Direct Metal Mastering? Still used, or phased out / never caught on?
What size slates do DMM's come in, does anyone know of a supplier?
DMM?
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Cutterwoller
- Posts: 103
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:32 pm
- Location: London
Hey, yes, DMM is still used. The VMS 82 was made by Neumann and developed with TELDEC (Telefunked/Decca). Not many lathes were made. The heads are stronger than the SX74. This was the only system ever made for Direct Metal Mastering.
The disks only comes in 14'' I am pretty certain, you wouldn't really cut a dubplate DMM. DMM was developed in order to skip 2 steps in the glavanics stage. So, the DMM master should be in theory better quality because it has skipped these stages. However, in practice........
The disks are Aluminium coated in copper and I forget the name of the manufacturer but I'll get back to you on that.
Apart from a few pressing plants, I know that 'The Exchange' in London have a DMM lathe fully functional and in use when requested. And Abbey road may have one?
The disks only comes in 14'' I am pretty certain, you wouldn't really cut a dubplate DMM. DMM was developed in order to skip 2 steps in the glavanics stage. So, the DMM master should be in theory better quality because it has skipped these stages. However, in practice........
The disks are Aluminium coated in copper and I forget the name of the manufacturer but I'll get back to you on that.
Apart from a few pressing plants, I know that 'The Exchange' in London have a DMM lathe fully functional and in use when requested. And Abbey road may have one?
DMM stlyii?
I heard the DMM cutting stylus was diamond - is that true? Are they still available?
one-percent inspiration and 99% perspiration
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Mike Frost
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 6:19 am
- Location: Eindhoven, NL
- Contact:
Record Industry in Haarlem, the Netherlands have a Neumann DMM-lathe which is still seeing regular use. A friend of mine recently had 2 double and a single 12"s cut & pressed there, and for one of the doubles both records were cut on the DMM. As I did the pre-cut mastering of the records I had the opportunity to compare. To me the difference is most noticeable in the highs: it appears to be a quite a bit more crisp & subtly fresh.
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Cutterwoller
- Posts: 103
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:32 pm
- Location: London
If you want the specs of the machine, you are best of contacting Neumann. And yes, the styluses are diamond, you wouldn't use saphire or metal to cut copper.
www.portalspacerecords.com manufacturer or copper blanks and I forget the other manufacturer but I'll get back to you about that.
www.portalspacerecords.com manufacturer or copper blanks and I forget the other manufacturer but I'll get back to you about that.
Thanks lewis, I'll contact them monday, hopefully they can send me a spec sheet.
The one thing I noticed while coding this software is that a (x) inch plate is not always (x) inches, and that can f*&^ up my calculations for the overhead if I do not compensate for the small size differences.
Right now my software supports Dubplates (Acetate or PVC), Masters, and Apollo Lites.. Soon DMMs.
I'll make up an official post about my software soon.
The one thing I noticed while coding this software is that a (x) inch plate is not always (x) inches, and that can f*&^ up my calculations for the overhead if I do not compensate for the small size differences.
Right now my software supports Dubplates (Acetate or PVC), Masters, and Apollo Lites.. Soon DMMs.
I'll make up an official post about my software soon.
Hi Jay DC
I am interested to know what software you are writing I am intrigued
On another point There was a dmm lathe at Europadisc up at NY state that was sold at auction when the mob went bust The buyers being the scientoligist's in the US
Apparently they want to cut the voice of their leader Ron Hubbard for ever and they figured out that the best way to do that was to cut it on metal
Any way they paid over $120 K for the machine and they would have gone to whatever price so is the story
The chap who used the lathe is now out on his own mastering studio and he has an inherent knowledge of the whole set up He is a regular contributor to PSW another forum
His name is Steven Berson and here is a link for you
He is a most helpful fellow DMM was his baby
Here it is http://www.totalsonicmastering.com/
The link to the PSW is here http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/
If you search under DMM you will find a lot of information
All the best
Chris
I am interested to know what software you are writing I am intrigued
On another point There was a dmm lathe at Europadisc up at NY state that was sold at auction when the mob went bust The buyers being the scientoligist's in the US
Apparently they want to cut the voice of their leader Ron Hubbard for ever and they figured out that the best way to do that was to cut it on metal
Any way they paid over $120 K for the machine and they would have gone to whatever price so is the story
The chap who used the lathe is now out on his own mastering studio and he has an inherent knowledge of the whole set up He is a regular contributor to PSW another forum
His name is Steven Berson and here is a link for you
He is a most helpful fellow DMM was his baby
Here it is http://www.totalsonicmastering.com/
The link to the PSW is here http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/
If you search under DMM you will find a lot of information
All the best
Chris