Precision Disc Blog

While it great to see more and more people feeling empowered to produce their own Music CD projects, it can lead to mistakes caused by inexperience. This can lead to head-aches when the time comes for CD manufacturing.

Without a doubt, design related issues are still the largest source of delays, but there is definitely a new up-and-comer on the scene. Namely, do-it-yourself Music CD Masters.

Here’s a quick Top Five List of the most common mistakes we see… I hope that it helps you (or someone you know) when the time comes to get CD manufacturing started.

1. Recommended maximum duration for a replicated Music CD is 74 minutes.

2. Make sure you’re creating a music/audio disc and not a data/CDROM disc. Any reasonable disc copying software should ask you what type of disc you’re trying to create so make sure you have chosen the music/audio format.

3. Before you burn your Master disc make sure the software settings are set to ‘finalize’ your disc after the burning stage is completed – this may also be referred to as ‘single session’ or ‘closed session’ or perhaps even ‘disc at once’. You do not want to supply an ‘open session’ disc as it can lead to problems when we try to make the glass master and replication stamper from it.

4. Create at least three copies of your Music CD Master disc, always keeping the original copy for you own safety and back-up purposes. The additional two copies should go to the CD manufacturer (if anything goes wrong with one copy the CD manufacturing company can use the second copy as a back-up).

5. Listen to your Master(s) from beginning to end to ensure they perform exactly the way you want them to, with no pops, skips or any type of error or mistake. That means listening to the entire CDR all they way through – not just the beginning and endings of songs. Remember, the CDs that get manufactured will be exact clones of the Master disc you supply to the CD manufacturing company.

Please visit our website for additional Music CD Master information.