Increased demand pushes the supply chain
Since 2012, when Nielsen reported that 4.6 million vinyl LPs were sold, vinyl sales have nearly doubled. Nielsen projects 2014 sales over eight million vinyl units. These stats likely undercount indie vinyl releases, or 7” or 10” discs (the smaller projects that many Airshow clients favor).
- Infographic courtesy of Digital Music News
The renewed interest in vinyl is causing manufacturing backlogs, and other parts of the supply chain are reporting turnaround times that are just slightly longer than normal. Even as high-volume CD replicators like Discmakers open up a vinyl channel for their clients, and one or two new pressing plants open to pick up the new work, many vinyl projects still end up funneling to a handful of trusted specialists.
Vinyl manufacturing turnaround times of ten to 12 weeks are common, so we urge our clients to make their vinyl decisions as early in the production process as possible.
Vinyl and the mastering workflow at Airshow
At Airshow, your project will be mastered at 24-bit resolution. For a CD release, your master will be a PMCD – a physical CD – or a DDP file set for upload to the manufacturer, at 16-bit/44.1 kHz resolution. You’ll have a single sequence of tracks and up to 80 minutes of playing time on that CD release. Each 12” vinyl side (at 33 1/3 rpm playback) holds a suggested maximum of 19 minutes of music, so a different sequence, and perhaps even a different song list, may be required for your vinyl release. Your vinyl masters (one for each side) will be 24-bit .wav files, at the highest available sample rate (44.1, 48, 88.2, 96 or 192 kHz) for delivery to the lacquer master cutter. 
The vinyl master files may have less peak limiting than the CD version. Each master version (one for CD, one for vinyl), once approved by you, is quality-checked before it leaves our studios. Your mastering charges will reflect the engineer’s time to adapt the sequence, and create two distinct master parts packages.
After your vinyl master leaves Airshow
At the cutting studio: Airshow works with a select group of cutting engineers and pressing plants known for the quality of their work and fair pricing. Your Airshow engineer or studio manager can share a list of suppliers whose work we trust. Once the cutting engineer is selected, Airshow sends the master file to the cutting studio. After a lacquer is cut, you will have the option to have test lacquers made. Test lacquers are like the reference audio Airshow gave you for approval: it’s your opportunity to review the engineer’s work, to request revisions or to confirm that it’s to your liking. Your Airshow mastering engineer can participate in quality checking the test lacquer, auditioning it in the same listening environment where your master was created; the cutting studio can send one directly to Airshow for this purpose. Common turnaround for lacquer cutting and making a test lacquer is around one to two weeks from receipt of the master from Airshow. If you request revisions based upon your review of the test lacquer, it may add another week or more to the process, so be sure to consult with the cutting studio on the schedule. You may choose to save money by skipping the test lacquer.
At the pressing plant: Once the test lacquer is approved (or if you choose not to get test lacquers), the cutting engineer sends the lacquer master to the pressing plant. Recordings that originated at Airshow are pressed in many different plants; we can provide a list of pressing plants whose work we trust. The final quality control step in a vinyl release is listening to a test pressing, typically a run of ten to 12 discs, to assure that the pressing matches the audio approved at the cutting stage. Quality control by your Airshow engineer is helpful here, too, as your engineer can audition both the test lacquer and the test pressing discs on the same high quality playback system. There are places where you can get help with vinyl pressing as well as other vinyl products.
After the test pressing is approved and artwork furnished, pressing plants are quoting turnaround times of ten to 12 weeks for finished product.
When you are considering a vinyl release, please alert your Airshow studio manager and/or your mastering engineer as early in the process as possible; we can review the quality control steps and the costs associated with each, recommend vinyl specialists whose work we trust, and manage the vinyl production process for you, if you prefer.
See how vinyl and HD downloads fit into your mastering strategy:
Multi-tasking Masters: Vinyl + Mastered for iTunes + HDTracks
Is it Time to Rethink Your Master Parts Order?
Contact your Airshow studio manager for our lists of preferred vinyl specialists and an estimate for your project.