Vinyl preparation & legacy preset reference
Mastering for vinyl, from the plant’s side.
A record has no loudness normalisation and no true-peak ceiling of its own. It has a groove, a stylus, and a cutting engineer who sets the level at the lathe. What pressing plants and cutting rooms publish about the file they want is quoted below, with links, and then what the legacy vinyl preset does about the low end and the level. It does nothing about sibilance, content above 20 kHz or side length.
New uploads now offer four loudness choices; the vinyl preset is retained for existing masters and retries. For a new vinyl project, discuss your preparation needs with an engineer.
Read 19 September 2026
What the plants publish.
Six sources, each quoted from its own page or PDF. Where a source states nothing on a point, the cell says so. Where a figure comes from a second page of the same company, that page is linked in the cell.
Scrolls sideways →
| Source | Peak level | Low end | 12″ at 33⅓ | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Furnace | “By peaking your levels between -3 and -6 dBs, you leave space for your mastering engineer to create a clean, dynamic, undistorted cut.” (for a mix going to mastering) | “center all low-end frequencies below 100 Hz and refrain from hard-panning bass information.” | Optimum 12–14 min, maximum 18–22 (Vinyl FAQ) | “Stereo 48k/24-bit files”, .aiff or .wav (Vinyl FAQ) |
| Pirates Press | “a peak level of around 0db ONCE IT HAS BEEN NORMALISED” (2009 spec sheet) | “Make sure that any sub-bass sound of all tracks is in MONO.” Below 300 Hz in phase. | “Suggested maximum” 19.5 min (Technical Conditions) | WAV, AIFF, APE, FLAC; 16–32 bit, 44.1–192 kHz (Technical Conditions) |
| United Record Pressing | not published | not published | “Do not exceed 25 minutes per side.” | “16-bit and 24-bit WAV files with sampling rates of 44.1k up to 192k” |
| Third Man | not published | “imbalanced low frequencies or too much sibilance can greatly reduce the quality of the record” | “16-18 minutes per side at 33rpm” | “whatever format you mixed your record to”, up to 32-bit float 192 |
| Record Industry | not published | not published | Optimum 18:00, maximum 21:00–30:00 | WAV, BWF, FLAC, AIFF; 16–32 bit, up to 384 kHz |
| Abbey Road | “No pre-processing using limiting or normalising”; “between -6dB to -3dB is a good guide” (its online mastering intake, not vinyl-specific) | not published | not published | “WAV or AIFF … ideally 24bit and a sampling frequency of 44.1kHz up to 96kHz” |
Three sources state a peak level, and they describe different files. Furnace asks for a mix that peaks between −3 and −6 dB before it goes to mastering, Abbey Road’s mastering intake asks for the same headroom, and Pirates Press asks for a master that peaks around 0 dB once normalised. None of these six publishes a LUFS target.
Why a loud master can cut quieter
The record’s loudness is set at the lathe.
Furnace: “While limiting does increase the average level of a digital track, it can ironically cause your vinyl album to be cut at a quieter volume to keep it from being overrun with distortion.”
Pirates Press: “One of the most important things that some people don’t understand is that the loudness of the vinyl is not dictated by the loudness of your master. Having a louder master doesn’t necessarily mean that your record will be louder.” Third Man: “the shorter the record, the louder the volume and the more bass that can be reproduced.” Abbey Road’s Miles Showell, on a vinyl-only release: “I did not apply any digital limiting” (Abbey Road, 2016).
So the limiting that makes a streaming master dense is something a cutting engineer has to cut around. It cannot be undone at the lathe, and it is one of the things, alongside side length and the bass and high-frequency content, that limit how much level the groove can carry.
What the legacy vinyl preset does
No limiter. Lows to mono. One gain.
-
The limiter is skipped
Every other preset runs a true-peak limiter to reach its target, and the louder ones a soft clipper ahead of it. The vinyl path runs neither, so the file keeps the dynamics the cutting engineer needs. A test reconstructs the recipe independently and asserts the output is that reconstruction times one constant; injecting a real limiter into the path pushed the measurement 150× past the threshold.
Limiting none
What the vinyl path runs - True-peak limiter
- Skipped
- Soft clipper
- Skipped
- High-pass at 20 Hz
- Runs
- Lows to mono, 120 Hz
- Runs
- One constant gain
- Runs
-
Sub-sonic energy is removed
A fourth-order high-pass with its corner at 20 Hz takes out rumble the stylus would otherwise have to trace. Pirates Press asks for everything below 20 Hz filtered out. Furnace warns that anything below 40 Hz can swing the needle into the neighbouring groove; this filter leaves that range to the mix.
High-pass 20 Hz
Illustration: a fourth-order high-pass at 20 Hz -
The lows are summed to mono
A zero-phase crossover splits the signal at 120 Hz, the low band is summed to mono, and the two bands still reconstruct the input exactly. The slopes are gradual: stereo content is about 10 dB down at 100 Hz, 6 dB at 120 Hz and 3 dB at 150 Hz, and within about 1 dB above 200 Hz. Furnace asks for everything below 100 Hz centred and everything under 300 Hz in phase; Pirates Press asks for sub-bass in mono. The preset does not check phase above the crossover.
