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Posts Tagged ‘Helpful HInts’
Back in Production: 9th May 2023
Tuesday, May 9th, 2023Business As Usual: 12th April 2023
Wednesday, April 12th, 2023Hope you all had a Peaceful Easter.
We are back to business as usual and ready to personally take your calls or live chat.
If we can be of any help with your order we will be very happy to advise or assist you.
Call on 01702 530354
Live Chat from the Home Page
or Email: una@duplicationcentre.co.uk
Artwork files: 27th March 2023
Monday, March 27th, 2023This is the third article in our series to help you unlock some of the technical gargon, associated with the Duplciation process.
Artwork Files:
Beware, we are now moving into the area of artwork and the word image no longer relates to a disc image! When talking about artwork, and image is simply a picture, a graphic or photograph
PDF stands for “portable document format.” Adobe Systems designed this format, which has become the standard for exchanging electronic documents. Its a very complex and powerful format used extensively in artwork design and printing, perfect for supplying your artwork supporting the other artwork formats below, as well as special print formats, colours and vector graphics.
JPEG, TIFF, and PNG
These image formats are ideal for photos and similar images containing many colours offering good quality and acceptable sizes are possible. The quality / file size of a jpeg can be altered through the use of compression.
The three formats all vary slightly in the way they apply compression to the images, each with its own advantages. For printing its best to keep the compression at a minimum so the files are larger and better quality.
PSD
This format is only used by the graphics programs Photoshop. The files are generally large and contain lots of additional information and layers which are not needed for print. The complexity of the files make them perfect for editing and designing, BUT not ideal for printing. You should save your artwork to PDF or JPEG when ready to submit for printing.
To learn more about artwork formats this article is a good place to start, offering beginner guides to the various types: Further information on artwork formats.
Understanding the Terminology in Duplication: Part 2: Audio & Video Files:20th March 2023
Monday, March 20th, 2023This is the second part of our terminilogy articles, which are explaining some of the commonly used terms in the duplication process, and relate specifically to Audio and Video files.
Audio Files:
Unlike the disc image formats above, these are just individual audio files used by computers. They require ‘Authoring’ to a disc. Authoring a CD means taking the audio (in any of the formats) and writing it into a format and structure a simple CD player can understand and play
WAV
These are high quality audio files, very similar to standard CD-Audio. This is a very common format used in recording studios .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV
AIFF
AIFF is practically identical to WAV, but this format was developed by Apple in the late 80’s. Another very common format in recording studios.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Interchange_File_Format
MP3
This is a digital music format created for sending audio over the internet. The great attraction of the MP3 format is its ability to compress files, allowing them to use much less space. Technically lower quality than the above audio formats, but not really in any noticeable way
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3
FLAC
The Free Lossless Audio Codec. This is a newer format which is able to compress audio to take up space just like an MP3, but does so in a ‘lossless’ way. This means the audio quality should not be degraded in any way, but the file size will be noticeably smaller. A useful format that has only seen uptake in technical and audiophile community.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLAC
Video Files:
This section may appear a bit short, but I had to draw the line somewhere. There are a very large number of video formats that have existed over the years, far too many to discuss here. In practice there are 2 very common ones.
All video formats will require ‘Authoring’ to make a standard DVD-Video disc (OR a Blu-Ray-Video disc) to be player in a standard player. Simply burning a video file on a disc will not necessarily allow it to play in a standard player.
MP4
A modern high quality video format widely used in consumer and professional markets.
MOV
Another modern high quality video format widely used in consumer and professional markets. Developed by Apple.
Understanding the Terminology in Duplication: Part 1: The Master: 13th March 2023
Monday, March 13th, 2023As in most Industries there are many terms and abbreviations which are used in duplication, which have become part of our ordinary language. For the uninitiated these terms can sometimes appear complicated and a bit daunting. This is especially true of file formats for the “master”or content for your duplication order.
I am republishing, over the next 3 weeks a series of explanations of some of the most used terms, in relation the optical media (CD, DVD and Blu-Ray) market. With links for more detailed explanations:
Physical Masters:
This simply means a hard copy CD or DVD which we can use to duplicate from.
Disc Image Formats:
The type of images here are not photographic images. The term relates to a ‘snapshot’ of the contents of a disc, the format and the exact layout.
The most important thing when working with disc images is you are sure you have formatted them correctly. Failing to do this will result in any discs made from them to be faulty. If there is any doubt, or you are new to this area, ask for help and advice. We have a team here who are available for email, phone or online chat and will be very happy to help and advise you.
