CD Replication vs. CD Duplication: Which is Right For You?

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When it comes to pressing your new album to CD you’re faced with the choice between CD replication and CD duplication. Both pressing formats have their attributes and advantages, so it comes down to which works best for your album and distribution plan. Let’s break it down for you!

CD Replication (AKA CD Pressing)

If you’re serious about your next album and you want the presentation to be as important as the music itself, CD replication is the way to go. CD replication uses a glass master disc for professional mass production. The underside of the disc is a reflective silver, just like the major label CDs you buy at record stores. Our silkscreen CD printing can handle any variation of colours, but even just two colours is enough to make your disc pop. We also apply an AQ gloss to the disc so you won’t leave behind smudges or fingerprints when taking your CD in and out of its case. You can even personalize your discs by adding “pit art” to the unused section of the disc underside.

In other words, if you or your band want to make a big impression, CD replication is the way to go. It is the standard for major label releases and goes a long way in illustrating that you’re in for a professionally produced listening experience. As the lasers on CD and DVD players tend to age and disrupt playback, replicated discs are much more reliable for weak lasers and older disc players. CD replication gives the respect your fans deserve by granting clean and glitch-free playback whether at home or on the car stereo.

Get professional pressing with CD replication

CD Duplication

If you’re looking for a small run of CDs to sell as merch at live shows, say less than 250 copies, then we recommend CD duplication. Using your 44.1 kHz / 16-bit lossless files as a master, we duplicate your CDs by hand, undergoing quality assurance checks to make sure there are no transferred errors. Alternatively we accept master discs in lieu of WAV files, wherein we run scans to make sure the disc is clean and safe to duplicate. We duplicate using high quality CD-Rs with a light-green underside, much superior to the discs you would find at your local electronics stores which are prone to errors.

CD Duplication and CD replication have the same packaging options, but for the most bang for your buck take a look at our 2-panel cardboard sleeves. With full colour print on both front and back of the packaging, the lightweight design of the 2-panel sleeves are perfect for touring and bringing from one venue to another. If you need extra space for artwork or liner notes, upgrade to our 4-panel cardboard sleeves or Digipaks, which open up like a book and add two spaces for additional artwork.

CD duplication is also ideal for short-run discs that are intended as promo or giveaways. If you’re distributing PDF files at a conference or sending demo discs to radio stations, sometimes a simple paper sleeve with a window is enough, which you can order from our bulk packaging CD duplication page.

Distribute CDs on a budget with CD duplication

Whichever method you choose, Duplication.com promises excellent quality on printing and pressing with every order. We’ve been pressing and duplicating compact discs for decades, with an eye for detail and extra attention to quality assurance. We’re always happy to answer questions, so don’t be afraid to shoot us an email or give us a call at 1-800-777-1927.

Harmonized Codes for Cassettes, CDs, Vinyl, and physical media!

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Closing a cassette mailer

Although the future of Trump’s tariffs now seems uncertain, they are still being enforced and wildly changing the landscape of music distribution. Last week we highlighted that all forms of duplication, pressing, and printed goods are safe from tariffs under the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, a big sigh of relief for us, and for all the North American labels and bands we work with.

While everything has been figured out on our end, you may still have a bit of trouble navigating customs when it comes to your own distribution methods. For example, many international postal services have halted shipments to the United States in response to the tariffs. And how is the typical Canadian bedroom artist supposed to navigate the complexities of U.S. customs when shipping a cassette to a Bandcamp buyer? We’re here to highlight some tips and solutions to making your shipments smoother and safer.

Learn Your Harmonized Codes

Harmonized codes (HS codes) are an internationally recognized system for identifying different product types within the context of free trade. In other words, writing “cassette” in your item description may be a bit vague, but adding the correct harmonized code will tell the custom agent (or AI bot) exactly what your package consists of. This takes a way a lot of the guesswork, and will hopefully move your package through a bit quicker.

