The DIY self-release thread

[ridingeternity]

I am starting to dive deeper into finding a high quality, low cost method of self-releasing my own bands records as well as a place that will allow me to help out bands I really dig put some quality stuff out to the world.

I focus on every phase of release as its own process, as most of you probably are aware, this is how you get the most bang for buck.

For example, a place that specializes in printing cds, but not sleeves, you will get the cds for fairly cheap, but the sleeves marked up, outsource the sleeves to somewhere that specializes in that sort of print and many factors allow them to produce it cheaper.

I usually just print sleeve templates myself though, at 47 cents a piece for full color heavy stock 9x11 at the UPS store and a little elbow grease, xacto cutting and glue, the price can't be beat. I use custom photoshop templates for these and have one for basic sleeve, disc floating in a pyramid, and a middle fold design based off of the HR Giger Emerson Lakes and Palmer vinyl(I will post links to download these templates as soon as I get a new charger for my laptop...). As I will be handling my first vinyl release shortly, I am unsure if this process will transfer over as effectively for vinyl jackets(if anyone knows of somewhere that prints single sleeve full color for cheap, hook a brother up!)

One of the main reasons I wanted to start this thread was to introduce you to this vinyl plant I just stumbled upon. After lacquer is all said and done...only $675 for 500 12" vinyl? YES PLEASE: http://www.recordtech.com/

What are your guys' ways of making it work? Any company or method of doing things that keeps the engine running smoothly for you? You guys wanna go in on a I<3F: Doom Room compilation 12"? Let's fill this thread with stuff that helps bands that don't really feel like kissing ass, jumping through hoops or fitting in get their records printed in a way that rivals those that do!

[AxAxSxS]

Hell yeah man, I dont have a lot to contribute yet but will be watching this with great interest. My current goal is to record an album length Flux release that we can be proud of, and to do it from the house. Cliftons single looks so bad ass, he really inspired me to want to do it all here and not outsource.

[conky]

I tried to get a vinyl comp of Doom Roomers a while back but I didn't have the budget to take all of the production costs on my own. I am down as hell to go in on it though. I've got a few distros that are going to carry the two 7 inches that i have coming out. Maybe I can get them to pick a Doom Comp out too. If there is enough of people wanting in on it, United does pretty cheap double LPs. The biggest thing would be getting the jackets and inserts printed. www.doradopkg.com has blank jackets that are perfect for screen printing. Econopress is handling our 7" foldovers. www.econopressprinting.com

DIY is awesome as fuck. I hated hated hated making screens, cutting out, folding and gluing jackets and all the other stuff, but the end result was well worth it. I said to myself that I wasn't going to do that again, but I'm proud of my shitty little release and can't wait to do it again.

[dazedbyday]

Thanks for sharing the info. I am really interested in any further info anyone would like to share since my band looks like it is going to be taking some of these steps in the near future. It looks like we are lining up to start some recording in October and we are interested in making a vinyl print at the very least. Probably just a small print number but any way we can cut the cost would be for the better.

[conky]

Thanks for sharing the info. I am really interested in any further info anyone would like to share since my band looks like it is going to be taking some of these steps in the near future. It looks like we are lining up to start some recording in October and we are interested in making a vinyl print at the very least. Probably just a small print number but any way we can cut the cost would be for the better.

The smaller run of vinyl you press, the more it will cost per record. If you're pressing anything under 200 copies of a 7" you will have to sell them for around $6 or $7 to break even by the time you add the cost of jackets. Nobody is gonna buy a 7" for $7 bucks.

[AxAxSxS]

thats why I am thinking of steering clear of vinyl for our first stuff. A CD would be easy to do ourselves and yeah its not as sexy or cool but so what. The packaging you did was awesome and I'd like to do something approaching that level of DIY awesome

[conky]

thats why I am thinking of steering clear of vinyl for our first stuff. A CD would be easy to do ourselves and yeah its not as sexy or cool but so what. The packaging you did was awesome and I'd like to do something approaching that level of DIY awesome

I did that run of cds to pay for mastering our side of the 7". If you can find a band to go in together on a split *hint hint* it'll be way more cost effective. A place that will make shortrun cds with no minimum on the cheap is www.kunaki.com They only do 2 panel inserts though but I've gotten two different cds pressed from my label and they have always been fast and the quality is unbeatable. I wish they would do bigger booklets. Thats really my only complaint with Kunaki. They do DVDs too which is cool. http://www.wtsduplication.com/ is a place I found that will do bigger booklets and even digipaks. I'm going to use them next for any cd releases I do in the future. Our full length, if we can't get another label to help copress it or it is way out of our budget will be put out on digipak.

[Nostradoomus]

How many minutes do you get per side on a 7" (for good quality, none of that thinner sound as it gets to the runoff crap )

[conky]

Around 4 and a half minutes on 45 rpm and 6 for 33. Not usually enough for a doom band. 12" are something like up to 22 minutes on 33 rpm.

[dazedbyday]

We will finalize what we want as we get closer to getting finished recording but I know that the other guitarist and myself definitely want to have a vinyl of our music at some point. There is a plant here in brooklyn that has a package that will get 100 12" with inserts and etc for 750. We can record in the studio that I work at for free so we get a huge saving there.

Oh and for the time on 12", you can get close to that 22 minutes but the more time you squeeze the lower the quality because of the cutting process. Or at least as far as I understand it. So you want to aim for a little bit less.

[conky]

That sounds like a pretty good deal.

[dazedbyday]

Here is the website if you are interested in checking it out: http://www.eksmfg.com/12inch.htm

There is another company called Brooklyn Phono which has similar prices but I don't think they have a package deal.

[conky]

I've been to that site before and emailed them for a quote but never got a reply from them. I guess it could have gotten lost in a spam filter or something. I should try again. Here is a page that has links to a ton of pressing plants all over the world.

http://www.totalsonic.net/vinylplants.htm

[ridingeternity]

We will finalize what we want as we get closer to getting finished recording but I know that the other guitarist and myself definitely want to have a vinyl of our music at some point. There is a plant here in brooklyn that has a package that will get 100 12" with inserts and etc for 750. We can record in the studio that I work at for free so we get a huge saving there.

Oh and for the time on 12", you can get close to that 22 minutes but the more time you squeeze the lower the quality because of the cutting process. Or at least as far as I understand it. So you want to aim for a little bit less.

From what I hear, the maximum quality can be had on a 12" from keeping each side to just under 18 minutes.

[conky]

Some pressing plants have different times that they go by. Obviously the shorter you can keep it the better it will sound, but I've got plenty of records that are about 22 - 24 minutes on 33rpm and they sound just fine.