repress out of stock CD\'s

[In Search Of The]

I don\'t know about you but I feel proud that a portion of my pay check goes towards TDRS every month. Eventually, I\'ll run out of CDs that I don\'t yet own, but I\'m glad to buy 2 or 3 at a time and then scratch at the door like a dog waiting for the postman.

[Raw Ketchup]

Cool. I guess I\'ll retire and take up gardening.

I would gladly purchase your fresh crops.

I liked the idea of a pressed cd without a case, and would purchase those without hesitation. Though saying I\'d just pirate CD-Rs is a bit extreme, I would still rather buy digital and make my own cd.

I just can\'t see myself ever wanting to buy a burned cd that isn\'t of the "limited edition" breed.

[Bucketfel]

speaking of restock, Travis are you gonna release a 4th batch of limited editions of the Untitled album??

[robotpie3000]

speaking of restock, Travis are you gonna release a 4th batch of limited editions of the Untitled album??

i prefer to wait until the regular edition. making so many batches doesnt seem like it being a limited edition at all.

[ToonGuns]

OK, a  wide range of opinions. Yes, the idea is to make available music that is out of print to those that missed the initial release and would still like to support the artist. I am going to try to do everything I can to prevent CD\'s from going out of print in the first place by some resource allocation. However, we have a number of CD\'s where that is too late. The pre-sale solution is a problem because the long wait and the fact that the repress is mostly not recouped and least for a few years. Remember there are too kinds out out of stock music, those we pressed for sale here and those like Population Override that were pressed by ION records and we offered for sale. Those are still available from ION and are not out of print. I will try to make them available here when I can. Right now I\'m talking about CD\'s like Peppers and Shadows.

It sounds like having the original printed cover and tray card are the most important to most people. Offering the original art and a CDR might be the most practical sort term solution. Sales of those could go toward a repress of the disc and that could be offered at a discount as an option when it becomes available. Right now I\'m just asking for your feedback to see what thoughts are about this. I haven\'t made a decision yet.

About CDRs. Digital audio is contained in files. Most  know MP3 and Wave files. Wave files can be a number of different bit depths and sample rates. CD\'s use a file format call the Red Book standard, always 16 bit 44.1k sample rate. All CDs and CDR\'s use the Redbook Standard.  CDR\'s can be burned with many different files system for data and movies and music. But an audio CD uses the Redbook spec and is exactly the same as a regular CD as far as the information on it goes.

The difference between a regular CD and a CDR is the regular CD is manufactured with the audio data on it. Digital audio is just a series of ones and zeros. The regular CD starts out as a thin disc of aluminum that is stamped with a series of pits. It look a bit like a cheese grater. Then plastic is injection moulded around the metal. When you put the disc in a player a laser scans the disc, it sees a pit, that = one, no pit = zero and the converter un-encodes the ones and zeros into music.

The CDR starts out as a plastic disc with a dye layer imbedded in it. When you burn the disc, the laser burns a series of pits into the dye. When you put it into a player the laser reads the pit, no pit.

CDr are less robust then CDs because instead of permanent pits in metal, the pits are in a photo sensitive dye emulsion.
They can fade with time. Also depending on the type of CDR dye, green, blue, silver and so on burners are optimized for one type or another so the pit depth vary from brand to brand. Some players are better at reading one brand from another. If you have trouble playing a CD in a particular player, you can burn another copy using a different brand disc and it will probably play.

A lot of the Limited Editions we sell here are on CDRs. CDR burners and players have gotten really good over the last few years and we have very few problems with customers. When they do have a problem, I tell them to burn it on another brand disc or I will do it for them and that\'s always solved the problem. It\'s always a good idea to back up CDR\'s and if something happens you can just burn another one. At 20 cents each it\'s  a bargain.

I not going on about CDRs to defend them, the fact is both types of CD\'s will become obsolete not too long from now. But CDRs may be a good option where just a few copies of a disc are needed.


One last point. All the music we sell here is easily downloaded for free all over the internet. In fact 95 percent of all the people who listen to our music do just that. We rely on the good will of those that understand the value of music they love. Without their support, there is no way we can continue to make music, at least not with the amount of time and energy that is brought to it now. The art of record making will give way to the hobby of laptop users and concert recorders.

