Anyone heard of this? New "HD" style record cutting

[zebrostripe]

Article on Engadget... Anyone involved or know anything about this? Seems interesting at any rate;

https://www.engadget.com/2018/04/12/high-definition-vinyl/

[markrob]

Hi,

This was reported last year. It will be very interesting to see if this comes to pass. The patent has reasonable explanations of the basic process, but its not clear to me that the laser can cut the low level detail that is required. I'm no laser expert though, so we'll have to see if he is able to prove approach this to be viable. There is nothing in the patent that talks about the prior art in relation to the smallest size of the features cut on a lacquer and the limits to laser technology in achieving this.

I see that he was able to score 4.5 million in funding. So, that should be enough to follow the process through to a working result. I do see some claims in the patent that seem suspect (e.g. 30% higher levels and 30% less space). That might be true, but you can already cut a groove that can't be played back on a standard pickup. I'm not sure if that is really is needed. I also see that he is claiming to compensate for tangential cutting vs. radial playback with a typical pivoted arm. I'll be exited just to see laser cut a master that is of similar fidelity to the cut lacquer. Finally, at the end of the day, will it be price competitive with a traditional cut master?

Mark

[tragwag]

good points mark! those were my ideas as well. another big benefit they taut is the unavoidable loss in the traditional lacquer silvering/plating/matrix process.
which I don't see as being an extreme hurdle to overcome.
the benefit being that the laser would directly cut the stamper, sure there are less steps but DMM was created to bypass one plating step, and didn't catch on either.
I see the overall benefit being negligible, and the cost being higher to the already price-wise consumer

[Oldskoolhousehead]

https://hdvinyl.org/

[untitledthe]

Oke its a new techique but from the interview posted here somewhere on the forum it comes clear that this is going to be usefull for the biggest production runs with big budget. For regular orders of 500 to 1000 records this will not have a added value anytime soon. But its a good thing new ideas get developed and wish them the best.

[concretecowboy71]

The real art of mastering is learning how the program material translates to the vinyl format. If you are using a laser to directly cut a stamper, how do you do test cuts and make reference acetates?

Less than 1% of the masters we cut are done "flat" with no processing. How do you accomplish this with this process?

Also, if he is claiming 30% more amplitude, how are old school carts going to react?

Just asking.