The DIY self-release thread

[misterstomach]

that pressing plant seems pretty legit. i just checked out their website. they list ebullition as one of their customers. i'm not sure if your'e familiar with that label, but they've done so many awesome things over the years and the guy that runs it, kent, has been involved in the DIY punk scene for a long long time. and they're from goleta, not too far from you. i bet they'd be open to answering questions you may have about that place or whatever. like maybe if it's best to get the some part of the process done somewhere else or whatever.

i've had a pretty good experience getting records pressed at united myself. we've toyed with idea of trying to start a label to do a legit release, but none of us have the time, resources or inclination to go through all that right now. it takes some work getting some distribution and tending to a mailorder and all that to actually get records out there and some financial risk hoping they'll sell. i'm just not in a position to do that right now, as much as i'd like to. i think doing a label would be cool. if i had a normal job, i'd probably give it a shot, but being as i'm already running my own business, it just consumes too much of my energy.

here's a good place to get tapes made, in case that helps anyone, in the spirit of actually contributing something useful.
http://nationalaudiocompany.com/

[ridingeternity]

that pressing plant seems pretty legit. i just checked out their website. they list ebullition as one of their customers. i'm not sure if your'e familiar with that label, but they've done so many awesome things over the years and the guy that runs it, kent, has been involved in the DIY punk scene for a long long time. and they're from goleta, not too far from you. i bet they'd be open to answering questions you may have about that place or whatever. like maybe if it's best to get the some part of the process done somewhere else or whatever.

i've had a pretty good experience getting records pressed at united myself. we've toyed with idea of trying to start a label to do a legit release, but none of us have the time, resources or inclination to go through all that right now. it takes some work getting some distribution and tending to a mailorder and all that to actually get records out there and some financial risk hoping they'll sell. i'm just not in a position to do that right now, as much as i'd like to. i think doing a label would be cool. if i had a normal job, i'd probably give it a shot, but being as i'm already running my own business, it just consumes too much of my energy.

here's a good place to get tapes made, in case that helps anyone, in the spirit of actually contributing something useful.
http://nationalaudiocompany.com/

Funny thing, some guy I met a week ago just introduced me to Ebullution, I definitely might hit him up to distro this release while I still figure out the best way to approach it myself.

Man I couldn't imagine running my own business plus a label...its already daunting enough thinking about adding it on top of family, band and work...in fact even at this juncture if I didn't end up finding someone to help lighten the load I would probably become so wretched the whole thing wouldn't even be worth it.

Tape link is much appreciated, we are planning on releasing CD and Tape first to build up some funds for the vinyl pressing...will be giving them a call about colors asap. Do you know off hand if they handle printing on the cassettes at all?

[misterstomach]

They will definitely handle the printing on the tape and have a few options available. They'll do the j-cards and all the packaging for a pretty reasonable price. And they're pretty helpful and nice if you call them.

[conky]

For real, let's do this Doom Room comp. The first one I put together from HCFX is down to the last three copies. It's time to start up another one.

http://divinemotherrecordings.bandcamp. ... ound-vol-1

[ridingeternity]

For real, let's do this Doom Room comp. The first one I put together from HCFX is down to the last three copies. It's time to start up another one.

Mayhaps we can do a tape comp first? Will be much cheaper and the profit generated could be funneled into vinyl?

Looks like something like 3 cents per minute per band per copy would get us there easily. Say we do 200, your band has a 5 minute song, it will cost all of $30 to get it on the comp.

Does that sound fair? I mean it seems like this is the most feasible way so that if someone really wants their 12 minute song on there instead of 7, they are covering what its worth.

We could keep track of every step of the release in this thread as well to give some legitimate context to the process...

In any case, Im in, and have a 7 minute song im willing to pay 2 cents per minute per copy for

[conky]

I'm down for whatever. The only thing with tape though, is that with most of the bands having really long songs, the more bands that we get on here, it may end up being cheaper to do a run of cds instead. Haven't done any math on it yet though.

