WORLD-WIDE SHIPPING
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MASTERS: For fastest service supply 1 WAV or AIFF file per side. Files
must be stereo. PROOFING AUDIO: If we have to compile the tracks, you can request an MP3 proof for approval. This proof cost is $35. We will send you an MP3 of each side for approval. We can proceed AS-IS without a proof. NB: If you supply 1 file per side then there's usually no need for a proof, but check the file sizes you've uploaded. TEST TAPES: Test tapes will take approximately 2 weeks to produce and only
include the audio. We will then mail the test tape to you. Turntime starts after you approve the test
tape. You can request Express air shipping of the test tape for $25 in North America. TEST TAPE WITH GRAPHICS: To produce a printed product sample we have to do all the print setups including films, plates, press setup, scoring and die-cutting. The cost depends on the product configuration - pad printing and full-bleed O-Cards cost quite a lot to run twice. J-Cards on standard paper and paper labels are not too expensive. Ask your rep for a quote if you feel you need a printed sample before full production. It might take 2 to 4 weeks to complete a product sample. MASTERING: In-house editing services are available. One common task is to
correct the loudness of the individual songs on compliations. Adjusting spaces, de-essing, high-frequency
limiting, filtering, compression, resampling, etc. Please request a quote for pricing. BARCODES: Add barcodes for $25. |
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REAL-TIME DUPLICATION NOTES: With real-time duplication we QC a few seconds of the A side on every cassette, and we do a spot check on the B-sides. We copy both sides of the cassette at the same time, so the starting time of the B side will vary by up to 20 seconds on longer tapes. We can copy each side sequentially and of course this takes more than twice as long so there is an extra fee for this service. Contact your representative for a quote. HIGH-SPEED DUPLICATION NOTES: Our high speed copies are done on a bin loop
system directly to reel-to-reel duplicators. If the last tape on a pancake of tape is good, then it is
just about 100% guaranteed that every tape is identical. The tape winders cut the tape on a cue tone so
the lead-in to both sides is precise with around 5 to 10 seconds of blank tape before the program starts.
High-speed duplication includes a QC check on one tape per pancake. |
O-CardsO-Cards are most often associated with cassette singles. They are full colour cardboard packaging, with standard printing on 15pt white coated board stock. Other options such as chipboard stock, offset print, or matte coating are also available upon request. We recommend pairing O-card packaging with hub locks, to ensure your cassettes aren't
unspooled during transport. Maltese CrossMaltese Cross are one of our most unique packages available! Available with double or single-sided printing, Maltese Cross boxes gives you up to 10 panels worth of artwork. They have a locking slit for you to be able topen and close the box with ease, revealing your cassette inside. Just like the O-Cards, we recommend pairing Maltese Cross packaging with hub locks, to ensure your cassettes aren't unspooled during transport. Contact us for anything special, keeping in mind there are minimum order quantities from paper suppliers. We own our own fully equipped print shop with digital and offset presses so we can meet just about any requirement. OFFSET PRINTING OF O-CARDS! Yes we can do high quality offset printing of O-Cards on our offset press. The sheet size is up to 20x26 inches. Contact us for a quote when you must have offset print. Since a J-Card is so small you should think of printing posters, flyers or postcards at the same time. You have to tell us what paper stock you want so we can quote the job. We include glossy AQ coating as standard, or you can request matte AQ as an inexpensive upgrade. Embossing/Debossing/Foil stamping available... these are fairly expensive procedures with
additional costs of $500 or more. ULTRA-IMPORTANT DESIGN NOTES FOR PRINT! You must include bleed and respect safety margins. If you don't bleed your art past the cut lines, you will have white edges on 2 of the 4 sides. If you put important text or image details right on the cut or score lines, it may get cut off or be unreadable. If you use 2 point type, it won't be legible. Dark blue or red text in a black background is not very legible at small sizes. Corrections to art files are available from $30. |
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Standard ink colors for PAD PRINTING are white and black |
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Color ink setup on pad printer: CAD$31.25 included in calculator price. We try to keep all the Marabu inks in stock. We can also mix most Pantone® colors. |
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Pad print option : Pad printing can reproduce very fine details as well as large areas. We can make the color more opaque by doing a double-hit or triple-hit. When printing on some cassettes the ink color will change depending on the color of the cassette. To fully preserve the ink color, a white base is required (that's an extra cost). Every cassette is placed on the machine by hand so it takes more labor than the high-speed offset machines. Offset printing on cassette (which we don't offer) uses inks that are not as opaque and the polymer plates are quite low resolution and incapable of reproducing fine details. ** Your art file must use black to represent the ink colour ** PAD PRINT ARTWORK MUST BE SENT IN VECTOR FORMAT. WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND USING ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR OR CORELDRAW WHEN DESIGNING. IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO CONVERT TO VECTOR FORMAT, A SMALL FEE WILL APPLY FOR US TO CONVERT TO VECTOR OR PRINT AS BITMAP.CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PAD PRINT TEMPLATES UV LED PRINTING: This technology uses a large format inkjet printer capable of printing the entire CMYK color spectrum. The print tends to be a bit contrasty and grainy and can have some minor banding (which is one of the drawbacks of inkjet printing), but overall it looks amazing and most folks are very happy with this option for full color and full-face printing. It's possible to do a kind of 3D effect where the background is printed reversed on the B-side of a transparent cassette, and the foreground is printed on the A side. Check out our sample galleries for examples. |
Monday to Friday are counted as production days. Rush service does not include shipping time. Shipping is from Toronto. Day "0" starts when workable material is submitted and payment is made. If you order a test tape then production resumes after you approve the test tape. Artwork must be ready to print. If there are any problems with your artwork we may not be able to start any production until you correct it. The cutoff time to enter rush orders is noon. If your material and payment is entered after noon, day "0" will be the next day. The biggest problem we have when trying to keep on track with rush orders is artwork submitted without bleeds and not respecting the safety margin. Here's a YouTube video about bleeds and safety margin. If your artwork doesn't follow these basic rules, your job will be delayed and correction fees may apply.
