CD Labels???

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RAMI

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Not sure if this belongs here...But I can't find a good forum for it. So I'll ask it here since you make the labels right after Mastering....hehe....:D

Does anyone know anything about getting glossy CD labels??? I don't need the covers, just the labels that stick on the CD.

I found this link here. Is it a good deal??? I don't want anything that's going to get stuck in someone's car CD player. Any other suggestions??? Thanx.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...d=1110264772456
 
Whoah that looks cool. I'd much prefer to not stick anything on a CD. Less chance of disasters happening in someone's player. Thanx Glen, I'll send that link to my girlfriend who's taking care of all the artsy stuff....Great link.
 
RAMI said:
Whoah that looks cool. I'd much prefer to not stick anything on a CD. Less chance of disasters happening in someone's player. Thanx Glen, I'll send that link to my girlfriend who's taking care of all the artsy stuff....Great link.
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I've done audio CDs and video DVDs with them, it's a great service and very high quality product. You can get just the discs printed like you want, or one-to-four page liner booklets. You submit all artwork via templates on their website and place the order, its all fully automated.

www.psprint.com is a very similar service; I dd my full-color glossy business cards through them and was extremely happy with the result and the price. They also do CDs and DVDs.

The main advantage to Mixonic is that they will actually do one-off copies of CDs and DVD, no minimum quantity required. Of course the larger the quantity, the cheaper the per-unit price, but it's nice to have to have a no minimum option sometimes.

Both places put out a pro-quality product indistinguishable from what you find on the shelves at Sam Goody's, and it not really very expensive.

G.
 
That's great. We'll have to compare the price of them doing everything to the price of just having them do just the CD's and we'll do the covers. But that sounds exactly like what I'm looking for. I was worried about sticky CD labels getting stuck in people's car CD players, which has happened to me with other Cd's I made when I tried to save money. I'm still listening to AM Radio in my car because I have a 2 year old CD stuck in my system :(
Thanx. Will be looking into that tomorrow.
 
Thanx Fairview...There's an another option that will end up much chepaer in the long run. Would the quality look as good as the company Glen sent me??? I don't want to save money if it's going to have a "home-made" quality to it. Looks tempting as hell, though.

I'm so confused. :confused: :eek: :D
 
RAMI said:
Thanx Fairview...There's an another option that will end up much chepaer in the long run. Would the quality look as good as the company Glen sent me??? I don't want to save money if it's going to have a "home-made" quality to it. Looks tempting as hell, though.
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No, they are two different types of things entirely.

Ink jet printers like the Epson do a fairly decent job, but they require special printible-surface CD-Rs and they are still using only ink-jet ink; not the most durable finish. Not bad, but definitely not the same quality. Mixonic uses a pro CNC-style silk screening machine with PMS 5-color paint, not ink. It's the exact same process used to print commercial CDs/DVDs. You won't see a difference now or 5 years from now.

Plus, if you gotta make more than just a handful of copies, the cost in time and replacement cartriges wind up making it cost savings rather academic.

For example, if you wanted to run off 100 full-color CDs, no jewel case, no sleeves, just the discs, it'll cost you $178 ($1.78 per disc) for the silk screen at Mixonic.

Ink jet cartriges for the R220 (itself a one-time investment of $100) will cost on the order of about $40 or so for the 6-color 6-pack or $9.95 for a single-color replacement. Add in a 100-pack of Mitsui printable CD-Rs for about $74 ($0.74 each). So the first 100-disc run with printer purchase will cost you about $214 (pretax). After that, assuming one 6-pack ink cartrige refill on average for 100 full-color discs (depending upon image style), you're talking about $114 for a 100-run ($1.14) per disc.

So the difference from $1.14/disc to $1.78/disc will move you from ink jet ink to silk screen paint, will let someone else do the work for you in just a couple of days versus having to sit there and pump 100 CDs through a printer yourself. And then there's the maintenance; monitoring the ink usage and replacement, and keeping the ink nozzles clean. And if you're doing it just once, the cost of the printer itself makes the ink jet job actually more expensive.

Your call as to whether it's worth the extra 64 cents per disc on average to go to the silk screen. It depends upon the job, I guess. But for a client, I won't go any less than a silk screen job; they are just too impressed with the results. And it saves me huge costs in time. And is sometimes actually faster turnaround than if I were to do it myself; if the artwork is more or less ready, I can submit the job before I actually start mixing the audio. By the time the master files are ready I can have the discs back from the printer and ready to burn (or I can have them burn them for me.)

G.
 
