[chandler75]

rhos: No, my black copy has A and B side labels. Maybe you have a super super limited release?

And happy birthday Spencer and DWR! I love those releases. I started out buying just the Carpenter stuff, but they looked so good I have been buying most other stuff as well. I can't wait to see what the future holds.

[chandler75]

By the way Spencer, did you remove the feature where you could see hos many copies were left of each release? I liked that option.

[siforster]

Subs arrived today! Love the colourwork. And the back cover of ToE

[skeleton_unit]

Everyone is saying how great The Fog looks but no mention of the sound quality. Sure it looks amazing but we all know coloured vinyl and picture discs sound inferior to simple black vinyl. If a record looks amazing then great but visual aesthetics over sound quality is a compromise. I'd like to see more Death Waltz releases more readily available on good old black vinyl as I actually want to listen to them without the increased surface noise which is inherent with coloured wax. Shame there were only 200 black of The Fog. Surely the music is the most important thing at the end of the day, or at least it should be. What's the point in having an LP that sounds worse than an mp3? Other than to drool over the way it looks... No black vinyl of Maniac either

Interested to read other folks thoughts...

[static14]

Skeleton the sound quality is great. As far as the noise floor, it is maybe the quietest "colored" pressing I've listened too even through phones. You can tell a lot of care was taken in the mastering and pressing.

Here are the details of my system so you know I'm not playing it back on a crosley.

Technics SL-1200 MKII (arm rewired with cardas, KAB fluid damper, Technics M5G phono cables)
Audio Technica AT-OC9/MLIII cartridge
Lehmann Black Cube phono preamp (opamps replaced with SSM2019 on input stage and OPA2107 on output)
Emotiva USP-1 preamp
Linn LK280 amplifier
Magnepan MMG speakers (w/ custom stands)

[skeleton_unit]

@static14 nice setup you have there. I have decent gear so it's not my equipment at fault...

I agree you can tell a lot of care was taken with the mastering, the audio sounds very bright indeed. For sure I've heard worse surface noise on coloureds. I just can't help but feel these pressings are aimed at collectors that don't necessarily care as much about audio quality as they do about having a fine looking artefact. I bought the Blade Runner OST recently on Audio Fidelity on red vinyl. I'd have much preferred a black vinyl pressing, likewise with The Fog but coloureds are better than nothing. That's just my preference - sonics first, eye candy second. You can't deny that black vinyl sounds far superior.

[static14]

In theory black vinyl should sound better, but in practice I can't even count the number of off horribly off center, warped, poorly mastered, or noisy albums I've bought in the last ten years or so that were on black vinyl. The other thing to consider is that a lot of companies cheap out and use recycled black vinyl (which even includes burned/melted labels) so you never really know what's in the mix unless it clearly states 100% virgin vinyl.

I think just like with black vinyl the colored/clear stuff can vary wildly in quality. I have some colored wax, that Blade Runner album you mentioned for instance, that have a really black background. I do also have some that stink

I don't think it's quite as concrete as black vinyl is always quieter, but I hear what you're saying.

All that being said as long as Spence keeps releasing albums with this level of care and QC they can be any color he wants!

[carloscadaver]

I must also chime in that the sound quality in DW stuff has been outstanding. The mastering process has been so crucial I imagine because even the colored releases have been stellar. It's definitely awesome to see such a label put a lot of effort into their releases! I can't imagine anyone else topping what they're doing!

[deathwaltz]

I have a michell Transcriptor Turntable and very cool old Pioneer 70's amp. Sound quality is very important to me. I have purchased black vinyl releases in the last which sound horrible. Colours can sound fine as long as they are mastered and pressed well. The only colour I (personally) wouldn't use is GID - the compound for it is horrible , rough and it honestly sounds like shit (That's not a knock at Third Man or Mondo) who have used GID this last year or so. To me that is a gimmick. I want to do interesting colourways BECAUSE I am a collector, I have a pretty good stereo set up and love to lISTEN to my records but I also want them to look nice. I push my manufactures as hard as I can. Sometimes with the Haze effect you get a grain on the record if this happens we replace them, I am not trying to sound pretentious but I consider the pieces we release works of art so the whole package has to look and sound perfect.

For our upcoming release of Room 237 we worked with the composers and went through two mastering houses and 4 or 5 run throughs to get it how they want it to sound. They also have test press approval too, we are doing the same with John Carpenter for our release of AOP13.

The funny thing is when we wre pressing 1000 on black no one wanted them or moaned they wanted a colour.

As a label you cant win, you really can't please everyone, at the end of the day you have to do what you want to do and hope people are into it as much as you are.

The main thing is to put much as much care and attention into the overall package and QC it all the way.

[seb]

I'll have to agree with Spencer on this one.

There is a lot of mis-information on the matter of sound quality and colored vinyl doing the round these days.
Here are a couple of points coming from my experience as both a producer and buyer of records.

1) the basic recording has to be good, you can press on the best quality vinyl with the best possible mastering you want: if your recording is shit, it will turn out shit.

2) beware of lengthy recordings, cramming over 20-25 minutes of material per vinyl side will bring down the quality. I'm not blaming anyone since making a double LP is costly for both label and customer.

3) the mastering : it needs to be mastered by a good studio. Simple as that, there are a lot of amateurs these days.

4) the cutting process by engineers at the pressing plant : if you have good engineers, you are half way there. Beware of cheap pressing plants.

5) The choice of materials : cheap pressing plants use cheaper materials.

