DDPi or PMCD
If you plan on releasing your music on CD then you will require either a DDPi or a PMCD. These are final Masters used by replication/duplication plants to create your finished CD’s. Most facilities will ask for a DDPi (PMCD being the older format). We provide whatever is required by your pressing facility.
What Is A DDPi?
DDPi stands for ‘Disk Description Protocol Image’ and is the most reliable medium for delivering Masters to the factory for pressing. In basic terms, the DDPi consists of a group of files that contain all the audio and relevant meta-data which make up your CD. Usually it is made up of…
DDPID – DDP Identifier file
DDPMS – DDP Stream Descriptor file
IMAGE.DAT – The audio part of the Master
CDTEXT.BIN – The CD Text data file
PQ Log – This is a text file which compiles all the relevant meta-data, track times, start/end points etc into a readable format
CHECKSUM.md5 – This is a digital fingerprint of all the files within the DDPi. The manufacturer uses this to verify that no data has corrupted during transport to the factory
What Is A PMCD?
A PMCD is a Red Book Standard CD-R. To ensure high quality/error-free transport of Masters our PMCD’s a made from the highest quality Compact Discs and burnt in a professional, high quality, accurate burner.
With either a DDPi or PMCD we always provide a Reference CD of your Master. This is so that you can listen and verify that everything is as it should before committing to pressing discs.
