When looking for a CD duplication company who offer a fast and reliable service it is worth checking that their production is UK based. Some CD duplication companies may offer very cheap prices but this usually down to the production being based overseas and inevitably this usually means longer leadtimes. At Testa-Rossa all of our short run duplication for both CD and DVD is in-house and produced in the UK.

At Testa-Rossa we believe that our duplication services are probably the fastest available in the UK. For most orders we can yield a run of up to 500 discs in just a 24 hour period. Also because the CD production is UK based then our deliveries are next day by reputable courier companies including DPD and UPS. For urgent orders this combination of fast turnaround duplication and next day express courier means customers can receive fully duplicated and printed discs just 48 hours from their initial order.

If you are looking for fastest production times then give us a call or check through the website for further details. Testa-Rossa also offer complete fulfilment services including paper printed booklet and inlays which can be packed our range of high quality jewel cases, DVD cases, Clam Shells and card wallets.

OK so here’s the scenario, your band has just spend a month in local studio recording their latest album. Money is tight and you only want a few hundred copies of your album manufactured. Do you choose CD duplication or CD replication?

At Testa-Rossa we are able to offer both Replication or Duplication of your latest CD album. Both our manufacturing processes will give a retail standard product but as a rule CD replication is always going to be the best option if you are considering at least 400 copies. The main advantage of replication is that your discs are factory pressed in the same way all high street CD releases are manufactured.

A replicated disc will always have a longer life due to the manufacturing process used. For example if you came back to your album in 20 years time the replicated disc is always going to play back perfectly where as the duplicated disc may have deteriorated over time. This deterioration is due the way a CD-R is made and the dyes used in the process. These dyes are volatile and can be affected over time especially by strong sunlight or other UV exposure.

So our advice would be that if you only need 200 albums and you are not too worried if that CD will playback reliably in 10 years or so then we would recommend duplication. On the other hand if you want your latest album to stand the test of time replication is certainly the wiser choice for your manufacture. It’s therefore maybe worth increasing your order to 500 units and going for CD replication.

One of the most effective ways of promoting a music release is by using CD duplication. Most record companies will send mail outs of a promotional CD 4-5 weeks before the release date. These promotional CD’s will be mailed to radio stations, club DJ’s, other larger record labels and pluggers. The fastest way to produce these promotional discs is by seeking the services of a CD duplication company such as Testa-Rossa.

A typical record company promotional mail out would be anywhere between 100 and 500 copies of the pre release CD. For these pre release mailouts timing is usually very important so duplication offers a more speedy turnaround for critical deadlines. Using the CD duplication method of production up to 500 discs can be burnt and printed in 24 hours. For mailouts customers would usually choose CD with simple black text print or CD with black text print in plastic wallet with a black and white printed card insert. Testa-Rossa offers a simple cost effective service for both of these products.

The CD duplication process can also add ISRC codes to all the disc copies. ISRC can be important even for pre release as it is the main method used to track airplay royalties. Before the actual release of a CD or record the songs may receive extensive airplay on radio and TV so it is important that these airplay royalties are generated and logged correctly. As long as the master provided has the ISRC codes embedded then all the duplicated discs will also contain these codes.

When time is of the essence and you need CD’s fast then Testa-Rossa can provide CD Duplication services with reduced leadtimes. For smaller order of less than 500 CD’s we provide fast turnaround as quickly as 24 hours. Our fastest service is CD duplication bulk supply where we provide the duplication and print of the CD and supply the discs on spindles.

Orders of full colour printed CDs can be produced in as little as 24 hours. For the fastest turnaround always be sure to provide print ready CD artwork to the correct specifications as per our website. We have a range of print methods to compliment our duplication including black thermal text, full coverage black and full colour thermal gloss print.

If you are seeking a more complete service we can also provide CD packaging ranging from clear plastic sleeves and jewel cases right up to high presentation card wallets and digipacks. For larger orders where retail standard manufacture is required we would recommend you check out our range of CD and DVD replication services. Our replication deals are more suitable for orders of 450 units upwards, replication offers a professional factory pressed disc. Although leadtimes are typically longer at around 10 days the unit price becomes a lot lower with this manufacturing process.