[AxAxSxS]

For real, let's do this Doom Room comp. The first one I put together from HCFX is down to the last three copies. It's time to start up another one.

http://divinemotherrecordings.bandcamp. ... ound-vol-1

Hopefully this saturday We'll start recording some new material. I had tried a different approach using more mics and it just wasn't working. so yesterday I tore all that apart and am back to two condensors for recording the scratch tracks. I have some more boom stands on the way so we'll be able to track the drums using overheads hopefully. I'd love to be part of this but want to have some new material to show off.

[ridingeternity]

I'm down for whatever. The only thing with tape though, is that with most of the bands having really long songs, the more bands that we get on here, it may end up being cheaper to do a run of cds instead. Haven't done any math on it yet though.

If I did printing through this place locally, I can get 500 full color discs in full color sleeves for 518. 100 comes down to around 138.

Seems like the general cost if you find a place that has its head on straight is about $1 per disc per sleeve.

[ridingeternity]

So for 500 copies that comes out to about 6.25 per minute per band, ie: 10 minute song = 62.50 altogether.

[ridingeternity]

Also, I don't know how you guys feel about this...but as ilovefuzz.com and a few builders will probably be well represented on such a comp, maybe we could get small sponsorships for including logos on the sleeves?(effectively bringing our cost per minute down)

[conky]

That sounds about right. The run of 100 that I did with Kunaki was about 150 give or take. I can't recall the exact price right off. Their cd prices float between a dollar and $1.75 a disk depending on how busy they are at the time of the order. The only other thing they charge is $10 for using custom uploaded art instead of one of their templates and shipping. I know when I ordered my run they were close to a buck a pop so I lucked up. Lately they have been running full tilt so the prices have been toward their higher end. The good thing about them though is that they don't have a minimum to order and you don't have to order by the hundreds either.

I'm down with that, but with having a ton of bands and their contact info on there, adding in some sponsor logos will require more room than a 2 panel sleeve. Might end up making the overall price higher.

[ridingeternity]

That sounds about right. The run of 100 that I did with Kunaki was about 150 give or take. I can't recall the exact price right off. Their cd prices float between a dollar and $1.75 a disk depending on how busy they are at the time of the order. The only other thing they charge is $10 for using custom uploaded art instead of one of their templates and shipping. I know when I ordered my run they were close to a buck a pop so I lucked up. Lately they have been running full tilt so the prices have been toward their higher end. The good thing about them though is that they don't have a minimum to order and you don't have to order by the hundreds either.

I'm down with that, but with having a ton of bands and their contact info on there, adding in some sponsor logos will require more room than a 2 panel sleeve. Might end up making the overall price higher.

Inserts for contact info? Back panel for track listing and logos? Inserts would still keep us relatively at the same price I think.

[conky]

[Ancient Astronaught]

For real, let's do this Doom Room comp. The first one I put together from HCFX is down to the last three copies. It's time to start up another one.

http://divinemotherrecordings.bandcamp. ... ound-vol-1

Hopefully this saturday We'll start recording some new material. I had tried a different approach using more mics and it just wasn't working. so yesterday I tore all that apart and am back to two condensors for recording the scratch tracks. I have some more boom stands on the way so we'll be able to track the drums using overheads hopefully. I'd love to be part of this but want to have some new material to show off.

If your new to recording drums read this: http://therecordingrevolution.com/2011/01/10/the-glyn-johns-drum-recording-method/

It's a 4 mic drum mic technique that i use pretty much exclusively because it actually makes the drums sound like a set of drums, not individually mic'd items placed too carefully into the sonic spectrum (ie; death metal clicky drum sound, ick). If you love how Led Zep's drums sounded, this is the technique their recording engineer devised.

[conky]

Fuck yeah! Just in time, because I am gonna start recording another song next week.