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Is the mastering included in the mastering price you are quoting me? What kind of master formats will you accept for manufacturing? What kind of master formats do you recommend for us to use?
Glass mastering (i.e. creating the mother glass master from which molds are made and then used to press your CDs) occurs at the plant and is included in the price. This is done from your supplied master - which can be a CDR, dat, 1630 or exabyte (16mm) cartridge. For about 90% of our jobs, we manufacture from CDR masters. We recommend you provide us with a CDR for several reasons: (1) the manufactured product will sound like the CDR provided and (2) it is a fairly inexpensive medium to master to.
Just so you know, some engineers believe strongly that the final manufactured CD sounds significantly better if a 1630/U-matic or exabyte/16mm cartridge master is used at the glass mastering stage. But these master formats can be significantly more expensive, depending on who is doing your pre-mastering. Some other engineers believe that there is no significant difference in the quality of the final product if a CDR is used at the glass mastering stage. We have decided to remain agnostic with regards to this debate. We will manufacture from whatever master format you provide.
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What is premastering?
Pre-mastering (or audio sweetening/equalization or overall compression) is performed at a mastering house or by your audio engineer. It is a very subjective process (how apparently loud you want the record to sound, how slick you want it to seem, what mistakes you want to hide) and is best done with either someone you trust or with you in attendance. Depending on the mastering house's setup, they may prefer a DAT final mix master or analogue final mix tape to master from.
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What is the turn-around time for orders?
For bulk CDs (without packaging), it takes 6 to 7 working (non-weekend, non-holiday) days to manufacture (from when the CD manufacturing plant receives the master and CD-films until when the plant ships the finished product).
For CDs with standard artwork packaging (where printing and assembly is involved):
If your artwork involves going direct-to-plate, then manufacturing only takes 10 to 12 working days once your artwork is approved (via an email or a phone call).
Whether your job is packaged and assembled or simply bulk CDs, allow an additional 3 to 5 working days for freight time (from the time the job leaves the manufacturing plant until the time it reaches its final destination.)
Please contact us before sending your job so we can give you a specific estimated date of completion. This information is essential, especially if your job is time-sensitive OR involves non-standard artwork/packaging.
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What is prepress?
Prepress is the process of printing plates from your digital artwork files. Manufacturing color-proofs to accompany the printing plates is also part of prepress. Simply put, it is getting the art in your digital artwork files print-ready and in a "physical" form.
"Discface" prepress is a similar process. It is the making of films from your digital artwork files that are required for the silk-screen printing process at the manufacturing plant.
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What are my prepress options? What are the plus & minuses?
Our prepress route is "direct-to-plate". This provides for the highest quality printing (where both misregistration and dot-gain are minimized), best price, and quickest turnaround. The only significant downside to going direct-to-plate is the quality of the proof. The Epson or Xerox proof you would receive if you go direct-to-plate may not be 100% color accurate. If receiving a color accurate proof is essential to you, please discuss other options with us. Always feel free to give us a call to more thoroughly discuss your options.
Prepress takes only 3 to 4 days, and the proof is yours to keep upon approval. The printable linescreen for DTP is 175 to 200 lpi.
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What does "subject to a 10% overrun/underrun" mean?
When manufacturing printwork and/or CDs, the final quantity delivered will be within 10%, plus or minus, of the quantity ordered. For instance, if you were to order 1000 CDs, a quantity between 900 and 1100 will be manufactured and delivered. On your final invoice, you will be billed according to the actual amount of product manufactured.
There are two reasons that artwork printers and CD manufacturers adhere to the 10% overrun/underrun convention: (1) quality control cannot always be performed "mid-process" and (2) a totally accurate count of finished manufactured product cannot be done until the job is off the manufacturing line. In both cases, it would be cost-prohibitive for the manufacturer to return the job to the manufacturing line to correct an underrun. This convention is standard industry-wide, and most CD manufacturers and printers adhere to it.
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WHAT TO PROVIDE FOR AUDIO CD REPLICATION?
Please provide a CD-R (PMCD) or an exabyte/DDP.
If providing a CD-R , please make sure that the CD-R master provided performs as a regular CD in regular CD players (i.e., you get a track listing and it plays the recording or the music). What you provide on CD-R is exactly what we will manufacture. Technically speaking, audio files should be in the "Red Book" audio format. Practically speaking, progams like Adaptec Toast and Nero, when used properly, will create audio discs in the "Red Book" audio format, usually working from un-data-compressed WAV or AIFF files.
Some common mistakes to avoid:
(a) Do not provide a CD-R with MP3s.
(b) Do not provide a CD-R with a "disc image" or WAV or AIFF files that behave like data files (and are not in the "Red Book" audio format). Testing your CD-R master in a conventional non-computer CD-player will help prevent this mistake.
(c) Do not burn a master out of Apple I-Tunes. I-Tunes works from its very own "pre-digested"compressed audio format. The result will likely be a properly formatted CD-R (to Red Book audio standards), but with audio that has been data-compressed such that quality is substantially reduced as compared to the original WAV or AIFF files.
Just so you know, audio CDs do not use WAV or AIFF as their sound format, instead using Red Book audio. The commonality is that Red Book audio, WAVs and AIFFs are all formats that have the audio data encoded similarly, using a convention called pulse-code modulation (PCM). Also programs like Toast and Nero work from WAV or AIFF files when creating Red Book audio discs.
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WHAT TO PROVIDE FOR CD-ROM REPLICATION?
