This decision didn’t come easy. A large portion of inventory of discs that I had replicated and stored upstairs in my building – especially the most popular<\/em><\/strong> – had been taken home. I was handling fulfillment out of my house. The number of physical discs purchased through the website and required by NAXOS was manageable. I could pick, pack, and ship DVDs and Blu-ray discs from my local post office and I did so…until the Palisades fire destroyed my house AND burned every DVD and Blu-ray I had taken there. Gone were all the John Gorka, Albert Lee, Carl Verheyen, and Laurence Juber discs. There were still lots of copies of less popular titles like Jonathan McEuen, Patrice Rushen, and the AIX Records Surround by Xmas disc, but when I received an order for Mars in 3D, I would have to reply that I was out of stock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Typically, DVDs and Blu-rays are replicated. Once the media is produced (audio, video, graphics) for the project, compressed and authored, and multiplexed the master onto a hard drive or Digital Linear Tape, a company like Sonopress would create a glass master, stampers, and ultimately produce hundreds or thousands of exact copies. There was a mastering charge, stamper charge, per unit cost, and additional costs for the silkscreen that was applied to the finished discs. AND a minimum run of 1000 units. Therein lies the problem and the basis for the debate about whether to continue providing physical copies of the missing AIX Records titles. Is it worth spending a few of thousand dollars to secure 1000 copies of a single title knowing that demand is only a few copies per month? The math just doesn’t work out. AND there’s the issue of where to store all the discs, extra paper, and DVD\/Blu-ray boxes. Now that I’m living in smaller quarters, the decision was easy. I must “hand make” every album that I ship out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first step is to make sure that I have a copy of every title in my catalog. At last count, that was about 85 including DVDs, Blu-rays, 3D Blu-rays, CD, and Samplers. On the shelf in my little office here in the Marina area of Los Angeles, I have a pristine copy of every title that I produced except for two! I’m missing two of the recordings I made in Bucharest, Romania in 2000. The first is the Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphonies No. 26\/41 DVD-Audio\/Video<\/a> <\/strong>and the other one is the Debussy, Glinka & Others – Music for Solo Harp<\/a><\/strong> disc. Some of discs, I had to purchase from eBay or other online sources. I looked for these two on the usual sites but have thus far been unsuccessful. If anyone has a copy of either or both discs, I will gladly buy them or at least borrow them so that I can rip the data into an .ISO file and create a high-res scan of the booklet and tray card. Please let me know.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n I own an LG optical disc burner capable of burning CDs, DVD, and Blu-rays. Having previously ripped all my discs into .ISO files, I can duplicate or “burn” copies, one at a time, to recordable media. I have secured custom printed, blank DVD-Rs and BD-Rs from WTS Media for the burned discs. I hand label each one with my trusty Sharpie pen. I understand it’s not the same as a silkscreened, replicated disc but I think they look nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the printed DVD \/Blu-ray covers, I initially thought I would go back to the small run local print shop and get another 250 copies of the covers. They even had some of the previous orders so I wouldn’t have to recreate the artwork. However, in small quantities the costs are once again prohibitive. And again, I don’t need or want boxes of 1000 of each of my titles. When I visited a printing place right around the corner, the guy told me he would “digitally” print a run as small as mine. He’s got the best professional, digital printers in the business but that doesn’t bring the per unit price down. I was still looking at over $1.00 per unit…crazy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I decided to purchase my own “business” color laser printer from Staples. The Brother 8730 CDW got some good reviews and was less than $700 although by the time you add in replacement cartridges for CMYK color, the total was near a $1000. Walmart was the source for my 2-sided glossy, 100# paper and I’m ready to print…almost<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As I mentioned, I have at least a single copy of each of my albums. I don’t have the original digital artwork that was used to print the covers, tray cards, or booklets. Those files were all lost in the fire. I didn’t upload them in the cloud like I do with most of my files these days. So, I use my new Brother printer\/scanner to scan the original covers at 1200 DPI in full color. They come out looking pretty good but are still the product of a previous offset printing job. When reprinted on my new laser printer, you can see the artifacts from the original CMYK job. A little research pointed me in the direction of a Photoshop plug in called “Descreen” that literally removes all traces of the previous print job. A simple test on a portion of one of the covers and I was satisfied. I purchased the professional version of the software and have been using it on the discs I’m working on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you own any of my DVD-Audio\/Video titles, you’re familiar with the Super Jewel Box plastic cases that I chose to use for my titles. They are not available any longer, but I have sufficient inventory to handle the current demand. Printing and cutting the folded booklet for the DVDs is straightforward. My Xacto paper cutter is easy and does a great job. However, the complex shape of the tray card is a far greater challenge. To hand cut these takes too much time. The answer? Acquire a custom die just like the professional printers use. I researched getting a die made and purchased one from a company back east. With my soon to arrive die press, I should be able to efficiently stamp out the tray cards…complete with perforations for the folds!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I even replaced my shrink wrap machine. The discs that I ship to my distributor have to be shrink wrapped or the retailer won’t take them. I’ll probably shrink wrap all the sales through the website too.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA Couple of Missing Titles…<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.realhd-audio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/mozart-glinka2-1024x567.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nBurning Discs One At A Time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.realhd-audio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/handmade_discs_products-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nA Traycard DIE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.realhd-audio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/lj_and_die-1024x748.jpg\")
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