Good news that the re-release will not be simply CDR versions of the original CD\'s as that wouldn\'t be what I would like.

I for one am willing to increase the amount I would pay to justify a repressing. For example - we keep talking about both Peppers and Shadows, well if they were originally sold at $15 then I would happily pay $25 for a copy of the repressed CD if it was identical to the original release, in that way you would need less pre-orders to cover the cost of the repressing.

I for one can\'t wait for the re-pressing as Shadows seemed to sell out stupidly fast and it is the one Bucket CD I don\'t own, and although eBay is a last resort it seems stupid not to pay direct to Bucket and TDRS.

[ToonGuns]

i prefer to wait until the regular edition. making so many batches doesnt seem like it being a limited edition at all.

Agree. How can it be limited edition if it keeps getting re-released everytime it runs out of stock?!!

[Nubbins]

Travis, a CD-R with the inserts seems like a smart way to go. People can put it in an empty jewel case, and voila, there ya have it. That\'s a close as you can get without actually repressing the album.

As for those concerned about CD-R lifespan, rip it to your computer, or buy a spindle of blank CD\'s to  back it up. You can probably buy a pack of 50 discs for $5 something like that.

[koopatroopa]

The only thing I don\'t like about CDRs is that they feel like cheap, homemade copies, but if that\'s the only possibility, i\'m happy with it. I don\'t own both of these albums so for me it\'s mostly about the music and having a physical copy.

[D]

I really like the idea of the 24-bit thumb drive, ( in possibly a limited edition?)

I think the fact that most newer stereo head units have USB inputs makes this increasingly appealing.

[In Search Of The]

Am I the only one that\'d buy pretty much anything?

[Raw Ketchup]

Am I the only one that\'d buy pretty much anything?

No. There are several other diehard fans that will buy anything Buckethead puts out and just be happy they were able to give him money.

Here\'s something I don\'t get though; why even send out a CD-R? Seems like anyone that would be ordering online from TDRS would be able to make their own copy of a cd. So why not just offer a download with artwork?

I may be wrong, but doesn\'t sound quality decrease a bit each time an album is copied? So we\'d be buying a copy, and to ensure a long life, we should copy it to our computers, then make another copy.

Shipping isn\'t free either. All for artwork? Hell, offer the artwork for sale as an extra with the download.

I feel a certain pride these days when I have a pro-pressed cd that I love by one of my favorite artists. CD-Rs just don\'t feel special to me. Inferior image, sound, and overall experience. I may be the only one here who feels this way, buy not the only potential customer in general.

It was said that we\'re talking about the new method of music delivery here

[koopatroopa]

But then you could simply download these from iTunes. Also most people here already have the CD, so I don\'t see a reason for them to download it when the have a physical copy.

[fuzzface]

I think (correct me if I\'m wrong) that when Travis talks of cd-rs in this capacity, he isn\'t talking about burning one in his office and mailing it to you, but rather on-demand cd-rs from one of numerous companies out there that provide this service.  If this is the case, you WILL NOT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE unless you happen to notice the letters "CD-R" in the matrix code area on the underside of the cd.  These on-demand cd-rs are pretty high quality stuff.  They come with in jewel cases with the inserts just like anything else and the cd-rs can be printed on top to pretty much match the originals as well.  They might not even read "cd-r" on the bottom.  Kind of like the NTTs from Singapore...

@Raw Ketchup - In the digital world there is no quality degradation from copy to copy.  This is nothing like cassette and VHS tapes.  Ones and zeros are the same ones and zeros regardless of how many times it has been copied...  The only quality loss is when transcoding from cd-audio to mp3 (and any other subsequent transcoding) for example.

[onions]

I would pre-order anytime for pepper\'s ghost!! ive heard a few songs (not all so that theres still a bit of surprise when i get the CD) on youtube and i would really like to get my hands of the real thing.

I think it would be better to get the original artwork but anything from buckethead\'s mastermind would be great. For the CD vs CD-R thing, i prefer CD cause my car stereo only plays CD XD.

oh, and hi everyone, im new here XD

[robotpie3000]

welcome onions!