Vinyl Recorder - few tips needed (Solved, thanks!)

[6137818]

Hi everyone,

Please excuse my newbility and sorry if I do anything wrong with this post - wasn't intentional..

Speaking to the point - I would be grateful if one could tell me something about the durability of the records made with the above machine. Want to start dubplating for my friends and myself..

Would be also happy to know your thoughts re the dubplating idea - probably some other machines that are of a better level..

Thanks in advance and the very best wishes from snowy Moscow,
Val

[petermontg]

Hi there


Machine as nice response 20hz - 20khz. Alot of people have different opinions in sour, I find him a nice chap to chat language barrier can be hard for him sometimes have patience with him.

His machine is set up forcutting polycarbonate do a search here. You have to change stylus to ruby to get dubplates and purchase them from transco.co.uk

The best advice is to find someone here that use souri machine for advice.

But my advice is if your not getting precision plate and motor in you package dont buy you wil suffer from wow and flutter. Although this problem can be reduced with technics sp turntable still 5000 us slot for beginner lathe.

Do a search here and think long and hard about


Peter

[6137818]

Thanks Peter,

Probably I put it wrong but the main question, basically, is does the durability (the ammount of plays before the audio gets worse) of the pressed and cut with VR records differ?

Thanks much for the comment re precision plate\motor. The money is not an issue thanks God but I've heard Souri doesn't sell some part to beginners. Hope the above are available for adding to the starter's set with the initial order...

Best,
V

[opcode66]

Souri will not sell you the precision plate and motor if you are a new customer. You have to use his machine for a length of time specified by him before you can purchase add ons. I have a record cut by his machine on a standard turntable. It has an unacceptable amount of flutter. Totally useless for a dj to spin.

[6137818]

To opcode66:

Thanks for your comment! That's no good.. Keeping what you said in mind would you recommend searching for used add-ons or looking for another machine to kick off with?
I'm still a little bit disappointed though as i considered VR to be a nice piece of gear after a small research i've done..

[piaptk]

you should email John at singlepieceslate.com. He has a vr and it sounds great to me... But then again, the music I've had him cut is not dj stuff and the small amount of flutter I've noticed doesn't actually effect the music. I'm sure he will cut you a test plate for a few bucks.

[opcode66]

It all depends on your budget. Not everyone can afford something better. Certainly you can use a better turntable with the VR and that would help. It was already suggested that you could find a Technics SP10 MK3 to use with the VR.

You probably wont find used add-ons that someone would be willing to sell without pairing them with the base system. I've never seen them offered alone.

Souri makes you wait to get additional pieces because he says that most people don't even need the add-ons to achieve the results they want and why waste the money. He also says that you need to learn how to use the machine and make good cuts with it before you need the added benefits of the add-ons. They would only add complexity to an already difficult process.

The VR is not a bad setup. It can be made to work very well. As with any lathe, it is all about what you put into it and how you run it.

Good Luck

[fraggle]

by the way you can cut pvc or polycarbonate with almost very cutter.
There is a significant quality difference between the lathes.
at the end of the day ou get what you pay for:)

[6137818]

Thank you guys for your kind comments! I realise this is not a plug and play thing and months will go before a decent result will be reached but still i'd prefer to start with a A+ level lathe. Money is not an issue that much so that's why i'm diving into different options.

Speaking about SP10 MK3 - i should give it a go, thanks for pointing at it, though considering a quick googlesearch it won't be an easy task as well..

I've also thought about manufacturing a lathe here because there are a lot of high level manufacturing specialists who can come up with any HQ machine for a very attractive rice if they have the technical specifications set up right but I have no idea of where to get such specifications as i'm a complete newbie (sigh)..

Thank you so much once again..

[piaptk]

When I first saw the VR, I thought... this could very easily be made by a machinist.. the trick would be making the cutterhead (which several people on here have done).

If you settle for mono, you can get a full Presto 6n setup for $1500 or less.

[maniman]

Different things :

If Totally newbie (like me) I think the VR is the entry level.