See samples on our cassette gallery |
Looking for blank tapes? We sell them in our online shop
Normal-Bias Hi-Fi Music Grade Tape:
Hi-Fi Music Grade tape is a very good tape with low noise floor, high output level, and a warm sound. We have this tape in C-60 and C-90 formats (good up to 96 minutes). Tapes longer than 96 minutes are made with New Old Stock classic BASF/Emtec/ECP tape.
Recording The Masters RTM911 (aka Fox) Ferro Music Grade Tape:
The Fox RTM911 is one of the best performing tapes currently being manufactured. Very consistent, clean, great sound. It out-performs the Hi-Fi tape in some ways, although with a higher apparent hiss or noise floor that can be annoying with ambient or acoustic music.
BASF Chrome Plus Extra:
A limited amount of BASF Chrome Plus Extra is available for real-time duplication. BASF Chrome Plus Extra was one of the the best Chrome tapes ever made. This Plus Extra version has some added cobalt particles for a warmer sound. Only available for real-time duplication.
110 and 120 minute normal-bias tape:
A very limited amount of BASF/Emtec/ECP Ferro 110 and 120 minute tape is available. 120 minute tape is very thin and easily damaged. Currently, we can only do realtime duplication with these long-play tapes.
Real-time:
Real-time duplication is suitable for high-fidelity music reproduction with the lowest tape noise and best fidelity from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Tapes are loaded to the exact length needed and then recorded in real-time, both sides at the same time. Duplication is done directly from your audio files. Every tape is checked on the A-side to ensure the quality is good. We can copy from 24-bit masters giving a resolution better than CD. We can also copy directly from a cassette master.
Pro High Speed:
Your master is reviewed and loaded into a digital bin. Duplication is done at high speed directly onto large tape pancakes. The pancakes are then loaded into the cassettes and cut to the exact length thanks to a low frequency cue tone recorded at the end of the B-side. This method gives a good consistent result with flat frequency response from 20 Hz to 17 kHz. About 1 tape out of 50 is checked to ensure the quality is correct. But rest assured, by checking one tape from every pancake, we are confident that every tape on that pancake is identical.
Offset printing: Offset printing is available by custom quote for runs of 500 or more.
A J-Card is the standard cover that goes into a cassette box. It's shaped like a J. Some people call it a "3-panel" because it has a front panel, a spine, and a back cover flap. J-Cards can have additional panels which we refer to as J+1, J+2, J+3, J+4, etc... We have templates available up to J+10.
Our J-Cards are printed full bleed on a digital press, cut on a paper knife for clean edges, creased and then folded by hand.
O-Cards are cardboard covers used in place of the plastic cassette case. These were often used for Cassingles. A proper O-Card is made with 15 point board to support shrinkwrapping. We also do O-Cards on a digital press with 15 pt board, and on brown 18pt chipboard.
Maltese Cross Cassette covers with custom printing can be a great alternative to O-Cards or plastic cases. Our covers are printed full bleed and then die cut for a professional appearance. This item is printed on only one side on sturdy 15 point (300 gsm) board. Four panels unfurl to reveal the audio cassette, and close the same way with a slit to keep the package in place.
U-Cards are shaped like a U and cover the entire back panel of the cassette case. By default these are printed without holes for the cassette case posts, thus they must be paired with cassettes cases with NO POSTS. Holes can be punched for an additional fee.
Album trapsheets are used for our Vinyl Album packages. 4/0 is single sided print with 4/4 is double sided print (double sided should be paired with CLEAR Vinyl Albums.)
Pad print:
We can use a machine called a pad-printer to print on audio cassettes. The pad printer can print the face surface as shown below.
