The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

The grooves in the microscopic picture look terrible. Not sure whether you are trying to emboss or actually cut, but what is happening is that you are just scratching the surface. Unmodulated grooves must look mirror-like and smooth, without any of the small "fuzzy" structures seen in the image. Loo...

The consistent standard of "positive pressure = stylus moving to record edge" goes back to the ancient mechanical recording and playback method: All mechanical recording lathes and gramophones cannot but work this way due to the simple horn+diaphragm+lever+stylus assembly. Any gramophone soundbox (t...

Thanks for your reply so far. It certainly helps to know that the 462, at roughly 3/4" length, is not the one I need which is more like 1/2" or maybe 5/8". Of course one can shorten the aluminium shank, but I rather not have to manhandle an expensive jewel-point stylus unless there is no other way. ...

Does anyone have reliable info on the shank dimensions (length and diameter) for the "362" and "462" sapphire and diamond styli variously offered online? The descriptions generally say only "for Grampian" vs. "for Presto", which really doesn't help much trying to find something that fits a Neumann R...

I don't know the machine and I cant really help with the problem, but for clarity for you and future readers I want to disambiguate one thing: Tremolo is defined as: low frequency amplitude modulation. The volume gets louder/softer/louder/softer etc. Vibrato is defined as: low frequency pitch modul...

Yes Bryan, you're spot-on. Probably no software programmer ever dreamt of the things we are doing. Even with dedicated audio-processing and -restoration software I have found it time and again over the years that some functions work much more effectively if you employ them in a way they are definite...

He is right in a sense that the phase-shift caused by a filter usually makes a negligible difference for the listener, provided that it is identical in both stereo channels (or else the stereo soundstage breaks down) and does not change over time (or you get "flanging" artefacts). The ear/brain inst...

They were not manufactured to cut records. That was stated by the seller. The geometry is wrong. The glue is wrong and no heat can be applied. Need we go on? They look like cutting styli, but that is the extent of the similarities. Steven and I both independantly supply quality diamond cutting styl...

Jolyman wrote:don't buy those ....
I did. they are terrible.

Could you please elaborate on that verdict? It may well be that the styli are ill-suited for what you were trying to do, but still useful in other context.... "Terrible" can mean all and nothing....!

The proper term for this is wow + flutter. You can check it by playing the W+F tone on the NAB record and looking at a W+F meter. If you have a digital audio workstation that includes a decent-resolution spectrograph, you don't even need a W+F meter: Cut an 1kHz tone (or for that matter any midrang...