Demo CD

nicovlogg

Hey guys, was hoping one of the technical geniuses could help me out. My band is making our first EP/demo disc to give away at live shows, we're going to print 100CD's with nice cardboard sleeves and give them away at gigs. So obviously for this first batch we're looking at doing it cheaply. Now I have 2 questions:

1) What is the best place to have CD's duplicated cheaply? In Pretoria preferably, but Joburg if the savings are worth it.

2) Can anyone advice me with regards to the actual format of the CD's? We have 4 WAV's of studio recorded and mastered songs, and one demo track in wav (unmastered). Would the demo track need to be mastered too, seeing as it's just a demo disc? Also, how do you go about making a CD that shows the song title in a modern CD player?

Thanks in advance!

MikeM

All I can say is keep one aside for me 8)

Mo-Facta

nicovlogg wrote:
1) What is the best place to have CD's duplicated cheaply? In Pretoria preferably, but Joburg if the savings are worth it.

Check out Sonopress:

http://www.arvatodigitalservices.com/industries/audio/

They have been around for 50 years and know what they're doing. They're also well priced. Otherwise, there are many alternatives:

http://www.google.co.za/search?q=cd+duplication&hl=en&prmd=ivnscrfd&source=lnt&tbs=ctr:countryZA&cr=countryZA&sa=X&ei=fzdBTembGIyKhQfoy432AQ&ved=0CCEQpwUoAQ

nicovlogg wrote:2) Can anyone advice me with regards to the actual format of the CD's?

Thanks in advance!

There is what is called a "Red Book" standard, which should be in order before the master is handed over to the pressing plant. Without getting into the specifics of it, this actually sounds more complicated than it is because any good cd burning software writes audio CD's to this standard, which is just a bunch of guidelines put forth by the AES society in a little book that happen to be red in colour. You can read more about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Book_(CD_standard)

We have 4 WAV's of studio recorded and mastered songs, and one demo track in wav (unmastered). Would the demo track need to be mastered too, seeing as it's just a demo disc?

The absolute answer is no, mastering is not a requirement for the ability of your demo song to be pressed at a CD plant along with the mastered one. However, it's not advisable, the caveat being that the song might be different in level to the others and also tonally different, which will strike the listener as odd.

Also, how do you go about making a CD that shows the song title in a modern CD player?

This is called "CD Text" and most newer versions of CD burning software do this - even Nero - as do all professional mastering suites. Basically in the compilation window of a burner like Nero there will be a column for "Artist" and "Title" where you will fill in the blanks. This will be burned as metadata onto the disc and seen by any CD player that is compatible.

Hope that helps.

Cheers ?

nicovlogg

Mo Facta wrote: Check out Sonopress:

http://www.arvatodigitalservices.com/industries/audio/

They have been around for 50 years and know what they're doing. They're also well priced. Otherwise, there are many alternatives:

Phoned around 15 different companies yesterday, seems the prices range from R6/CD to about R13 (for a batch of 100). I can't understand why the prices would vary this much, is it quality or just bad markup?

Mo Facta wrote: There is what is called a "Red Book" standard, which should be in order before the master is handed over to the pressing plant. Without getting into the specifics of it, this actually sounds more complicated than it is because any good cd burning software writes audio CD's to this standard, which is just a bunch of guidelines put forth by the AES society in a little book that happen to be red in colour. You can read more about it here:

The absolute answer is no, mastering is not a requirement for the ability of your demo song to be pressed at a CD plant along with the mastered one. However, it's not advisable, the caveat being that the song might be different in level to the others and also tonally different, which will strike the listener as odd.

This is called "CD Text" and most newer versions of CD burning software do this - even Nero - as do all professional mastering suites. Basically in the compilation window of a burner like Nero there will be a column for "Artist" and "Title" where you will fill in the blanks. This will be burned as metadata onto the disc and seen by any CD player that is compatible.

Hope that helps.

So if I burn the master on my own desktop PC with Nero say, making sure that I fill in the metadata and tick it as an Audio CD, it'll be fine for a master? Think I'm just going to send the demo to be mastered at the same level by a friend who does mixing. Thanks for the info!

Mo-Facta

nicovlogg wrote:
Phoned around 15 different companies yesterday, seems the prices range from R6/CD to about R13 (for a batch of 100). I can't understand why the price would vary this much, is it quality or just bad markup?

Funnily enough, we just had this conversation at home because my sister in law works for a CD duplication company. She gave my wife's company a quote and it turned out to be R25 rand a CD for 25 CDs. Quite pricey. Most CD duplicators have price breaks depending on how many CD's you order. I.e. R25 p/CD for 0=25, R22 p/CD for 26-50 and so on. Obviously, the more you print, the less per CD it costs. Different companies have different price breaks so this could be the answer to your question.

nicovlogg wrote:So if I burn the master on my own desktop PC with Nero say, making sure that I fill in the metadata and tick it as an Audio CD, it'll be fine for a master? Think I'm just going to send the demo to be mastered at the same level by a friend who does mixing. Thanks for the info!

Yes, it should be fine and conform to the red book standard.

Cheers ?

nicovlogg

Mo Facta wrote: Funnily enough, we just had this conversation at home because my sister in law works for a CD duplication company. She gave my wife's company a quote and it turned out to be R25 rand a CD for 25 CDs. Quite pricey. Most CD duplicators have price breaks depending on how many CD's you order. I.e. R25 p/CD for 0=25, R22 p/CD for 26-50 and so on. Obviously, the more you print, the less per CD it costs. Different companies have different price breaks so this could be the answer to your question.

Yeah, I get that. But for EXACTLY the same product, the prices have ranged from R5 to R13 a CD. That kind of variance I just don't understand.

Mo-Facta

Well, go for the cheapest option then. What's the use of wondering why?

Cheers ?