Record Service Alsdorf

German vinyl pressing, cassette and CD manufacturing plant. Founded 1975 as Record Service GmbH and as distributor for Warner, Elektra and Atlantic.

In 1976 record manufacturing started for Germany and increased until 1978 when WEA Musik GmbH manufactured WEA releases for GAS, Benelux, Scandinavia and a part of the French market. Rights societies appear on the record according to the distribution area of each edition while the covers were identical for all countries.

Many 7"s manufactured between 1976 and 1980 show a characteristic immersion around the centre hole and were predominantly cut at Tonstudio Pfanz.
Examples: Camillo and Hotel California (1977); Gimme Some Lovin' / She Caught The Katy (1979).

Until the late 1970s WEA Musik GmbH ordered vinyl records at Alsdorf but in a large amount also at Teldec-Press GmbH. Alsdorf 12" records show a wider pressing ring than late 1970s TELDEC pressings and usually do not show a 'Manufactured in Germany'-stamp. Please compare an R / S Alsdorf-edition with a TELDEC-Press GmbH-edition.

In this period capacities were massively expanded. The standard LP cover finish turned glossy and the characteristic Warner-logo embossment on the back cover was introduced in 1979. Around 1980/81 TELDEC-Press GmbH order pressings for WEA Musik GmbH virtually disappear.

Until 1983 WEA Musik GmbH releases were almost exclusively cut at Tonstudio Pfanz. If not identical to the matrix number used there, the European WEA catalog number can be found additionally etched into the mothers. In 1983, Alsdorf rented one of the VMS 70 cutting lathes from Tonstudio Pfanz, and for almost one year, Torsten Pfanz was cutting the lacquers before an in-house engineer fully took over.

In May 1983 Record Service GmbH secured a license from Teldec for the use of the Direct Metal Mastering (DMM) process.

RSA replaced lacquer cutting (on a modified Neumann VMS 70) with DMM cutting only (on a Neumann VMS 82) by late 1989.
Known mastering, lacquer and DMM cutting engineers and their signatures:
Ludwig Hümmler (Hü)
Ulf Horbelt (1987-1990, H or HO)
Joachim Kondziela (JK)

Indicators for galvanization and pressing at Sonopress (etched 020) can frequently be found in the runout area.

Outsourced pressings to German plants can be identified by a letter(s) enclosed in angle brackets, e.g.
<E>, <Emi> = EMI Electrola GmbH
<S>, <So> or <Sono> = Sonopress
<T> = Teldec-Press GmbH

Outsourced to European pressing plants:
<F> or <FR> or <Fr> = MPO, France
<GB> or <UK> = Damont, England
<Gr> = G.P.I. S.A., Greece
<I> or <IT> or <It> (may appear as J or JT) = Astro Record, Italy
<IR> or <Ir> or <EIRE> = Carlton Productions, Ireland

In these cases, use Plated At - Record Service Alsdorf and pressed by for the respective plant.

Unknown pressing plants:
<P> = Poland
<Port> = Portugal

Alsdorf vinyl pressings manufactured from 1981 until 1991 can be identified by an "R / S Alsdorf" stamp in the runout area. 1981 pressings can also show "R / S" exclusively.

Important note: Pressings which show this runout stamp on one or more sides were pressed at earliest in 1981. Please take this into consideration when submitting/updating.

More or less coinciding with the introduction of the 'R / S Alsdorf' stamp, a STRAWBERRY (G) (scarcely STRAWBERRY (E)) stamp can be found on lacquers cut by Strawberry Mastering for Alsdorf between 1981 and 1983. These cuts certainly were used for represses until the later 1980s.

The R / S-stamp was eventually succeeded by a 'WMME Alsdorf' stamp in 1991. Releases showing this stamp should be submitted to WMME Alsdorf.

By the mid-1980s Alsdorf vinyl pressings covered a good part of the WEA UK market by manufacturing LPs of international WEA releases and small centre hole UK standard 7"s of primary European WEA releases for export and delivery to the UK.
The country where the pressed edition was either ordered from or destined for is indicated by a country code in the runouts (usually not in angle brackets):
A = Austria, until 1983
BE = Benelux
D = Germany or GAS
F = France
IR or EIRE = Ireland
ESP = Spain
NL = Netherlands
S = Scandinavia
UK or GB = United Kingdom

The Alsdorf stamper number can also be found etched into the runout area but in most of the cases it appears very faintly.

In the mid-1980s, Alsdorf often used U.S. based stamper discs for pressing records in Germany, identified by their specific pattern in the vinyl runout grooves. Known examples:
- Lacquer cuts: lacquer foil produced by Future Disc. The father and mother discs were galvanized by Sheffield Lab Matrix as subcontract for Allied Record Company, which can be identified by the appearance of etched "delta" numbers "△ 00000" and "△ 00000-X" as well as the [Allied 'ɑ' logo]-stamp. These stampers were made at Allied Record Company (e.g. Madonna - True Blue).
- DMM: the master was produced at Precision Lacquer. Later plated at Specialty Records Corporation for a German pressing plant (SPGER or SP-GER or SP W.GER), whose stampers had been used for pressing by Record Service Alsdorf (e.g. R.E.M. - Out Of Time.)

Cassette manufacturing started in 1977.
Compact-disc manufacturing started in August 1986, the official opening was on 6 September 1986. CD pressings can be identified by 'RSA' in the matrix.

Please note that around 1990 Record Service Alsdorf manufactured small and large centre hole editions of 7"s and used the same label layout for both editions. This procedure partially affected the layout of the large centre hole editions and the record appears to be 'dinked'. Actually the record was manufactured and sold in this form. Alsdorf 7" editions with large centre hole were exclusively distributed within Continental Europe and should be submitted separately.

Became a part of TELDEC Record Service in 1988 and a division of Warner Music Manufacturing Europe in 1991 (cf. WMME Alsdorf).
The last vinyl record pressed in the facility was on 04 September 1998.
Sold in 2003 to Cinram and became Cinram GmbH.