Following on from our recent post on CD duplication errors this article looks at the different kinds of disc errors. There are 3 main types of disc error associated with CD audio. These are C1, C2 and CU errors, below is a description and explanation of each error type.

C1 errors are the lowest level bit errors and are usually measured as errors per second. This block error rate or (BLER) is an indication of the quality of the master disc. All masters contain some degree of C1 errors and an average is somewhere between 50 and 200 errors per second. In general the lower the BLER or C1 error rate the better the master is. Although the Philips red book specification allows for up to 220 errors per second most replication plants like to see error rates of below 50 per second.

C2 errors can be caused by poor master CD burning, poor mastering media and also scratches and scuffs to the disc. C2 errors are read errors and not always a physical defect of the disc. One CD player may read more C2 errors than another CD player attempting to read the same disc. Most C2 errors are correctable by the CD player’s error correction, basically this error correction method makes a guess at what values the missing data should be. A certain degree of C2 errors may be acceptable on a master without any audible artefacts, however many replication plants much prefer masters with C2 errors rates of zero.

CU errors are errors that cannot usually be corrected, these uncorrectable errors render a master disc useless and all replication plants will reject a disc that contains CU errors.
The most common uncorrectable error is reffered to as an E32 error and in essence can be thought of as a string of 3 or more C2 errors that cannot be corrected by the CD drives error correction system. Pressing plants mastering software systems such as Eclipse will automatically fail any disc that contains E32 errors.

For most CD duplication orders we are able to use the direct master supplied by the customer. As long as the customer has prepared the master correctly our CD duplication machines will accept the master and make identical copies of the master provided.

However we often receive CD masters that are not suitable for CD duplication.

Common CD duplication master errors include:

• Master has been burnt in .wav or .mp3 format and not as an audio master
• Master has been burnt onto cheap unbranded CD media
• Master has been burnt to a re-writable CDRW
• Underside of master CD is scuffed and scratched
• Master has been provided on a DVD-R or DVD-RW
• Master has been burnt at too high of a speed
• Master has been burnt as multisession
• Session has not been closed or CD finalised
• Software has not written to correct Philips “book” specification

We can often detect most errors on a supplied CD master and request a replacement master from the customer. Alternatively we can rip the audio from the master and prepare a new production master to red book specification.

Occasionally a customer can supply a master which they have checked by listening and all sounds fine. Even though a master sounds as if it plays back without audible errors there can still be errors on the master. Most CD players use error correction to correct these small disc errors however these small disc errors can in effect be magnified by the duplication process to a degree where error correction is not effective and audible artefacts are present on the duplicated copies.

In our next article we look at the various types of CD disc errors in more detail and explain how to reduce the risk of these errors.

If you are a band looking to release your own album or perhaps some CD promotional copies then our CD duplication packages could be just what you are looking for. For promos or short runs of albums we offer CD duplication and for albums or EPs our replication packages start from 500 units.

For promotional purposes one of our most popular packages is a simple CD in plastic wallet. To keep costs down whilst ensure maximum audio playback compatibility and reliability most bands opt for CD duplication with black thermal text print on our Sony silver discs. Our Sony CDs have a silver record side which gives them the appearance of a factory pressed disc and the topside has a protective surface to prevent damage from scratching and harmful UV sunlight exposure. If you are looking for full colour presentation then CD duplication in clear plastic wallet is great option. Again for this service we use very high quality Sony discs with a special surface allowing for full colour gloss print.

When a full album product is required but there is still a budget to work to we can offer CD duplication packages from 100 to 400 units. With these album packages we can provide exactly the same high quality offset litho full colour booklet and inlays that we use on our replication orders. For orders of 400 and above it is then worth considering our full replication packages that use factory pressed glass mastered CDs.

