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Putting Out Your Own Cassette
by
Kristin Thomson and Jenny
Toomey
Simple Machines Records
This paper is an excerpt from Simple Machines' fine
publication, An Introductory Guide
to Putting Out Records, Cassettes and CDs.
More info about the Guide can be
found at the bottom of this paper.
As we said before, cassettes are the wave of the
future...well, for
independent music at least. Cassette releases offer three great
bonuses.
First, cassettes are not that expensive to dub in quantities,
and as long as
the cassettes are good quality, they can sound just as good as a
record.
They last longer, too! Second, if you run out, you can usually
find a
friend with two tape decks where you can make more copies
yourself. You can
buy cassettes in bulk in a variety of lengths. Third, it's much
easier to
make your own cassette covers at the local Kinko's or print shop,
thereby
saving a lot of money. The down side is that stores and
distributors are
less likely to buy them from you to sell, so you've gotta hustle
them
yourself at shows or through mailorder.
We buy our blank cassettes at Diskmakers in Philadelphia.
They have blank
cassettes in three grades running from 5 mins to 95 mins, for
about a penny a
minute (e.g. a 60 min tape costs 62 cents). Diskmakers also
offers blank
cassette labels on tractor feed or laser printer type sticker
paper, as well
as those clear shell boxes. We know there are companies like
World Calss
Tapes that offer colored labels and shells for a bit more money.
For those of you who are short of time or don't want to invest
in extra
cassette decks, you can also send away master tapes and have them
dubbed by a
large company. We know that Diskmakers in Philadelphia offers a
lot of
package deals, and there's tons of places in NYC that will dub
tapes for a
reasonable price. When checking into it, make sure they're using
good
quality cassettes (high bias chrome tapes) and that they dub in
"real time".
That means that they play the master tapes at the actual
listening speed,
not at twice or three times the speed like high speed dubbing
decks do which
results in a larger loss of sound quality. Try your Yellow Pages
for tape
duplication in your area.
Notes:This paper is an excerpt from Simple
Machines Records' publication An
Introductory Mechanics Guide to Putting Out Records, Cassettes
and CDs. Its widely regarded by the Indie community as one of the most
valuable info sources around, and it receives a big huge thumbs
up from Outer Sound.
You can find more info from the Guide in other Outer Sound
University papers.
However, to get a real learnin',
we recommend that you check out the whole thing. You can do this
in one of two ways:
- Outer Sound has posted a handy text-only version of the
guide which you can
easily print up. Follow the link and hit print!
- Of course, a text-only version is pretty boring. To enjoy the
wonders of Simple Machines' desktop publishing skills, you can
get
the print version by sending a check for $4 (what a bargain!) to:
Simple Machines / P.O. Box 10290 / Arlington, VA 22210-1290
Besides putting out great info for the indie community, Simple
Machines also happens
to put out quite a few great records by bands like Tsunami, Sea
Saw, The Raymond Brake
and Danielle Howle.
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