Pre-printed blank CDs

[Dark Eyed Junko]

It's time to put out a CD that I can sell at gigs, to supplement the tip jar. I'm not looking to invest too much in it, though. I'm recording and mastering it at home, but I'd like some fairly presentable discs and covers to package it all in (i.e., more than just a Memorex CD-R with felt marker writing on it).

So here's my question: does anyone have a good resource for getting either pre-printed blank CDs or labels? I found several sites online that advertise pre-printed silkscreened blank discs, which sounds great, but they all require me to download some templates in pdf format, design them while staying within certain parameters, and then reupload them, blah blah blah. Frankly, it's spinning my head around.

I know there are several sites that let you design business cards directly online that are very intuitive and convenient. You upload a background image, add text, move things around, and you can see everything as you're doing it. Once your satisfied with you're creation, you press submit, pay for it, and they arrive in the mail ten days later. Isn't there anything like that for pre-printed CDs or labels?

Any guidance is appreciated.

[muscmp]

have you thought of creating your own? i realize that is the most difficult part but once you have your design you can use roxio (toast for mac) or( ez cd creator, or whatever the pc version is now called) to set it up for printing your own. you can either use pre-printed cds or labels that you will attach to the cds.
hope this helps!

[KevWind]

The only potential problem with attaching a printed label to a cd is some players particularly thin lap top computers, may not have enough clearence to play a CD that has a label on the surface.

[Dark Eyed Junko]

One problem with printing my own is that it would take a lot of colored ink. I plan on burning quite a few, and to print out labels for each one would drain ink cartridges for my poor little printer pretty quickly. Plus, I doubt they would come out as sharp as professionally printed ones.

[wagtail]

I'm not sure what you mean by "quite a few" or how much you want to explore doing this yourself. I have an Epson Artisan 810 ($259) which comes with software for simple designs of CD's as well as CD inserts. I did not think the results would be professional enough but the images are clear and the colors are nice and saturated. You can print right on the surface of printable CD's (labels are not really too much of a loading problem but they are difficult to print and mount accurately, so I don't recommend them). There is a little bit of a learning curve but the results are very good, especially if you have any art design experience.

I print up about 35 at a time and the ink consumption is significant but still cheaper than having the CD's made (and you don't have to order such large quantities).

The other consideration is if you would really rather put time into your music, this is another distraction from getting songs done.

[ferg]

Jumbo,

I'm in the same boat. I can probably handle the templates, but, frankly, would rather not. I basically want a CD to put into a press kit, but I'm recording and mastering at home as you are, and I don't want to fork out for actual replication.

I want a small number of discs (like 100 to start), and I may want to actually change what's on it down the road, or dump parts (if I were to say, dump my percussionist), etc, etc.

[ferg]

I found this place:

http://mixonic.com

That has an online designer that's very easy to use. They're not super cheap (100 discs for $120), and I have no experience with them, so I'm not endorsing them, but their designer is nice.

[Dark Eyed Junko]

Originally Posted by ferg

I found this place:

http://mixonic.com

That has an online designer that's very easy to use. They're not super cheap (100 discs for $120), and I have no experience with them, so I'm not endorsing them, but their designer is nice.

Thanks, ferg. That's exactly what I'm talking about. Now I just have to finish recording the friggin album! Do you have a site that will do that for me, too?

[ferg]

Originally Posted by Dark Eyed Junko

Thanks, ferg. That's exactly what I'm talking about. Now I just have to finish recording the friggin album! Do you have a site that will do that for me, too?

http://nashvilletracks.com/recording.cfm

I'm half-joking, but the before-and-after samples are pretty impressive. You send them a demo, they record it full-band style with session players, and then you supply the vocals.

This isn't something I've seriously considered, though for what it is, the prices aren't bad. If you join their "club", the recording's $350 / track. I do know some people who have used them, but these are people who stand more to gain than I do...

[ferg]

I just found that they have the same sort of designer (maybe the same place, ultimately) at http://discdirect.samashmusic.com

I just ordered 100 blank CDs that are just printed black on silver with my logo for about $90. Then I just orded some of those paper envelopes with the clear window from Amazon.com for $5.

So (after shipping) a little over $100 for 100 CDs that I can use, as I mentioned primarily for Press Kits...I'll drop one of our business cards in the CD envelope and hand it out.

I should have them in a couple weeks. I'll post back here when I do.

[ferg]

Got the CDs today...I'm pretty happy with them. The black-on-silver printing is flashy, but looks semi-pro. As I mentioned, I'll drop these into the paper sleeves with the clear window with a couple of business cards, and, there ya go - mini-press-kit for about $1 each.

Here's a photo - not sure how much this really tells you. I had to shoot without a flash due to the reflective nature of the discs.

[Dark Eyed Junko]

Now we're cooking with gas on the front burner. Thanks, ferg.