cutting patterns on a record

[drdub]

we just finished a rather interesting little assignement:

cut this picture on a 12 inch:



here's is the result: http://youtu.be/7JTb9r9y62w

info about the artists who did this, here:
http://www.sonosthesia.com/
http://www.octex.si/
http://www.readwritemusic.org/

cheers
mex

[concretecowboy71]

Wow. That is pretty cool.

Can you share any more info about the audio that was used to cut that?

BTW-- I like the reflection of the Creedence Clearwater Revival album in the playback shot!

[piaptk]

That's really cool... does it play? I'm guessing that to do it you had to have really loud deep grooves where you want a solid image and really quiiet shallow grooves where there is empty space?

I can't really see the finished product in the video...

[andybee]

nice work, mex! yes, I think this record will play

if you have every played some dancemusic on vinyl,
you have noticed, that some records still have patterns
from the music.
normally, you have them, if the BPM is arround 133,
so if you want to cut a pattern, you maybe choose fixed pitch,
but variable pitch can also work.
the you split your track into 1.8second long parts, every part
is one complete cycle.
and if you want to have another reflection at a point, you have to place a bassdrum or whatever on this point.
normally, that´s all.
I don´t know, which sound looks the best, maybe a snare, combined with a bassdrum and highhat at the same point can make a nice reflection
and, you need a very stable running turntable

is it cutted on the neumann or with the souri technics mex ?

very nice work!

[drdub]

yes it does play.

the process is sort of like this:
- scan grafix
- convert pixel info to midi signal
- trigger synth and record.

the frequences trigger what kind of texture you are getting.
we had to cut approx +2-4 db to get a clearly visible image.
was a little tricky since the signal was kinda pink noisy and
very dynamic.

please check the links in the prevous post. i dont want to take the credit for the artists work here.

we will however do some mor cuts like this - this was the first (ever?) test ...

cheers mex

[Aussie0zborn]

Neat.

[piaptk]

I guess my computer at school wasn't displaying their images of the final production... looks BEAUTIFUL!

IS it available for sale anywhere?

[drdub]

hi,

we did a cut - fixed pitch - on neumann and vinyl recorder.
both works. the final cuts we did on sour's machine. since the audio was
quite brutal and we needed high volume.

the audio is not really musical, but this will be the next step.
so far we did only dubs on pvc, a limited batch of 250 or so colored 12inches seems feasable.

ill keep you posted

mex

[MEGAMIKE]

hi drdub great job WOW .
we have done some cuts like it but only CV /gate triggers for synths like sh1, Juno or syncussion,for people that dont have drumachines as triggers..
also is it cv/gate triggers or midi signals on this??

[flozki]

hello
very nice.hehe
here some more stuff on the topic:

1. the analog crude way. for the analog fundis....

we did years ago same thing in a very primitive way..
just glued a infrared reflex coupler to the head suspension.
the output was connected to an analog switch. for example
cmos analog switch 4066,4053 for two differnet tones...
then we put a black&white image to the turntable and started with pixed pitch
to scan the image. every time the sensor passed a white spot it opened the switch and it changed frequency (4053) or switched off the sound (4066).
this signal was recorded. then we just where cutting that sound file...

2. the nice digital way.
last year the austrian artist &turntablist Dieb13 sent me a programm he developped. the same purpose but it converts directly form a jpg,png file to a soundfile. you can either use as a source sinus, whitenoise or any sound file of your choice.
the programm is under the GPL license free to use. enjoy.
you can find it here...
http://www.floka.com/lofi/nicestuff/image2groove.tar.bz2

it is a linux command line tool:
you start with
./image2groove -d pitch -s input_soundfile.wav/.aif -o output_soundfile.wav/.aif bild.png/.jpg

pitch is the theoretical time in seconds the stylus needs from the outer start to the center of the record....
if no input sound file is choosen it takes a sinustone
with -f you can choose which frequency the tone should be.

you need to have libgdand libsndfile installed.but thats anyway the case on most systems.

enjoy and thank Dieb13 for the wonderfull software...

[Radardoug]

I've had a look at the youtube video, and you don't actually show the record in such a way that you can see the image. Could you give us a picture that shows the actual record?
And I guess I'm having trouble with the fact that a meaningfull image will probably sound like shit.

[drdub]

the problem is to take a decent picture, where one can actually see the patterns nicely. i will put more effort in documentig it on the next try...

[Aussie0zborn]

Maybe you hold the record under a flouresecent light tube and tilt it back and forth slowly so that we can see it?

[Serif]

The other links Mex posted show the record in good lighting, fwiw...

e.g., http://www.sonosthesia.com/


I love watching him smoke in the lab coat.




- Gib Levleur


"Peter, ich habe kein zigaretten."

[drdub]

heres the picture from http://www.sonosthesia.com/

[duomo]

I tried the Linux programm flo posted, I did a first try with filtered noise. The result very impressive...
I'll do some more tests and keep you informed

[drdub]

very cool !

[Angus McCarthy]

Fascinating. Now I'm imagining doing this in conjunction with actual tracks. I could see having music on the outer bands with a separately-locked inner ring of text.

[andybee]

I think the next step for this "art" is to compose a track, that makes a cool looking pic on the record AND is danceable

[bancho]

awesome work dr.dub!
I know Dot (Slovenia isn't such a big place afterall) well and she's full of ideas like this... remember: BEWARE!