What do I need to do before sending a master cd off for mass duplication?

[infiniteposse]

Hi all-

I'm determined to finish up a LP I've been working on for far too long now. I've gotten everything mixed and I've done mastering that'll be good enough for my immediate needs using Emagic/Apple Waveburner and the UAD-1 precision limiter at a moderate setting just to get program levels relatively even. It sounds great when I burn copy's onto normal consumer CD-r's.

I'm unsure if I need to use any special feature in Waveburner or any special kind of media before sending the album off for mass duplication. I've always had mastering houses do this part of things and create glass masters for me in the past and I don't believe that's something I have the capability of doing at home on the Mac, but to be honest I'm not sure of that at all... I just want to be be confident that whatever I send out isn't going to be more prone to errors or something hideous like that.

Any wise thoughts here before dropping anything into the mail? It's not the ninth hour yet and I can take time to make sure I send off something they can work with reliably.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Be well-

Lee

[djui5]

You need to have the error rates on you disks checked. If you are consistentially making disks that the factory will reject, then you need to send the files to a mastering engineer and have them make you a dup plant disk.

The dup plants can make "glass masters"

[Jay Kahrs]

It's also a good idea to print out the PQ list and send that along with the disc. Put your contact information on everything, mark the disc as "master", try to avoid getting your thumb print on there and FedEx it off!

[Darius van H]

And don't forget to listen to the whole MASTER on headphones before sending it off!

[infiniteposse]

Excellent advice all around guys. Many thanks. I need to really go over Waveburner and see what provisions it makes for printing up PQ lists and error checking and the like. Hopefully it'll do all of that.

I'm so over listening to these songs that the last suggestion of listening to clicks will pain me, but less so than finding out that a click on 1 disc becomes 500 clicks

Thanks again.

[AlexLakis]

Yes, PQ lists are good, also, make sure you use a program that makes "red book quality" CDs, as there are generally standard requirements for CDs at duplication places (such as a 2 second pause before the first track, among other things).

[jpupo74]

Originally Posted by infiniteposse

I'm so over listening to these songs that the last suggestion of listening to clicks will pain me, but less so than finding out that a click on 1 disc becomes 500 clicksThanks again.

[infiniteposse]

Quick question - I've just gone through the WB PDF manual and while it does say it can burn Redbook discs, it doesn't have any mention of PQ Lists. If this isn't a function of the app, is there something I should manually assemble to accomplish the same thing? I seem to remember from my last LP the list being a highly detailed list of start and end times, which sounds heavy to do by hand. Is it a make or break kind of thing?

Thx

[AlexLakis]

Yes, it is a detailed list of track start and end times (down to the sample level, I believe). Most duplication places do not require them, I include them by default just for posterity.