What is a "Test Pressing" LP?

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Can someone explain in detail what this is, I've seen some of these on ebay & wondered what it really is. If I were to listen to a Test Pressing Lp:

Would the LP be any different than the originally released LP that was mass produced?

Would there be anything added to a test pressing, such as different sounding vocals or backing instruments either added or taken away?

Some are kinda expensive & say that they are 1 of 5 ever made. I'm just unclear about what they really are & whether there are any differences in sound to the standard Lp from the same artist.

Does anyone have a Test Pressing LP from an artist?

 

[Mr Bill]

I'm sure Tony or others actually in the record business can give more details, but my understanding is that these are the first pressings after the lacquer is cut. They are used to test playback to ensure there's no skipping, the groove(s) never get to close to each other, etc. Usually the producer or someone at the record company would use this as a test "screening." As soon as the test is a "go," the record would then go into mass production. The only difference you may hear is if your test pressing is one of the "no-go's" in which case it may skip or feature whatever error gave it a "no-go."

--Mr Bill

 

[Rudy]

Mr Bill pretty much described it: after they create the stampers and set them up, they'll press a few records as a quality control procedure. Don't expect any different mixes. There are also other types of "test" records, like a test cutting, which would be an acetate or actual master lacquer. There is always the small chance that a test pressing may be unplayable. After all, the disc is pressed to check for any problems with the stamper.

LPs are cut onto a lacquer-coated aluminum disc. After it's cut, the lacquer is plated to create a negative of the grooves. From this, another "positive" is made that is used to create the stamper "negatives". Since there are so many steps in the process, they could easily have produced a bad stamper. Even one minor glitch could ruin the stamper for creating an LP.

As a collectible, it could have some value. But the fact that it could differ from a production LP really doesn't guarantee it would sound correct. Theoretically, if it was one of the first discs pressed with a production stamper, it could sound terrific. You'd think, though, that test pressings would be discarded after use.

CDs, DVDs and SACDs also go through test pressings.

 

[andywithaz]

I understand the process of mass producing records but how do they do it with tapes and CDs

 

[Rudy]

With tapes, a master tape is sent to the duplicating house and copied onto an endless loop. The cassette tape is actually loaded onto a huge "pancake", a large reel of tape. Then, the master loop and the cassette tape stock are both run at high speeds, and the individual cassette lengths are cut off from the pancake and assembled into shells. Basically, reel tapes were done that way as well; being on more primitive equipment, they never do sound all that good. I doubt any reel tape has response much above 10kHz just due to it being copied at high speed. 8-tracks, the same.

For CDs and other digital discs, the "pits" are, I think, "burned" onto a glass master with some kind of photo-sensitive process, and from this the molds are made for the data surface of the disc, creating "pits" and "lands" (aka non-pits) on the surface. Then a thick protective clear covering is put on top of it. An involved process to say the least.

 

[W.B.]

A difference between "reference acetates" and "test pressings," besides that mentioned by others above, is that acetates usually have stick-on labels from the recording studio which cut the lacquers, whereas a test pressing is made by a pressing plant, often with a label pressed onto the record. Such test pressings also give a clue as to which record labels used which plants. With A&M test pressings, Monarch and Columbia were among the tops (with RCA and ElectroSound added later). As Columbia had three pressing plants from the mid-'60's to the early '80's, each would have their own "test pressing" label layout, with their respective collections of fonts.

Other examples: Companies like Specialty Records Corp. of Olyphant, Penn., and Presswell Records of New Jersey handled Atlantic for many years. I have a few test pressing 45's from Bestway Products of Mountainside, N.J. and Shelley Products of Huntington Station, N.Y., dating to the early 1980's for certain PolyGram-affiliated releases (this was before they swallowed up A&M, mind you). They can also provide a clue as to the quality of the pressing from each plant.

 

[Mr Bill]

With tapes, a master tape is sent to the duplicating house and copied onto an endless loop. The cassette tape is actually loaded onto a huge "pancake", a large reel of tape.

My best friend Dave used to work at Capitol's dupe plant and he says the pancake system is one of two they used while he was there. The other uses 1" tape (and some systems can go to 2") and has the audio signal for all four channels (two stereo pairs in opposing directions) evenly spread 8 times over the inch. It is then split into eight strips and wound onto the spools that get encased in the cassette. If you listen to Capitol cassettes you can hear a low tone at the start and end of each side. This tone trigggered the cutting mechanism. Pressing plastic between two molds sounds a lot easier!

--Mr Bill

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Very Interesting, thanks everyone. So I guess there is no guarentee that a test pressing will sound any better than a mass produced Lp and in fact it may be worst with a glich in the test Lp. I never thought of that. I just figured that if it was a test pressing that it was a perfect original.

I wonder if the artist would actually listen to a test pressing to listen for there work to make sure it was a perfect master test pressing Lp before it go the "Go" ahead. Would you think that artist such as Herb Alpert or Richard Carpenter would actually sit down & listen to a "Test Pressing" of one of there Lp's to give the approval that it was all a-go? Or would this be left up to someone else in there to listen for gliches or problems with the test Lp?

 

[Rudy]

Usually the mastering engineer would be the one listening for pressing defects in this case. Although, an acetate or test cutting might be sent to an artist for final approval if they requested it. Usually, though, the musicians could trust the expert--the mastering engineer--to make the right decisions to cut a good-sounding LP that would play on all types of record players of the day.

 

[TonyCurrie]

As a producer, I've listened to a few test pressings for approval. I do recall one being pretty diabolical and being convinced by the cutting engineer that what I was hearing was groove compression indiced in postal transit. So I approved the disc, and subsequently all 5,000 copies sounded equally horrid.......