How are bootleg's made

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stan

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Mar 31, 2006
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I wonder have bootleg's are made?

Do you make a press plate or something of the sort from a record? or do you 'aquire' the pressing plates from some where?

I don't have a clue how a record is pressed all i know that a lump of vinyl is put between two plates and pressed ( like an iron press).

so you'd need the plates to press the record and how do bootleggers aquire the plate's?

The process must deminish the qualty of the sound as because with anything you copy a little quality is always lost!

Any one know please enlighten me
 

blue jammer

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Dec 9, 2003
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Used to be that people would record the records they wanted to bootleg on DAT.

Then they'd go to a pressing plant and have them cut as new records, with upto 4 tracks on them, so you'd not get ALL the mixes of the original releases, instead you'd get the main 'most played' mix of each track, so 4 different artists/titles on the one 'ep'.

Quality wouldn't be as good as the original, but wouldn't be too bad, and often it'd save people the time of tracking the originals down...

To cut a record, the plant first presses up a master copy, which is cut into the disc, when is then transferred and pressed into vinyl copies, firstly having test pressings done to make sure it passes all the QC checks etc.
 

Presuming Ed

Active member
Bootlegs are made exactly the same way as normal release vinyl. So I would imagine a bootlegger would approach a pressing company with a CD or DAT master, a laquer is made, then a plate is grown, through some kind of electroplating method I believe, which forms one side of the stamper (so to speak). I'm not 100% about the technical process (as you can tell), but they are made in the exact same way. Ed
 

Jiglo

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Mar 21, 2005
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stan said:
I wonder have bootleg's are made?

Do you make a press plate or something of the sort from a record? or do you 'aquire' the pressing plates from some where?

I don't have a clue how a record is pressed all i know that a lump of vinyl is put between two plates and pressed ( like an iron press).

so you'd need the plates to press the record and how do bootleggers aquire the plate's?

The process must deminish the qualty of the sound as because with anything you copy a little quality is always lost!

Any one know please enlighten me

This might help http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vinyl-recordi...890261249QQcategoryZ58642QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 

butty

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blue jammer said:
To cut a record, the plant first presses up a master copy, which is cut into the disc, when is then transferred and pressed into vinyl copies, firstly having test pressings done to make sure it passes all the QC checks etc.


lol that bit sounds like the guy who waffles on that 'hows it made' proggy on discovery channel. anyone seen it?
 

stan

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Mar 31, 2006
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blue jammer said:
Used to be that people would record the records they wanted to bootleg on DAT.

Then they'd go to a pressing plant and have them cut as new records, with upto 4 tracks on them, so you'd not get ALL the mixes of the original releases, instead you'd get the main 'most played' mix of each track, so 4 different artists/titles on the one 'ep'.

Quality wouldn't be as good as the original, but wouldn't be too bad, and often it'd save people the time of tracking the originals down...

To cut a record, the plant first presses up a master copy, which is cut into the disc, when is then transferred and pressed into vinyl copies, firstly having test pressings done to make sure it passes all the QC checks etc.

Thanks for the insight:)
 

kells&tots

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Jun 11, 2004
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just a bit more useless info to add

some of them knights ones are actually just recorded straight from the original record, i know a few folk who have lent records to the guy who does them, and in exchange he gave the people i know a few releases of their choice (like ud want them haha)

cant remember which tune it was but my mate lent one and it had a click on it, the knights release when it came out also had the click in the same spot hahahahaha
 

blue jammer

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butty said:
lol that bit sounds like the guy who waffles on that 'hows it made' proggy on discovery channel. anyone seen it?

yeah, is that the 15 min one that crams loads of mad info in, in a short space, does about 4 or 5 topics in all :D
 

Barrie Jay

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Jul 20, 2003
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Bootlegs are made exactly the same as any other record.

It is where the master is from that makes the difference.

For the original the master tapes will be used.

Bootlegs are often re-mastered by just lifting it from the vinyl.

This is not an easy process to do - although with the software aound today its getting a lot easier - as when you record from vinyl the stylus will not pick up exactly 100% clean of each channel (left/right and up/down) and bits will flow into each other slightly.

You have to remove the resulting `contraphase` as it is called and this is the tricky bit and depending on how well it is done is why some bootlegs sound far better than others. The track would also have to re-compressed to get full gain from the track again.

Of course they should all be burned along with the thieving robbing bastards that made them.
 

Buzz

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presuminged said:
Bootlegs are made exactly the same way as normal release vinyl. So I would imagine a bootlegger would approach a pressing company with a CD or DAT master, a laquer is made, then a plate is grown, through some kind of electroplating method I believe, which forms one side of the stamper (so to speak). I'm not 100% about the technical process (as you can tell), but they are made in the exact same way. Ed

I've heard that its done by a band of midgets with chisels...and these guys are addicted to Special Brew :hubba:
 

tucker2005

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Aug 29, 2005
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butty said:
lol that bit sounds like the guy who waffles on that 'hows it made' proggy on discovery channel. anyone seen it?

haha yeah man thats a top program i always watch it at daft o clock when theres nowt on. that acctually guy did show u how vinyl was made on 1 episode