These days, technology is always available for any
inspiring musician to record, create, and even
duplicate CDs. The duplication of CDs will involve
CD-R media. CD-R media prices have dropped a lot
over the last several years, making them affordable
for anyone who wants to use them.

If your band is ready to start selling CDs, your
best option may be to have your CDs replicated.
Replicated CDs are the same CDs that you’ll find
in music stores by major label artists. They all
have excellent artwork printed on the CD inserts,
nice tray card inserts, screened art on the CD,
and they are even shrink wrapped.

The retail CDs that you buy aren’t duplicated, they
are replicated. This means that an exact replica
of your master CD has been stamped out on all of
the other CDs. If you are serious about selling
your music for profit, replication is the way to
go.

The fact is, most stores simply won’t sell duplicated
CDs. Duplicated CDs can be against the law,
which is the main reason retail stores simply
won’t carry them. Replicated CDs let the stores
know that the CD is legit, and they will almost
always carry those CDs.

For musicians and inspiring bands, CD duplication
can tend to be a bit more expensive than that
of replication. To duplicate CDs, you need a
computer with a CD burner, your CD-R media, cases,
and a lot of man hours.

With CD replication, you can get many more copies,
professional artwork, a barcode for inventory, and
cases included. Replication is obviously to
expensive for those looking to simply back up
pictures and data on a personal computer, although
the prices are just right for musicians looking
to make profit off of their CDs.

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The process of writing data to a recordable CD can
be a complex process, as it demands a lot from both
hardware and software programs. Much of this
complexity is hidden from the user by the program,
although you should be aware of these factors.

Data
The total amount of data you are writing is much
less important than whether or not it contains large
or several small files. If there are a lot of
small files, the system may have problems with
locating and opening the files quickly enough to
send them smoothly to the CD recording drive.

The computer
Any interruption that may occur is fatal to CD
duplication, so you should ensure that your
CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT don’t load any TSR
utilities which may interrupt operations. Screen
savers, alarms and reminders, or incoming faxes
may also kill disc writing. You should also turn
off network sharing so no one will access the files
that you are trying to write, as this could also
kill your disc recording.

Hard Disk Speed
To write an image to the CD, the hard disk from
which you are writing must have a transfer rate
that is fast enough to keep the memory buffer full
in the CD recorder. This normally means an average
hard disk access time of 19 MS or better.

Defrag
If your hard drive has to search everywhere over
a fragmented hard drive for the data to be written,
it can cause the operation to slow down or even
cause a fatal error. Therefore, always be sure to
fragment your hard disk drive.

Recording speed
Most new CD recorders and even some older ones,
are capable of writing at two (sometimes even four)
times the standard playback. It should be possible
for you to select the speed; as even though fast
recording is a time saver, it can also cause some
bad situations.

When you copy an ISO (image file) from the hard
disk to a CD, the speed is rarely a problem as the
image is already one large file in which the
files and structures are already in order and
divided into CD-ROM sectors.

When you write from a virtual image, things can
get a bit trickier. In order to copy to CD, the
program must consult with the database to find
where each file should go in the image and where
it is actually stored on the hard disk drive.

Then, it must open the file, divide it into CD-ROM
sectors, at the same time sending the data in a
smooth continuous stream to the recorder. Locating
and opening the file is a bit more time consuming,
as writing is more difficult if you have a lot
of small files.

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If you plan to produce, market, and sell your own
CDs, you have the need for high quality CD
duplication. If you have the need for great
quality and great prices, you should thing about
things before you turn to one company to do all
of the duplicating for you.

No matter what you use it for, CD duplication is
an expense that shouldn’t take over your budget
at all. Below, you’ll find several tips on how
to keep duplication within your budget.

1. Shop with comparison
All companies out there need to able to find the
company that is going to give them the best possible
price. If you have access to the internet, you
can do this online. Look from one company to
another until you find the best price that fits
your budget.

2. Keep within your budget
Although this is easier said than done, it’s
very important to find a company that can work
within your budget or you’ll need to get a bigger
budget. Even though you may not realize it now,
doing these types of things on credit can hurt
you later on down the road.