ISOnrg
An .iso image is a computer file that is an exact copy of an existing file system. ISO files are typically created through a software application that will extract the contents of a CD or DVD, and then write then as an exact electronic copy of the original disc to a file (a .iso file). This allows us to burn to burn an exact copy of the original onto CD or DVD.
Iso files are perfectly acceptable for CD-Rom and DVD-Video, but should not be used for CD-Audio due to technical restrictions
IMG
This format is very similar to a .ISO image with a few subtle changes and features which are beyond the scope of this article. For our purpose they can be used the same as an ISO, but more in depth information can be found in this article should you wish to learn more.
Like ISO files, .img should not be used for CD-Audio discs.
NRG
These files are a relatively new proprietary optical disc image file format. NRG files are used in the same way as other image formats, but are a more advanced and very versatile.
NRG files can be used for any type and format of disc, CD-ROM, CD-Audio, DVD-Video, Blu-Ray, etc.
DDP
This stands for Disc Description Protocol and is commonly used for delivery of disc pre-masters for commercial Glass Master Replication. The DDP format is compatible with all CD and DVD discs and is the industry professional format used in mass manufacture of discs. Although becoming more common, its a relatively unknown format used mainly within the optical media industry for transporting discs electronically between production facility’s and mastering houses.
DDP files can be accepted the same as all other listed image formats for duplication, but are not a specific requirement in any way. Further more detailed information on this format is available here.
Bin/Cue
This is a versatile image file format particularly useful for CD-Audio. The consist of two files,
- a binary data file (.bin file), This is the raw data of a disc, a solid block of information with no organisation.
- a Cue sheet (.cue file). This is a descriptive file, used to give structure and organisation to the raw binary (.bin) file.
Each of the Bin & Cue files are meaningless on their own, and must be provided together with their specific and matchingpartner, never mixed or edited. Further information of this file type can be found here.
Next week we will look at Audio files …….
Make Money with Merchandise : 2nd March 2023
Thursday, March 2nd, 2023What better way to give your fans something to remember a special gig, than to sell them an EP or Full Album of your songs.
Our single card wallets are a really good option for the packaging, as they are professional quality but very inexpensive for you to buy from us.
You can easily sell these on for £5 …or £10 and get a great margin.
Even if your fans don’t have a cd player, they will love to buy a signed cd, to support you and have the memory of a great night.
With bespoke artwork that you design, our single card wallets are printed on 350gsm FSC Certified and sustainable silk finish card.
We have an artwork creation tool you can download to help you.
Everything you need is in our artwork section:
https://www.duplicationcentre.co.uk/artwork.html
If you have any questions please email una@duplicationcentre.co.uk, and i’ll be very happy to help you .
Selling your CDs: February 1st 2023
Wednesday, February 1st, 2023Merchandise sales are one of the best ways to help boost your funds.
Fans will happily buy your cd’s ( even if they have already downloaded it ) just to get a signature and a momento of a great night.
Our single card wallets with colour print,packed with your B&W or Colour Print CD, are amazing value and allow you to sell them at a really affordable price to your fans.
Have a look for the full spec of these wallets in our instant prices. Just hover your mouse over the image of the single card wallet.
Christmas CD’s and DVD’s: 6th December 2022
Tuesday, December 6th, 2022We are really enjoying all the Christmas CD’s and DVD’s that you are sending to us to duplicate.
If you need any help with your artwork or with ordering, please email or call and we will be happy to help you.
Christmas CD’s & DVD’s: 25th November 2022
Friday, November 25th, 2022
Christmas CD’s & DVD’s are a great way to bring some happiness to your friends, fans & family!
We have a very fast turnaround,even at this busy time of year so call us if you want some help or advice on getting some CD DVD or BLU-RAY duplication for Christmas.
Merchandise for Christmas:10th November 2022
Thursday, November 10th, 2022
Merchandise is such an important way for you to give your fans something to take home after a gig.
It thankfully also gives you a way to make a little extra money.
It really isn’t too early to think about getting stocked up for sales of your CD’s and DVD’s at gigs, in the run up to Christmas.
If you need any help or advice with any aspect of ordering or the preparation of your artwork and content give us a call, email or come on to live chat.
Our phones come direct to us here in the office and production room so you can speak to someone who knows our processes and will really be able to assist you . Call us on 01702 530354 or email : una@duplicationcentre.co.uk
We will be very happy to help and advise you.