how were copies of vinyl made in "third-party" countries


I have some LPs from the former Yugoslavia, Holland, Hungary, Russia (bought them way back when in bulk) and now I wonder what the process was and how close they are to the original? 

I assume they weren't digitized, they were released in the 70s and early 80s. Anyone knows what they would receive from the recording studio/company/warehouse? Tapes, the "negatives"? Are there copies considered better than others?

 

grislybutter

@grislybutter

my Russian LPs are way worse than the rest. And the Hungarian ones after 1985 are way worse than pre1985

Could be, I’m only speaking to the record companies I have and familiar with. My point was that some manufactures in these countries are more than capable. There are bad pressings from many countries (including the US)…..and good ones as well in most. I would say I’m probably unfamiliar with the selections you are speaking to.

@bkeske yes I am sure it varies within a country, a factory, a time of day, as I am learning here. I probably wouldn't play my russian copies much these days anyway. 

The most enjoyable thread I’ve read here.

More posts/stories please.

Edit: typo

@steve_wisc 

I enjoy it a lot too. I learned way more than if I had googled it for hours. Some of these commenters are the coolest, most knowledgeable people!

So @steve_wisc ​​​​@grislybutter : one way to start is to put into a good search engine "best vinyl pressing of"____ [name of album]. If it is classic rock, you will get hits for the Hoffman forum, in other cases, hard to predict. (I buy a lot of jazz from the ’70s). You’ll start to see the crowd-sourced aspect to building the knowledge base. There is no one book (though there are numerous labelographies and books about record companies or artist output). There are pretty big divides between classical, rock, prog rock and jazz, among other genres. I have a blog which I am terrible at updating these days, the London Jazz Collector is very very good, and there numerous other sources. Ultimately, you try to get to the source: that is, the artist. Short of that, even if the person is still alive, some representative. I’ve done numerous deep dives to satisfy my curiosity and you’d be surprised at the replies. At one point I was bitching about a Janis Ian reissue, and Janis joined the forum to respond. This is all in your hands. Use your power wisely. :)

Bill