Here are a few harmonized codes you may need—

  • Audio cassettes: 8523.29.4010
  • CDs: 8523.49.3000
  • Vinyl records: 8523.80.1000
  • Printed vinyl jackets and sleeves: 4819.50.3000
  • Printed cardboard CD jackets: 4819.50.4060
  • Printed inserts, folders, and booklets: 4911.99.8000
  • DVDs: 8523.49.5000
  • VHS tapes: 8523.29.60
  • USB keys: 8523.51.90

Country of Origin Documentation

To make things a little more official, we’ve gone ahead and created a form declaring the country of origin and media type for your shipment. Just print out the form and highlight or circle the type of product you’re shipping. This form is only good for products manufactured by Duplication.com!

Download ‘Country of Origin’ Documentation
Made in Canada printed on cassette

Country of Origin Markings on Packages: Ya Gotta Do It

Given that we’re likely to see a massive influx in package inspections, you’ll want to start taking the country of origin markings seriously. The country of origin (i.e. “Made in Canada”) must be visibly marked on the exterior of your printed package. You can add this in any artistic form you’d like, as long as it’s clean and legible. We also have stickers we can place on ploybags, shrinkwrap, and overwrap. This has been the law for decades now, and while it may have gone unnoticed for a long time, we suspect it will be enforced more and more in the future.

Download our ‘Country of Origin’ icons and images

What if You Can’t Ship to the United States?

In response to the end of the de minimis rule, over 30 countries have halted shipments to the United States. This makes shipping Australian punk or Thai death metal albums to American fans a little difficult, to say the least. One solution is to seek out American distros that are interested in carrying your releases. When you order through Duplication.com we can split the shipment, sending a certain amount of stock to your doorstep and the remaining amount to the distro. Now your American fans can order from the distro, you collect your cut, and you don’t even have to visit the post office!

Keep making music! Grab duplicated cassettes in real-time or high-speed recording

Design Your Artwork the Right Way: A Guide to Print-Ready Files

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Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come cassette artwork

We’re always looking for ways to make your Duplication.com orders more efficient. After all, you filled out the cassette duplication quote form, or purchased printed goods from the online shop, now you just want the product in your hands! We’ve realized that back-and-forth emails about album artwork has a tendency to slow down order production, which is why we thought it would be a good idea to share some pointers on how to optimize your album artwork design and delivery!

“Where do I upload my files?”

The age old question. The answer is pretty simple though: after you submit a quote request or buy a product from the online store, you will see an upload link on the file confirmation page. If you missed that, you’ll also find it in the confirmation email. This link will send you to your private FTP folder where you can upload both your audio files and artwork files. It’s best to zip the audio files and artwork files as separate folders, with easy to understand file names.

Have a Nice Life - Sea of Worry cassette artwork template

The Art of Print-Ready

A print-ready file is exactly as it sounds: a digital file that’s formatted correctly and ready to print without the need of further adjustments. Here’s a short checklist:

✅ The file should be in CMYK color mode
✅ 300dpi resolution
✅ Fonts are either embedded or converted to outlines
✅ Bleed has been added to ensure that there’s no white trim around the image
✅ Export to a PDF format (Photoshop users: export as Photoshop PDF)
✅ It’s helpful for us for you to label the file with the application you used (ex. jcard-front-photoshop.pdf)
✅ For templates such as J-cards, CD covers, etc., please provide us with two files: one with the template lines, and one without the template lines.

Save As Adobe PDF

This may seem like a lot to a first-time designer, but we promise you that this is the industry standard for printers worldwide. If you follow this checklist, we most likely won’t need to hound you with questions, revisions, or the dreaded resubmission fee.

Made in Canada sticker for Terrorvision's The Rock-afire Explosion cassette

Country of Origin markings

If you open the newspaper you may be surprised to learn that shipping items across the border is an absolute freakshow right now. Fortunately we’ve got things settled and figured out on our end (check out our post about that for some very useful info!), but there’s something we need from your end: the ‘Made in Canada’ marking.