6) The choice of vinyl weight. Depending on your plant and choice it goes from 120 to 180 grams.

7) Pressing on 180 gr. vinyl is a good thing but does not give any quality guarantee if the first steps are not respected. I've seen these scams by labels before: re-releasing their back catalog on 180 gr vinyl but using the same crappy recordings. If it sounds like shit on low weight vinyl it will sound the same on 180 gr. vinyl.

8) Color vinyl gives a slightly less quality sound due to a lesser grain used in the materials as opposed to black vinyl. But to be honest, it's hardly heard by the average listener. Pressing plants are catching up and color vinyl used by a good plant will generally sound better than black used by a bad plant.

Glow in the dark is a novelty thing, looks cool but sounds bad. My advise: get both versions. You'll have a cool looking one and a good sounding one.... this brings me to this point: fans expect a cool color vinyl and audiophiles a virgin black version. Most labels like DW try to provide both, problem solved.

9) your gear! crappy speakers, decks, tuners,... kill all efforts made above. Invest in proper gear folks.

Note: do not forget that the recordings labels like mine, DW, ... produce are often over 30 years old. We are doing the best we can to clean em up and make em sound top notch. But it's costly and hard to track down/remaster these old recordings. IF we can find them at all. Sometimes you will need to settle for a bit more 'raw' sounding material (just like the movies they come with). Otherwise I suggest you check out the new Taylor Swift album... I heard that one sounds pretty clean

Seb

[afriendofken]

Thank you Spencer and Seb for clearing up that one. I've been warned in the past not to buy coloured vinyl, but I've never noticed a problem with any of the DW releases, in fact they sound way better than some black vinyl I've purchased in the past. I have what I would consider a fairly nice set up, and and good ears but aside from a bit of crackle on side C/D of The Fog I've never noticed anything awry with any of the colour variants. I'm thinking the haze on the Fog just needs a bit of a clean, something I'll be sorting just as soon as my record cleaner arrives!

Reading about the lengths you guys go to for these releases and colours and packages etc. makes me even happier to be a subscriber and reaping the benefits!

[Digga]

Actually the prints are inside... oh... sorry about that

[skeleton_unit]

A vinyl LP is ultimately a vessel for an audio recording. The reproduction of the master recording should sound as close to the original as possible. The Fog is crackly, the crackle is not part of the original recording, it is "noise". This is not the way the artist intended the recording to sound. Take the black Fog and play it side by side with the haze and the difference is obvious. This has nothing to do with being an audiophile. A child could point out which one sounds superior. If you disagree you're either deaf or deluded. This is the price you pay for having it look pretty and "a work of art". I'm clearly in the minority choosing fidelity over visual aesthetic. Coloured vinyl, splatter vinyl, picture discs etc. are not about the music. I think it's really funny that folks on here seem unwilling to admit they're choosing visual aesthetics over sound quality.

[wooks79]

Here's a quick question... House by the Cemetery is DW012 and The Fog is DW013.5

WHAT IS DW013? :O

[Bub]

Not sure what DW013 is but I'm guessing it's gonna kick off Subscription 3 since they run 6 per sub. If that's the case, we should be getting an announcement from Death Waltz pretty soon.

[deathwaltz]

I clean every record I buy , new or old. I use a disco antistat machine which you can get for around £70. Always wanted to get a moth but never really had the money.

[soundtracks of fear]

Hey Spencer,
Congratulations on all the releases,you really are going to town on them.
I noticed that your doing a talk at this years supersonic festival, I've been for the last couple years,but missed Goblin the year before that which was a bit gutting but it's alway's pretty good whoever's playing really. Goat highlight of last year.
Maybe you could have some influence with some of the bands playing e.g. fabio frizzi, Goblin?or even Antonio Maiovvi damn good tunes, it's all around the October time same as the London gigs, maybe even suggest a few specially selected late night horror movies to link in with Death Waltz releases? That would be good.

[deathwaltz]

We have always offered black vinyl , but every time we issue a new release honestly, no wants it on black. People want the coloured. A piece of vinyl is always about the music no matter what colour it is on! I'm happy to press a small amount on black vinyl for every releases going forward if enough people wanted it. But then that itself becomes problematic when it becomes the one that flippers want.

Maybe we should offer a 'Black vinyl audiphile' subscription to people that really can't get past coloured vinyl.

[siforster]

Or, you could do a Spinal Tap ST release on None More Black, and everyone's happy

[anthony m]

hey guys and time range for when the new subscription is coming out. want to start saving for it

[anthony m]

any*

[deathwaltz]

Am I ?

Oh right ! Haha I didn't know that....

I just got made an advisory board member for Supersonic. I helped them with programming for several of the early festivals (I made them get Zombi over) so I am sure I will be pushing some interesting electronics onto them.

[deathwaltz]

Will be around July 4/5th.
Current subbers get first chance to re apply then goes out wider.
We will probably up it to 300 due to the fact of how much we have grown over the last year.

[layneharvey]

so, spencer, can i officially throw out a request for you you or one of the other labels on this forum to reissue basically any soundtrack from a Vincent Price film? The Abominable Dr. Phibes? Dr. Phibes Rises Again? Theatre of Blood? Pit and the Pendulum? The Fall of the House of Usher? i could go on, but you probably get the picture.

also, would love to see a reissue of The Shining, The Omen, or Rosemary's Baby. all classic movies AND scores.

[soundtracks of fear]

Oops sorry must have misread something somewhere!
I did see some of that Zombi set but it was a bad clash as I remember and really late on.