DIY CD/Tape pressing/printing

justinhedrick · June 09, 2011, 12:35:00 PM

i'm looking to put out a small run of cds (100 or under) of a yet to be recorded 2 song quasi concept piece that would be recorded mostly live. i don't want to spend a TON of money on them (probably because they will sell for $2).

i've seen lately that tapes are in fashion, but really the crowd we draw probably wouldn't be in to that. ideas? tips? tricks?

black_out · June 09, 2011, 03:15:20 PM

Tapes might not be a bad idea if you want to sell them cheap, and have something with professional looking packaging. You could just throw the songs on band camp and give people download codes with the tape to cover the people that want the songs but aren't into tapes.

if you're not worried about pro packaging you could always go with cdr's in a cardboard sleeve.

LogicalFrank · June 09, 2011, 03:17:31 PM

We've always just done CDRs and handmade sleeves. It's pretty cheap but time consuming as hell.

justinhedrick · June 09, 2011, 03:22:26 PM

Quote from: LogicalFrank on June 09, 2011, 03:17:31 PM
We've always just done CDRs and handmade sleeves. It's pretty cheap but time consuming as hell.

that's what i think we are going to do. it's going to be called "the gelder EP" and i'm thinking for packaging it will be in a brown recycled cardboard sleeve with a horseshoe nail taped to it.

Lumpy · June 09, 2011, 03:30:12 PM

Discmakers has a small run special, about 215-220 bucks plus shipping (so about 240 - 250 total ) for 100 CDRs with a color printed label (in other words, the CDR face is printed) and a jewel case with single panel front (and the rear panel too) in full color. Or get a full color cardboard sleeve for about the same price, which I prefer actually, except there is no printing on the 'spine' (which sucks for filing your disc). You can opt for more panels, but it costs more. It's a CDR (which is burned) as compared to a CD (which is stamped from a glass master). You can't tell the difference by looking at them (I guess the blanks say CDR in fine print on the inner ring or whatever) and I don't think you can hear a difference. I don't know what the difference is - back in the day, some CD players might have trouble playing a CDR but I don't think it's true anymore. CDs might last longer, I don't know. It's probably ethical to tell people it's a CDR when you're selling it (and then price it accordingly -- not 10 dollars, but 5 dollars or whatever)

You can do things even cheaper if you're willing to do some home-brewing with the packaging, or know somebody with the CD-burning software (I'm not sure why you can't do it in Toast or iTunes, but there is probably a reason) or if you know somebody with disc-labeling (printing) machine.

discmakers.com

This place looks good for cassettes, about 120 bucks for 100 with a clear outer case, printed shell, and J card. The kids like cassettes, they're analog and cheap to make.

http://nationalaudiocompany.com/

Edit - 146 dollars for 100 tapes:
http://nationalaudiocompany.com/Duplicated-Imprinted-Boxed-with-Insert-and-wrapped-Cassette-Packages-W10C14001181.aspx

justinhedrick · June 09, 2011, 03:50:28 PM

thanks for the links lump.

i thought it would be cheaper to put all the stuff together myself for the CD. apparently it isn't!

black · June 09, 2011, 03:55:03 PM

I've had nothing but great experience with Ultra Entertainment. http://www.ultraentertainment.com/ I don't think they do cassettes, but they are super at smal run (and large) cd duplication and replication. You can have them do just the discs or any amount of packaging you want. They are really cool to deal with and have competatively low prices.

Check them out and see what y'all think.

Lumpy · June 09, 2011, 04:02:45 PM

Quote from: black on June 09, 2011, 03:55:03 PM
I've had nothing but great experience with Ultra Entertainment. http://www.ultraentertainment.com/ I don't think they do cassettes, but they are super at smal run (and large) cd duplication and replication. You can have them do just the discs or any amount of packaging you want. They are really cool to deal with and have competatively low prices.

Check them out and see what y'all think.

Looks like good prices. Discmakers has options like Digipack, which I'm not interested in spending extra money on. The only option I really don't like is "slimline'" jewel cases.

