CURRENT TURNAROUND

0-2 WEEKS

UPDATED 4TH DEC 2023 @ 10:30PM GMT

FAQ & Detailed Info

Please read all points on this page before placing an order, this will hi-light any limitations we may encounter with your music. These guidelines are here to help us work in harmony and get your music sounding as best we can possibly achieve! If we’ve missed anything, please drop us a line via the contact page.

What is a Lathe Cut dubplate record?

1-800-DUBPLATE own and maintain a VR-T560 Lathe, manufactured and taught in Germany, which uses a stereo cutter-head and diamond stylus which cuts grooves into the PVC discs in realtime (as the music is played back) - think of it as a Vinyl Recorder if you will. Due to this process every single cut is monitored in the studio from start to finish, ensuring no mistakes or faults make it to your dubplates.

The sound quality is very close to what you’d expect from a pressed vinyl record, and can sometimes come louder, depending on the source audio. Please note - we are not a pressing plant, and are not working on super hi-fidelity vinyl cutting machinery that a pressing plant would have, so there may be some differences in audio quality from time to time, and the noise floor can sometimes be a little louder, but this is an authentic dubplate sound anyway, this is not high tech digital sound we are aiming for after all!

What’s included

Once your order is placed and processed, we take your audio and run it through our high quality mastering suite and tweak the stereo image, EQ, De-essing & light compression (to taste). Once we are satisfied with the sound the files are exported to 24-Bit 96k WAV audio ready to be cut.

All our dubplate stock discs are high quality 2mm thick PVC plates, which if handled with care and not abused will last just as long as a regular pressed record. The dubs are finished with a branded white label and stored in a branded disco bag.

Once your dubplate is complete, and quality checked, it is then packaged and shipped out - and then it’s over to you!

Running Times

Best - Max
7” 3min - 4.5min
10” 4.5min - 6min
12” 6min - 9min
EP* 9min - 15min

The longer the music, the quieter the final recording will be. We are always going for quality over loudness when cutting, but at request will happily try and push the limits for you at the potential cost of distortion on the high-frequencies (this can sometimes sound ‘creative’ in electronic music - we totally understand!)

*EP is based on two tracks per side

Audio Delivery & Mastering

For optimum sound quality, we request unmastered audio from straight from the production studio. This means no compression/limiting plug-ins on the master track, a lot of modern ‘mastered for digital’ music has very compressed low & high end which we can only undo to a certain degree. This compression and limiting causes a lot of harsh distortions throughout the frequency spectrum and can cause nasties in the audio recording and more importantly causing playback issues with the stylus (which we have to avoid).

If possible, please provide unmastered ‘-3dB Pre-Master’ audio, preferably in 24-bit 44.1kHz .WAV format. The higher the resolution of the file, the more control we have - but by no means essential.

Please use the order form to send download links (Dropbox / GoogleDrive / WeTransfer) to your audio. Please name your folders and files with A1 Title.wav / A2 title.wav / B1 Title.wav etc…

For the old school generation, We can also cut from CD/DAT/USB/Cassette, but just remember we can only cut the quality we receive, we are not miracle workers!

Do you offer digital mastering

We do not offer digital mastering at this stage. There are several amazing mastering engineers with amazing quality equipment, speakers and ears, not to mention years of experience. We can highly recommend our very good friend Bob Macc (Subvert Mastering), who’s highly talented and dedicated to getting the results you’re after. We’d also recommend reaching out to your favourite artists & labels to see who they use.

Small Batch Vinyl Runs

We also cater for artists, bands and record labels looking to manufacture their music in small limited edition runs. We have a different pricing scheme in place for this and is quoted on a per project basis. We offer a selection of different sleeve options, full colour printed labels, and can even help with design if needs be. We do not currently offer printed sleeves, but will happily point you in the right direction.
If this is what you’re looking for, and need 10-50 copies of your record, please get in touch via our contact page, we will give you our best rates and estimated completion date.

Shipping & Collection

We ship to all corners of the globe, from UK, to Europe and the Rest Of World. All orders are packed in purpose made record mailers or boxes. Postage is charged per weight. We use Royal Mail for most orders, but larger orders will be sent via fully insured couriers. You are also able to come and collect from our record shop, Planet Wax in New Cross, London.

Permission & Copyright

According to the UK Copyright Law update in 2017, you are currently allowed to make back up copies of music that you own for personal use - be it CD, Digital Download or other recorded media. If you are planning to cut unreleased music sent to you by a producer, label, artist or band, please seek permission from them before placing your order.