5 Key Tips to Remember When Submitting Your

Master for CD Duplication

By Craig Dereka

Your project is at its final stage. The design work is complete, the content has been checked,

the spelling proofed and the final signature from the boss is in your hands. Now off you go to

the CD Duplication company to get your Cd's duplicated and printed.

Wait! Before going to the CD Duplication company of your choice, be sure to keep these tips in

mind. These tips will eliminate headache, delay, stress and costly mistakes. Most of these tips

may seem like common sense, but after ten years in the optical disc duplication and printing

business I can say most people forget the basics when submitting their CD masters.

1. Check Your Master; I have seen to many projects re-ran because the customer was missing a

key data file to a presentation, audio files were out of order for a bands album release, HTML

files were not linked, auto-runs were not put in place, etc. The list could go on.

2. Audio CD vs Mp3 CD; There is a difference between a Audio CD and a Mp3 CD. If you intend

your Music CD to play in every CD player (car, home stereo, etc) be sure your CD is formatted to

the Red Book Audio CD standard. Every disc burning program is capable of producing this Red

Book standard. If you desire a Mp3 CD, realize that some people may not be able to listen to

your audio files in a standard CD player (car, home stereo, etc). The Mp3 CD will most likely

have to be played back on a computer or CD player that is Mp3 compatible.

3. Cross Platform Check; Be sure to check your Data CD-ROM master on both PC and MAC

formats. Files may not work or play correctly across different operating systems.

4. Supply 2 Masters; Always supply your duplication company with two checked masters. If one

of your masters has scratches, errors or is broken in shipment, the duplicator has a backup to

use. This eliminates the hassle of burning another master at a later time and shipping it to the

duplication company. Also, be sure to keep an extra master on hand as most duplication

companies do not return masters automatically.

5. Plan Ahead; always allow enough time for the project to be duplicated. I have seen it many

times where the client needs there discs in two days but once they submit their master it has

problems left and right. Be sure to allow enough time in case of problems. Remember we do

not live in a perfect world. You must plan ahead.

CD Duplication