The heart of the plant

We press with Toolex Alpha fully-automatic machines, some of which are over 40 years old. Each machine is unique and is no longer produced. Maintenance is therefore very time-consuming. Technical understanding along with a lot of enthusiasm are necessary to keep our machines running.

The pressing process is also connected with a lot of manual work because the settings on the machines have to be adjusted individually for each order. Both the test pressings and the main pressings undergo a final quality control - the records are checked visually and acoustically.

Records are pressed from the plastic, polyvinyl chloride (PVC for short). In this context, the question of whether our records are made of virgin vinyl or regranulate arises again and again. Virgin vinyl is a new granulate that has not yet been used. Regranulate, on the other hand, is made from PVC waste from record production. This means that cut edges and excess records can be shredded and re-integrated into the production cycle making it possible to reduce plastic waste considerably.

Our many years of experience have shown that the use of regranulate does not result in any auditory losses. Therefore we generally use recycled granulate for our black 140g pressings. Only the surface of the record can show slight streaks on closer inspection. Due to production restrictions, both our 7" and our 180g press are made with virgin vinyl. By request, we can also press 140g orders with virgin vinyl. Coloured pressings are generally made of Virgin granulate, as this is the only way to guarantee colour fastness.

Size & weight

We produce both 7" and 12" records and offer our 7" records with small as well as large center holes.

12" in 140g or 180g? We offer both variants. Again and again the statement is made that a 180g record generally sounds better than one with 140g. However, the final weight plays much less of a role in the production than the cut and the electroplating. It is therefore possible to create the same quality record in both 140g and 180g. So why go for 180g? It's about the feel, A 180g record lies better in the hand and is more resistant to deformation.

Colours

Even though black is still the first choice, there are hardly any limits to the colour of the vinyl. Pressing is possible in one colour in opaque or transparent colours as well as marbled, i.e. with several colours.

With coloured vinyl it is also possible to choose between a pressing with and without cleaning. In the first case, your order will be pressed directly after another one. This means that the leftover colour of the previous order (mostly black) will be mixed with the colour of your choice and the first 50 records may have marbling and dots. In the case of an order with cleaning, the remaining granulate is removed beforehand and you will receive your order with only the colour of your choice.

Overview vinyl colours as PDF (high resolution)

Overview vinyl colours as PDF (low resolution)

Eco record

As a special pressing we offer our eco record. For this, we use all colour residues, resulting in a pressing with unique patterns.