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| Doc J's Music Insider Guide: DUPLICATION VS. REPLICATION OF YOUR CDs |
| Written by Administrator | Published Thu, 18 February 2010 |
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Difference between burned and pressed CDs, Music Industry info |
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Doc J's exclusive interview with AListRadio.net's next big DJ, A-Smooth as he shares tips, experiences & gets personal!
It’s Tuesday, June 8th…This is Doc J, representing Hear My Voice Ent, and I’m in the building with DJ A-Smooth, and we bringing you this audio interview straight from EP WORLDWIDE…Every Playa! Worldw
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Doc J's Music Insider Guide: ADVICE FROM MAJORS TO INDIES! - Part 2
SUGGESTIONS ABOUT THE BUSINESS SIDE. Whattup kiddos? During the last segment I covered advice from major label artists speaking on the type of mentality an artist should strive for, when trying to be successful. Once you get your mind right, an artist t
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Doc J's Music Insider Guide: ADVICE FROM MAJORS TO INDIES! - Part 1
A Profound Rationalization of Jesse Gissen’s April 2010 XXL article. This month XXL journalist, Jesse Gissen (who also shares my first name), briefly tou
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Every Playa! Worldwide's Doc J reviews: SLASH - SLASH
4.5 Stars out of 6: Above-Average Album, a good CD that while still containing a few flaws, it surprisingly has a lot of quality material and replay value.
While claiming to be a Hip-Hop collector and aficionado, Rock music is something I enjoy as well. While I’m not an avid Rock lis
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Foreword - With modern advancements in technology the duplication (or burning) of a CD has become increasingly easy. Nearly every home computer comes equipped with a quality CD/DVD burner, there are thousands of software out that will help you in burning now, and stand-alone CD duplication towers are a lot more affordable as well. However, as an artist makes the push to become more professional in the music business, there are more standards that have to be met, requiring the use of a replicated (or pressed) CD. While there are many instances where one method of copying your CDs is better (and more needed) than the other; most musicians go the “gorilla” route and entirely burn their own product – mainly because it’s cheaper and they do not know the necessity of each. It is from this lack of education (and often stubbornness), that a majority of recording artists miss out on an industry requirement, and never reach the success they want. Understanding the differences in copying your CDs is not only important in determining the quality of your next project, but also important in how far you’re able to push it.
HOW A BURNED CD IS MADE…
To begin duplication, a blank recordable compact disk (CD-R) is ordered in bulk and will be used as the final phonograph plate that your data will be duplicated onto. As shown above, a CD-R is purchased pre-manufactured, and is constructed with a thin varnished label face on top, a thin layer of nickel-based dye, a center layer of reflective aluminum foiling over the dye, and a clear polycarbonate plastic plate on the bottom. CD burner units use a high-powered laser that heats up to etch (or “burn”) a microscopic track of translucent and opaque groves rotationally into the CD’s under-side. This laser is accurate enough to pass through the bottom plastic plate leaving it untouched, and etch your data’s “pattern” into the aluminum foiling sandwiched in the center. As long as the bottom plastic plating is completely clean and undamaged, most CD players can then use a lower-powered reading laser to magnetically interpret this microscopic pattern and digitally translate it into music that we can hear. The burning pattern that is duplicated is only compressed numerical data, meaning it can be created straight from computer files, so you don’t even have the need of using the finalized “sound” of a mastered disk. While sounding complex, this is actually the exact same process that your home computer’s CD burner does every time you burn a disk. The only difference is a duplication company uses larger, multi-drive towers allowing them to burn many disks at one time, from one central computerized hub.
HOW A PRESSED CD IS MADE…
CD replication (or pressing), on the other hand, does not use pre-purchased blank media, and is created solely during the manufacturing process. When submitting a project to be replicated, the first thing the plant does is bit-test your master disk to make sure there is no data corruption, buffer errors, and surface defects. Warning: your master may very well play fine in your car or stereo, and still fail this test – so have patience. After your master disk is accepted, a glass mold copy of your data is manufactured, and this is used to develop a “stamper” mold. This stamper, in turn, is then loaded into an Injection Molding press machine. With each turn, new molten glass is poured into the machine’s cast, and this stamper mold is “pressed” into it, replicating the same exact clone of the original master disk each time. Once dried, a layer of thin aluminum foiling is applied underneath it, shaping to the glass mold’s pattern perfectly. Lastly, a varnished label is added on top for a printing surface, and a clear polycarbonate plastic plate is added on the bottom for protection, as diagramed above.
