AUDIO-FILES DELIVERY GUIDELINE
Basically, you can cut everything, even "dead compressed" music, or music that has undergone pre-mastering of a CD production.
BUT for the good sound of a vinyl production you should consider the following:
- The more dynamic you leave in the music, the more vivid sound you get on vinyl: High transients = high deflection of the needle = great dynamics while listening to the vinyl
- Do not compress or limit the audio masters too extensive, use -12dB RMS as a guideline, peak value can reach up to 0 dBFS. Loudness is not a criterion in vinyl mastering. So if possible, no use of maximizer or similar. Playing Time per Side: The cutting engineer determines the loudness of the lacquer cut, depending on the length of the A or B side and music material. The longer the playing time of a side, the quieter you have to cut. Absolute maximum: 25 min for 12 “ Optimum: 21 min or less at 33 rpm 12 min or less at 45 rpm Please note: Treble rendering decreases towards the middle of the vinyl. Keep that in mind for playlist of song titles. Facts for pre-mastering:
- Bass from 200Hz and below -> go for mono
- Side signal should be at least - 6dB quieter than the mono signal (M / S)
- Caution with sizzling and ESS-sounds, use de-essing (opt.: already in a mix!)
- Send the audio material as one file per side (including breaks). Audio files for best sound quality with resolution of 44.1Khz / 24Bit or higher as WAV or AIFF files.
- Alternatively, one audio file per track (including pause at end of each track) can be transmitted in the correct order.
- Text files with the title and time of each page should be enclosed.
- Also provide information on any cutting specifications (loops etc.) and engraving in the text file, otherwise they cannot be considered.
DESIGN / ARTWORK TEMPLATES VINYL
INFO SHEET for PRINT DATA
Dear customer,
If you send us your print data directly as files (via by wetransfer.com to distribution@zwartgoud.org), please note the following points to avoid differences between your layout and our finished product as far as possible.
1) General
• Optimal is if we get printable, unseparated PDFs (PDF 1.3) from you with details for the product, colors and pages (front side / back side); for covers in single pages also add details of the opening (right or top opener) and title:
- For final formats, depending on the product, additional 3 - 8 mm trim all around - 3 mm for paper products, and slip-ons / banderols, - 5 mm for case bags, disco-bags and gate-folders,
- 8 mm for case sleeves in 12“ format and 3 mm spine) - Image resolution with 300 dpi - PDF 1: 1, exported or distilled without scaling
- Color room is CMYK and / or spot colors, without color proles or color management
- Partial varnish or hot foil or embossing on exact position in 100% with one color in a separate page or file
- Without visible cutting lines, folding lines and punching lines, instead - if necessary - cutting and folding marks outside the bleed area – this is also binding for color bars.
- Single placed and centered per page for multipart products, f. e. labels or booklets (single pages or imposed double pages) or similar. - Case sleeves should be arranged on the right stand (front page right)
• If you do not have PDFs, you can also send us TIFF or EPS files, important is that all images and fonts are embedded, or the fonts are converted to paths, and everything is reduced to one layer. Kindly note, however, that fonts which are used in picture editing applications like Adobe Photoshop are pixelated and not sharp.
• Open files (InDesign, Illustrator, etc.) still needs to be edited, placed, or proceed for printing by us. The processing will have extra charge depending on the effort
• Word, Excel, Publisher or Power Point are not suitable for creating graphic files
• Please note that all used fonts have to be embedded or converted to paths. Fonts, which are delivered by you like Double Byte Fonts, OTF-fonts or Postscript fonts, are not employable on every operating system under MAC OSX.
2) Line and font sizes
• The thicknesses of lines have to be not less than 0.15 mm in the positive printing and 0.25 mm in the negative printing
• Line thickness for hot foil and embossing have to be at 0.35 mm
• Fonts should have a minimum size of 5pt for positive printing and at least 7pt
for negative printing. Please note to use for very fine types our minimum thicknesses
3) Colors
• Black text and lines should be adjusted to overprint with CMYK backgrounds, for metallic and daylight colors there should be no overprint command.
• In combination, the summary of all colors should not be higher then 280% for the ink coverage
• For deep black effects of 100% black you should underlayer the black with 50% cyan (100% black and 50% cyan)
• White fonts on deep black in 1c should consist only of 2 colors, black (+ 50% cyan) not more
• Please note that we have a dot gain of 15% from the file to the print process. Adjust the contrast high enough for dark 1 color files (at least 15%, for labels or inside-out print up to 20%), this helps to distinguish the individual elements on the print sheet even after printing