Skippy (Pirates Press – owner)
SPB: When pressing a record, what element is the most important to making sure the record gets the best quality sound? (Is there a specific step in the process that is key to the audio component?)
Skippy: If you’re pressing with Pirates, the recording, mixing and (especially) mastering you do to deliver us a quality master to cut from is absolutely the most important step. If you’re pressing elsewhere, the decision of where to have your lacquer cut is equally important however.
Pirates cut 99% of the titles we press, and we use the most state-of-the-art [proprietary] DMM cutting technology in the world, both software and hardware - so we are absolutely the best and most equipped to deal with a huge variety in quality of the masters we receive and need to make records from.
Our ability to take virtually any master and cut a great sounding record from it is profound, and unique. With almost any other vinyl manufacturing operation in the world, those decisions of who you choose to (pre)master and/or cut your record to lacquer can make all the difference.