ADVANTAGES OF DUPLICATION
- Since only data is needed to “burn” copies, often times, you do not even have to submit a master disk
- Most software now allows burn-list editing, so you can change song orders or a tracklisting all together, at the last moment before copying your CD
- A glass mold & stamper do not need to be made, so turn-around time is a lot faster (2-3 days vs. 8-10 days)
- From the use of thermal printers, digital text printing can be done on duplicated CDs with no prepress charge
- In terms of small order runs (lower than 500 units), duplication/burning is a lot cheaper than replication
- Since duplication can be done on smaller/cheaper equipment, a majority of local shops are out-of-home businesses now, and you can request to pick up your order to save from having to pay shipping fees
ADVANTAGES OF REPLICATION
- Pressed CDs do not use pre-purchased media, so there’s no shipping harm or manufacturing defects prior to copying
- Because replicated CDs/DVDs are manufactured, you can select a multi-level storage setup (2-sided disk), if needed
- Replicated CDs are slightly thicker, giving you the option of silk-screening your full-color artwork on the upper face
- Since it does not contain the same light-sensitive dye, a replicated CD is more resistant to UV/sun-light damage
- The glass mold contained in pressed CDs have a digital read-speed of only 24x or lower, which can be read more efficiently, when compared to a burned CD copied at speeds of 48x or higher, that sometimes cannot be read flawlessly by all CD devices
- Because most of the replication cost is in setup, much larger bulk orders (10,000 units or more) of pressed CDs actually cost less than the same amount of duplicated CDs
- As a result of high-volume capacity, replication plants can auto-assemble your CD into jewel cases with art inserts, prior to shipping out to you, saving you the assembly work and time
- Comparing the aluminum shaped over a glass mold, to just aluminum over dye that can eventually dry out through time, a replicated CD shows less deterioration of readability speed than duplicated CDs, after years of undisturbed storage.
MY HONEST ADVICE …As with everything else in this life, I believe there’s a time and place where both methods of CD manufacturing are useful. Scientifically, both give the same exact storage capacity, and it has been proven that there isn’t much difference in sound quality between duplication and replication, so I support both. A majority of fans either: play the CD in a car or home stereo, or quickly rip a CD into their MP3 players – so if you are promoting and selling a independent mixtape locally, I see no problem in using duplicated CDs. Likewise with crowd-thrown disks at shows and event giveaways, your main objective strictly is just to get heard more – so duplicated CDs would suffice. It’s both quick and cost-effective for what you are trying to do. Where I think the difference lies though is, in which level of music business you are trying to work at. As I have said in a prior editorial, many labels and radio stations today DEMAND pressed CDs, and often uses older PA systems that cannot play burned CDs efficiently. This is an industry practice in weeding out the lesser professional artists, and those that don’t want to listen to directions. If your aim is at trying to gain radio airplay or earn a record deal – this is where I suggest you spend the money and order replicated CDs. Likewise, if you are in the beginning stages of breaking out regionally and starting promotion outside of your local area, you really have no idea who or what company can get their hands on your music. To be safe, I’d often suggest to use pressed CDs more permanently once you have reached this amount of exposure. There aren’t a lot of opportunities given in this industry, and I don’t think you want to miss out on one because your CD simply cannot play for someone.
I hope this finally shows the difference between “burned” and “pressed” and has helped some of you out. Like always, if you have any additional questions/concerns/comments, don’t hesitate to show some love to the website and shoot us an email.
Good luck & God Bless!
DOC J |
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Posted On :
23 Feb, 2010
| Posted By :
doctorJ |
Reply | Comments ( 0 ) |
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Thanks moe...this article was for people like you. |
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Posted On :
19 Feb, 2010
| Posted By :
moepsycho |
Reply | Comments ( 0 ) |
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Thanks for this info, I have been trying to find out the details and the pro and cons of duplication vs. replication and I think you give an awesome example |
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