CD Duplication vs CD Replication

January 7, 2011

Tags: CD duplication | CD replication

Unless you’re already in the know, the meaning of the terms ‘CD duplication’ and ‘CD replication’ appear to be the same. In the world of CD manufacturing they are two distinct processes that are used to make multiple copies of discs.

Depending on the quantity of discs that that you need, how your discs will be used and the size of your budget, either CD duplication or CD replication is an option.  Each has it’s own advantages and each is better suited for certain applications.  We’re more than happy to advise you which we feel will be best for you project.

Here’s a short explanation of both CD replication and CD duplication and the differences and similarities between them.

CD Replication

When the compact disc was first introduced in the early eighties, it was exclusively an audio format and promoted as successor of the vinyl record as means of mass manufacture and distribution of music.

The process in which these discs were produced is known as CD replication.  The data is stored on a thin layer of injection moulded plastic called polycarbonate.  This is then metalised, giving it its reflective surface.  The whole disc is then encased in a transparent lacquer.  This process is also known as CD pressing.

CD Duplication

Compact Disc Recordable, or CD-Rs were developed a few years later than the original CDs and their primary use was for the computer user to store or back-up data.  In this way they were a successor to the floppy disc. They also had the advantage of being compatible and therefore had the added use of being a music format.

Rather than the data molded onto the disc at the time of manufacture, a thin layer of dye polycarbonate disc is coated with a thin layer of organic dye. The data is then ‘burnt’ to the layer by laser using a CD-R writer.

Of course CD-Rs are also mass produced in a factory, but unlike pressed CDs, the data is not added at this stage. Instead the polycarbonate disc is coated with a very thin layer of organic dye. The data can then be ‘burnt’ to the layer by laser using a CD-R writer.

CD Duplication vs CD Replication – How They Play

Replicated and duplicated CDs are read in exactly the same way by a CD player.  As the disc rotates a laser reads which parts are reflective or unreflective and interprets the data.  On a replicated CD, these areas are known as pits and are tiny indentation in the polycarbonate layer of the disc.  On a duplicated CD, the parts that have been burned by the laser in the  CD writer serve the same purpose as the pits.

Although original CD players were designed to read replicated rather than CD-R media, CD players manufactured since early nineties have been designed to play either.

Regardless of whether we replicate or duplicate your CDs, we guarantee high quality, faultless discs.