To JustinHedrick - maybe you could get the plain recycled paper cover, and have a stamp made, and hand-stamp the covers. That could be cool. Or if you know somebody who can do screen printing, maybe silkscreen the covers. That could look pretty awesome.

mortlock · June 09, 2011, 08:29:56 PM

Quote from: justinhedrick on June 09, 2011, 03:50:28 PM
thanks for the links lump.

i thought it would be cheaper to put all the stuff together myself for the CD. apparently it isn't!

actually it is..check out stumptown printers..you can get blank sleeves/gatefold cds sleeves..theres alot of options for not a lot of money..do your own art..get someone to copy you up a short run of cdrs. go to a local recording studio and see how much you can get cds copied for. most of them will do it with printing on the disc face for a dollar a cd , give or take..with no minimum orders.

mortlock · June 09, 2011, 08:34:38 PM

two great tape labels..

http://www.905tapes.com/

http://2amtapes.com/home/

jasckluis · August 17, 2011, 02:50:54 AM

I suggest you to use cellophane tape.

CD Duplication | CD Printing

mawso · August 18, 2011, 03:22:16 AM

I did a small run of DIY cd-rs not that long ago

Won't bother again. Plenty of places will do a small run for not a lot of $$. DIY is only cheaper if your time is worth absolutely nothing.

eyeprod · August 18, 2011, 10:17:23 AM

^^ true that. My time is currently worth $25-$50 an hour depending on the job. it' kinda like doing an oil change. I could easily do it myself, but why bother when I can easily afford to pay someone else to do it and it's reasonable?

Hemisaurus · August 18, 2011, 11:26:05 AM

Lazy shits, DIY or die

chille01 · August 18, 2011, 09:55:38 PM

We just did a 150 run of home made CD-R. For the sleeves, I just came up with a two sided cover concept and had it printed 3 to a sheet on 11x17 card stock. The printing was $16. Cut them out by hand with little flaps that we glued with UHU glue sticks. Glue and supplies cost $15. Went to the flea market and bought two spindles of printable, blank discs for $45. The kind that don't say Memorex or whatever on them, just plain blank. Our bass player did a 30 second rude cartoon in sharpie on each disc and we burned them ourselves. Cost about $76, and approximately 3 hours of time each. I did my share while I watched "River's Edge" on tv.

We're gonna sell them for a twoonie (which is $2 Canadian dollars in coin form) and realize about 150% profit. Otherwise known as $300. CD's ain't worth shit now adays, so those are the numbers that make sense. We'll blow the wad on the vinyl full length later this year.

eyeprod · August 18, 2011, 10:17:02 PM

I've been a shining example of DIY ethic. I often screen print my own gig posters by hand because they're way cooler than a photocopy that anyone can do at kinkos. I have also hand printed digipacks for a previous release, as well as my band merch and all that shit. I like DIY, but I don't like opening up some nice and raw looking handmade sleeve and finding a cheap ass looking CDR with sharpie lettering. That's fine for some kid with no job, but for a working professional who takes their music seriously, I much prefer to pay for pro duped CDRs. Still cheap, but looks more real. A lot of the time I'm playing for an older crowd that has money to spend on merch. Total DIY is fine for some bands, but for me it would look cheesy to not have a nice package for sale. I know, because I've gone that route before and was never totally happy with the results. Now my next release will be on a 7", and I'm still deciding what I'm going to do about the sleeve. Probably will screen print, as it's only going to black and white, but I might opt for pro printed just to save me the hassle.

Hemisaurus · August 18, 2011, 11:49:17 PM

Seeing as there are printable disks, and CD labels freely available, you can still DIY. Not that I change my own oil

I was pleasantly surprised by CD labels, they seem to work just fine, and not peel off after a while, like I was worried they might.

I eschew vinyl and cassette releases as the bastion of poseurs and hipsters, unless your as dedicated as a buddy of mine, who did analog recording, to analog mastering, and made sure the pressing was all done from analog too. He's nuts, but a genuine nuts

Even he still does digital downloads too.

eyeprod · August 19, 2011, 12:39:50 AM

heh, I understand the hipster comment because, yeah, hipsters, scenesters and (EDIT) music fans who think a large record collection makes you somehow cool buy records. They bug me too, sometimes. I'm not a vinyl fanatic myself. I think I own half a dozen records, half of which were given to me or found, other than my sweet copy of doremi fasol latido which I bought on ebay. I am a fan, however and always wanted to do a vinyl release. Who doesn't?? So after getting pro grade recording practically free (actually in trade for some of my graphic services), I didn't mind spending a bit on pro mixing/mastering and I don't mind spending $500 some odd dollars to have some actual records pressed. It's just the top shelf medium, imo. I think my tunes are worthy of much more than a sharpie decorated printable CDR. Call me crazy. And cheers! Gimme your address Hemi and I'll send you one when they're ready.