Crossover 120 Hz, zero-phase
Stereo content kept: −10 dB at 100 Hz, −6 at 120, −3 at 150, about −1 above 200 -
One constant gain
The file is turned up or down by a single figure so its true peak lands on −1.0 dBTP, and nothing dynamic touches the level. If your plant asks for peaks at −3 to −6 dB, lower the 24-bit file by the difference; a constant gain change leaves everything except the level as it was.
Peak −1.0 dBTP, by gain only
One gain lands the true peak on −1.0 dBTP (−12 to 0 scale) -
Delivered at your sample rate
A 24-bit WAV at the rate you uploaded, 44.1 to 96 kHz, which every source above that states a range accepts. Furnace prefers 48 kHz at 24 bits; Pirates Press and Record Industry accept up to 192 and 384 kHz.
File 24-bit WAV, source rate
Your rate, and what the plants on this page accept - Delivered, 24-bit WAV
- 44.1–96kHz
- Furnace prefers
- 48kHz
- Pirates Press accepts up to
- 192kHz
- Record Industry accepts up to
- 384kHz
Minutes per side
Longer sides cut quieter.
Every source that publishes side lengths says the same thing in its own numbers: past the optimum length the groove pitch tightens and the level and the low end come down. United: “The grooves may become narrower and shallower, leading to an increase in skipping and noisier records.”
Scrolls sideways →
| Format | Furnace | Pirates Press | Third Man | Record Industry | United |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12″ 33⅓ | 12–14 / 18–22 | ≤ 19.5 | 16–18 | 18 / 21–30 | ≤ 25 |
| 12″ 45 | 9 / 12–15 | ≤ 14.5 | 9 | 9 / 12–18 | ≤ 13 |
| 7″ 45 | 3.5 / 6 | ≤ 5.0 | 3 | 4 / 5–7 | ≤ 6 |
Minutes per side; “optimum / maximum” where a source states both, and ≤ where it states only a maximum. Furnace’s figures are from its Vinyl FAQ (its older audio-preparation page gives a 22–24 minute maximum at 33⅓); Pirates Press’s are the “suggested maximum playing times” on its Technical Conditions page, and its 2009 spec sheet adds a shorter “high volume” table (12″ 33⅓: 12–13 min) for records cut loud. Every source is linked in the table above; all read 19 September 2026.
Questions
Questions about mastering for vinyl.
How loud should a vinyl master be?
There is no LUFS target for vinyl, because a record is not normalised and the level is set at the lathe. Furnace asks for a mix peaking at −3 to −6 dB before mastering and Pirates Press for a master peaking near 0 dB once normalised. Furnace says limiting can get a record cut quieter; Pirates Press says a louder master does not necessarily make a louder record. The legacy vinyl preset delivers the file at −1.0 dBTP with no limiting, which any cutting engineer can turn down.
Should I send the plant my streaming master?
Furnace asks you not to: “Avoid using brickwall limiters or finalizers in your mix”, because limiting “can ironically cause your vinyl album to be cut at a quieter volume”. Abbey Road’s mastering intake asks for no limiting or normalising. Third Man is the exception: asked whether to EQ and compress the mix before sending, it answers “Yes, send us whatever sounds good to you”. Ask your plant or cutting engineer which they want.
Does the legacy vinyl preset use a limiter?
No. It high-passes at 20 Hz, sends the band below a 120 Hz crossover to mono, and applies one constant gain so the true peak lands on −1.0 dBTP. A test asserts the output is that recipe times a constant, and it was checked by mutation: a real limiter inserted into the path fails it by 150×.
Why are the lows summed to mono?
Furnace: stereo bass “requires a great deal of vertical movement in the stylus”, and out-of-phase low end “pulls the cutting head in two directions at once”. It asks for everything below 100 Hz centred and everything under 300 Hz in phase; Pirates Press asks for sub-bass in mono. The preset’s 120 Hz crossover has gradual slopes, so stereo content is reduced, not removed, between about 100 and 200 Hz.
What file should I send the pressing plant?
Ask your plant first. Furnace and United each ask for one file per side with the spacing built in; Record Industry asks for the tracks in running order with a label copy. Furnace prefers 24-bit WAV or AIFF at 48 kHz; United lists WAV only. The legacy vinyl preset returns a 24-bit WAV at your source rate; sequence the sides yourself or ask the plant to.
How many minutes fit on a side?
It depends on the plant and the level you want. For a 12″ at 33⅓ the optimum these sources give runs from 12 to 18 minutes and the maximum from about 18 to 30; at 45 the common optimum is 9 minutes, with maximums from 12 to 18. The table above quotes each one’s own figures. Every one of them says the same thing about going longer: the level comes down.
Planning a vinyl release?
Bring your mix and your pressing plant’s requirements. Discuss the preparation your project needs before deciding how to proceed.