CD Sonic CD Manufacturing - CD Duplication, DVD, CD-ROM, Compact Disc Replication, CD-R, Low cost.

1-888-CD SONIC [1-888-237-6642]

Below we have tried to answer many of the questions you might have and give you some information in advance to help you more easily prepare for the brief yet extremely precise process of having CDs manufactured. While we have covered many of the common issues that come up, we surely will never answer every question in a manner such as this, so we always invite you to send us your questions, as we are happy to help. Please choose from the topics below, and again, feel free to email us at cdsnow@cdsonic.com with any other concerns you might have.

Ordering Manufactured CDs from CD Sonic How the turn times for manufactured CDs work Ordering CD-R duplication from CD Sonic Payment Options & Terms Sending CD Sonic my materials Acceptable Master Formats	Printing & how it works How inserts are printed What are films & do I need them? How CDs are printed For those setting up their own artwork... What types of files do you accept?
Special Musician Concerns CD Release Parties	Special ROM client concerns

Ordering Manufactured CDs from CD Sonic
Ordering manufactured CDs from CD Sonic is easy. First, send us an email telling us what package you are interested in from our pricing page or describe a custom package you would like a quote on. You will quickly receive a response from a person, not an automated response from a perl script, as there are many variables and we think it is very important to the customer that we give as precise a quote as possible in the beginning, not later.
When you receive your quote, it will have a quote number at the top of the message. This number allows us to refer to your quote and correspondence later, so that we are always on top of the unique aspects of your job.
After you receive your quote, go to our Order Form which has a space for the quote number as well as your information, ship to information, etc. Please fill out the form as completely as you can, and then hit "Submit" at the bottom of the page. The order will automatically be sent to us and will immediately generate a page back to you which you can print out and send in with your materials.

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How the turn times for manufactured CDs work

The plants in which CD Sonic will manufacture your CDs are all state-of-the-art facilities certified ISO9002, which means they have passed very rigid standards testing by an independent group that measures manufacturing performance of companies all over the world. These plants are very large operations that serve as back-up to major label manufacturing owned by the labels. Therefore, the smallest is capable of at least 20,000 units of production per day.
Even with what seems an enormous capacity, turn times average 10 to 15 days on a complete 1000 piece order with printing and packaging. Further, this is the industry norm. The reasons for this are simple: 1. Smaller jobs (anything under 5,000 units) have to be scheduled an ample amount of time in advance to allow for the larger jobs and rush jobs to be serviced expediently, and the smaller jobs to be completed in between. 2. Even with this amount of advance planning and scheduling, smaller jobs are sometimes rescheduled out a day or two when the unexpected larger rush job comes in. 3. A similar process takes place on the printing side where the inserts are printed, which compounds the time issue.
These variables can sometimes factor into your job even more in cases where you have submitted a faulty master, which may not be discovered until the job has come up on the schedule to have the "glass" made, and the errors are discovered. Please allow time for these possibilities in your planning. CD Sonic makes every effort for each job to be produced as quickly as possible, but cannot be held responsible for delays in production or missed deadlines. It is strongly suggested that you verify your masters and films before submission.
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Ordering CD-R duplication from CD Sonic
The actual quoting and ordering process for CD-R duplication is the same as ordering CD manufacturing above. However, materials requirements for design of the disc and insert printing are quite different and can be found here.
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Payment Options & Terms
Payment Policy: CD Sonic requires a 50% deposit with your order. Balance due upon completion prior to shipment as Money Order or Certified Check, otherwise 100% pre-paid. No CODs.

Return Checks: A charge of $ 35.00 will be applied to your invoice or balance.

Cancellations: Cancellation of orders in process will incur charges according to the stage of completion at the time of cancellation.

General: All Commitments and agreements to sell or deliver are made with the understanding that no liability attaches to CD Sonic for failure to fulfill them due to strikes, flood, accidents, war, inadequate supply of labor or any material, government demands or priorities, transportation delays or other conditions beyond CD Sonic control.

Returns/Errors: We Stand behind our products and will replace them if we are in error. Samples of the product in question must be submitted to us prior to any decision. We will not be responsible for consequential damages as the result of our error. Our liability is specifically limited to the value of the product manufactured. We reserve the right to request the product be returned to us for inspection or correction.

PLEASE NOTE: CD Sonic will not be responsible for materials left in our possession for more than 1 year.

CD-R Duplication: Full payment required with placement of order.

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Sending CD Sonic my materials
Once you have submitted the order form and printed the response page, assemble it along with your master, design files or pictures and text, and your deposit information into a package and send it to us. We highly recommend sending your materials via UPS, Fedex, or some other insurable and trackable means. Please insure your shipment to us for the value of the materials enclosed. CD Sonic cannot be responsible for the treatment of your package by the shipping company, and if you don't insure it, they won't be either!

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Acceptable Master Formats
Acceptable master formats are:
1. A fully sequenced properly mastered CD-R written in disk-at-once mode (not multi-session).
2. A CD you have had previously manufactured.
3. A fully sequenced properly mastered and subcoded PCM 1630 and an accompanying track sheet.
* 4. A fully sequenced properly mastered DAT recorded at a 44.1 kHz sampling rate with all track I.D.'s in place and an accompanying track sheet can be used but will require transfer to CD-R on our end at an additional charge of $50. for a straight transfer.
CD Sonic can prepare your master from other source types. Please email for information on other source types.
PLEASE NOTE: With the recent popularity of personal CD-R burners, there are many folks out there who feel quite confident they can produce an adequate master for manufacturing. Just because a CD-R plays in some CD players does not mean it will function properly in the transfer to glass master process. We strongly recommend having your program properly prepared by a professional.
Improperly prepared masters or those with too many data errors will be returned and jobs delayed.