Pad printing ink is more opaque than other print-on-cassette methods and is capable of printing fine details. The default pad print setting is only 1 colour, but 2 colours can be done by special request.
Paper labels:
We can also laser-print paper labels in black or in full color. We have a wide variety of special paper stocks available, including florescents and metallic foils.
Laser engraving:
We can also etch or engrave your design into the cassette and the norelco case!
Full Body Print:
We're proud to introduce UV Full Body Print services for audio cassette! This service allows for electrifying colour print on your tape, covering the entire face area from edge-to-edge. You will receive way more coverage than pad print, and no longer be limited to only two colours.
Because our stock changes every day, certain shells may require extra charges and add to your order turntime. You will be contacted before we begin production if this is the case.
Spot Gloss is available upon request! Please mention it in the 'Notes' on page 2 of your order and we'll send you an updated quote.
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Day "0" starts when workable material is submitted and payment is made. Artwork must be ready to print. If there are any problems with your artwork we may not be able to start any production until you correct it. The cutoff time to enter rush orders is noon. If your material and payment is entered after noon, day "0" will be the next day.
The biggest problem we have when trying to keep on track with rush orders is artwork submitted without bleeds and not respecting the safety margin. Here's a youtube video about bleeds and safety margin. If your artwork doesn't follow these basic rules, your job will be delayed and correction fees may apply.
Digital press works a lot like your home digital printer, wherein rollers apply coloured toner to a sheet of paper, and heat fuses the image with the sheet. But unlike your home printer (unless you're living in an industrial printing facility) our digital press prints at a higher resolution with with richer CMYK colours than your typical consumer models. Its inexpensive start-up costs allow for affordable short-runs prints while still maintaining a high quality output.
High volume and high quality, the offset press is the golden standard for the printing industry. Far more complex than digital printing, an offset press requires metal plates with an etched design to apply ink to paper. Offset printing is typically used for larger runs (over 500 pieces), though through a custom quote you can request offset printing for shorter editions. You may want to consider this due to it's ultra high quality resolution and richer colours. If you're looking for professional printing quality with a glossy sheen, then our offset services are right for you.
2 panel cardboard sleeves or mini-jackets are printed on white cardboard and then die cut and glued - they're like a mini record jacket. The CD slides in from the side.
Pictured: Mikey & The Reelers 2 panel cardboard sleeve with 3-color disc print
Pictured: Mike Stevens 2 panel sleeve and full-colour offset-printed CD
Pictured: Emeline Michel (2013) 4 panel sleeve, offset-printed CD, and additional 32 page full-colour booklet.
Pictured: Dani Nash & Melleefresh vs. Deadmau5 CD Digipaks
CD trays are placed inside a CD jewel box and hold the CD in place. They come in a variety of colors, transparent and tinted CD trays allowing for visibility of a double-sided traycard. The standard CD tray is clear.
We can host your digital files on our server and generate the download codes for distribution. Our cards are printed in-house on thick cardstock in full CMYK, we can use our default template or you can design your own artwork for us to print! We'll take care of adding the codes. Our servers host up to 250MB of space, more than enough for MP3s. However if you want to host lossless audio or even video files (great for packaging with VHS releases!), we can add more space for an extra cost.
There are three different ways you can submit download codes:
1) You supply a .zip file with a maximum file size of 250MB. We will provide the download cards and web hosting. You can supply your own download card graphics for an additional $10 CAD ($20 CAD for double-sided print.) File sizes larger than 250MB will be subject to an additional fee.
2) You supply us with the download cards, either digitally or via mail.
3) You supply us with Bandcamp codes and we'll do the printing. You need to add 10% of overs for the codes (ex. if you order 100 cassettes, send us 110 download codes), as to adjust for the duplication overs which may occur during production.
© 2023 Analogue Media Technologies Inc.
Pit art is printed on the bottom of the disc where there's no written audio or data. You may have noticed when a CD is pressed or burned the data is visible on the bottom of the disc, it's the lighter coloured inner-ring starting from the hub. The empty space (the darker colour) is the free space for which you can add text or logo artwork. The shorter your album, the more free space you'll have. If your album is at the maximum time length, you will have no space for pit art.
Here is an example of Pit art on a 40-minute disc.
There are a number of different types of CD disc art (AKA label art), some of which are only compatible with CD replication and some of which are only compatible with CD duplication. The online calculator will show you which options are available for your disc pressing services.
Black print on a silver disc
2-color print on a silver disc with pantone matching
3-color print on a silver disc
CMYK print with a white base
CMYK print on a shiny Verbatim CD-R
Color Epson print on CD-R
Offset print on DVD
Quote
Our offices
Toronto Factory &
Print Shop
200B Middlefield Road
Toronto, ON M1S 4M6
416-493-8900
800-777-1927
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