If you’re releasing a CD or DVD on a site like CDBaby or Amazon they want to see a barcode, whether you’re using cd duplication services or a replication service, they want one on every title. So why does something that goes on a can of peas, have to go on your CD or DVD?

A barcode is pictorial image that can be read by a scanner.

OK, first everything that is intended to be sold in a store is typically  required  to have a barcode.  Each title  is meant to have a unique series of numbers. For CDs and most items like that its a unique 12 digit number using 0-9.  A source master number is only 6 digits and every barcode you assign starts with those same 6 numbers and you determinethe

last or final six. Nowadays most people just assign a back six but previously the next to last digit told you what it was. For instance, a “2″ meant a CD or DVD and a “4″ meant a cassette.

In its original days, it was a complicated process to determine a barcode. Before barcode software did all the work, it was adding up the odd-place digits and doing something to that number and then the even-place digits and do something with that second number, then adding them together and then that told you what the last or “check” digit was. It was laughably arcane.

Software is much easier.

Secondly, there is an international not for profit group that is charged with issuing master barcode numbers.

To  acquire a master barcode number you apply|  for your own barcode through the GS1 US, a nonprofit group that {manages standards for international commerce. You can find them with a google search . Make sure you are sitting down when you see the fee for obtaining your own master number. You’re signing up to be a member of their group and in exchange they provide you with a master number for your products.  They don’t care if you’re self-publishing or a multi-national company, the costs are the costs to membership.

There are other  opportunities where you can work with another member’s master barcode and in most circumstances it will only help you to go that route. If you’re looking for assistance  with getting a barcode at no additional cost on your CD or DVD publication, you can check out a cd dvd replication service at www.cdmaker.com.

And thirdly, despite being universal, there is no great barcode repository in the sky that knows what everything costs.

Now, a barcode primarily serves an inventory purpose. Amazon’s database of products they sell on their website is not the same as Walmart’s. The first time your product hits a distribution network someone will actually need to input the title, author, description, product details and price. Then whenever  your product is scanned at a register , their computer pulls up the name and price and also updates the inventory when its sold. So there is no universal repository outside of that store or chain of stores. The barcode in and of itself doesn’t have a special code that tells the price. Its in the system – namely the prices is a field in the record of that CD or DVD but its not in the numbers themselves.

You can usually work with a cd duplication service that will provide you with a barcode. Most charge for that but if you’re lucky you’ll find one that does not. CDMaker does not charge additionally so make sure you speak with your rep about a getting barcodes for CDs.

Affordable CD duplication Austin is what CDMaker provides each and every day. If you’re really looking for crazy cheap and sloppy, please go elsewhere. Call us vain or cocky, we actually feel good when a project is complete and looks and sounds the best it can – whether that’s duplicated or replicated, those CDs and DVDs become our “babies” too.

Affordable CD Duplication Austin?

Are you kidding? That’s all we want to do. But price isn’t everything. What does it cost you when your packaging falls apart on your merch table because the glue didn’t stick? What does it cost you when you were told you’d have CDs on the day of your release only to find out the day before that they aren’t going to be ready in time?

Affordable CD Duplication Austin Sample Discs

Affordable means much more than price. We understand that. So CDMaker only offers the highest in quality even down to the blank discs used in duplication. Affordable CD Duplication Austin is found by calling 512-388-1998.

When you speak with one of our experienced and knowledgeable managers on phone, you’ll know the project that you’ve slaved over, cried and panicked over and loved even though it didn’t love you back is in equally committed hands. Our care meets or exceeds your own – try us and you will experience professional, affordable CD duplication Austin.

Affordable CD Duplication Austin

Call now 388-1998 or try our cute little Google Gadget to have Google connect us – if you like it and you’re a customer, let us know. We might have a spare Google invite.

Affordable CD Duplication Austin

You can contact us through this site too – click here to contact CDMaker through this site.

CD Text is an interesting aspect to creating audio masters. If you don’t know what CD Text is – you’re not alone. I hope this short explanation helps clarify it for you.