While we have an Ohio production facility, the majority of our print is still currently coming from our Toronto factory. This means it’s necessary to add ‘Made in Canada’ or ‘Manufactured in Canada’ to the outside of your package. It used to be that a batch of 100 cassettes could pass through the border uninspected, but given the tariff madness, those days are behind us. Don’t be a fool, don’t have your package sent back, just add the marking!

Now there’s a number of subtle ways to do this: you can always design your artwork to include “Made in Canada”. Use whatever font you want, and at whatever size, as long as it’s legible and visible in the exterior package. You shouldn’t have to squint or use a magnifying glass to see the text.

We also have stickers that can be placed on the package or the shrinkwrap. In fact, if you add shrinkwrap and Made in Canada (MIC) stickers, by default we’ll be placing the stickers on top of the shrinkwrap unless requested otherwise. Stickers are available in black or white print, and the option will be added to the cassette duplication form soon, just hold tight!

Now you’re ready to order cassette duplication with printed artwork and packaging!
CD sleeves and wallets are printed in-house using digital or offset press

Digital or offset print: which is right for you?

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First-time users and who are learning the ropes tend to have the same question when ordering printed artwork: what’s the difference between digital print and offset print? While they both are impressive in their own rights, there is quite a bit of distinction, and it’s worth taking a moment to educate yourself on the subject before placing an order!

Digital Print

If you’re ordering less than 300 copies of a CD wallet, J-card, or other printed material, it will likely be printed using our digital press. Digital print works a lot like your home digital printer, wherein rollers apply colored toner to a sheet of paper, and heat fuses the image with the sheet. But unlike your home printer (unless you’re living in an industrial printing facility) our digital press prints at a higher resolution with richer CMYK colors than your typical consumer models. Its inexpensive start-up costs allow for affordable short-runs prints while still maintaining a high quality output.

Feeding the metal plate into the offset press

Offset Print

High volume and high quality, the offset press is the golden standard for the printing industry. Far more complex than digital printing, an offset press requires metal plates with an etched design to apply ink to paper. Offset printing is typically used for larger runs (over 500 pieces), though through a custom quote you can request offset printing for shorter editions. Advantages include sharper and cleaner images, as well as the use of pantone colours allowing for greater colour accuracy. For cassette J-cards, offset print can be paired with our uncoated Cougar™ Super Smooth stock. You may want to consider this option due to it’s ultra high quality resolution and richer colours. Graphic designers and printers should accept no substitute!

Order J-cards in digital or offset print with cassette duplication

CD sleeves and wallets are printed in-house using the digital or offset press!

Guide to Preparing Double-Sided or Multi-Page Files for Print

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Double-sided vinyl foldover printing

Nothing makes us happier than receiving print-ready art files. This saves you time from having to redesign files, saves us time from emailing you a list of issues, and it gets your album or artwork out the door and in your hands quicker. You may be wondering what’s the best way to prepare double-sided or multi-page artwork files for print. Great question, here’s a quick summary:

1) Download the correct templates

Template downloads page

This will always be the first step for any artwork tutorial. Download the templates off of our site, as they are sized to our printing standards and products. Make sure you download the latest template, not just the one that’s been sitting in your Documents folder for two years!

2) Add art in a separate layer

Artwork in separate layer from templates

Most templates will have two visible layers: one that’s marked for Templates, and one that’s marked for Art. Please design using the Art layer in CMYK. If you don’t see an Art layer, create a new layer.

You can begin designing your artwork. Some templates, like our cassette J-cards, will have a file for the front cover and another file for the back cover. The template may also include a file specifically for Adobe Illustrator users where front and back covers are spread across two pages.

3) Save files twice, with and without the template lines

You’ll have to hit Save As two times per page. Once with the template layer visible, and once with the template layer disabled.

STEPS 4 AND 5 APPLY TO ADOBE PHOTOSHOP USERS,
ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR USERS CAN SKIP TO STEP 6

4) Open PDF Presentation

Have your front cover or first page file open. Click on File -> Automate -> PDF Presentation.

