Some news about why he cant cut the side with an image

"I print the image on paper then use sticker paper to attach it. Can't cut grooves into paper."

Sorry for the two day wait. But yeah, the .se through me off. But he does have a 13 week turnaround posted on there or something like that. I'm a more in the moment kind of guy.

Anyway, that one dude I stated is inclined to do crazy stuff. I believe he does semi floppy 10", 7" with two sides, or a 7" with art on one side that shows through (I don't understand why he cant cut the side with art on it). All clear plastic. I think the 10" is round while the 7" is square. Really cool imo. Also, he is open to doing random shapes.

http://meeprecords.com/records/

As you can see in the link above, a little ways down their is a box of pizza records. lol. Just give him an idea, and he can make it happen. He has responded to my emails promptly and seems like a cool dude.

I'm still writing new content to get put on the vinyl before purchasing, I wan't it to be super special and cool.

He probably thinks that because of the .se in the blogger thing.

dsv, tell us everything you learn from that other guy. He looks inclined to crazy stuff and i love that

I thought Ohio and Minnesota were in the same country.

He is decently expensive, however he has been kind enough to respond to my emails in a very timely fashion and I think it is worth it. I;m not buying a batch necessarily, just a test record to see how it holds up to 10 or so plays.

Also, that guy you sent has a 13 week turnaround time apparently, as well as him being in a different country doesn't help shipping cost/time.

He's pretty expensive. This guy http://2208records.blogspot.se/ made our 6" and he's nice as fuck

Found this guy

http://meeprecords.com/records/

I will most likely order a test record of some new jams sometime in the next week or so to see how it holds up. I'll keep you guys posted!

this is why i said you or anybody needs to do their research on this so that you can let others know just the same as i am. i dont see anybody else giving info here, so if anybody else has printed dubplates or lathes recently, speak up..sometimes you have to feel these guys out as well. did you ask them about pricing for 50 copies, for 100 copies, for 150 copies? 150 copies really isnt a lot in the grand scheme of things. the more you get from any plant, the more the price is gonna drop for the actual records themselves, but the price of production/shipping will certainly stay the same, if not increase.

lathes can be rather shitty, yeah, and especially for this kind of music because you can run into a shitload of distortion in the higher frequencies, but with polycarbonate lathe cuts, you'll get a better bass response. i dunno about pvc or lexan but i would think you'd be limited to the number of plays you can get out of either pvc or poly and that the first thing you'd notice would be a lack of bass, and then increasing surface noise. polycarbonate is also really prone to static electricity and it'll attract a lotta dust. its for these reasons i would say that for purely chip stuff, they're probably not a good idea, also why i said if you follow the criteria i laid out at the end of my last post that its for the best in anybodys efforts in getting some affordable stuff printed up. who knows, maybe you'd have to buy 200 lathes to get the price down that low.
but hey, paying $450 or 500 all said and done including taking care of your own art for 200 lathe cuts vs 100 7" cuts with no artwork or printing on your labels at rainbo @ around 900, pretty sure we're all gonna choose the former.

people are in this to offer competitive prices, just as with any business. but the time involved in doing jobs is what makes plants not able to meet the demand, theres tons of shit that can and does go wrong. some of these plants like united run 24/7, and as a result, they fuck up people's records. sometimes really, really bad. a guy i know who runs a label paid for 180g vinyl, it showed up shipped and it was standard weight vinyl. dude called and they said that the person running them overnight thought there was too much surface noise on the 180g, so they made them standard weight instead to cut down. the dude made them re-run the entire thing on the 180g he paid for, which they did, and the 180g version had less surface noise than the standard weight copies. the guy did end up with 300 extra records that he has still yet to do anything with. but yeah, the fact that they didn't call and ASK if standard weight was ok, well, draw your own conclusions about em, ahhaha. may be a good question to ask about their production routines even, ahah.

right now mastercraft has a quick turnaround time, i even heard one dude got his test pressings pack this week with a one day turnaround, archer you can currently get test pressings back in 16-18 days, you can get 300 7"s for $600 out the door if you play the options right (this doesnt include shpping or art of course), and they arent concerned with sampling or cover songs or anything like that, some places are. either of these two bigger companies might be worth looking into if anybody is looking for something to be ready for an end of summer release.

this is funny because you listed a number of people i contacted and none of them charge that amount, I WISH. Im not sure about the 5 plays and dead theory, however, id love any info you have on it, i always thought dubplates and flexis were that bad, but not lathes.

also, the artwork thing i usually cheaper to DIY than record factories, who usually charge an extra that a copy factory wont. At least, that was my experience with my two records.

Basically, if you really know people printing lathes in the 2-3$ range, please share ! hehe

not true, i will tell you why. you're talking about a severely limited number of plays. lathe cuts are a great promotional tool, or even for artists who want to get off the ground with a early offering that might end up being a little more special and fragile than a trad 7". but people who buy em might end up a little disenchanted when after 5 or 6 plays their record doesnt sound as good anymore, as usually they're more comparable to a flexidisc than a record. some can hold up for as many as 20-30 plays depending on your stylus. the price between getting lathes done vs going for one of the big box companies like rainbo isnt too much of a difference, as the big part of where your money gets eaten up is limiting/mastering and shipping, regardless of whether you're printing flexis, 5" lathes, 7", 10", 12", picturediscs, 180-190g, whatever. either way, you should make it worth the effort and if you dont want to print 50 lathe cuts then not to bother with it. or go with the rainbo 100 7" package, which is probably ~$900 now. or maybe look into kunaki and see what their rates are, i havent looked into their vinyl yet at all and i donno if anybody else has either.

another problem with lathes is that you have way less bass on your finished product unless you're using polycarbonate, something that would probably be a dealbreaker with chip stuff. but that also depends on whether the company you choose uses pvc or polycarbonate for lathecuts. i've heard pvc lasts longer, i've also heard of people using lexan recently because its harder than polycarbonate but softer than pvc and lends less surface noise. which plants are doing this, i cant say for sure. though i would say if you are considering getting em done to try and find someone who matches the two criteria of ~$2-3 a pop, or lexan as the material. searching out one or the other will most likely lead you to a final product thats either of a little higher quality, or one that you can use for promotional. the latter may end up being more fruitful these days. you will still have to source your own artwork, as most places who do lathe cuts will give you a plastic sleeve. there's certainly deals out there to be had if you research enough. but you'll certainly be paying with your time.

happy endings may be cheaper than vinyl pressings

that'd be 100 records for 200 bucks. Nobody would be doing pressed records if that was the case

so what you're saying is that you'd be fine with tape releases? so why not just do a tape release? or do a cdr?