The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

I've cut SSTV signals - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow-scan_television - to disc with varying levels of success. The speed accuracy has to be absolutely perfect on both recording and playback, or the image comes out wavy and slanted.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/AUDAX-R-56-RECORD-CUTTING-HEAD-FOR-REK-O-KUT-PRESTO-LATHE-/111594103372?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19fb86e24c

Not mine. $100 and already someone's bid.

Dang, and it's not too far from where I live. It will be interesting to see what this goes far.

I wanted to sort all this out because my next VST control will be a Pitch Computer. Kudos, I look forward to seeing this! I got as far myself as applying RIAA-versus-excursion EQ and a graphing mid/side peak meter on a sidechain with a delay, to figure out the maximum excursions one-half to one ful...

One for the top half of the armature, the other flipped 180 degrees for the bottom half of the armature. Less distortion, more efficiency, iirc.

rsimms3 wrote::drool: The gaggle of feed screws in the one picture is most impressive!

Oh man, I didn't even notice the Feedscrew Bouquet. I wish I had one for a Rek-O-Kut M5.

Eight Prestos in one place? Impressive!

That looks like the lead-in and spiral timers out of a Scully lathe, rehoused in a box with more modern relays. The whole lathe is an interesting design, more modern than the other Universal that shows up from time to time, and almost reminiscent of an Arcturus lathe with the low profile. The rotata...

That was a very informative video, but I need to ask what on earth happened starting at 3:17? Al's record cutting knowledge was so powerful that it apparently ripped a hole in the fabric of reality.

lathews1.gif Here's a bad-quality scan of the S1 on an 8GV - surprisingly hefty compared to something like a 1D. The literature says: "The Presto Model 8GV cutting lathe can be equipped at the factory with either the Presto Model S1 stereophonic cutter head (S1 system also includes recording amplif...

Auction over! It went from £90 to £655 in the last twenty minutes?! Daaaang...

I have Hi Fi Sound Test Record #HFS-75, cut by Dennis King with an Ortofon DSS661 on a VMS70. It has a white noise track, which, when played back on my Ortofon 2M Red, is perfectly flat out to 20 kHz. The FFT analysis yields a ruler-straight line. :D I just wish it had more standard tones on it - mo...

canadaboyvinyl wrote: It's cold and lonely in the Canadian world of record pressing !!

Tell me about it. You guys will be the first ones closer than Los Angeles.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371224927305?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&fromMakeTrack=true

This would be the steal of the century for someone in England. Nobody's bid yet.

Okay, I just finished transferring, timing and measuring the Seasick Steve direct-to-disc, the one that's shown in the first video. It's 20 seconds shorter per side than Mudhoney, but is cut at an even finer pitch, 247 lines per inch! Which brings up something odd - all through the video, during cut...

Pretty sure the sides George cuts live that get pressed say something like "Live @ TMR" or something very close in the dead wax. Yup. Dscg1642x.jpg There's also a fragment of cheering in the locked groove at the end of side two, despite the sound being faded out before the leadout begins. Incidenta...

For comparison's sake, Mudhoney Live To Disk At Third Man Records (TMR-246), cut on a Scully by George Ingram, is 19:47 in 2.913 inches on Side A, 20:24 in 3.031 inches on Side B. Add banding and both sides work out to 234 lines per inch, with volume peaking at -2.5 dB. Grooves are just barely kissi...

Having transferred, timed and measured it, here are the stats I have: Side A - 18:46 in 2.48 inches of space, which accounting for banding between songs equals about -260 lines per inch. The recording level peaks at about -5 dB below standard reference. Side B - The double groove section is about 1:...

I'm sure I've read about this too - I could have sworn it was in Larry Boden's Disc Cutting book, but leafing through it now, I can't find it. The key term you're looking for is "Bernoulli", like Bernoulli Advance Ball. It must have made chip pickup by the suction system a challenge.