST! They have an in house studio in Yale Town. They will be able to point you in the right direction locally and maybe arrange time for to rent the studio for mastering.

[automatic]

Originally Posted by Junglist

The one point I'd like to make however, is that there are soooooo many shit tunes out there... I sometimes question how on Earth some of these tunes get signed with labels.

usually what happens is that a producer puts out a couple of decent though not great tunes on a smaller label, and then makes one HUGE tune that gets signed to a bigger label. all of the sudden they have a "name" and they'll find that tunes that they would have struggled to get released are picked up no problem because people will listen to and therefore buy that tune on the strength of their name. also, since their tunes are now picked up by more established labels they have a bigger buying base, and are exposed to a lot of djs who wouldn't have listened to there tunes before.

never underestimate the "collector" when it comes to record shopping. there are a lot of people who will buy a weak release because it's by their favourite label/artist whereas if the same tune was out on white and they didn't know who did it they'd probably think it's shit. that and a lot of kids who starting out buying records don't know a good tune from a crap one, and will just buy whatever they hear is cool, or whatever "name" they know, or whatever track they hear at 3:30 when they're peaking (BEST... TRACK... EVER!!!!)

ask dabbler about his "fresh kutt" records collection if you want an example of the "collector" in action buying crap tunes...

writing music is like writing fiction, you've usually got to be prepared for a lot of rejection before you get your shit published.

hahahaha... true. You can't expect to become a good producer over nite... I'm learning more and more every day, that I know less and less about electronic music production. There are so many things to know.

I'm curious Jay, do you produce at all?

[automatic]

nope.....don't seem to have the time to do more than mess around with reason every once in a while....

[ill-esha]

well said jay... i kind of rushed past that initial step of self-evaluation.. you can be the rainy day to my fluffy kittens.

=)

Slightly off topic, but...

When do you give up on a tune? If people's general first reaction is positive (ie. they find the melody catchy) there is a lot of work things you can do to make it more of a finished piece.

It's amazing how much impact a bit of eq'ing, sweeps, ambience, sfx etc can have on a track.