I can see a few people who's opinions I trust (APL and Fairview) are pretty strong on the Epson,etc...But Glen's point about quality, hours spent working on it, and cost make me lean towards the more pro-looking MIXONIC. I think by the time I finish buying ink, putting in the time, etc...I'm better off getting them done by Mixonic.
Thanx for all the help guys.
 
You don't say how many CD's you need to duplicate. For a short run of 50, or a 100 or more that Mixonic place might be a good choice.

However, if you are doing very small runs or demos I think the printer route could be more practical. For example, I do one-off CD's fairly frequently to send as demos for potential jobs. Each CD is customized. In other words, I select a different set of tracks depending on the job I'm going for. I'm usually in a hurry, and I sometimes change the track selection before sending it out. So for these situations any duplication house would be too slow.

Again, you don't say how many CD's you need to burn, or what the purpose for these CD's is, other than playing in a car radio. Is this a commercial release kind of situation, will you be selling these in stores, at concerts, or through retailers?
 
Thanx Albert...good points. I'm selling Cd's of my music off my website. While it's not a big commercial release or anything, why not look as pro as possible considering how much work I put into the music. I'll probably need 100. So that's why I'm leaning towards MIXONIC. Thanx alot for all your help, guys.
 
Isn't there a CD burner available that will put an image on a special type of CD-R??. Heard about it but never have seen it

chazba
 
chazba said:
Isn't there a CD burner available that will put an image on a special type of CD-R??. Heard about it but never have seen it

chazba
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Lightscribe, monochrome, expensive media.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Ink jet cartriges for the R220 (itself a one-time investment of $100) will cost on the order of about $40 or so for the 6-color 6-pack or $9.95 for a single-color replacement. Add in a 100-pack of Mitsui printable CD-Rs for about $74 ($0.74 each). So the first 100-disc run with printer purchase will cost you about $214 (pretax). After that, assuming one 6-pack ink cartrige refill on average for 100 full-color discs (depending upon image style), you're talking about $114 for a 100-run ($1.14) per disc.
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You shop in the wrong place. www.Supermediastore.com has taiyo/yuden printable CD-Rs for $36 for 100. A full complement of ink is $17 and does around 400 to 500 CDs depending on the artwork (you might run out of some colors faster than other depending on the picture you are printing) So, my actual cost for 500 CDs is $197. That is less than $0.49/each

The downside is the time it takes. I have the older r200 and I can do 20 CDs an hour. The r220 is supposed to be faster, but I don't know how much. The time really doesn't bug me because I just make the CDs as I need them, that way there is no waste...ever. I have a barn with a few thousand unsold CDs from 10 years ago, I'm not going to go through that again.
 
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apl said:
Lightscribe, monochrome, expensive media.
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Expensive, and it takes forever. Up to 20 minutes per disc depending on the artwork. It will take 2 hours to do 6 of them. And it will end up looking like an old lythograph.
 
I get ink and CDs off ebay. Last ink purchase was all six cartridges for $12, and I got 50 CDs for $11.
 
Farview said:
Expensive, and it takes forever. Up to 20 minutes per disc depending on the artwork. It will take 2 hours to do 6 of them. And it will end up looking like an old lythograph.
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.60 per is expensive to people who spend ungodly ammounts of money on gear? :D

I use lightscribe but mostly just to label stuff for personal use, if I were doing a decent scale CD run I'd go with the people who specialize in it.
 
I've got a HP dvd840 lightscribe and it does monchrome labeling directly to a special layer in the lightscribe CDR disc - I think they are about $1.50 each. I'd rate it as better than using a sharpie and artwork can be applied. It looks fine for archive, 1-offs, etc. You have to work with the fonts a bit and get the best translation to CDR - WYSIWYG isn't what the Label app applies to the CDR. I'm still getting the hang of it. After a fashion it will be very acceptable I think for handing out jams, mix tapes, "proofs" - that kind of thing.

For handing out CDRs to friends and family I use the R220 which is very professional looking in appearance. It is an ink jet which means the ink will smear when you drip sweat, beer or coffee on it - if you grab the CDR out of the car and it's sprinkling outside there goes your CD label. For this reason you have to set it using some spray, this is the unprofessional piece - I use Kilz Satin Finish available at the local Walmart. It gives me the best bead for that kind of thing. It also has Toluene, Acetone, and Xylene which is the solvent and propellant stuff - depending on what you read will either eat your CD alive or not harm it at all (within 50 years of shelf life).

For runs over 20 or so for customers I plan on using services like Glen mentioned or the CD mastering (repro only) advertised at Guitar Center but haven't tried any out yet.
 
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