No matter how far down the road we get. No matter how far off the deep end of tweakiness we go, we must remember there are those who are just starting out and are trying to get a handle on things we often take for granted.
“My band is going to record, and we need to create 200-300 professional CD’s from our master. What is the proper method of producing several CD’s? I have heard that we should burn a master CD and take it to a CD producer to duplicate. And I’ve heard I need to get a ‘glass CD’ to take to a professional?”
The first thing to understand is the distinction between a “manufactured” disc and a “burned” disc. Manufactured discs are mass produced in sophisticated plants to very exacting standards. These are the CD’s you buy in the record stores. Burned discs are created from prefabricated blank media and can be burned on any number of home or industrial CD burners. You can often tell a burned disc from a manufactured one by its color. Manufactured discs are almost always silver on the side opposite the label, whereas a burned disc is often green, or blue, or gold (occasionally other colors, including silver).
Manufactured discs are expensive to make in small quantities because of the set up charges. A glass master has to be created (they do this) and the machinery has to be set up for each project. Think of this like printing a brochure. Aside from the paper most of the charges you incur are for the setup unless it’s a really long run. A run of 200 – 300 CD’s is not sufficient to cost effectively go the manufacturing route, but you can do it if you want.
Burned CD’s are less expensive to produce in small quantities, but are more expensive to produce in large quantities. Again, this is like printing. If you just need 10 or 15 copies of your brochure Kinko’s can probably do it cheaper than a real printer, but at 50,000 units they probably aren’t competitive. The interesting thing about burning CD’s, however, is you can actually get the equipment to do it yourself at home. CD burners are not that expensive and you may want to tackle a 200 – 300 piece run yourself. But if you don’t want to buy the gear and become proficient with it there are plenty of places that will do small runs like this for you. You will need to communicate with a few to find out how to send them your material. If you send it on anything other than a CDR they will have to transfer it for you, which of course costs money. You can buy your own CDR burner and software (or a simple hardware CD recorder) to make your master, but at that point you may want to just use it to make the 300 and avoid paying anyone else.
Another important difference to just be aware of between burned and manufactured CD’s is that burned discs do not completely conform to the strict tolerances of manufactured discs. This means that on occasion you may encounter a player that will not play your disc (though it is increasingly rare these days). The discs are also not going to last as long or be as durable. They will still last many, many years if properly cared for, but it’s not the same as a manufactured disc. I recommend discussing these and other options in more detail with your Sweetwater Sales Engineer before proceeding.