For EPs a popular product is CD replication in full colour card wallet. We can now provide cellophane overwrap with our card wallet deals to provide a retail suitable fully manufactured CD release. Our replicated CD in wallet deals start from just £429 for 500 copies.

Here are the Easter CD duplication opening hours for Testa-Rossa. Our sales office will close at 5pm on Thursday April 1st and will remain closed for the holidays until Monday April 12th. Any short run CD duplication orders that have been approved and paid for will still continue through production and be delivered by Wednesday 7th April.

Our CD replication production will continue as normal between Tuesday 6th and Friday 9th of April. Any new orders received during these dates will not be processed until Monday April 12th but orders already placed, approved and paid for before Thursday April 1st will continue through our pressing plant as normal. Replication orders placed prior to Thursday April 12th will be scheduled for delivery on Tuesday 20th of April. Due to high workloads our replication leadtimes are approximately 11 working days.

All our CD duplication, DVD duplication, CD replication and DVD replication leadtimes should return to normal as from April 19th. As a guide short run duplication with no packaging will be back to 2 working days and replication with no packaging back to 7 working days. All orders that involve litho printed paper parts should return to 9 -10 working day leadtime.

During the Easter holidays we will still endeavour to reply to CD and DVD sales enquiries and quote requests albeit on a limited service. We would like to take this chance to wish all our customers a happy Easter break.

With all the advances in high quality home studio plug ins, additional mastering for CD duplication is becoming less of a requirement. Most of our customers supply masters that are acceptable for the CD duplication or replication manufacturing process. Most modern CD burning software applications now automatically write CDs to the Philips red book specification making them suitable for use as a production master.

There are simple procedures that can help to ensure you produce a “good” master for CD duplication. Firstly try to use a bona-fide professional version of your chosen software application, often many free, trial or lite versions omit essential coding from the burning process. Also always use a high quality CD-R specifically for CD audio, cheap data CD-Rs from your local supermarket are usually low quality and not good more mastering purposes. Discs such as Sony CD-R for audio or other quality brands such as Verbatim are more suitable for masters.

When you burn your master do not burn at highest speed settings, if you are using a good CD burning application there should be an option to choose the speed at which the disc is burnt. A good setting for masters is usually around 4x speed. Also check for settings such as CD text, DAO and ISRC to make sure all the correct coding is embedded to the master.

Once you have burnt your master handle it with great care. Do not allow the underside of the disc to get scratched or damaged and keep the CD away from strong sunlight which has harmful UV light that can damage the chemical layers within the CD-R. Check the master on a few different players to make sure it performs exactly as intended. Once you are happy with master make sure you place it in some good packaging to avoid the disc getting damaged on its way to the manufacturer.

One of the most common enquiries we receive is the request on turnaround times for CD duplication. Duplication can actually be achieved very quickly, around 1 hour for 100 discs. The discs also have to be printed and timescale depends on type of print required. For simple black text print 100 discs can be printed in around 20 mins whereas full colour CD printing can take around 2 hours.

The overall leadtime for CD duplication is critical on how customers submit their orders and artwork. If we receive a package that contains all the relevant information together with print ready disc artwork and suitable production master then we can usually process the order within a few hours. As soon as we have processed the order we will email PDF proofs and a pro forma invoice. If the customer then approves artwork and makes prompt payment it is usual that production can actually proceed the same day that the order is received.

For speedy processing and fastest turnaround of CD and DVD duplication orders always supply the following:

Suitable CD artwork
Suitable production ready PMCD master
Order form or purchase order.
CD duplication order title.
Delivery address.
Telephone number.
Email address.
Catalogue number.

The main issue that delays us processing orders is unsuitable artwork. For over 50% of received orders we will have to reject CD and paper parts artwork and ask customer to re-supply. Another factor that slows down processing of orders is lack of order and specification information. Many customers supply discs with no title or catalogue number and no delivery details. This results in us having to chase the customer for sufficient information before we can even enter the order on our system.