Your tracks on wax: How to press your own record

A lot of places come with a mastering service either in the cost or as an extra charge. But if you want to do it yourself then there are a number of key things you need to keep in mind.

- Because vinyl is a physical medium, you're going to experience distortion if the track contains any extreme frequencies. For example, club music is mostly dominated by the low end, so a low shelf eq on some of the lower frequencies (kick drum and bass) will make them quieter, and will compensate for the equipment's mechanical limitations. The same principle applies to hi-hats and cymbals but at the higher end of the frequency spectrum.

- Make sure everything from 250hz and below is in mono otherwise you will get skipping on playback because of the way those frequencies make the needle move.

- Don’t brickwall that compressor as it doesn't transfer well to the analogue system or stylus and they destroy dynamics and cause distortion.

- Get rid of any sibilance (that's the sss-sound) in vocal tracks.

- It seems obvious but you need to bounce down your track in the highest quality possible. 24 bit, 44.1 kHz WAV or AIFF files are best because no sonic information is lost during the process. Some services will cut mp3’s but prefer not to.