There are two ways of manufacturing CDs: duplication and replication.

CD Duplication

What is CD duplication?

Duplication is the process of burning music or data onto recordable discs. You can order duplication runs between 10 and 499 CDs. If you’re after 500 or more CDs they are usually replicated (pressed CDs).

Why duplication?

Duplicated CDs are perfect for low quantity, fast turnaround orders. Coupled with our un-beatable short run cardboard printing options, you can get great looking product on time for your launch, no sweat!

The burning process

We use A-grade, high quality blank media which is burned at x16 speed. Our CDs can fit 700mb or 80 minutes of CD audio. To ensure the integrity of your content every disc we burn is verified. Our disc burners produce audio discs that are compliant with the Red Book standard and data discs that are compliant with the Yellow Book standard.

Printing

Our CDs have a white printable coating (no stickers!) that can be inkjet printed with your artwork. Our high resolution inkjet printers produce clear, bright, vibrant colours. We can also print shiny silver discs with black text. In this case we use a thermal printing process to bond the print to the disc surface. This is cost effective option and is popular for simple and effective promo CDs.

We offer 3 price levels of printing: black text print, basic print and full print.

• Black text: black text or basic black logo on a silver or white disc.
• Basic print: up to 1/3 of the disc surface printed black or full colour
• Full print: more than 1/3 of the disc surface printed black or full colour

For an added layer of protection the printed disc can be coated with a protective, UV cured lacquer. This UV coating also gives the disc an eye popping glossy finish. We recommend it for dark coloured or bright, vibrant artwork.

What we need from you

Master CD

We recommend that you have your master disc professionally produced. We prefer the following format:

• an error checked CD master

If you can only supply files there will be a master creation fee of $25. We can only make CD masters from the following file formats:

Audio

• wav files at 16 bit 44.1 KHz
• DDP file set
• iso file

Data

• any data files up to the size limit of a CD-R
• iso file

Artwork

Artwork needs to be set up to our specs and supplied as print ready pdfs files.

How long does it take?

Duplicated CD orders take 1-3 working days to complete. Delivery to most major metro cities in Australia is 1-3 working days.

We’re happy to accommodate urgent requests where possible, just contact one of our sales staff!

Get a quote

Replication

What is CD replication?

Replication is the process of pressing music or data onto a moulded disc. Replication runs start at 500 CDs and can be up to 10,000 (or more!) CDs.

Quantities of less than 500 CDs are produced using the duplication process (burning CDs).

Why replication?

Most CDs that are sold commercially are produced using the replication process. Replicated discs are more durable and cost effective (cheaper per unit) than duplicated discs.

The pressing process

The replication process involves making a ‘stamper’ from your master source which is injection moulded with plastic and the screen or offset printed with your artwork. Replicated audio discs are produced to the Red Book standard. Replicated data discs (CD-Roms) are produced to the Yellow Book standard.

Printing

Replicated discs can be printed in two ways: screen printing or offset printing.

Screen printing is used for flat graphics that are set up as Pantone colours. Each pantone colour is printed on to the disc surface one at a time onto a silver or white base.

Printing flat graphics in pantone colours gives a much flatter, smoother finish than printing the same graphics using the offset printing process.

Offset printing is used for artwork that is made up of images or gradients. Offset printing involves printing primary colours (cyan, magenta, yellow and black or ‘cmyk’) onto a silver or white base.

See our artwork guide for more details on setting up your artwork to give you the best results.

What we need from you

Master CD

We recommend that you have your master disc professionally produced. We prefer the following format:

• an error checked CD master
• DDP file set
• iso file

If you can only supply files there will be a master creation fee of $25. We can only make CD masters from the following file formats:

Audio

• wav files at 16 bit 44.1 KHz

Data

• any data files up to the size limit of a CD-R

Artwork

Artwork needs to be set up to our specs and supplied as print ready pdfs files.

How long does it take?

Replicated CD orders take 7-10 working days to complete or 10-15 working days for orders with offset printed cases. Delivery to most major metro cities in Australia is 1-3 working days.

We’re happy to accommodate urgent requests where possible, just contact one of our sales staff!

Get a quote