Well-preparing-your-cd-pressing

The CD remains the ideal and essential physical medium for your album or EP releases, but also for your promotion, at an affordable price for you and your fans, and with many customization possibilities. It's often the big winner at merch tables, with its affordable price that allows fans to support artists and leave with a "souvenir" (signed) from a concert. It's also an economical product when shipping musical media from your online store.

Find our advice in this article to best prepare your release!

THE CD MANUFACTURING PROCESS

File checks

At Distrolution Merch, we are active musicians and we have already released several EPs and albums in CD, vinyl, and cassette formats. We are therefore fully aware of your expectations, but also of the budget it represents for an independent artist or label. That's why we have chosen to integrate the control of the graphic files you provide us, before moving on to the next steps. This control allows us to ensure that your files do not contain errors, such as text too close to the edges, or too much ink coverage. If we detect an issue, we contact you to inform you and correct it. In the case of minimal errors, we can even take care of it ourselves! That's also the spirit of Distrolution Merch! Once the files are validated, we produce a preview of your finished product, which you can use for your communication or your online store, as well as the famous BAT (Bon A Tirer) to validate the printed elements one last time. And all of this is included in our prices!

The pressing

Once the master file is checked, the production of the "glass master" is launched. This is done in 3 steps.

First, the marking: a glass plate is covered with a layer of photosensitive resin that will be engraved by an ultraviolet laser, imprinting your digital data. The glass master is then baked for 30 minutes to consolidate it.

Then comes the galvanization step. The glass master is placed in a vacuum chamber, at ultra-low pressure. Heated nickel is deposited, in vapor form, on the glass master. The disc content is then checked by a special reader.

To complete the process, we move on to the galvanization phase. The glass master is still extremely fragile at this stage and could not be used to press the final CDs. So we immerse the glass master in a bath of liquid nickel, and through an electrolysis process, it is deposited on the surface, thus creating a negative imprint, or matrix, of the disc.

Then comes the pressing phase. The matrix is placed in a 60-ton press. This pressure and the temperature of 360° C transform the polycarbonate plastic injected into the mold into an optical disc. We then cover the pressed face of the disc with a thin layer of aluminum (metallization) and then varnish the metallized surface. The CD is created.

Due to the manufacturing cost of the glassmaster, CD pressing is therefore offered from 300 copies, to offer attractive prices.

...or duplication

This is another disc manufacturing technique that uses laser engraving technology. The duplication medium is a blank disc with a recordable layer that will be burned by a laser beam in the "0" areas and leave the "1" areas intact, thus creating grooves and flats like those found on pressed discs. The DDP image is duplicated, passing through the hard drive of a burning tower, in batches of the number of burners in the tower. The burning time depends on the total duration of music reproduced. (± 1 minute for 20 minutes of music). Burning is therefore suitable for small productions of less than 300 copies, as it saves time and money by not producing a glassmaster. But the production time of a duplicated CD is much longer than that of a pressed CD, which is why it is more advantageous to press for quantities beyond 300 copies. The quality remains the same whether your CD is pressed or duplicated. It is therefore a matter of economic common sense to offer you the best possible prices.

CD and packaging printing

The CDs are then printed in offset or by screen printing, depending on the type of visual. Screen printing, as for textile marking, is mainly intended for "simple" visuals such as a logo on a solid background, while offset printing allows the printing of photographic-type visuals or detailed and colorful illustrations.

We can also leave transparent areas revealing the metallic layer of the CD, for a superb effect, and this, at no extra cost!

Assembly and packaging

Each CD is then placed in its packaging, then the whole is cellophane-wrapped and packaged in cardboard boxes for shipping. It's off for tracked delivery which usually takes 3 days.

The files to provide us

Here's a summary of the elements to provide us to produce your CDs:

The DDP audio master

A DDP (Disc Description Protocol) is a digital image of your CD.
The DDP image encodes all the information that was made during the assembly of your disc during mastering. This obviously includes the sound, transitions between each track (fades, pauses) but also metadata and other information read by players: artist name, song title, CD text, UPC/EAN code / ISRC codes, if you need them of course!

The big advantage of the DDP image is to avoid sending us a CD-R which can be a possible source of errors when you burn it, or which can simply be damaged during transport. Moreover, we save production time by transferring the final CD via the Internet ;) .

The pressing plant will use the DDP image to create the Glass Master that will be used for pressing the CDs or to duplicate it identically for releases of less than 300 copies.

The other advantage of the DDP image lies in the fact that it includes a Checksum file, allowing the factory to perform a check before creating the Glass-Master and thus reproduce the file you provided exactly, without any possible alteration.

The DDP is usually provided by the studio that does your mastering. It's currently the most common format for CD duplication / pressing. If you need to create it yourself, HOFA software remains the most used in the field. However, if you've self-produced and want to entrust the assembly of the DDP to a pro, we can put you in touch with our partner sound engineer who can do it at a really affordable rate.

The graphic files

The printing of files is done in parallel with the pressing. This includes printing the packaging, booklet or poster, as well as the CD label.

Distrolution Merch provides you with the templates ahead of your order. You can find them in the "Documentation" tab, a little lower, on the page of the product you wish to order.

Be creative with the different packaging options. You can propose visuals that extend across the entire packaging, under the CD, the possibilities are endless. We can also leave metallic areas visible on the disc for a great effect! If you're not an expert in graphic design, get help from a pro or ask us for advice. We can even handle the layout, or even create your visual, upon request.

The templates are to be edited in a professional graphic design software, such as Adobe's famous Photoshop. Our templates are already at the right size and color format. You just need to open them in the software without modifying anything, create your layout, and send us your files, without flattening the layers, and by rasterizing the fonts. Thus, during the file check, if we detect a problem, we can easily correct it.

We then send you previews of your product, which you can use for your communication on social networks or to launch your pre-order campaign. We also provide you with a digital proof (the famous BAT) to validate your files one last time before sending them to print. And all of this is included in the price!

SDRM duplication authorization

The SDRM authorization request, a branch of SACEM, can be made online easily and quickly HERE. This authorization request is a legal obligation for any audio reproduction, and prevents anyone from producing copies with the music of another artist whose rights they do not own. The response is quick, usually within 2 working days.

Be aware that if you plan to press several media (CD, vinyl, or even cassette), you will need to make an authorization request for each of them.

You will be asked to provide the manufacturer's details, here they are:

Distrolution 1 (don't forget the 1!)
185 rue de Marcq-en-Baroeul
59290 Wasquehal
France

Whether you're a member of SACEM, whether the reproduced tracks are registered there, or whether you're performing covers, you'll be asked to pay a flat fee (or not) depending on the quantity produced, its selling price, and the number of discs intended for free distribution (promo). Later, you'll receive a royalty in return as an author/composer, for the "mechanical reproduction" of your works, for each pressing of your work. If you're not a SACEM member and the works you want to duplicate are not registered (be careful with covers...), you won't have to pay anything.

You will also be asked to provide a catalog number / reference. For labels that are relatively used to this, no problem, but if you're self-produced, you're probably wondering what it is. It's simply a reference code that you give to your release, often found written on the spine of CD and vinyl covers. If Distrolution Merch were releasing its first CD EP, we could for example give a reference code that would look like "DM001CD". You need to provide one for your authorization request, but you're not obliged to include it on your cover if you want a clean visual.

We hope this article answers your many questions about CD manufacturing and its preparation. We are of course always available to answer your requests or prepare a custom quote if needed.