As I know adjust the plate/motor isn't trivial , no talk about the evidence (75 Kg/cm2 isnt the same as 1,5 or any other home super-torque turntable you can get , this maybe is the reason of Souri not selling this expansion to newbies )

I have many many records from my confidence cutter , with no plate , with no feedback , with no groover , and are totally usable for me , as battle disc , as breaks and as home listening and live performance , and the durability is really amazing (better than some bad quality pressed break beats I own , for example )

If Durability is your focused concern , I think sapphire and transco disks are just the opposite.

Must say my way are funky breaks and hiphop , if you need to throwdown the Thunderdrome (hahahha) maybe the VR isnt what you are tryng to find.

Only my (newbie) opinion.

Best Regards

[petermontg]

harder the compound the longer you will get from you record.

they way i look at it is through what stylus it takes to cut what

acetate - ruby

diamond - polys and pvc

am sure pvc has a harder compound than polys.

so for longer lasting vinyl polys and pvc is perfect. not sure how long it will last for but somewhere was stated around the 100,000 playbacks, but that could be an embellishment.

[opcode66]

Souri has recordings of a locked groove that he cut into one of his polycarb blanks. He let it play and recorded the audio at various times. The final recording was at 100,000 repetitions where the audio does start to degrade and the loop point becomes very noisey. Up to there it sounds good.

Your options are as follows, listed from most expensive to least: VMS80 @ 50K, VMS70 @ 30K, VMS66 @10K, some sort of Sculy or Fairchild lathe with random head (ortofon or westrex are examples) @ 10-15K, Vinilium Kingston Dubplate Cutter @ 10K, Vinyl Recorder @ 6K, a Presto 8 or 6 with a mono head @ 2-5K, and finally any of the old mono portables (rca, presto, wilcox gay, etc) which are 100 to 1,000 depending on condition.

Flutter is a big deal to me for two reasons. I write a lot of music that has sustained notes. Flutter makes a sustained not sound as if it has pitch modulaiton. I don't like that. Second, I am a house music DJ. It is especially difficult to match beats and mix if one of your records has a constantly shifting bpm. Flutter cuases the bpm to change slitghtly over time in inconsistant ways. That can certainly setup a trainwreck for a dj.

By the way I see SP10's on eBay every now and then. Setup an alert on eBay so you know when auctions get posted for Technics SP01's. That way you wont miss when one becomes available if you decide to go with the VR.

As was stated, almost any lathe can cut plastic blanks. As long as you can make an adapter shank to fit in your cutterhead that can hold a diamond cutting stylus then you can cut plastic. The cutterhead/amp combo will determine weather you can cut stereo or mono.

Take Care,

Opcode66

[6137818]

Different things :

Must say my way are funky breaks and hiphop , if you need to throwdown the Thunderdrome (hahahha) maybe the VR isnt what you are tryng to find.


Best Regards

That's the thing - i'm into techno so constant bpm and low highly accurate accurate cutting is absolutely essential..

still thanks for your thoughts and best of luck!

Val

2 Peter and Opcode66:

Thanks much for putting me into into the picture bout durability.

Special thanks for you,dear Opcode66, for listing the options - i will start learning more aboput each of them.

Seems we are in a common situation as i need pitch accuracy as well. Absolutely essential. Will try searching for SP10 on ebay but after a talk i had today it may come out to be about 4k to pay for so Kingston might be a better investment for the money as you've suggested. So much to think about..

[opcode66]

I finally gave in and came up with the loot for a restored VMS70 from Al Grundy. And, I've never looked back...

Cheers! Let us know if you have more questions. There are a number of cutters who are happy to help out and share knowledge.

Take Care,

Todd

[MEGAMIKE]

Totally useless for a dj to spin?????????????????

what a load of crap!

[MEGAMIKE]

[opcode66]

Without the precision plate and external motor, yes that makes the tracks hard to work. Totally useless, ok maybe not... But, not really the quality I would play out. I have integrity as a DJ. I don't want to hear pitch modulation is highs like key stabs or vocals where it shouldn't be. Especially if its my track. That's all I'm saying.

[mossboss]

Mega Greek
PERFECTIONIST!!!! is that you? Now Now

[MEGAMIKE]

perth ectionist