5) Add files

PDF Presentation

Here you can add files that are currently open in Photoshop, or browse to search for saved files. Make sure you’ve selected Multi-Page Document under the ‘Save As’ option.

Click ‘Save’. You’ll again have to do this twice: once with all the files that have template lines enabled, and once with the files that have template lines disabled.

6) Save as a PDF/X-1a:2001

Save as a PDF/X-1a:2001

The final step! Just use the settings you see above. Most important is that the Adobe Preset is set to PDF/X-1a:2001.

That’s all you need to prepare your artwork! Leave the rest to us, and soon you’ll have high-quality artwork or packaging for your new album. We use digital press for small runs and super high-quality offset press for larger runs and by request. You can find all of our printed products in our online shop.

Get Quick Turnaround on Printed 12” Vinyl Jackets

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The online shop offers everything you need for a 12” vinyl release, from innersleeves to mailers to even vinyl pressing itself. One of our biggest sellers are digitally printed 12” vinyl jackets, done in stunning full-color CMYK with spine. As tour season approaches, we understand you may be pressed for time, so we’re now offering 3-week and 4-week rush orders!

Our vinyl jackets were previously only available with economy turntime. This would allow us to gang-up orders as to keep costs low, with a turntime of 6 to 8 weeks before shipping. While the price was right, this isn’t always an ideal scenario for musicians, thus we’ve included easy-to-add rush options for either 3-week or 4-week turnaround before shipping. No need to contact a sales rep, just select your turnaround time and you’re good to go.

Turntime only begins once print-ready files are received. A print-ready file needs to be submitted using our template, with artwork layers merged and proper bleed. For even more stunning print jobs you can upgrade to our offset press.

Order digitally printed vinyl jackets and have them ready in as soon as 3 weeks!

Need more than just the vinyl jacket? Need the whole vinyl pressing package? Get everything in one swoop with our vinyl pressing combo deals! These include the vinyl color of your choice, printed jacket, innersleeve, insert, and shrinkwrapped assembly. We have two different pressing methods: the standard packages used with a 2-step stamper and lacquer, and our Quick 1-Step packages which are done with MVM pressing and a 1-step stamper. The latter gives you lightning quick turnaround— an estimated 6 to 8 weeks before shipping— with a minimum order of just 50 copies!

Order 7” or 12” vinyl pressing from Duplication.com

Minimize the Sounds of Silence with Custom-Loaded Blank Tapes

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Our blank cassette page offers over 78 different shell colors, and your choice of cassette length! But what if you want to get very specific with how long your cassette should be per side? A little known secret is that you can request a specific custom-length in the ‘notes’ section of your order, that way your cassette isn’t swimming in empty space. In this email we’ll tell you how, along with important information you should keep in mind before ordering.

The Customer Notes section can be found in the checkout stage of your order. In the case of the image above, I want the cassette to be 23:30 per side. The length selector on the blank tapes product page can be changed by increments of minutes, so in this scenario I would be requesting a 48 minute tape (24 minutes per side.) With this customer note, the empty space on the cassette will be minimized. The time length per side should be based on the length of your longest master (i.e. if Side A is longer than Side B, base your length on Side A.)

Now, the following is important:

1) You should add 7 seconds of silence at both the beginning and end of each side.
This will eliminate the risk of audio being cut off by the leader or a cassette that’s simply not long enough. So when you’re calculating the length you need, add minimum 14 seconds.

Speed calibration test tape from Duplication.ca

2) Each cassette deck has a different playback or recording speed, and some are slower than others.
A variance of 1% won’t make a huge difference for a 5 minute tape, that’s about 3 seconds total, but it will make a big difference for a 60 minute tape (36 whole seconds!) That said, the longer the tape, the more extra time you should add. For those who want to venture inside your cassette deck and do some fine tuning, we sell speed calibration tapes in the online store, along with other maintenance tools to optimize your setup.

