Whether you are trying to get your first big break in the music business, sell a computer game you’ve created, or trying to mass produce training manuals for your employees; depending on the quantity of discs you need, you will want to look into either duplication or the services of a CD Rom Replication firm. There are three basic choices you can make and which you choose will depend on the number of CDs you need and how fast you need them. Your first choice would be to burn the data yourself, while this may be the most inexpensive choice; it comes with several draw backs. Quality will always be an important consideration and depending on what you are trying to duplicate there is the chance that you will not be able to achieve the quality you want duplicating your project yourself. Another factor is time, duplicating your own CDs is very slow, and if you have a lot of CDs to copy it may not be feasible to do it yourself.
Cost is your other consideration; a large quantity of CDs is best done by the CD Rom replication method to keep your costs low. Your second choice is to hire a firm to duplicate your CD for you as opposed to CD Rom replication. Duplication is basically the same as you burning your own CD only with much better, faster equipment and well trained people, ensuring a top quality product. With this method a pre-made CD that has already had your art work printed on it, is burned with your data and then packaged for final distribution. This method is the fastest method of all, and offers the quickest turn around; suitable for smaller orders of 1500 CDs or less this is your best choice if you are in a hurry or only a few CDs.
Your final choice is CD Rom replication. This method entails making a glass master copy of your disc, a process that can take up to 3 days, slowing down the turn-around time considerably. The resulting master is used to stamp out CDs out of a poly carbonate sheet, and the resulting CDs are then printed with your design and packaged. The main advantage of this method is cost for larger orders. If your order is 1000 CDs or more you may find that it is considerably cheaper per disc to have your CD replicated. This can also affect the cost of future re-orders of the same CD. Since there is virtually no difference in quality between CD Rom replication and the duplication method the choice really comes down to the number of CDs you will need and how fast you need them. If you anticipate needing more CDs down the road you should also take this into consideration as having a glass master could speed up the process and lower the cost of future orders. If you are looking for a company that specializes in CD Rom replication then take a look at CD Technical with the fastest turnaround times, superior quality and a full range of services they can take care of your project and give it the attention and effort it deserves