Test pressings

Test pressings, included with every run

Ten test pressings come with every new record, pressed from the same stampers as your run, checked before they reach you. Nothing goes to the full run until you have listened and signed off.

Price your pressing How approval works

10 with every new run
Pressed from your actual stampers
Nothing presses until you approve

The listening checklist

Play both sides all the way through, on a system you know well.

Press your record

How approval works

Four working days, inside your five to six weeks

01 They arrive Ten copies from your stampers, checked for defects and sound before shipping
02 Days 1 to 4 You listen to both sides, all the way through, against the checklist
03 Approve or flag Tell your project contact which side and roughly how far in
04 The run presses Approval releases the full run; the window sits inside your quoted turnaround

Past four working days the lead time extends and the date on your quote is no longer guaranteed, so listen as soon as the box arrives.

Reading what you hear

Flag these, skip these

Worth flagging

Distortion that worsens toward the label
Sibilance that bites on every copy
Pre-echo of a loud passage before it arrives
A click in the same spot on every test copy
Wrong order, wrong gaps, mismatched side levels

Not worth losing sleep over

A single pop on one copy only
Faint surface noise between tracks
A slight visual swirl that plays clean
A light warp that tracks without skipping

The pattern is the diagnosis. A fault in the same place on every copy lives in the cut, and we address it. A one-off is a pressing artifact on that copy alone.

The mechanics

Why the test pressing is the truth

A test pressing is not a preview of the run, it is the run: cut from your lacquers, plated into your stampers, pressed on the same machines. What you hear on copy one of ten is what copy one of five hundred will sound like.

They are mandatory on a new record. The one exception is a repress of a record we have pressed before, which can reuse its stampers and skip straight to the run. UK delivery of the test pressings is included.

Do I need a separate master for vinyl?

Test pressing questions

Do I get test pressings?

Yes, at least 10 with every new run, pressed from your actual stampers and checked before they reach you.

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What should I listen for?

Both sides end to end on a system you know, against the checklist above. Tell your contact the side and rough position of anything off.

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Will it sound exactly like my master?

Close, and not identical. That is the format, not a fault, and the test pressing is where you hear the actual cut.

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Hear it before you press it.

Price the run, send the request, and your ten test pressings arrive before a single record of the full run exists.

Price your pressing Short-run pricing