CD Manufacturing...

Everything you ever wanted to know

What options do I have?

Pressed CDs

Versus

Recordable CDs

Recordable CDR

Recordable CDs (also known as CDR, or CD-R) are manufactured blank discs (no data). The substrate is poured out into the mold, and instead of the data being pressed onto them, a special substrate layer is applied that allows you to burn the data onto them with a desktop cdr writer. Your artwork is silkscreened onto the blank CD -- no differently from pressed CDs. So the final product is a professionally printed disc, that you can write at your leisure.

We offer recordable CD silkscreening with the gamut of printed and unprinted CD packaging. You can order your CDRs with such deluxe CD packaging as full color CD Jackets, Mailers, Custom Tray Paks, Eco Friendly Jackets with foam hubs or pockets, Mini LPs, Paper Sleeves, as well as bulk packed.

Pressed CD

Pressed CD manufacturing differs from recordable CD burning in one very important respect. In CD pressing, all the data is put onto the disc in one "stamping" step (plating, actually). The disc shape is then created by injection molding. Once they are molded, pressed CDs are either silkscreened or offset printed, then inserted into their packaging.

When is it better to use
a recordable cd?

Recordable CDRs are ideally suited for projects where you need a small quantity of one title. For example, you may want to publish one-of-a-kind data for your clients -- on CDRs that have the look of a mass-produced title. The recordable discs are slightly more expensive than pressed discs, so if you have a large quantity it is more cost effective to do pressed discs.

Consider doing a run of silkscreened cdrs along with a run of professionally printed packaging for a complete package.

When is it better to use
pressed CDs?

Pressed CDs are better suited for large quantity runs (1000 or more of one title).

  Doing pressed CDs or CDRs in a RUSH

Normal schedules run about 3 weeks. That's roughly 1 week of proofing and 2 weeks of production.

If you need them quicker, we can do creative things to help you get through your deadline. Tell us your needs and we'll work it for you! We know lots of solutions. By the way, there's no charge for the rush schedule.

To commit to a rush job, we will need to know the following:

1. When your cd master will be arriving,
2. When your disc artwork will be arriving or uploaded,
3. Quantity of CDs,
4. Type of packaging, such as Eco-Traypack or Tall Jacket
5. When packaging artwork will be arriving (* see Tips),
6. Date you need the CDs completed and in-hand
7. Whether any partial amounts will be good for an emergency situation. For example, if we couldn't get all 1000 in jewel cases with inserts shipped out on your requested date, would 100 bulk CDRs help?
8. Are you comfortable with by-passing the physical proofset?

What are some

GOOD TIPS

you can give me

for

my project?

• We know that this is easier said than done, but do try to leave yourself room in your project schedule. If you have printed paper or cardboard (i.e. jewel case inserts, printed sleeves or mailers, boxes), try to add a week to handle artwork issues. Projects without paper products generally take only two weeks. Murphy's Law would suggest more to cover all the Acts of God clauses like hurricanes and UPS strikes and power outages.
• SEND YOUR ARTWORK EARLY. If you have your artwork files before your cd data, send them to us so we can start processing them and handle any bleed, cropping, etc., issues that may need to be addressed, and we can get that film made and start the printing. Doing your printed products early will help enormously.
• When you receive you test CD, TEST IT. TEST it again. TEST it from the mountain, as they say. TEST it on all platforms, Mac, PC, cd players, etc. Try it in different computers or players. You don't want thousands of CDs with bugs. We hurt for you when you call back and tell us you found a bug on your original, we hate it when that happens. We really do. Those additional orders have all the fun taken out of them. Please...test.
• If you have never made a replicatable cd before, don't wait until two weeks before your deadline to try it for the first time- inexperienced premastering can wreck your schedule. Not all cd writing software is created equally. Some software is better suited for archiving and doesn't do perfect ISO images with all the right spacing or RedBook with all the right p's and q's. Also, you might experience a run of bad media if your karma isn't good. These things can happen although rare. Try to allow for extra time to account for these things.