Miles Davis | Kind Of Blue

RTI is a renowned pressing plant for vinyl records located in California. 12″ records have been manufactured there since 1974. RTI has a reputation for very good manufacturing technique as well as quality control. Audiophile LPs from Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, for example, are pressed there. They also produce Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's One-Step Ultradisc releases and Impex Records' 1step series.

The slower a record spins, the more it's sound quality is affected. In order to deliver the best possible sound, the record must spin faster (45 RPM). However, when a record spins faster, the amount of information it can hold is reduced. The desire to improve sound quality, while ensuring adequate playtime, is a problem that still persists today. Obviously, the "convenience" drawback isn't an issue when you're willing to pay more for two 12-inch records instead of just one.

Half-speed mastering is a technique used when cutting lacquers from which vinyl records are produced. The cutting machine platter operates at half the usual speed while the signal to be recorded is sent to the cutting head at half its normal playback speed. By halving the speed when cutting, hard to cut very high frequencies become much easier to cut since they are now mid frequencies.