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Author Topic: any experience with archer pressing?  (Read 2827 times)

xonlocust

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any experience with archer pressing?
« on: July 30, 2008, 02:10:59 AM »

hello-

figured this might be the best place to post the thread as there are a few vinyl cutters here.  any experience with archer pressing?  http://archerrecordpressing.com i can't seem to find anyone who's actually used them, just links to them and articles about them.  i guess they do/did a lot of dance stuff? while we're at it, how about musicol? http://www.musicolrecording.com/vinyl/index.html - it may be in vain, but i'm trying to get them pressed closer to home to cut down shipping or even just pick up myself - i'm in chicago.  i know about united too, that may be an option as well.

thanks!

carlsaff

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Re: any experience with archer pressing?
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2008, 06:41:04 AM »

Hey Nick!

I've only had one client use Archer that I'm aware of. I premastered and Paul Gold cut lacquers. They say:

Quote:

there were a couple records that were not visibly warped but there was a background fuzz with some weird changes in volume ... I guess we will find out the quality of the pressing when we start selling them


Not exactly glowing.

Musicol I've had a couple of negative experiences with. One was where Musicol themselves cut the lacquers. Though I had already premastered the disc that was sent to them, the premastered audio somehow ended up going through a Finalizer ahead of the lathe (?!). The test pressing sounded *nothing* like what I sent them... thin and midrangey. We demanded a truly flat recut and then all was OK. On another job, the label took my advice and had Paul cut, and they had no beef with the sound of the records, but they said that Musicol was presenting "unacceptable delays," so I'm currently strongly recommending against them. I wasn't too impressed with them when I called to work through the first incident. I left the conversation with no confidence that the Finalizer wouldn't be fired up for future "flat cuts."

Paul recently told me about Alpha Records in Florida:

http://www.alpharecordsinc.com/

I've heard one thing they pressed that I premastered (again with Paul cutting) and I thought it turned out nicely. I have a friend who is incredibly picky about his vinyl who thought it was a touch noisier than he likes to hear, but I thought it seemed completely within the "reasonable" range of expected artifacts.

I think the result from United can be quite good when a known-good lacquer cutter is involved, but I work with at least one label who had bad experiences with them ("bad" as in having the wrong lacquer used for a side "bad") who never went back.

As always, GZ in the Czech Republic remains a slight crapshoot. Tho some of the stuff I've premastered has come back from there sounding unbelievably good, I had to work through one particularly awful cutting job from them recently that shook my confidence. Sending them lacquers is an option, tho a risky one -- there's always the chance that customs might screw up the lacquers during an inspection.

Lots of fun to be had out there in vinyl land... Good luck!

Carl

Gold

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Re: any experience with archer pressing?
« Reply #2 on: July 30, 2008, 07:35:41 AM »

I like Archer. Most everything I've seen from there has been good. They are the oldest running plant in the US. I have a couple picky clients who like Archer the best out of all of them.
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Paul Gold
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On the silk road, looking for uranium.

TotalSonic

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Re: any experience with archer pressing?
« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2008, 04:28:42 PM »

Gold wrote on Wed, 30 July 2008 07:35

They are the oldest running plant in the US.


To be a stickler for facts -
Archer's site states "since 1965" -
Dynamic LP aka Sun Plastics in Newark, New Jersey has been in business since 1946.

fwiw - I don't have any experience with Archer or Musicol but the best recent pressings I've seen have been from RTI.  United's stuff in my experience tends to be on the mediocre side - but if you get the mastering and plating done elsewhere they can do a decent job.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

JimK

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Re: any experience with archer pressing?
« Reply #4 on: July 30, 2008, 10:01:26 PM »

Hi Nick,

I've had several client/artist/friends use Archer and they have always been happy with the pressings. The only issue I'm aware of was an instance where the printed color on the labels came back looking faded compared to the original artwork, but the quality of the audio was good. I have also heard from several people that Mike Archer is a pleasure to do business with.

Good luck to you.
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Jim Kissling

Gold

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Re: any experience with archer pressing?
« Reply #5 on: July 30, 2008, 10:35:43 PM »

carlsaff wrote on Wed, 30 July 2008 06:41

 Sending them lacquers is an option, tho a risky one -- there's always the chance that customs might screw up the lacquers during an inspection.



I've sent a bunch over the years and have never had a problem. I think customs knows a lacquer box when they see one. The most recent problem is that shipping lacquers there is about $200USD via UPS.
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Paul Gold
www.saltmastering.com

On the silk road, looking for uranium.

xonlocust

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Re: any experience with archer pressing?
« Reply #6 on: July 31, 2008, 01:58:15 PM »

great - thanks for the info so far!

what are your thoughts on the various plants plating the laquers?  when is it a good time to use someone like mastercraft for metalwork?  i'm pretty sure we'll at least have the laquers cut outside of the plant - the obvious contenders seem to be (CMS locally, paul in the east or golden in the west).

archer sounds promising - w/the exception of carl's one client review.  i need to think it out more/do the math on gas, but i do like the idea that it's at least close enough to pick up the pressing myself rather than ship - could make it into an easy weekend trip, play a show while we're there.

Gold

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Re: any experience with archer pressing?
« Reply #7 on: July 31, 2008, 03:14:52 PM »

xonlocust wrote on Thu, 31 July 2008 13:58

what are your thoughts on the various plants plating the laquers?  when is it a good time to use someone like mastercraft for metalwork?


Acher uses mastercraft. They don't have plating. It's always a good idea to Mastercraft.
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Paul Gold
www.saltmastering.com

On the silk road, looking for uranium.

TotalSonic

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Re: any experience with archer pressing?
« Reply #8 on: July 31, 2008, 04:15:52 PM »

Gold wrote on Thu, 31 July 2008 15:14

It's always a good idea to Mastercraft.



Agreed!  Desmond really knows his stuff.

Best regards,
Steve Berson
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