Please provide a CD-R. What you provide is exactly what we will manufacture, without interpretation.
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INDEXING: Why do some systems/applications read my titles/artists names and some don't?
1. With i-tunes and some other music applications, song-title information being linked to tracks on the CD is done by CDDB (an internet database of album titles, song titles, etc.). CDDB relies on data entry being done by users AFTER they receive the manufactured CD. (CDDB has nothing to do with Bellwether Manufacturing or the manufacturing process). CDDB identifies specific CDs in the computer CD player by recognizing initial bits of data on respective tracks. Using adaptec/roxy toast or itunes or the like, users provide the specific track/song title information to the CDDB when they first have the CD. This track information is then grabbed via the internet from the CDDB whenever the CD is put into other CD players around the world that are also using applications that are CDDB-enabled (and if there is an active internet connection.) With I-tunes, one submits track information to CDDB using the pulldown menu option "Submit CD Track Names" (usually under the "Advanced" menu; this may change with newer version of I-Tunes.)
2. Newer CD players and car stereo systems are capable of reading text that is actually encoded on the CD. One such convention utilizing this "on disc" encoding scheme is called "CD-Text", which works on most players, including Sony products. We can embed this CD-Text information on your master for a FIXED fee of $50.00, and this includes a reference copy of the new text-encoded CD for you to listen to and approve. (Approval of this reference copy is required). Also, just so you know, it is something users can do themselves using the newest version of Toast (Roxy/Adaptec Toast). Finally, mastering houses can be instructed to set this up for you as well.
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What should I look for when approving my discface proofs?
Overall:
* Be sure all type and fonts are correct.
* Check for typos and misspelled words.
* Make sure that all the artwork is positioned in the template, as you wish it to be printed.
Discface proofs:
* Please note that everything in black on each "plate" will print as the ink color indicated above each plate and everything in white on each "plate" will knock out to whatever is underneath that plate.
* If your discface involves a background flood of white, make sure that this is indicated on your proof.
* If your discface involves a gradient, it is important to note that gradients are probably the most unpredictable aspect of silk-screen printing. When gradients are silk-screened, it can produce significant tonal jumps, creating bad transition areas instead of the gradual tone shifts that can be seen on your monitor.
* Be sure the center hole is the correct size.
* Keep in mind that our standard center hole size on disc faces is 26 mm in diameter. We can print to a smaller size diameter upon request, although it will add to your turn-time. Please consult with your CSR if you're interested.
* When viewing the discface proof, be sure to consider whether some of the disc elements (like the clear region, the stacking ring, and the highly reflective matrix hub) will have any undesirable effects on the final discface artwork.
* If you are uncertain about any of the above details on your proof, please be sure to point this out to your CSR prior to approval of the proof.
CMYK silk-screen discface proofs:
* If you have opted to do a CMYK silk-screen image on your discface, it is important to note that silk-screen printing will not yield the same results as offset printing. Items that are offset printed, such as jewel case inserts, traycards, and cardboard packaging, are printed at 150 - 175 lpi. Our standard line screen for silk-screening discface artwork is 110 lpi. If you are printing an image on the CD face that needs to match up with the same or similar image on your print-work / packaging you might want to consider having your discface printed offset rather than silk-screened. (Note: For CD orders, offset discface printing will be more expensive.)
* Be sure the center hole is the correct size.
* Keep in mind that our standard center hole size on disc faces is 26 mm in diameter. We can print to a smaller size diameter upon request, although it will add to your turn-time. Please consult with your CSR if you're interested.
* When viewing the disc proof, be sure to consider whether some of the disc elements (like the clear region, the stacking ring, and the highly reflective matrix hub) will have any undesirable effects on the final discface artwork.
* If you are uncertain about any of the above details on your proof, please be sure to point this out to your CSR prior to approval of the proof.
CMYK offset discface proofs:
* If your disc face involves a background flood of white, make sure that this is indicated on your proof.
* Be sure the center hole is the correct size.
* Keep in mind that our standard center hole size on disc faces is 26 mm in diameter. We can print to a smaller size diameter upon request, although it will add to your turn-time. Please consult with your CSR if you're interested.
* When viewing the disc proof, be sure to consider whether some of the disc elements (like the clear region, the stacking ring, and the highly reflective matrix hub) will have any undesirable effects on the final discface artwork.
* If you are uncertain about any of the above details on your proof, please be sure to point this out to your CSR prior to approval of the proof.
For PDF/jpeg proofs:
Overprint objects might not display properly on a PDF proof. Please double-check your files.
It is often helpful, when viewing the PDF in Acrobat Professional to select the "Overprint Preview" (or "Separation Preview" in Acrobat 6.0) viewing option to double check this detail.
Because PDF proofs (as well as jpeg proofs) are viewable only on a computer monitor, and no 2 monitors preview colors the same, colors in these proofs may vary from the final printed product due to the difference in color modes between what you see on your monitor and the ink on paper. By approving a PDF or jpeg proof, you are agreeing to accept color variances on press.
If color variance is an issue, you may choose to get a higher end proof (if available) and/or to do a sample run (both options will incur additional costs, however).
For Epson proofs:
Note, Epson proofs are not high end / 100 % color accurate proofs, though the colors on this type of proof are close to what will appear on your print job. By approving an Epson proof, you are agreeing to accept some amount of color variances on press.
If color variance is a concern, you may choose to get a higher end proof (if available) and/or to do a sample run (both options will incur additional costs, however).
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