Things needed to 'release' a cd....

[The_Kid]

I have the recordings, artwork and deal in place to get it duplicated. The place that is duplicating is able to assign a barcode and such. Do I need anything else really to make a 'legit' cd in anyway?

I know 'legit' is a large gray area.....

 

[glassjaw7]

It needs to be mastered.

 

[Code001]

It needs to be mastered.

No, it doesn't. Maiden didn't master their last album, and it sounds good.

 

[glassjaw7]

It needs to be mastered.

No, it doesn't. Maiden didn't master their last album, and it sounds good.

Maiden probably put a LOT of money into it though. I would assume that mastering is a good idea to get all the kinks out and get everything up to normal volume. As long as it's not mastered like Death Magnetic.

 

[Dallas Marlow]

It needs to be mastered.

No, it doesn't. Maiden didn't master their last album, and it sounds good.

Maiden probably put a LOT of money into it though. I would assume that mastering is a good idea to get all the kinks out and get everything up to normal volume. As long as it's not mastered like Death Magnetic.

Actually from what I heard it wasn't the Mastering of Death Magnetic that was the issue, it was actually the tracks they brought the guy to begin with, apparently what he had to master was already to hot... my buddy told me theres a whole thing on the net about it some where.

 

[RockNRun]

Are you giving it out free or do you plan on selling it? Might need to set up a Pay-Pal 'merchant' account or the like if you don't already have one.

Ohh, and congrats!

 

[Audioholic]

as long as your graphics and print look good, and your cd sounds pro, you are in good shape, and should not have any problem listing it most places..

now you just need a few good outlets to get it sold and people who will buy it.

 

[mixeduplydian]

You guys might want to register with BMI or ASCAP, and get some SR copyright forms filled out if this is a disk of originals. You should at least use Creative Commons if nothing else.

As a semi-professional mastering engineer I have to give this advice:

If you are going to have it mastered, DO NOT put any compression, limiting, or EQ on the final mixes. If you over compress or otherwise squash your mixes, we (mastering engineers) can't really put the dynamics back!
You should also leave some headroom on your final mixes for the engineer, try to keep the peaks a little below -1.5 dB at least, and do this by adjusting the volume, not with a limiter!

If you aren't going to get it mastered you should at least do some basic compression/ limiting on the songs to even out volume levels between tracks. You should keep the compression ratio fairly low and adjust the threshold on a track by track basis to even out the track volumes. Don't go overboard and squash the dynamics out though.

-Alex

 

[The_Kid]

Thanks for the replies guys. The cd is of originals....Here is the link to a 'rough mix' i posted on soundclick for friends to check out.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=1033462

Its a rough mix, but decent enough to at least hear whats going on. Just teasers of all the songs. Gotten good reviews from people in my area so far. (mostly friends)

My biggest thing is I want it to be a 'legit' cd and such. Not something that I produced in my basement. I went to a studio to do the tracks and all, I designed the artwork, wrote the material and such. The place that will duplicate them for me can assign a barcode, so I'm getting that done. I was planning on having it mastered, maybe by someone else other than the guy recording it. Just wasnt sure what I needed to do 'legality' wise on the disc so that there arent any questions or such that the material is mine. I also wanna get it uploaded to the digital jukeboxes they have around here so I can play the songs for club owners when I try and book. I think having the song on the jukebox shows a little better than just handing them a cd....youknow? But I havent been able to figure out how to get that done yet either....

 

[mixeduplydian]

For the "legality" part, see the 1st paragraph of my previous post. You already have a barcode, so you just need to register and copyright your material. Creative Commons is the cheapest solution for that, although I prefer to use BMI and the SR copyright.

As far as the jukebox thing, I would like to know that myself! You can check out CD baby, Amazon, iTunes, etc. to see what they offer in terms of distribution.
I do a lot of mixing/ mastering for other people, but it's been a while since I actually put out any of my own music, so I'm not sure if they do anything for you on the digital jukebox end of things.

hope this helps a little.

-Alex

 

[The_Kid]

thanks again for the info. I appreciate it.