Graphics

I've seen quite a few bands print up their material and, by far, the biggest factor in professional cd printing is not the cd printing company. It's the graphics. A guy that knows what he is doing can come up with a design that is impressive and professional. A clueless band member is not the guy to be designing the cds. I highly recommend that you pay a professional to do it as this is the single most important factor in the cd duplication / replication business.

If you follow my advice and go with a graphic designer to handle your cd, you will be happier. You may even come out cheaper because the cd duplication / replication houses will charge you a fee to fix your material. Sometimes they won't even fix it, they'll charge you money to look over it again. It cost the band $80 extra dollars when I made two amateur mistakes when doing the graphics for a band years ago.

Hire A Freelance Graphic Designer

To save money, I would highly recommend a freelance graphic designer. These guys are out there. In fact, if you type in freelance graphic designer in Google, you may be pleasantly surprised that there are places that allow you to post the job you are looking for and graphic experts will bid on the price. You can choose your guy based on his experience and such. I recommend Guru.com or Scriptlance.com Both are great systems that I've used many times.

Important: There is Layout Design and There is Graphic Design

You should be aware of the lingo involved with preparing the graphics for a cd. Grab a cd if you have one handy. You'll notice that on the front there is a graphic. For example, in front of me right now is Finger 11's ?Tip?. It has a green background with various shades of green with a person tied up and gagged. The cd has an effect that gives the illusion that the person gagged is swaying back and forth like one of those clowns.

Anyway, the point here is everything I'm describing here is graphics. It's just a guy who grabbed a paint brush, pencil, or most likely Adobe Photoshop and went to town creating a graphic. It's possible that a graphic designer may know nothing about layout at all, but may be an amazing artist.

Layout is the process of taking these already made graphics and putting them onto the cd in the proper position. Layout work is not THAT involved if you have an understanding of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, but it does require a little ?feel?. When I say ?feel? I'm referring to that gift that artists seam to have that I don't where they know where and why to put elements on a graphic.

You'll want to make sure that you ask for both of these services when paying someone to handle your cd.

The CD Duplication / Replication Companies Are The Same

In my experience, the only difference in quality from Healeydisc (my favorite), Oasis, Diskmakers, etc is the service, price, and features they offer. The quality differences are made up by the music, the recording, the band, and the graphics. If you go with any reputable cd replication company and a skilled graphic design / layout guy you will come out with an impressive package for your music. Don't stress about which cd replication company is the best because they are pretty much the same.

I look for low price, great support (which means they are easy to contact via email or phone), and ftp uploads. I HATE sending these companies cd-rs because they always reject them saying they have too many errors on them. If I can upload the song, I will every single time.

Good luck with your cd printing! If you have any questions just ask on the home recording forum.