Are DJ/Promo 45's Pressed with a Better Vinyl?

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I was wondering whether this is true. Someone on ebay was selling a DJ Promo 45 & they indicated that these 45's sounded better cause they were pressed with a higher quality vinyl than regular 45's. Is this a true statement? I looked at most of my promo 45's to see if the weight or thickness is different & comparing my A & M Promos to my A & M non-promos, the Promos appear to be slightly thinner in thickness.

Were Promos normally pressed right along side the regular 45's?

 

[Harry]

I think the theory goes like this: Promo 45's were usually pressed first, so right after the stampers were made, the first things pressed would be those promos, so they could get them out to radio stations. The earlier the pressing, the theory goes, the better the sound on the record, since the stamper has seen little use.

As for materials used, most of the time the promo 45s were pressed on a better grade of vinyl than regular production 45s. Many standard stock 45s were pressed on that awful plasticky stuff that is almost ruined on one play through. I remember back in the '70s, watching the production guys in the radio station trying to 'cart up' a record (putting the recording onto a tape cartridge for air use). When the promos would come in pressed on that plasticky stuff, they's do a slip cue and immediately put a 'cue burn' onto the beginning of the record. Sometimes it was just unavoidable, and if you listened closely enough in those pre-CD days, you could often hear that scratchy sound on the air at the beginning of some songs.

Harry
...remembering the good old days, online...

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Harry:
In my 10 years as a Program Director, Music Director and DJ (1971-1981), I have to respectfully disagree. Some labels may have used better quality vinyl for promo copies...but not all or even most. A&M's was good, Capitol after 1969 and Warner Brothers once they switched to Capitol for their pressings, were good...but some...MCA and ABC/Dunhill stand out...were just plain lousy...store or promo copies.

---Michael Hagerty

 

[Michael Hagerty]

P.S.: Not that it matters now, but the way to avoid that cue burn when carting 45s is to record onto a reel-to-reel machine running at 15 or 30 ips (for fidelity) and simply drop the needle onto the lead-in groove rather than cueing. Then either cue or leader up to the first sound on the reel and cart from the reel. Clean every time.

---Michael Hagerty

 

[W.B.]

Some labels may have used better quality vinyl for promo copies...but not all or even most. A&M's was good, Capitol after 1969 and Warner Brothers once they switched to Capitol for their pressings, were good...but some...MCA and ABC/Dunhill stand out...were just plain lousy...store or promo copies.

I thought the worst-sounding vinyl among the major labels/pressing plants had to emanate from RCA. A lot of their records and pressings, especially from the 1960's-'70's, had such noise, you'd think you were listening to a 78. And if you shone a flashlight onto such records, they had a somewhat dirt-brownish hue. Of any pressing plant, I'd venture the absolute worst to be the late American Record Pressing in Owosso, MI (pressed a good amount of Motown product from the early 1960's to 1972, as well as handling Vee Jay and other labels). Specialty Records Corp. of Olyphant, PA (pressed Atlantic/Atco/Cotillion, Elektra/Asylum, etc.; some ABC/Dunhill up to the end of 1972) was rather uneven, some pressings sounded better than others.

I see that Columbia, in 1973-74, pressed some of their promo copies on vinyl rather than styrene, and in fact some stock (store or commercial) copies of Columbia, Epic and CBS-distributed label releases that came from their Pitman, NJ and Terre Haute, IN plants were also pressed in vinyl. (Santa Maria, CA, used all vinyl for their 45's between 1969 and 1976.)

I also see you mentioned Warners. What was their sound quality like when they used Columbia's pressing plants for their records (pre-1976 when they began the switch to Capitol), from your perspective?

 

[Harry]

Harry:
Some labels may have used better quality vinyl for promo copies...but not all or even most. A&M's was good,

Sorry, I was answering with an A&M thought in mind. You're of course right that different labels used different grades of pressing materials, and your mileage may vary...

P.S.: Not that it matters now, but the way to avoid that cue burn when carting 45s is to record onto a reel-to-reel machine running at 15 or 30 ips (for fidelity) and simply drop the needle onto the lead-in groove rather than cueing. Then either cue or leader up to the first sound on the reel and cart from the reel. Clean every time.

Yep - they did that whenever they could when a stubborn record would show up - and if they were fortunate enough to get multiple copies. The problem at the particular station I was working at was that they were dirt-poor. Heck, one time the production room stylus broke and I volunteered to let them used one of my DISCARDED ones, after the engineer filed away some of the plastic on the stylus holder (until they could afford a new one)! So, bottom line, if a promo-supplied record cue-burned - oh well - that's the way it went on the air.

Those labels you mentioned WERE notoriously bad, but A&M promos were usually pretty good.

Harry

 

[TonyCurrie]

Back in the early 60s, EMI's promo copies were marked with wording which - if I can remember it - went something like this...

"Test Pressing. This record is not subject to our usual high standards of manufacturing control and inspection"

Almost all of my vast library of records consists of promo copies, but it has the same number of turkeys as a collection bought over the counter. In the UK, Pye was notorious for really poor pressings - worst of all its "Golden Hour" label, which reduced the modulation depth in order to squeeze half an hour on to each side. As soon as the disc hit the earth's atmosphere it seemed to gain more surface noise than disc modulation. Pye discs were presed with a vinyl that looked black, but if you held it to the light was actually very dark red. Their promo copies were sometimes terrible, and since for a long time Pye handled the production and distribution of A & M here, you can imagine the results.

I'm sure some companies would have taken great care to ensure that DJs got really clean copies to play on the radio. But until commercial radio got a real grip in the UK (Mid 1970s) the promo pressings tended to be more for producers and record shops rather than on air use.