The Mandelbear's Musings

I spent much of yesterday and today chasing down information about disk duplicators. (I'll be taking some vacation time for it. I don't feel too guilty, because I also researched some web-related stuff that will save us a world of hassle in our current project. But that's another post, and probably not for several months yet...)

There are two projects in the queue: the studio album, Coffee, Computers, & Song, and the mostly-live bonus album, About Bleeding Time. The former is not quite ready for prime time, and I figure it'll head out for the duplicator's either just before or just after Baycon. But I really need to have ABT done by Baycon. I'm already several months late, and if I don't have something in hand I can probably expect an angry mob with pitchforks and torches at my concert Sunday night. So I've been looking at fast-turnaround duplication, and full-color label printing on blank CD-R's that I can burn at home to save time.

About the best prices I've been able to find for 300 printed, blank CD-R disks are in the neighborhood of $450 with 5-7 day turnaround time. To which one adds shipping delay, and it starts to get pretty tight with Baycon two weeks away. Urk!

Then, thanks to a Google search for "cd duplicator bay area", we find New Cyberian: $400 for 500, full-color printed, replicated CDs and an easy walk from Fry's in San Jose. They're "no frills" -- none of the music-oriented extras you'd get from Discmakers or Oasis, and not significantly cheaper for runs of 1000 or more with packaging. But when you factor in the full-color disk printing, which is $200 more at Discmakers, they're cheaper than 300 blank disks anyplace I've found, and close enough that I can hand-carry a master in on Monday.

I was really kind of hoping for the added versatility of being able to burn disks if somebody needed a plain audio disk. But, y'know, for the extra $200, the time, and the hassle, I can go down to Fry's and buy an Epson printer and a stack of disks and still come out ahead.

(0512 9:06) On the other hand, I'm not sure I can get everything all together by Monday (especially since tomorrow is Mother's Day, with brunch and a zoo trip planned), and I really don't need to be stuck with an extra 250 disks. So ProAction Media, with a price of .84 for 350 disks (total $294) and 3-5 day turnaround, still looks like a very good bet. It means I'll be doing a lot of burning the week before Baycon, and maybe at the con as well, but I can deal with that.