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Yes. Furnace MFG will replicate your discs from a direct transfer of your supplied source master. By delivering your source master "ready to go," our staff can immediately enter your project into the production queue, which will greatly decrease your turnaround time. On the other hand, if you are not happy with the quality of your master or need some editing done to get it to meet your exact standards, Furnace MFG's in-house mastering team is ready to help. Please contact one of our account representatives to get more information.
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The manufactured CDs you receive from Furnace MFG will sound, function and play exactly like the PMCD you receive from your mastering house.
There are a few steps you should take to ensure your CD replication project sounds as good as possible:
- Have your mastering house create at least 2 PMCDs for you to take home so you have a backup.
- Have your mastering house add the P & Q codes CD Text (if you are interested in that feature) and frame accurate SMPTE time sheet. Include a copy of the time sheet when you send your master to Furnace MFG.
- Thoroughly proof your masters to make sure they sound exactly like you want your replicated CDs to sound, but be sure to handle your masters extremely carefully in order to prevent wear and tear of your production masters.
- Make sure the PMCD you send us is extremely clean and free of scratches.
- Send your master in protective packaging in order to avoid damage during shipping and keep your second PMCD in good condition in case something happens to your first one.
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Creating an audio master at home can be problematic due to the various qualities in CD-burners, blank media and file formats available in the home market. That being said, there are a few steps you can take to help minimize problems.
- Make sure to use good quality media. Bargain-bin media is almost always B or C grade media and not recommended for master creation.
- Set your burner speed to 16X or less. The ultra fast burners (52x+) found in home computers today are great for burning data but terrible for burning audio. The maximum safe speed for audio burning on any home burner is 16X. At higher speeds your disc may play on your stereo, but will likely contain too many errors to be used as a master.
- The slower the burning speed for your master, the less errors and error corrections it will contain and the better your replicated CDs will sound. For best results, use a burn speed of 8X or less.
- Make sure to burn AIFF files. This is the format used in retail audio CDs and the most universally playable format.
- Make sure to close/finish the session when you burn your master (burn disc at once instead of track at once). Most home software gives you the option of closing/finishing the session or leaving the session open (allowing for more data to be added later). Discs with open/unfinished sessions cannot be used as audio masters since they will create playability issues in the finished product. In the most popular software application (Roxio’s Toast), this translates to burning a disc as opposed to burning a session.
- Make sure your burner/software conforms to Red-Book standards for audio (set forth by the IEC). Burners/software that conform to data standards don’t necessarily conform to audio standards.
- Most stand-alone component burners (the kind normally hooked up directly to a stereo) do not conform to those standards. While they may produce a disc that can be played on most machines, they will not produce a disc good enough to be used as a master. Whether you use a computer burner and software or a stand-alone burner, make sure it can produce master quality disks including the appropriate formatting.
- Once you create a master, carefully listen to it only once. If it meets your expectations, place it in a safe container and do not open it again. The less you play and handle the disc, the less dirt and scratches it will have.
- Always burn and send 2 copies of homemade masters. That can save you time and money in case one of your discs does not pass quality assurance testing.
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Yes. Furnace MFG accepts mastered DAT (Digital Audio Tape) tapes as source masters. However, Furnace will need to create and have you approve a copy of the digital conversion on CD-R before we begin the replication of your CD. This process will add 2-3 days to the turnaround time of your project, and standard audio conversions will apply. When the information on the DAT is converted, Furnace adds the SMPTE time and P&Q programming codes to your disc. Please check this reference master very thoroughly because your replicated CDs will sound, function and play exactly like your reference master.
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This depends on how your master was created. There are software applications that encode "CD Text" onto your audio PMCD (Pre-mastered CD) master. Ask your studio if they can provide this service while they burn your final master. If they are unable to offer this service, Furnace can add CD Text to your master for a one time fee of $50.00. This CD Text (which can include song, album and artist information) will appear on all CD Text equipped CD Players. CD Text is sometimes confused with the web-based Compact Disc Data Base (CDDB) that is integrated into most software jukeboxes such as iTunes and Windows Media Player. These players search the CDDB database for the musical "fingerprint" of the album or song they are playing. This information is then downloaded to your computer and displayed in your music player's browser window. The CDDB does not require the presence of CD Text on the disc. It only requires that the disc is submitted with all of the song and album information directly through the CDDB website or through some advanced media player menu option. >> Which one is right for you? CD Text will work with or without an Internet connection since the information is supplied on the master. CDDB requires an Internet connection to search for the digital fingerprint. You make the choice and Furnace MFG will make it happen.
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We guarantee all of our work to meet your exact standards. Therefore, if there are any issues during conversion and your reference master does not sound exactly like the source material provided to us, we will gladly fix it for you at no additional cost. However, if you want to change or edit any of your tracks for artistic purposes, or would like to fix issues that were present in your source material, then our standard mastering fees will apply.
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Once a PMCD is approved for production, glass mastering is the first step toward the replication of your CDs or DVDs. In this stage, pre-mastered audio (including PQ subcode, DDP and disc Table of Contents) is transferred via a Laser Beam Recorder (LBR) to a glass substrate over an extremely thin layer of photoresist (i.e. film) on the surface. The LBR copies your information onto the glass by exposing small portions of the film. These exposed surfaces on the film represent data bits, which are easily read by CD players. When the glass master is completed, it is run through an electroforming process where a more durable representation of your data is created onto metal (the stamper.). Stampers go on to press or mold your audio disc into polycarbonate (plastic).
All glass mastering fees are included in your quote from Furnace MFG.
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