3. Quality
If your music or other CDs mean a lot to you,
then you should put them in the hands of a reliable
duplicator - and never skimp on quality. Always
make sure you a guarantee of the quality of their
work as well, to protect yourself.

CD duplication is a must have for the movie and
music business. There’s no doubt that you need
this type of service, although you should take the
time to find the best company for the job. When
it comes to developing your product - you’ll
want to have only the best.

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The master CD or DVD disk, is the one you will
provide to your CD or DVD vendor for either
replication or duplication of the media. Below,
you will find some tips designed to help you
create a high quality master disc:

1. Always use the highest quality media that you
can obtain, as all media isn’t the same. Do
your research, take your time, then choose a
brand that will produce a high quality disc each
and every time you duplicate or replicate.

2. Avoid copying from a network source. If the
source files for your disk are on a network
drive, copy the files to your local disk before
you burn a disc. If you can’t move the files
to your local drive, try using the copy to hard
drive first feature. When doing this, your
burning software will create a temporary image
file during the burning process. Once the
burning has been completed, the temporary file
will be deleted.

3. You should always avoid burning on a laptop
computer that is running on low battery power.
The fluctations that will occur in the available
battery power may cause you to have poor results
in your duplication.

4. Always make sure that you finalize your
disc. If you fail to finalize, the disc won’t
play back. Finalizing will also help increase
the reading compability in other CD-ROM drives.

5. Never use the packet writing method to burn
a master disc. This method is very common with
burning drives that have re-writing capabilities.
This method will produce discs that can’t be
read on many CD-ROM drives.

6. Avoid any type of impact or movement of the
drive during burning. Doing so can cause the
laser to skip or jump tracks, which will lead
to errors or a bad disc.

7. If available, use the “burn-proof” feature.
This feature will allow the drive to slow
down the burn speed in the event the computer
can’t supply the data fast enough. Although
this can increase the burn time, the quality
of the disc will be much better.

8. You should avoid having multiple applications
open when burning, especially those that
access the Internet or a network. This can
hinder your computer’s ability to supply data
to the burner drive at the necessary rate.

If you follow the above tips, you should
produce a master disc of excellent quality. A
master disc is something you’ll want perfect,
which is why you shouldn’t take any risks.

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Several years ago, CD-R media and CD burners were
never imagined. Computers were just reached the
GHz speed, with Pentium 1 just starting to reach
the horizons. Floppy disks were the ideal way to
store data, even though it took several of them to
store most types of information. Looking at things
today, you can see at a glance just how far technology
has come over the years.

These days, computers are in 2 out of 3 homes
across the world, with almost everyone owning one.
CD burners and CD-RW drives are just as popular,
with everyone realizing just how much money they
can save by burning their own disks and copying
their own media.

There are so many benefits to CD duplication and
CD-R disks that it’s mind boggling. If you’ve
never owned a CD-RW drive or dealt with CD-R media,
you’d be amazed with everything you can do. CD
media helps to simply life as we know it and make
things easier than ever before.

The theory of CD-R duplication is priceless. Writers,
those that are self employed, musicians, small
businesses, hobbyists, and even fortune 500
companies can all benefit from the brilliance
behind CD-R technology. Not only to do they
save you quite a bit of time, but they are
also very affordable while providing you many
different services.

CD-R media is used to store files and important
security documentation. The media disks are
widely used in the computer field to conveniently
backup software and data on disc. Musicians
as well choose to use CD-R duplication as an
affordable marketing and promotion tool to get
their music out to those who want it.

Even the corporate world as well, uses CD-Rs as
a cost effective way of mass producing training
videos and as an aid in converting to the
ideal paperless office. You can also use CD-Rs
as a business card, as they are smaller than
a credit card and store all of your memorable
business card information.

With everything they offer you, CD media is
truly something you can’t live without. The
disks are small and easy to store, yet they
will hold an impressive amount of information.

For all of your audio, storage, or backup needs,
rest assured that CD-R media can help you meet
your demands. The disks will last a lifetime,
making them perfect for special memories. If
you have the need for storage or saving data
and pictures, CD media is the way to go to
ensure that your precious files will be there
each and every time you need them.

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