Your record needs its own master, prepared for vinyl. Please don’t send the heavily limited version finished for streaming or CD: cutting a groove and playing it back have limits of their own.
With the values below your cut will go smoothly. If you need to deviate from any of them, let us know before you deliver.
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At a glance
The key values in one place. Details and reasons are below.
Format
WAV / AIFF
uncompressed PCM
Resolution
24 bit
16 and 32 bit also fine · min. 44.1 kHz
Files
1 file per side
named A_…, B_…
Mono bass
below 200 Hz
low end in phase
Frequency range
30 Hz – 16 kHz
filter the rest
Peak level
≤ −0.1 dBFS
no limiter
Loudness
−12 RMS
guide value
Side length
up to 26 min
ideal: 20–22 min · 33⅓ RPM
Details
Each row shows what is required, what is recommended and what is worth discussing first. Open “Why?” for a short explanation.
Files and resolution
File format
Uncompressed PCM WAV or AIFF.
MP3, AAC and other lossy formats cause audible quality loss. You can zip the files, but never re-encode them to a lossy format.
Required
Bit depth
24 bit recommended; 16 and 32 bit (float) files are also accepted.
Keep the native bit depth of your source: converting up does not improve quality.
Recommended
Sample rate
At least 44.1 kHz, at the native rate of your source.
44.1 kHz material cuts perfectly well; upsampling adds no detail.
Required
File structure
One stereo file per side, with the final running order, gaps and fade-outs.
Separate files per track are also fine if their names show the side and position, e.g. A1_title.wav, B5_title.wav.
Recommended
File name
Start with the side letter: A_artist_album.wav, B_artist_album.wav.
For corrected files, make the version clear, e.g. A_artist_album_v2.wav.
Required
Low end and phase
Mono bass
Fully mono below 200 Hz, with the low end in phase.
Out-of-phase bass creates vertical groove movement that can make the stylus jump. Keep kick and bass centred in the mix, and avoid flanger, chorus and stereo widening on the low end.
Required
Phase correlation
Between +0.5 and +1, close to +1 in loud passages.
Phase correlation shows how much the left and right channels move together. At +1 both sides are identical (mono), around 0 they have nothing in common, and below 0 they work against each other. On vinyl the negative range is the dangerous one: the cutting head then moves mostly up and down, the groove depth jumps around and the stylus can skip. Most DAWs and mastering plugins have a correlation meter: keep it above +0.5 and never let it go negative. A simple test: listen in mono. If something disappears or thins out, there is a phase problem.
Required
Stereo width
Keep the side signal 6–9 dB below the centre.
Every stereo sound has two parts: the mid, which plays equally from both speakers, and the side, which is the difference between them. On a record the mid becomes sideways stylus movement and the side becomes vertical movement, and there is less room for vertical movement. If the side is too loud, the mids and highs distort sooner. In practice: keep lead vocal, bass and kick in the centre, and use very wide vocals, synths and stereo effects in moderation. A mid/side meter shows whether the side sits 6–9 dB below the mid.
Recommended
Level and dynamics
Frequency range
Filter below 30 Hz and above 16 kHz.
Content below 30 Hz is barely audible but takes up groove space. Content above 16 kHz distorts easily when cutting.
Recommended
Peak level
Peaks no higher than −0.1 dBFS. Don’t normalise to 0 dBFS.
dBFS is the scale for digital level: 0 dBFS is the highest possible value, and anything above it gets cut off (digital clipping) and distorts. The peak level is the level of the loudest moments in your audio. If peaks stay below −0.1 dBFS, there is no digital distortion in them. This does not mean the master has to be pushed loud: the cutting engineer sets the level of the record. Clipping, clicks and cut-off fade-outs, however, can be heard on the record too and cannot be fixed afterwards.
Required
Limiter, compressor
No limiter or heavy compression on the master bus.
Dynamic material can be cut louder. An over-compressed master gives a quieter record.
Recommended
Loudness
Around −12 RMS.
This is a guide value, not a normalisation target. The cutting engineer sets the cutting level for your material.
Recommended
Sibilance, high frequencies
De-ess sibilant vocals and harsh cymbals, more than you would for digital.
A de-esser is a targeted compressor: it only turns down sibilant sounds (s, sh, z, ch) and harsh highs, and leaves everything else alone. On vinyl these sounds distort most easily, because the stylus has to follow them very fast. If it can’t, you hear crackly, broken-up sibilance. That is why vinyl needs more de-essing than streaming. Towards the label the groove passes under the stylus more slowly, so highs get even harder to cut there: put the brightest, loudest tracks at the start of a side.
Recommended
Very loud or dense material
Tell us before you deliver.
With dense, bass-heavy or unusually loud material we check in advance what fits on a side.
Let’s discuss
Supporting information
Cue sheet
A cue sheet matching the delivered files: side, order, titles, start times, durations, speed. Make one in a few minutes with the Cue Sheet Generator ↗
Required
Side length
We cut DMM. The times below are per side on a 12″ record. If you need a lacquer cut, tell us when you order.
| Speed | Ideal | Still fine | Long | Longer than that |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33⅓ RPM | 20–22 min | 22–24 min | 24–26 min | on request |
| 45 RPM | 10–12 min | 12–13 min | 13–15 min | on request |
What happens when a side gets longer?
The longer a side, the less room each groove gets, so as a side gets longer the cutting level has to come down step by step. At 33⅓ RPM it looks like this:
20–22 min (ideal): full level and dynamics, no compromise.
22–24 min (still fine): the cutting level drops a little and the record is a touch quieter. With most music you won’t hear it; with dense, bass-heavy material the low end may lose a little weight.
24–26 min (long): a noticeably quieter cut, more audible surface noise, weaker bass, and towards the end of the side, near the label, a higher risk of distortion, especially in the highs. Put the louder, brighter tracks at the start of the side.
Over 26 min: tell us in advance. In extreme cases we can do it, but we’ll look at the material together first.
The same steps apply at 45 RPM, with the shorter times in the table.