VINYL RECORD MASTERING

"There's more to wax than just dropping a needle in a groove."
 
Erika Records offers in-house state of the art lacquer mastering lab for their clients. Erika Records has its own "Mastering Wizard" by the name of Richard Simpson. With over 40 years experience mastering Richard Simpson adheres to the highest standards in the record industry.
 
Richard started cutting records in the late 1960's-The Monkees, The Guess Who, Lou Reed, David Bowie, the whole RCA Records catalog, basically. And by cutting, we mean using a lathe to cut master lacquers at an RCA pressing plant. In his early years Richard worked at RCA's New York plant where there were 6 cutting rooms. In 1972 Richard moved to RCA Hollywood to run a new mastering room. That is when the involvement with the artist and the producer became more apparent in the mastering of records, and a closer contact between the cutting engineer and the artist developed. Mastering became a more important step in the recording process and no longer a routine tape to disc transfer, but an added effort to help enhance the sound using whatever means possible to make the best sounding record and that is still true today. As the quality of the lacquer mastering has a direct effect on the final vinyl sound Erika Records does whatever we can to ensure that happens. With over four decades of experience Richard knows what it takes to get the job done right.
 
Erika Records lacquer mastering services include; reference discs, reference acetates, laser etching, personal etching, roulette mastering, laser etch mastering, reverse groove, locked groove and inside out groove. We pride ourselves on the quality of the lacquer masters we produce.
 
Erika Records has just updated its mastering lab with state of the art equipment which include; SAL74B/MS70 Neumann cutting system and custom console Sontec Parametric diskmastering equalizer. MACPRO (intel) with Cinema Display-Aurora Lynx 24/192 KHZ converters Peak Pro XL audio software. Playback mastering equipment: Sony Compact Disc player CDP-2700. Other equipment includes Panasonic 3800 and 4100 DAT machines, 2TRK tape machine (15 & 30 IPS). Preferred source: 24bit (hi res audio) files.