There are specific standards for what it takes to create a master that falls within accepted requirements for an audio CD to be prepared. Each disc format has a set of specifications – Red Book Audio and other formats- for audio discs its called Red Book. The specification was released in September 1996 and backed by Sony.

CD Text is an extension of the CD specifications standard. The extension of the specs allows for storage of additional related information on the disc – the information is album name, song title, artist name, genre etc.

There’s approx about 5 kiloytes of space available. What’s interesting is that while provisions have been made to specifications CD text, CD Text itself is by no means universal. There are multiple subchannels where this information can go, some CD burning software put this information in one particular subchannel and another program will put it in another. This is technically not within Red Book Audio but it is allowable and there is a place to put it and still consider it a standards-compliant audio CD.

The text is added to a disc in a format usable by the Interactive Text Transmission System (ITTS) and is readable by CD players that are specifically equipped to read the text in those subchannels and to display that information in a window on the CD player. While many people think putting a CD in a computer and seeing text in the window display is CD Text – it is not. A computer’s media player is not designed to pull information from those subchannels. You’re seeing data from somewhere else. That’s another issue and I’ll post more information on that later.

Things that are considered CD Text would be song titles, artist name(s), album name, genre, ISRC and barcodes.

CD duplication and Red Book Audio usually get mentioned together when an audio recording is being talked about. If you need some CD duplication and if you have spent any time locating a CD DVD duplication service, you may have come across these terms but not had a clue as what they were or how or if this information applies to your needs .

CD Duplication

All CD duplication projects are done on Red Book standard audio media.

CD Duplication

So what is the Red Book of audio duplication, what are the media standards it has set, and why is it so important? CD duplicators and replicators must adhere to produce discs that conform to certain standards.  The Red Book is one of the nine Rainbow Books, which provide universally agreed on specifications for all types of media.

Red Book Audio

The Red Book provides the standards for audio CDs, also known as CDDA (or Compact Disc Digital Audio). There are also Yellow, Orange, White, Blue, Beige, Green, Purple, and Scarlet books in the Rainbow Book set.

These different colored books provide disc standards for:

• • Yellow – CD-ROM and CD-ROM XA
• • Orange – CD-R and CD-RW
• • White – Video CD
• • Blue – Enhanced CD, CD+G, and CD-Plus
• • Beige – Photo CD Green -
• • CD-I (Interactive)
• • Purple – DDCD (Double Density Compact Disc)
• • Scarlet – SACD (Super Audio CD)

Specifically as it relates to audio, according to the Red Book, a standard CD is 120mm in diameter, 1.2mm thick, and is made up of polycarbonate plastic substrate, one or more thin layers of reflective metal (usually aluminum), and a lacquer coating.

The disc is divided into 3 parts – The lead-in area containing the Table of Contents, the program area containing the audio data, and the lead-out area containing no data.

The Red Book of was developed in 1980 by Sony Phillips to specify the physical parameters of the audio CD. This includes the optical stylus parameters, deviations and error rate, modulation system and error correction, and subcode channels and graphics. When the question came up as to how many minutes a CD should hold, Beethoven’s Symphony #9 was the length standard at the time. The prevailing thought was Beethoven needed 74 minutes and if no one is as masterful as he, no one will need more than 74 minutes.

In terms of the business costs of development and research. each disc – either blanks that are sold or replicated CDs – a portion of your cost is a license fee that is paid back to Sony Phillips for the technology they researched and developed.  In the early days of CDs, the fees for the licensing were significantly higher than they are today. Today less than .10 per disc is collected by replication facilities and blank disc manufacturers and paid over to Sony Phillips.

If you wish to read more about red book audio – Wikipedia is a good source – click here

CD Duplication

One other major CD specification set by the Red Book is the form of digital audio encoding taken on by CDs. The parameters set have become a de-facto standard in the CD duplication industry.  And while CD manufacturers must adhere to these standards, cd player manufacturers do not have to ensure that their devices provide 100% CD audio playability. Over the years, as CDs went from 74 minutes to now 80 minutes, some CD players will still stop at 74 minutes 30 seconds which is the official requirement of red book audio.