3) Don’t expect exact precision, don’t expect perfection.
Your calculations can be within the ballpark but there are too many variants to consider for a to-the-second result. Even our tape loader equipment, as well maintained and finely tuned as they are, are subject to slight variance. You should always estimate for more time rather than less. With exception of errors in manufacturing, our blank cassettes are final sale.

So if your cassette is just a bit over the minute increment and you don’t want 50+ seconds of silence at the end of each side, these are some steps you can take to minimize the empty space. From there, it’s up to you on how you’d like to fill up your tape!

Order blank cassettes with your choice of length today

When Do You Need”Double Hit” Pad Print on Cassettes?

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Team Mekano cassette with pad print

Longtime users of our outstanding cassette duplication services have no doubt noticed that a “double hit” option appears when selecting pad print artwork. We often receive questions from clients asking what “double hit” pad print entails and when it’s appropriate for their artwork. Here’s a breakdown:

Single hit and double hit pad print

“Single hit” and “double hit” applies to how many times we machine-stamp the cassette with your artwork, “single hit” being the standard. So as you may have already surmised, applying a double hit stamp will give your ink colour more opaqueness and vibrancy. This is especially important when you’re stamping a light ink color on a dark color cassette shell, such as white ink on a black cassette. The more, the better.

There are a couple of caveats to this approach. First, since more ink is laid down, thin lines may appear thicker or narrow gaps between the artwork may be filled with spreading ink. If you have thin lines in your pad print artwork, you may want to forego a double hit. Secondly, there are a number of inks that aren’t particularly opaque to begin with, and a double hit won’t change the ink vibrancy against a dark cassette shell. These inks include Brilliant Blue, Magenta, Yellow Lemon Citron, and Violet. (Orange is also not very opaque when used with single hit, but actually benefits greatly with double hit.)

List of pad print colors

The solution here isn’t to just settle with single hit, but to request a white base layer instead. Let’s say you want magenta against a black cassette shell: we will first lay down your artwork using white ink, and then again using magenta ink. This allows the magenta to pop out and shine against the black cassette shell as if you were printing it on a white cassette shell. White base layers are available by special request, at $25 CAD plus $.18 per hit, allowing for much more vibrant pad print at a low individual cost increase.

Order cassette duplication with vibrant pad print artwork today!

Tips and Tricks for Home Printing

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If you release your cassettes DIY style, then you’re surely no stranger to our blank printed material. From sticker labels to blank J-cards, Duplication.ca provides you with the sheets and templates needed to turn your home setup into a printing press.

Every now and then we receive a question on our live chat service asking for help with printing at home. We thought it would be a good idea to run through a short list of helpful tips to make your DIY experience a smoother process!

J-card templates from Duplication.ca

Use Our Templates

First and foremost, we design our blank printing products using our template sizing, so that means you should be using our templates as well. If you purchase sheets of cassette sticker labels but use a random template you found on Google you may find that the sizing will be completely off! Templates for audio cassettes can be found here, and all other template types can be found on this page. The product page for your item, for example this sheet of J-cards, also includes a link to the template.

It’s best to open the templates with Photoshop, Illustrator, or GiMP, as they often contain layers.

Click here to view our templates
How to print cassette labels and J-Cards

Do Not Resize

When designing or readying for print, do not crop or resize the template, or stretch the template to fit your artwork. It’s important that the template is printed as is, so that includes the settings in your printing options.

You will want to make sure that the scale is set to 100% under ‘Scaled Print Size’, and ‘Scale to Fit Media’ is unchecked.

Add bleed to your cassette labels and J-Cards

Add Bleed and Title Safety to Your Image

Consumer printers are prone to misalignment and movement. The cheaper the price and build of a printer the more it will shake when printing, meaning precise down-to-the-millimeter print alignment may not always be possible. This is why you add bleed to your image, so if there is slight movement you won’t be treated to an ugly white line of empty space. A hairline of empty space may go unnoticed by a good number of your fans but it will absolutely drive you crazy knowing it’s there! The standard bleed amount is an extra .125” of image from the template line.