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Printing & how it works

How inserts are printed

Your Inserts will be printed on large format commercial printing presses in a fashion that's referred to as "gang printing".
All the "full color" surfaces are broken down into 4 colors: CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black), and the varying shades and degrees of the compositeing of these colors can recreate nearly every color. This is precisely the same process used to print at least 95% of the CD inserts and magazines you probably own. When a CMYK process is used, four different printing plates are made to print onto one piece of paper. The paper passes under each of the four plates to complete a print job. There is one plate made for each of the four colors. For every plate needed, a film will need to be made to create that plate. Further, additional plates can be added in order to provide special ink colors or coatings.

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What are films & do I need them?

You will need films for your project. We offer full film output services here, or you can have them output locally by a printer or service bureau. Make sure to check prices thoroughly, though, as our output pricing is very competitive. Here is what you will need:
For The CDs: Right Reading emulsion Up film positives; 85 to 100 line screen
For The Inserts or any paper printing: Right Reading emulsion down film negatives; 133 to 150 line screen
For CD Sonic's film output rates go here.

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How CDs are printed

CDs are printed using silk-screen printing, (much the same as T-shirts, mugs, etc.). All manufactured CDs are printed using the same process, though the quality can and does differ from one plant to another. A maximum of 5 colors are possible, but note that white as a background color would be one of these 5. Our printing is among the sharpest in the industry, however silk screening inherently has limitations. Some of these limitations are:
very light dots may disappear (<10% dot)
very heavy dots may fill in solid (> 87% dot)
2 points is the recommended trapping
4 point bold is the absolute minimum point size
moiré patterns are more visible than on paper
the contrast tends to increase
For these reasons "picture discs" cannot be matched as accurately as in offset printing. These limitations are why most CDs are printed with simple line-art and text, and not with photo-style pictures.
When creating what is commonly called in the industry a 2 or 3 color job, the designer must specify the Pantone numbers for the individual inks from the Pantone matching system. These ink color libraries are readily available in all professional design and page layout programs.

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For those setting up their own artwork...
The many sophisticated graphic design packages available in today's software market place would lead you to believe that laying out a design for your own software or audio package would be a pretty simple thing to do - especially if you are proficient with a computer in many other regards. These software programs are great for conceptualizing your design, but a lot more than computer-ease goes into making what you design on your screen turn into a professional looking package.
For example: Monitors use a combination of Red, Green & Blue (RGB) to make up the palette of colors we see on our screens. A full color print job uses a combination of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK) to make up the palette of colors we see in printed work. The conversion of the RGB format to the CMYK format can drastically change colors, which would then require correction.
We strongly recommend that you seek the services of a professional who has designed commercial color work in the past (not just a business card and letterhead stationary designer). If you feel you are up to the challenge yourself, we can and will help you to a reasonable degree, and will certainly advise if you provide something that won't work, but ours is definitely not to critique the artistic quality or tasteful layout of supplied designs.

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What types of files do you accept?
If you are sending files from which CD Sonic will be outputting film:
Mac or PC* Platform/Page Layout programs:
Quark Xpress, Adobe Pagemaker
Mac or PC* Platform/ Imaging or Illustration programs:
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
*NOTE: Our design studios are comprised of Macintosh platform machines almost exclusively. Many PC fonts will not translate when opened on a Mac. Some fonts may have to be substituted.
For PC Users of Corel Draw: Corel is capable of exporting Illustrator EPS files which are acceptable for our uses as long as fonts are embedded as outlines.
Image Formats and resolution: All included images should be at least 300 dpi resolution from their source. 72 dpi images (a common Internet graphic resolution) cannot be converted up to 300 dpi without significant pixelization. Color Image formats should be CMYK separated (CMYK Mode in Photoshop) and of type .EPS, .PSD, or .TIF. Grayscale images should be of type .EPS, .PSD, or .TIF.

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Special Musician Concerns
As a musician, your number one concern is the quality of the sound reproduction from your CDs. CD Sonic guarantees that your replicated CDs will be a 100% match of your supplied digital master's source data and that the master will never pass through an analog signal path in the transfer that takes place to create a glass master. We have heard the horror stories of noise, hiss, and pops - you will never have to even consider that possibility with CD Sonic and we guarantee it.

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CD Release Parties
Please don't schedule a CD release party until you have your CDs. This is the number one headache for so many musicians. Every reputable Manufacturer will tell you the same thing - just don't do it. Sure, maybe 80 to 90% of the bands schedule well in advance, have a good designer and a properly prepared master, and everything at the plant goes smoothly so they have no problems. But then there are the other 10 to 20%.
Trust us when we say, whether you use our services or not (that's how strongly we feel about this topic), you will feel a lot better if you are 2 weeks older playing a CD release party with cases of product backstage than if you are 2 weeks younger playing a CD release party and telling the audience why you don't have them.

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Special ROM client concerns
The plants in which CD Sonic will manufacture your CDs are all state-of-the-art facilities certified ISO9002, and with locations in Massachusetts, Alabama, and California, we've got the availability and coverage to get your ROM project to you quickly and inexpensively. All data sets are rigorously tested for performance and will be rejected for too many errors to ensure you get product that performs as you expect. In fact, we've never had to re-run a ROM job (hopefully we won't have to take that statement down anytime soon!).
To further ensure the integrity of your information, we are more than happy to offer post-manufacturing data set destruction and "no-sample" status on your jobs at your request.

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CD Sonic, Inc.
273 Commonwealth Avenue - Boston MA 02116
Tel: 888.CD SONIC (237.6642) - (617) 424.0670
Fax: (617) 424.0657 - email: cdsonic@cdsonic.com