Anyone had a short run dup done by musicians friend?

[SecondSon]

my band needs about two hundred cd's and want them to look high quality. We found somewhere that will make 500 for about a 1000. We only really need 200 though. All the places that will make 200 are seem of good quality are around 600-800 bucks. It almost seems like it is worth it to spend the extra money to do a 500 order.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had ever used www.diskfactory.com?? It is the dup service through musicians friend.

I need to place an order soon and can't seem to weigh the pro's and cons of getting 500 really nice cd's or 200 not so nice cd's. Sucks!!!

[parlormusic]

I have used them for demo runs with basic B&W text and no graphics. I haven't had any problems and it takes about 1 week to get your order. I can't vouch for the quality of artwork printing.

[junkstar]

I did the DiscFaktory CDR thing through Musicians Friend last year. Was a bit hellish, but still cheap enough and basically worthwhile. I did the '100 for $79' deal on a spindle.

The upsides? The price and the sound. No problems with any of those elements. Their Cust Service was decent too.

The downside? They lost my first master, then they couldn't get my second master to work (I opted for the 'mail in your master' instead of the 'e-mail your files' option). I wound up having to prepare three masters before they succeeded in burning my discs. The other drag is that their machines really manhandle the blanks during manufacture, so you get a bunch of discs with suction cup marks, and smudged print.

Hope that helps.

[junkstar]

Ahh, I just noticed you are looking to print CD's. DiscFaktory only does CDR's for the prices you are looking at. The diff (if you don't know) is durability. CDR's are more fragile in regard to surface scratches etc.

[Mark Alan Miller]

Ball Media have pretty great rates on 'real' CDs in quantities of 300 and up.
The downside is the printing - you'll have to pay for 1000 copies of the art - but of course you'll own the extras and not have to make more if you re-order 300 more CDS later. Even so, it's a pretty competitive price...

I've done a lot of work through Ball Media, and have had very good results. www.ballmedia.com. They have a 'meet-or-beat' pricing policy too, apples for apples.

Just a suggestion.

I recommend CDs over CD-Rs for anything seriously released in quantity. CD-Rs are just not reliable as heavy-use music delivery devices in my experience.

Just an opinion .

[toothpastefordinner]

omnidisc.net will do 300 replicated (real, not CDR) cds for about $670 out the door, including disk silkscreening, offset printed insert/traycard, jewel case, shrinkwrap...

drew
www.toothpastefordinner.com

[Brett Siler]

Damn omindisc.net is really cheap! Has anyone gone through them?

[Don Shumai]

we did a CD (not CD-R) through Omnidisc. They were good, but they take a while. The 10 day turnaround they talk about is 10 days after the final proofs are approved, which can take several weeks. Friends of mine had a hard time with them, in that they were promised stuff by a certain date, but didn't get it, then were promised a few CDs by a certain date just to hold them over, and they shipped them an empty box.

We did another through Hi-Fi-Lo-Fi who did a great job:
http://www.hi-fi-lo-fi.com/

He has cheap prices for short run CD-Rs too.

[bniesz]

check out QCA,
http://www.go-QCA.com

they've got good rates on both replicated and burned duplication with printing (check out q-sonic)
and they are super reliable and friendly.

[SecondSon]

Thanks for all the input guys! After wieghing out the pro's and cons of getting a short run vs. a 500 order, we decided it is better to pay the extra 400 dollars to have the disc's be of a higher quality, even though we are going to have about 300 cd's with nothing to do with. maybe we'll use them for promotions or something.

We are going with www.cdman.com, anyone had any experience with them. I'll try the search engine too. Thanks!!

[boboroshi]

I wasn't impressed with MF's quality. There's a great local printer here in Northern Virginia that I've used before Furnace Mfg. (furnacecd.com). We've run a few jobs (for my band and some of my graphic design clients) and have always been happy

[mrufino1]

A few people I know have used Park SLope CD and were very happy, with both the prices and service. I believe it's parkslopecd.com . Hope that helps (I have no affiliation with them at all, just so you know)

[toothpastefordinner]

check out QCA,
http://www.go-QCA.com

they've got good rates on both replicated and burned duplication with printing (check out q-sonic)
and they are super reliable and friendly.

No, QCA treated me like shit when I got $1300 worth of replicated CD runs made there a few years ago, even though I lived down the street from them (spring grove ave. in cincinnati, ohio) and they tried to charge me shipping although I picked the orders up in person.

They are not reliable - they tried to tack on extra charges for my graphics, which I put together TO THEIR SPEC WITH THEIR TEMPLATES, because they said that my graphics didn't leave enough bleed, or something. Again, just made-up bullshit to try to wring money out of me, because I guess they thought I was an idiot since I was still in college.

They are not friendly, and the lady who does their quotes (amber) basically spit at me when I told her she had done some things incorrectly, and refused to correct them. She actually belittled me for wanting them to do the job as I had submitted it, and not change things around, telling me, "It doesn't matter." Uh, yes, it does. Hello?

They finished my order 4 weeks late, and it was fucked up.

That's how QCA will treat you. Caveat emptor.

I have all my runs made with omnidisc now and their turnaround is slightly tricky but everyone working there is friendly and they will do exactly what you tell them to. If you submit an order, expect 6 weeks before it shows up at your place. Their proofs often take about 2 weeks from when they get your order, then it's about 2-3 weeks to rep the CDs and another week to ship. Altogether though, very standup guys, willing to answer any and all of your questions, who make excellent products.


drew
www.toothpastefordinner.com