{All in all, most consumers probably won’t be too concerned with the individual technical specifications set by the Red Book.| In general, the technical specifications of Red Book shouldn’t be the concern of most consumers. } But as a consumer you can take comfort in knowing that there is a high standard of quality being upheld when it comes to your CD duplication, DVD duplication or data CD duplication project. Make sure that when you go to your CD duplication service you ask them if they use Red Book quality CD media.

CD Text has to be one of the most misunderstood and poorly explained concepts in the world of music. For the life of me I wish someone would eliminate the jargon and stop torturing aspiring musicians and bands that just want to get their music out there in an accepted format.

OK, most people think CD Text is what you see when you put a CD into a computer – WRONG!

A media player such as iTunes or Windows Media Player does not use any information on the disc other than the .wav file. There is a behind the scenes, pay no attention to it, giant database called the Grace Note Program Database. It used to be called CDDB, Compact Disc Database. Essentially, its a huge database that anyone can contribute to if you know where the “Submit Track Names” option is in your place. The point is, when you insert a CD into a computer that is connected to the internet, this database is what supplies the artist, track name, genre and album information you see on your screen, not the CD.

So what’s CD Text then you wonder?

Well, its added or embedded into one of the sub-channels on your CD master by your mastering engineer most likely. You have to ask for it. Its not typically a standard aspect of a mastering process. Some mastering studios do and some don’t, the point is ask for it if you want it.

So, if what I see on my computer isn’t CD Text, why would I have it on my master?

Good question. There are a lot of audio CD players that are equipped to read the CD Text that your engineer embeds into the master. When you insert a disc into an equipped machine, there is an LCD read out that scrolls or does a two line display of artist, track name and album. In that circumstance, that’s CD Text.

In future articles I’ll show you how to submit track names and how to check to see if your replicated or duplicated discs have CD Text in them. But for now, this will at least stop you from calling your duplicator to tell them that they didn’t put CD Text on your CDs. At least, I hope it stops you.

This week we had a couple of new clients looking for CD DVD duplicating, call in desperation, they had been trying to duplicate over 200 discs of three different titles. They had had enough and needed someone to just do it for them. So why is cd dvd duplicating so popular?

CD DVD Duplicating

With the ability to purchase blank CDs in the local grocery store and the fact that even the least expensive computer comes standard with a CD burner, cd dvd duplicating has gained huge popularity through the years. CD DVD duplicating services are available today that inexpensive and fast. Unlike CD replication where a glass master and stampers are made, CD DVD duplication means producing number of copies of CDs or DVDs without the glass master replication being done.

CDRs and DVDrs are plentiful for duplicating

The ideal situation for duplication is when you need a few and you can’t wait the time it normally takes to manufacture which is approx 10 business days.

When your need for CD DVD duplicating is very or relatively  low, it is not wise to get into full replication. Getting into full replication for a small run will overall cost far more than to duplicate a few. A full CD replication comes with a minimum quantity usually 500 +. When it comes to a small run, your requirement will cost less than the minimum quantity required for CD replication. You will pay MORE per unit for duplication but the overall total of your invoice will be less than a full replication run.

The CD duplication process when compared to what it takes to perform a complete replication process is very cheap and very easy to perform.

CD DVD Duplicating

But since you can do it on your computer, the question comes up, is it wise to do CD duplication by yourself?

Duplication on a laptop or computer is very time intensive, you can only do one at a time. This is what our new client discovered.

So what are some other ways?

CD DVD Duplicating

You can always purchase a duplicator, there are many on the market. Though they are easy to order, all of them come with very heavy price tags. So it can be a false savings to think by doing it yourself with a duplicator. But the main purpose of CD duplication is to reduce the cost involved in complete CD replication. So  buying a CD duplicator device will make the CD duplication process much costlier than doing a full Cd replication. So for a short run, rather than reinvent the wheel so to speak, it is always better to get the Cd duplication done through a professional cd duplication service.

