Michael Fremer tours the relocated, enlarged (50,000 sq ft) & consolidated FURNACE RECORD PRESSING plant in Virginia, one of the biggest in USA.

The facility will have 14 new & refurbished pressing machines (with capacity for up to 28 presses) - mostly Swedish Toolex Alpha but also Canadian WarmTone machines (like the one used by Holiday Records Records in Auckland?). Also semi-automatic machines for small & special effect coloured etc. vinyl runs.

You see the remastered reissue of Metallica's "...And Justice for All" deluxe box set, "tens of thousands" of which have just been pressed by Furnace Pressing.
(30th anniversary, jeez Metallica are certainly old geezers now )

(Warning: 96 min. video - but worth speeding through to see this impressive & efficiently designed facility.)

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

On the Furnace Record Pressing webpage you'll see some pretty interesting advice given to anyone preparing their music for vinyl pressing:

Vinyl 101: How to Prepare Your Audio for Vinyl

In particular, avoiding out-of-phase extreme low bass, avoiding overheating the cutting head with high frequencies & avoiding vocal sibilance.

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

not sure if i can handle 96min of fremer style video....

Michael needs to maybe hire Jana - like Stereophile did.

Or at least get a gimbal for his walking videos

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

didn't jana shoot some videos for fremer ?

i started watching a bit... ended up watching/listening to the whole thing !

some highlights...

making records is like making bagels

less emphasis on 180g

7in are pressed on a separate machine

a small amount of regrind flash is good

steam still plays a big part on 21st century manufacturing

making the records is only half the job, packing and transport logistics is just as important

a huge amount of passion, technical skill and money has gone into furnace

vinyl looks set for another 100 years

Jana was videographer for Stereophile, before new UK owners this year, AVTech Media, put her on contract (which would probably be illegal in NZ). I thank she subsequently left.

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com