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Your band has just completed your demo CD and you have to send it off to be copied for distribution. Somehow you get put in charge of taking care of the CD copying. Diving into the CD and DVD duplication company's website, you're bombarded with cryptic technical terms you don't understand. Two of those terms in particular jump out at you, short race duplication and long race replication. What's the difference, and what do they both mean exactly? Well, I'm here to de-mystify this part of the process for you, hopefully making your job easier.

Short Run Duplication
Short race CD and DVD duplication refers to the process in which CDs and DVDs are copied in amounts usually not exceeding 500 units. Duplication is done using CD-R technology, effectively burning discs instead of creating them from scratch. There are a few drawbacks that come along with the duplication process, but also there are benefits as well. The benefits are a quicker turnaround rate, and cheaper project costs. While the main drawback of CD and DVD duplication is that duplicated discs do not always work in every home CD player, especially older models.

Long Run Replication
Long race CD and DVD replication is the process in which CDs and DVDs are manufactured in amounts exceeding 500 units. The main difference between duplication and replication is that in the replication process the CDs or DVDs are molded, covered in reflective material, and then stamped with the data. This difference results in CDs and DVDs that are cheaper per unit and are 100% compatible in playback hardware. The main drawback of long race CD and DVD replication is the production time, which usually averages around 2 weeks.

With this information, I hope that your trip into the world of CD production is a little bit easier to understand and complete.