Color & Special Effect Vinyl FAQ

While we pride ourselves on always pressing high quality vinyl, if you’re concerned with audio quality, black vinyl is always your best bet. When you add additives to the small batches that make up color vinyl, it can create a higher noise floor. But it’s going to look really cool and it’ll still sound as good as it can, because we only press records that sound good. Some colors can have a higher noise floor and/or be harder to QC. If you’re pressing jazz or something acoustic, stay away from white, metallic vinyl or anything on the lighter end of the spectrum.

Check out all our color vinyl options and the FAQ on noise floor.

Some of our colors are priced as “Premium” because of the cost of the material or the time it takes to properly setup, breakdown or QC the records using those colors.  For example, white vinyl requires a thorough cleaning of our extruders to get rid of any color residue from previous pressings. White vinyl also takes twice as long to visually QC because obvious defects that can be seen on black or dark color vinyl are almost invisible on white vinyl.  Sometimes the material is just more expensive such as metallics and our clear options. There is a method to the madness of our color vinyl pricing and I hope this helps explain why we charge what we do.

Without getting all scientific, noise floor is the amount of ambient sound created by the record and turntable that is not present in the audio recording. Think of it as low-level noise pollution. Black PVC is made in large volumes and is produced to generate the lowest noise floor possible. Color PVC produces a higher noise floor because of the color additives and chemical makeup of the plastic. If your audio is on the soft side or if you are aiming to impress the Audiophile community, you’ll probably want to stay away from color vinyl in general and the following colors in particular: metallics, white, crystal vellum, color blends and mixtures, special effect vinyl. Our owner says, if you want the best sound, choose black.  Everything else is a fun novelty.

Because we run jobs of all colors on the presses, there’s sometimes a bit of the previous job’s color that can mix in with the new job. With all jobs we purge the machines to minimize any color transfer. If you’re extra concerned with not getting any possible color streaks or spotting on your order, you have the option to add on an extruder cleaning to minimize this even more. An extruder cleaning is recommended with any light solid colors, like white, or our clear options. Ask your sales rep. for pricing.

If you’re looking for precise uniformity for an effect, go with a solid color. Effect vinyl is literally made one at a time by hand, which means it’s impossible to have each puck exactly the same. Part of the appeal of effect vinyl is that each vinyl is one of a kind, that’s just one reason why collectors love them!

Yes! We can’t promise an exact match, but we will try and get as close as possible to the PMS color you’re looking for. Because of how different colors blend together, your vinyl may have some marbling. If you need us to color match or to try out some options for you to approve, we can do that (for a fee).  Ask your sales rep for more information.

Blends are mixes of our normal colors. They swirl together to create a new color. Based on how the colors react to each other, different mixes have different levels of marbling visible, but it’s generally less pronounced than a Color Melt or Smoke.

Color Blend

Color Melts and Smoke use extra special High Melt PVC to make the variations more distinct. Instead of the color blending in or being absorbed into a base color, High Melt PVC maintains its integrity when mixed with another standard color. This makes a unique, ghost-like effect as seen in the example photo. The big production advantage of High Melt vinyl is that it can be run on fully automatic presses making High Melt records more affordable to make than any Color Effect vinyl. Ask your sales rep which colors we have to create this effect for your project.

No. We only offer special effect vinyl as 140g.

1) A Black base eats most colors. They’re still visible but will be more muted and visible mostly around the label.

2) Let us know if you’d like light, medium, or heavy splatter. Think of it as ordering a pizza and choosing light, regular, or extra cheese. Mmmm, cheese.

3) The base colors can be either solid or transparent. For more pop between the base and splatter color, choose a transparent color for the base and a solid color for the splatter. Transparent splatter colors can have less of a pop on a solid base.