Looking for a professional duplication company? You’ve found one here – click on the contact page or call 800-678-1998 or 512-388-1998.

CD DVD Duplication Replication

It can be a jungle out there if you’re looking for information on cd dvd duplication replication or whatever you need in relation to your disc project. Which one is best for you or even what are the differences can be an education in itself before you even choose which duplication service to trust.

CD DVD Duplication Replication glossary

Duplication

The content is recorded onto CD-R & DVD-R discs from your supplied disc (CD-R or DVD-R). Duplication is used for all quantities, large and small, and offers the fastest turnaround. This is CD DVD duplication, replication is different.

Replication

Discs are pressed from a glass master that is made from your supplied disc (CD-R or DVD-R). Replication requires extensive technical setup and is only used for quantities of 500 & more.

Please contact us for assistance if you are not sure which process, duplication or replication, is best for you. We’ll be glad to help! Read more about how CDs work.

Graphic Art & Proofing Terms

Bleed

The extra amount of that your art image extends beyond the trim edge of your artwork.

CMYK

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black

the four primary colors used to generate full color press, or high quality, printing.

Proofing

Once your artwork is ready for duplication or replication, a sample view, called a proof, is emailed to you for approval. The process of receiving and approving proofs is called proofing. Once your proofs are emailed to you your project is on hold until your approval is received.

RGB

Red, Green & Blue, the primary colors used to create images for viewing on a PC monitor.

Resolution

Image density measured in dots per inch.

Packaging Terms

Amaray

Case standard DVD case.

Cardboard Sleeve

folding sleeve with a pocket to hold the disc.

Wallet

opens like a 4 panel insert.

Clamshell

lightweight plastic case, sometimes called a c-shell case from it’s appearance.

Digipak

similar to a cardboard sleeve but it includes a tray to hold the disc rather than a pocket.

Insert the removable sleeve stored in the jewel case lid.
2 panel insert 1 page with a front and back, no folds.
4 panel insert 2 pages on each side, 1 fold.
6 panel insert 3 pages on each side, 2 folds.
8 panel insert 4 pages on each side, 3 folds.
10 panel insert 5 pages on each side, 4 folds.
Booklet insert opens as a book and contains a minimum of 8 panels.
Jewel case a typical plastic Compact Disc case.
Panel A section of an insert folder between two folds or between a fold and a trimmed edge. One panel is considered to be two pages, a front and back for each.
Spindle cylinder shaped case for holding large quantities of CDs.
Sleeve paper envelope fitted for CDs with a clear window on the front.
Slimline half the thickness of a standard jewel case. Slimlines can fit an insert but not a tray card.
Tray card the permanent page on the underside of the jewel case with a spine for labeling the CD.

Printing Terms

The first number indicates the color of the front. The second number indicates the color of the back.

0 = no print, 1 = one color & 4 = full color.

For example, a 4/4 (4 over 4) four panel insert package would include a four panel insert with full color printing on the front & back.

4/0 Indicates full color print on the front and no print on the back.
4/1 Indicates full color print on the front and one color print on the back.
4/4 Indicates full color print on the front and full color print on the back.

Over& Under Run The number of units an order is over or under

REPLICATION On-Disc CD Printing
Offset The superior on-disc print process resulting in improved images, skin tones, full color graphics and text. Replication on-disc print is printed on a shiny silver disc face. So if you what any part of the disc to be white – you need to include it in your artwork and at the very least put in on your order form and speak to your rep about it.

Screen The on disc print process using mesh screens and stencils.

CD DVD Duplication Replication

As you can see CD DVD duplication, replication, can be as simple as what you do at home OR as sophisticated as what a major record label or publisher  does to release a project.

CD DVD Duplication Replication

IF you have any specific questions about how best your project would be best to go -duplication or replication, please call 800-678-1998.

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