Same goes with a title safety area. You shouldn’t be placing text right at the edge of the template lines, because if there’s any movement you’re risking the text being partially cut off. Suddenly your solo noise project RAT LOTION reads as AT LOTION, and your labels are ruined!

My Printer is a Hunk of Junk and it’s Not Working!

If you still find that there’s significant misalignment, one trick is to move the artwork in your photo editing software to make up for the shifting. That may be tricky and take a few tries, which is why we recommend ordering extra sheets for tests and contingency.

Your local print shop is surrounded by printer issues day and night, so they will likely understand what you’re trying to accomplish. Drop off your sheets and your files on USB and they can give it a shot.

Duplication.ca’s pressing plant is working around the clock to get your print orders looking bright and gorgeous. If you want to keep it DIY, hit us up on our live chat (the green bubble on the bottom right corner of the Duplication.ca website) and let us know your issues, we’ll do our best to help. If you want high quality printed products without the pain and anguish of your 12 year old Canon printer spouting errors, we can print your J-cards, stickers, and all other material using our high quality digital press (or ultra high-quality offset press) with thick and durable cardstock.

Order cassette duplication with full colour printing

Top Music Picks of January 2024

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A true joy of working at a music plant is having a top-down view of what’s going on in underground music all across the world. Everyday I give myself a moment to grab a random cassette or CD and check out what’s on it, learn a bit about the band, maybe get a sense of what the punk scene is like in Winnipeg or club culture in Minneapolis. Here are a few choice albums I had the pleasure of being introduced to this past month!

Reaper's Gong - Bloodrot

Reaper’s Gong – “Blood Rot” c8

For an EP on the shorter side, Blood Rot moves slowly. Riffs hit heavy and hard, but the impact lingers like a bruised arm. Brainbombs guitar with Ukiah Drag monotone vocals, an absolute must for the noise rock fist-pumpers. The compact but hefty “rave case” packaging is a good metaphor for how much destruction you’ll get from a small package.

Listen or purchase on Bandcamp

Local Housing Crisis – “L.H.C.” c18

An electronic EP that hides all the beats and rhythms, burying the sound under dense atmosphere in the same vein as Gas. Muted piano melodies seem to land as if by chance, fingers hitting keys with nonchalance but instinctively creating haunting melodies.

Listen and purchase on Bandcamp

Maria Chavez & Sandy Ewen – “All the Duos”

One for the true avant-gardists, those who think that Keiji Haino may be a little too middle-of-the-road for their tastes. A double-disc set with over 90 minutes of sound art compositions, All the Duos is a heavily textured battle between collaborators. The two aren’t performing with each other as much as they are against one another, with every scratch of a string met with a hand smacking the body of a guitar.

Listen and purchase on Bandcamp

SpaceGhostPurrp – “NASA the Mixtape” c28

Hard to believe it’s been over a decade since this mixtape appeared seemingly out of nowhere. SpaceGhostPurrp and the Raider Klan breathed new life into underground hip hop— trillwave production, oddball reference points, lo-fi aesthetics and the blogosphere distribution were completely game-changing, but the music hasn’t aged a day. Still odd, still dope.

Listen and purchase on Bandcamp

Castlesiege – “The Council of the Trees” c42

An instrumental story of a healer and his fox companion as they travel through mystical terrains, meeting unique and perhaps untrustworthy characters along the way. An album immersed in the atmospheric essence of point-and-click Sierra adventures, unfolding a narrative where the deeper you venture into the woods, the more ominous the shadows within the forest grow.

Listen and purchase on Bandcamp

Feeling inspired? Order cassette duplication with your choice of color and packaging!
CDs are filling the merch table again! Grab professional CD pressing @ duplication.ca

We turn the spotlight on underground music releases manufactured at Duplication.ca several times a week over on our social media channels, including TikTok and now Bluesky. Give us a follow using the links below, and if you have an album that you ordered through us that you’d like to bring to our attention, just send us a DM!