dgmGrooveGraphics - Text/Image to Audio for Groove Art

[opcode66]

I've been intrigued by the work of my fellow cutters with respect to creating text or imagery in grooves via specially crafted audio files. I wanted to make my own application for this so I could tweak it to do what I wanted. I'm nearing completion of the code. I'm hoping I can enlist some beta testers.

Once completed I will release the code and application 100% free to use and modify. Yup, completely open source. Windows OS only. .NET Framework 4 required. Source code created in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 using VB.NET (Windows Forms Application).

Many tweakable settings. It can automatically generate from text specified in the application's main window. Or, you can open and use a graphics file created in other software. Shades of gray can be represent by ranges or volume on one frequency tone, or ranges of frequency or both. The application output is a Stereo, 48kHz, 16 Bit Wave file.

More to come soon.

[Fela Borbone]

Hello! Wow! Great!
So, you mean something like a TV frame, but spiral instead of straigth lines?
The lathe to cut that must have extreme accuracy...or maybe some synchro signal recorded in a locked groove and feed back into the system via the playback tone arm...
An analogic version may be possible too!

[Fela Borbone]

Rotatory spyral focusing lenses(or similar device)+Ligth variable resistor(LDR)+voltage to frequency converter+amplifier+cutterhead.
The light capturing device and the turntable must be conected somehow...

[Angus McCarthy]

Thinking about an analogue solution...

Take two identical 6Ns and mount a photoelectric eye to one carriage in place of a head. Belt the platters together and put the "scanner" in neutral. place a black and white printout of the groove artwork on the scanning table and make sure the feedscrews are in the same starting position. Send the output of the eye to a frequency generator and feed this audio to the cutting head.

[opcode66]

Sure, ha, that would work too. It would be fairly time consuming to get it right each time though. I think there would be a few wasted discs there.

Anyway, I think a later version will be able to handle splitting up the visual data in a way such that it would be able to make a sort of square image around the label instead of a banded (circular) image. I would like it working and robust first before adding that as a feature.

Still need volunteers for beta testing....

[opcode66]

Seriously no one wants to help? No beta testers = No open source release. I'll just keep the code for myself then. Last call!

[Cubed]

I would like to but my lathe is still not built yet!

[tragwag]

I don't have a windows computer, or else I would help!

[Fela Borbone]

Your proyect has lots of potential, I'm sorry not skilled enough to help!

[opcode66]

I'm nearing completion of the code. Not much left to develop. 291 lines of VB.NET so far. The sound file is mathematically derived based on an image or text (which becomes an image). It is a Sine wave. The wave is continuous (ie the cycle picks up where it left off on for each pixel to audio conversion). So, when zoomed it, the wave file appears to be a nice smooth sine wave. You can see all the various options on the screenshot.

This is ready for testing. However, I haven't tried cutting the wave linked below. It is just for demonstration purposes. I haven't tested any audio derived from the application yet.

Screenshot in Image Mode


Screenshot in Text Mode


Example Image converted to Sound


Resulting Wave File
http://www.deepgroovesmastering.com/share/dgmGrooveGraphics/test.wav

Wave View of Converted Image


Wave View of Converted Image - Zoomed In


Wave View of Converted Image - Zoomed In More

[Cubed]

Could the cutterhead be mono and can the lathe be a fixed lpi?

[opcode66]

LPI doesn't matter. I'm not correcting for the distortions that will occur due to groove diameter loss as you approach the label. Possibly future versions will deskew the image based on the lpi. But, for now, only the RPM is required because that determines how many seconds for each revolution (i.e. each horizontal pixel line of the image).

There is a radio button to generate either a mono or a stereo wave file.

[tragwag]

I'll give it a try sometime soon.
Are there any considerations as I'm using a mono head, fixed pitch, and I-RIAA pre-emphasis?

[opcode66]

Mono and fixed pitch are totally cool. RIAA would really just dull the audio a bit. But, max frequency is one of the parameters. I'm going to add min freq as well. Right now the min freq is a constant value of 21 cps. The audio I posted is capled at 1000 cps. It varies in both amplitude and frequency proportionally based on the black and white or grayscale values.

[Angus McCarthy]

I would love to give this a try once I get ahold of a higher LPI screw. At 112 I don't think you'd be able to make out much of anything.

[opcode66]

The next big improvement will be in addition to interpreting the image as a band (i.e. from top to bottom, left to right). The application could also allow you to slice up the image in a totally concentric spiral one pixel wide. That way, the image wouldn't be wrapped or contorted into a ring. You could cut grooves containing a square image with the center missing (obviously, where the label would be and where most lathes won't cut).

At 112 lines per inch you would get a resolution of 112 pixel per inch vertical. I used 1000 horizontal as a default (but configurable) setting. 1.8 seconds per rotation at 33.3 RPM means that a 1000 pixel would render audio where each 0.0018 seconds would represent 1 pixel.

[tragwag]

I tried it today with my presto 6N, embossing.
I used the 224 LPI at first, and the 112 later on.
It didn't work, but I think thats because the embossed groove is not very deep.
More that it doesn't change depth much.

If I get a chance to change the setup around, I'll try cutting into a lacquer.

[opcode66]

Hmm. Ok. That image was a bit complex. So, I wasn't really sure how it would translate. I'm rendering a bunch of textual audio. It is just the word TRAGWAG. I'm rendering at 112 and 224. I'm making ones where there is audio on black and also inverted where there is audio on white. I'll make 2K and 1K versions. All Mono. That should give you something proper to test with.

[opcode66]

112 and 224 LPI, Mono, 1K frequency, 80% Volume, regular and inverted
http://www.deepgroovesmastering.com/share/dgmgroovegraphics/tragwag_1k.zip

112 and 224 LPI, Mono, 2K frequency, 80% Volume, regular and inverted
http://www.deepgroovesmastering.com/share/dgmgroovegraphics/tragwag_2k.zip

[tragwag]

excellent.
When I tried last time, the resulting band of grooves was only about 1/4" at 224, and 3/4" or so at 112.
Even if there was something there, it would be pretty small, or indecipherable at 224.
I'll see if this new file works any better, thanks!