chille01 · August 19, 2011, 01:36:56 AM

I don't think vinyl is a hipster only medium by any means. Our bass player is an old prog rock nerd with 3000+ records who still swings a hammer for a living at 40. He's about as far away from a hipster as you can get, but having his music on vinyl is still his lifelong dream. That's the main reason we'll do it... aside from the fact that you need some physical medium to sell at shows, and I think its either vinyl at fair prices, or CD's at super cheap prices. I know what you guys are saying about opening up the package to get a sharpied CD... but that's why we're pricing them at $2. Just to have something to sell on the tour, until the record get's pressed this winter.

mawso · August 19, 2011, 04:12:59 AM

Quote from: Hemisaurus on August 18, 2011, 11:26:05 AM
Lazy shits, DIY or die

Do you make your own CD-Rs before you burn them? How about the printer - assemble it yourself?

Hemisaurus · August 19, 2011, 08:40:14 AM

Quote from: mawso on August 19, 2011, 04:12:59 AM
Quote from: Hemisaurus on August 18, 2011, 11:26:05 AM
Lazy shits, DIY or die

Do you make your own CD-Rs before you burn them? How about the printer - assemble it yourself?

Someone missed the smilie indicating the super-ironic content. But yeah, I worked for Hewlett Packard for a number of years too

eyeprod · August 19, 2011, 10:31:28 AM

haha, I saw the smiley. And no offense to anyone doing the cheapie thing with CDRs. It just ain't for me. Still, I'm a firm believer in the value of DIY. It's how I live, generally. Fuck, I just put the retro fit A/C kit on my van yesterday, changed a broken coolant temp. sensor that was a bitch to get to, and repaired a broken fan blower cage with a hand machined aluminum collar and some mighty jb weld. That shit would have cost me hundreds to have someone else do.

mawso · August 19, 2011, 03:27:48 PM

Quote from: Hemisaurus on August 19, 2011, 08:40:14 AM
Quote from: mawso on August 19, 2011, 04:12:59 AM
Quote from: Hemisaurus on August 18, 2011, 11:26:05 AM
Lazy shits, DIY or die

Do you make your own CD-Rs before you burn them? How about the printer - assemble it yourself?
Someone missed the smilie indicating the super-ironic content. But yeah, I worked for Hewlett Packard for a number of years too

ha, no. i saw you were being silly, so i went a little sillier

Hemisaurus · August 19, 2011, 05:25:16 PM

Mmm, missed the JB Weld comment, put the throttle bracket back on the tractor with that, after two tries of using 5 minute epoxy and having it fail after a year. Seems to be holding still, petrol resistant, heat resistant.

My thing with the CD-R's you can do it whilst you do other stuff, just have a DOS window up, and run cdrecord from the command line, it's simple, you can get through 50 or more in an afternoon whilst doing other stuff. So that's not even time wasted, that's time I'm paid for. The sleeves done at a buddies who borrowed her office guillotine for the night, so that's just hang out time, and did the labelling at the same time. You don't need to torture yourself to make it.

For me anyway, everything gets dumped into MP3 on the server as soon as I get it, and I appreciate the cheaper handmade CD-R's they have a bit of love and individuality in them.

Being rich bastards

, or maybe because we bought the CD-R's at Aldi and got some CD labels to start us off for free, and used office stationery (not sayin' whose office) we just gave away 200 or so of the first Hemi EP, why not, long as you make sure people don't take handfuls like some greedy bastards try to. I even pinned some to the bulletin board of the local 'cool' sandwich shop.

welshchris · August 24, 2011, 04:23:23 AM

I've used these guys for Duping stuff before (I'm based in the UK).

Small Run Cds
http://www.mobineko.com/
Cassettes
http://www.tapeline.info/

I've done things all ways in the past from burning CDRs one at a time in a PC, to 10 at a time in a work duplicator, cutting covers ourselves. Through to Whole package outsourced. So have def served my time in the 100% DIY route.

Have to say if I was doing a small run myself again I'd go back to someone like Mobineko and let them do the whole thing, I start to so a bit insane when I get past the first hundred CDs doing it myself!

For what it's worth I think people are buying small runs of Tapes over small runs of CDs at the moment.. We recently did a small run cassette split and used bandcamp to distribute a download code with every cassette bought.

Oh It's nice to be back, I missed stoner rock forum, had a daughter pop along so have been distracted the past 9 months or so, Hi everyone again.

Chris