Unequal side lengths for 12"vinyl EP release.

[NewImprov]

KInd of off-topic, I guess, but figured someone here might have an opinion.

 

I have mixed albums that have been pressed to vinyl before, and have always been told that the goal was to have the side lengths as equal as possible.

 

My band is releasing the 2nd of a series of 3 EP's on 12" vinyl soon, we just finished mixing and are almost ready to send to mastering. There are 4 tunes on this EP, 3 originals and a cover. 2 of the original tunes are in the 5-6 minute range, the other original and the cover (a tune by Fela Kuti) are in the 9-11 minute range. From the beginning, the thought was to put the one shorter tune to open each side, and each side ends with the longer tunes, leading to a 14-15 minute sides, a decent length for an EP.

 

However, we are finding we like the flow of having the 2 shorter tunes on side A, and the 2 longer on side B. In fact, we have even started segueing from the first shorter tune to the 2nd when playing them live, they really flow together well. The longer original, where we stretch out a bit on solos, seems to flow into the Fela tune better. This would make for a ~11minute first side, and ~20 minute B side. I know this would cut into the bass frequencies on side B, and low-end is important to us, we are a funk/hip-hop/afrobeat band, but it's within the 24 minute ideal max that our pressing plant specifies.

 

any thoughts, opinions, real-world experiences in this?

[MathOfInsects]

Answer 1: It's your EP, your money, your pressing to vinyl, do whatever you want and call it art.

Answer 2: Maybe you can add one or two "tunes from the vault" to Side A as a vinyl-only bonus, to equal out the running times. 

 

Answer 3: Maybe you can record a new song especially for the vinyl pressing, and add that to Side A. 

Answer 4: Maybe you can do a Beatles Christmas Record-style album-only recorded interview and other spoken/written bits to fill out the time on Side A. Interview with the band, or each member introducing themselves and telling a bit about themselves. 

Answer 5: But mostly, Answer 1.

 

 

[harmonizer]

Back when vinyl LPs were the norm for pop/rock albums, there were many cases where at least one of the sides of the LP was over 20 minutes in length. So a vinyl LP side being 22 minutes long would not have been considered too long. Whether you consider it odd to have an imbalance in the length of the two sides is different question.

[analogika]

20 minutes should be fine for bass response on a 12".

[Anderton]

18 hours ago, NewImprov said:

any thoughts, opinions, real-world experiences in this?

 

Vinyl is a tradeoff among bass, signal-to-noise ratio, and level. You can get as much bass as you want, but the tradeoff will be a degraded signal-to-noise ratio and lower level. Also, one reason for having sides of equal length is not to have a huge difference in level when switching sides. So although you could cut the 11 minute side hotter, it might be better to match the level with the second side.

 

Inner groove distortion is another factor to take into account. There's increased distortion as the tonearm moves closer to center. The usual way around this is to put softer songs with less dynamics last on the side.

 

Unless the artistic reason to have a side that's almost twice as long as the other is compelling, 14-15 minutes per side is a sweet spot for 12" vinyl. You can get good level, bass, and signal-to-noise. There's far less compromise involved. The bottom line is whether you want to prioritize the sound quality, or the flow, with respect to the listener experience. Sound quality may also mean sounding as much like you do live as possible, so the bass may become more of a factor there.

 

FWIW I mastered my 2017 project Simplicity to accommodate vinyl, "just in case." I used Math of Insects #2 option and added a live bonus cut to the end of the second side to even out the lengths at 15 minutes per side. I also mastered Martha Davis's I Have My Standards for vinyl. She deleted one of the songs to allow for sides that were both just under 20 minutes. 

 

Vinyl involves compromise, and there's no way around that. You can't argue with the laws of physics