CD Duplication Services and Manufacturing

The ever evolving and massive trend setting beast, MySpace, with over 105 million users and rapidly growing, has musicians (especially indie bands) following a new trend in releasing their albums. I would first like to share a tidbit of information that will make your really think about this particular approach. The marketing and advertising industry estimates overall sales, by next year, for online purchases, will surpass that of all catalog sales. With this information, it is no wonder that indie bands and even a few major record labels are leading towards selling their music to online buyers.

Once indie bands or any band for that matter, finishes recording in the studio, the next step should be to find an audio mastering engineer to have their CD professionally mastered. Most mastering companies will also offer other services like graphic art and design (for the CD, cover, & insert), various packaging options, and duplication or cd replication services.

After all the decisions have been made and the CD project is complete, most indie bands will more than likely host a local release party. This is where those nice, newly mastered, professionally designed and packaged CD's come into play. A majority of these CD's will be passed out to all the bands friends, family members, supporters, and new and old fans alike. Traditionally any new band will send out a large number of CD's to radio stations and if they are truly lucky they might just get some air play time.

So where can bands get quick exposure and get their music out to the public the fastest? Why of course, the internet! Now, even though this concept isn't all that new, various web sites, especially MySpace, are helping this to happen much more quickly than the old traditional methods of contacting radio stations or getting 'discovered' by playing local venues.

It is as simple as going to any search engine and typing in the words 'music blogs' and you can be on your way. One particular website you may want to check out is www.allrecords.com which offers a free blog/weblog. Or simply sign up for a MySpace account and start accumulating friends and start networking on the music groups section. Offer a few sample songs and then add a link to www.cdbaby.com so the whole CD can be purchased.

I truly believe this is the path that the music industry is heading down. Regardless of any on going lawsuits similar to those in the Napster days or current issues with DRM (digital rights management), the customers, the online buyers, are the ones who want to purchase music digitally. Bands will begin to see this trend take off if they haven't already and more and more will jump on the band wagon.

Posted by Brian at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Are you planning on throwing away or selling your collection of old and dusty vinyl records? Maybe you would like to make copies of those LP's and put them onto a CD before getting rid of them. But then you might also be thinking it's too much work or too expensive. Well, the good news is that it is feasible and there are several options available.

Possibly the cheapest and easiest solution is to search on line or to look at a local record store for that particular album on CD. The next cheapest option (especially if you still have your old turntable or record player), is to make a copy by using your computer. All you really need is the turntable, a stereo with an amplifier, a cable to connect the stereo and computer together, conversion software, and blank audio CD's. If you decide to go with this option make sure that you do not connect your turntable directly to your computer.

I can think of two more options that are convenient but not necessarily cheap compared to the first two suggestions. You can purchase a machine that allows you to record from vinyl to CD's or you can contact a professional duplication service that has a mastering engineer on staff.

A fairly new item on the audio market is the TEAC GF-350, which has several nice bells and whistles, which include a single cabinet (housing the turntable), an AM-FM radio, a CD player/burner, and stereo speakers. It also has an auxiliary audio input for recording from external sources. Other features include recording a whole album or single track, a built in amplifier, and a front-panel headphone jack. The cost for the GF-350 is between $330 and $400. There seems to be some skepticism in regards to the quality of the newly burned CD due to the use of a ceramic stylus (or needle) to play the record. This machine is most likely being sold to those who want a simple solution to transfering their LP's to CD's. A true audiophile might be a little disappointed with overall quality of the TEAC GF-350.

The last option which will produce the highest quality and best sounding CD may be the most expensive. By using the expertise of a professional mastering engineer you are paying for their trained ear to bring out the best sounds of any audio recording. They can eliminate unwanted noises and fine tune the CD to make it sound better than the original.

Posted by Brian at 05:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CD duplication is simply a method of copying CD's (also know as 'burning') onto pre-made discs such as CD-R or CD-RW media. The term burning comes from the laser that is used to write the data to the disc. Typically the maximum amount of time for an audio CD-R is 74 minutes. However several manufacturers have designed 80 minute CD's. The obvious difference between the 74 and 80 minutes CD's is there storage capacity. This small difference in useable space is achieved by tightening the coils of the pregroove allowing for a larger recordable area. See the article on CD-R technology for more information. On a rare occasion you can find 90 and 99 minute CD's (which have to be burned by using an 'overburn' option you may find in your CD recording software). More importantly the manufacturers of various media players allow for the extended times by upgrading their firmware.

With today's technology almost anyone can duplicate a CD at home as long as they have a computer outfitted with a CD-R or CD-RW recorder and appropriate software. This approach is adequate for the beginner who plans on duplicating only a few copies of a CD. Be aware that there are many various and specific disc formats available. If you have a fairly large project or plan on duplicating several hundred discs, then you should definitely consider using a professional duplication company. There are many companies to choose from. However if you want one that is reliable, fair priced, fast, and very friendly then look into Discmasters. They have been in business for over 20 years, are very knowledgeable, and professional. There are additional services that Discmasters offers for your CD or DVD project such as CD design, various packaging options and cd mastering services to name a few.

CD duplication is cost effective, produces a high quality product, and has a very quick turn around time. Keep in mind that CD duplication is usually used for small run projects (quantities of 500 or less). For larger projects replication is the best choice!

Posted by Brian at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A CD-R in the most simple terms is a recordable compact disc. It was first produced in 1988 and originally called CD-WO or CD Write Once. By 2003, the yearly world-wide production volume was around 10.5 billion units. The standard CD-R is 120mm in diameter and has a storage capacity of 74 minutes of audio recordings or 650MB of data. There is also the mini disc (80mm in diameter / 180MB) and the ever so popluar marketing tool, the 'business' card disc (58-68mm / 50MB ).

CD-R's are made of polycarbonate pellets, a type of thermoplatics, which provides transparency, stability, and is impact resistant. There are three basic steps that get applied to the polycarbonate disc once it has been pressed with a metal stamper to form a pre-groove or sprial track where the data will be stored.

The first step will be to add a very thin layer of organic dye on top of the sprial groove. This process is applied by spin coating. The second step adds a thin reflective layer of silver or gold. This is accomplished by a procedure called sputtering. The reflective layer is applied by magnetic bombardment of the silver or gold atoms which affix themselves to the disc. The last step adds a protective coating of a photo-polymerizable lacquer that is then cured with a uv-light.

CD-R's were made to last. The estimated life span, based on acelerated aging, ranges from 100 to 200 years. However proper care must be taken when working with these discs so as not to reduce the life span to only a few years. First and foremost the CD-R's recording surface that is modified by heat, to store data, can be susceptible to material deterioration. The data can actually shift on the surface making it unreadable to the laser. So try to burn at speeds of 4x or 8x (this will produce fewer errors), try not to multitask on your computer when burning, store the CD-R in a jewel case to protect the surface, and of course hold the disc by lightly gripping its edges.

One other useful bit of information is to only clean the disc if playback is affected. When you need to remove fingerprints, grease, dust, and or very minor scratches, rub toothpaste over the entire bottom of the CD. Let it sit for 30 to 60 seconds, then hold the disc under running water and use a circular motion to remove all the toothpaste. Allow the disc to air dry.

Posted by Brian at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)