Glass Mastering For Audio CD Manufacturing

Just recently we've heard from a number of CD Audio clients who have been concerned with the 'Glass Mastering' aspect of the CD manufacturing process.

Use of the word "Mastering" is giving them the impression that their audio tracks are somehow being modified or adjusted in a similar way to the process of 'Mastering' that follows the mix-down of the songs in the studio.

Unfortunately, the word 'Master' gets thrown around a lot so it can be a bit confusing. This article is intended to give the different uses a bit of clarity.

Mastering, Master and Glass Master

• Mastering: Mastering is a type of audio post-production where the source audio is processed to optimize the sound quality as well as to provide a ready-to-manufacture CDR or disc image for manufacturing purposes. Examples of Mastering processes include equalization, compression, limiting, noise reduction, fade-ins, fade-outs, track sequencing, adding meta-data, etc.
   
• Master: The product of the Mastering stage is your "Master" - the contents of which are intended to be ready-to-manufacture without the requirement for any additional changes or modifications being made. Due to this, it's very important that you listen to the playback of your Master thoroughly - all the way through from beginning to end - to ensure that it performs exactly the way you want it to... this includes checking meta-data too! We have additional instructions on supplying your Master CD that you should read.
   
• Glass Master: The Master copy you provide to us is used to create the replication 'stamper' that imprints the data onto the CDs in the replication manufacturing process. Keep reading to learn more about this process...

The Glass Master and Stamper

Assuming that you have followed our instructions on supplying your Master CD we then take your Master copy and proceed to the first step in the replication process which is creation of the 'Stamper'. Please note: This process is highly specialized and technical, so the following explanation is only intended to be a very basic explanation.

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Precision Disc Manufacturing Corp. provides factory-direct CD DVD Manufacturing and CD DVD Duplication with eco-friendly print and packaging to residents throughout Washington State, including those in Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Bellevue, Everett, and beyond!
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