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DIY Vinyl Cutter

T

Twinhit

Active Member
Seeing we like vinyl, I figure I'd throw my worthless 2 cents in.

There are people working on a DIY vinyl record cutter.
Makes sense, because old vinyl can only last so long and I don't see the
Record companies banging down my door to buy vinyl.

You own a record or cassette tape or mp3 you purchased but you would love to hear it in 100% analog on vinyl. You imagine that needle vibrating while it's coloring the sound just the right shade of warm.

You spent $300,000.00 on a fancy turntable but have no records to play....

Well, I just thought I would mention it.

Google's your buddy
Vinyl Cutter
 
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When mastering labs phased out their analogue services they sold off the cutting lathes and associated equipment, some of which is being used by 'indies' cutting masters for new interested customers. The other half is the pressing plant with the plating facilities to make the pressing dies from the "mother" discs, this is also essential. Then there's sourcing necessities and expendables like lacquer blanks, cutting stylii, vinyl stock, ect. Not so much a basement enterprize.
 
Pio1980 said:
When mastering labs phased out their analogue services they sold off the cutting lathes and associated equipment, some of which is being used by 'indies' cutting masters for new interested customers. The other half is the pressing plant with the plating facilities to make the pressing dies from the "mother" discs, this is also essential. Then there's sourcing necessities and expendables like lacquer blanks, cutting stylii, vinyl stock, ect. Not so much a basement enterprize.
Click to expand...


Ahh, but have you seen what people are doing on youtube???
 
Basement record lathes are used for cutting direct to disc, not pressing vinyl, silly ;). AFAIK, they are generally used on acetate sheets, polycarbonate, and that sort of thing, rather than vinyl. It's generally a lo-fi, just-for-fun idea.
 
Nope, haven't seen YouTube.
I had a humongous TOTL Packard-Bell console radio as a youngster with a 78 RPM lacquer cutter deck for home recording, you played the rather delicate and life-limited lacquer original back on a standard period groove-grinder. Crude but effective predecessor to wire magnetic recording which was supplanted by home tape recording with a significant boost in fidelity potential. Wire recorders are interesting but the unobtanium replacement heads for the worn-out originals are a show-stopping problem.
 
Twinhit said:
Makes sense, because old vinyl can only last so long
Click to expand...

?????

Vinyl records have almost eternal shelf life. At least better shelf life than typical CDs and magnetic tapes.

And if the record compound is half-decent, they can be played back so many times* that can be considered "eternal" for practical purposed.

(* with very good quality equipment, not with a cheap record player)
 
flavio81 said:
?????

Vinyl records have almost eternal shelf life. At least better shelf life than typical CDs and magnetic tapes.

And if the record compound is half-decent, they can be played back so many times* that can be considered "eternal" for practical purposed.

(* with very good quality equipment, not with a cheap record player)
Click to expand...

Youre right, today i found in my collection a record unlistened about 15 years i think, i just get it from sleeve and without to clean i put it directly on the platter and wow, the songs was there, sounding clean and nice, i was very nicely surprised to listen it. I think it's the long lasting medium ever.:)
 
Ahhh,
But I referring to actual use and wear and tear. Not leading a sheltered hybernating shelf life.
ALSO.....

I think it would be pretty slick to be able record my OWN musical work and not someone elses. With that in mind, my hats off to those guys working on a homemade recorder. Regardless of the actual material they will land on as the best for end users.
I am sure there are a few musicians who happen to be audiophiles would appreciate this capability at home.

Indeed, they are not inventing anything new, but I for one can appreciate innovation and inventiveness among young people when I see it.
 
Lacquers lose fidelity with each play, they are impermanent if played or improperly stored. Not durable or robust at all comparable to vinyl.
 
Twinhit said:
I am sure there are a few musicians who happen to be audiophiles would appreciate this capability at home.
Click to expand...
Unless they also happen to be wealthy engineers, the audiophile part is not going to come into it - they'll be making lo-fi, probably mono, probably short-lived records. Meanwhile, you can make fairly impressive home recordings by spending a few hundred bucks on a good mic, USB interface, and recording software. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that people are playing around with this stuff too. It just doesn't make any sense to imagine it having some kind of fidelity purpose.

P.S. are you familiar with Peter King's business?
 
I saw the clips on youtube with guys cutting CD-s, but from that to real records it's a long way to go. I think a DYI cutter will never be able to equalise the quality and durability of classical factory pressed vinyls.:)
 
Oh, so you just mean qty=1 orders. Yeah, not many places will do that, but at $250+ per LP, it's not a whole lot more to press 250 LPs at a real plant.
 
Wanna know what do you need for cutting vinyls to hi-fi standards?

- A turntable that spins with much less than 0.05% DIN weighted W&F and at the same time with enormous torque. On a extremely heavy base to minimize any rumble and external vibration.

- A cutting head able to handle very big currents. They usually are liquid helium cooled. They also have feedback coils, not only drive coils.

- A cutting head amplifier. These are high power and extremely low distortion. (We are talking about a 500 watt PER CHANNEL amplifier with as low distortion as possible)

- Helium source for cooling the head

- A cutting stylus which is typically sapphire or diamond. They don't last long and need to be periodically replaced and/or examined with a microscope.

- Lacquer disc (wrongly called "acetate")

- Means to place said cutting head on top of the lacquer disc firmly and move it without introducing any noise on the recording.

- Means to adjust the height of said cutting head

- Means to control the feedback of the cutter head

- A vacuum cleaner to suck off the (highly flammable) laqcuer that is cut off the lacquer disc in real time and without making any noise or vibration.

- Wire that heats the cutting stylus and electronic means to keep the temperature stable

wait... there is more:

- Means for preventing overheating (and thus destruction) of the cutting head coils by limiting (and measuring) the cutting stylus acceleration.

- Means for restricting the vertical movement of the stylus to make sure there is always a groove (elliptical equalizer etc)

- A computer / control system to control the movement of the cutting head to pack the grooves narrowly. Which also requires a program source that is able to deliver two audio feeds, one delayed by about 0.55 seconds related to each other

-- if this is analog tape, it means that your tape deck will need a 'preview head'
-- if you don't have a tape deck with 'preview head' you need a digital delay and your signal on the record will not be 100% analog then

but... there is more:

- A microscope (preferably with its monitor) to see the groove being cut, in real time.

- A reference-quality tonearm and reference-quality cartridge (& reference-quality preamp) to check that what is being cut actually sounds with no problems.

plus of course, means for metering:

- cutting stylus temperature

- groove tightness (lines per inch)

- modulation amplitude (micrometers)

- cutting stylus acceleration

- groove depth

- cutting stylus current

Finally, someone who actually knows how to make great cuts using all of the above.
 
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If you omit certain parts of the above you can still cut records but not to hi-fi standards. For example if you use a cutterhead without feedback coils, frequency response will be simply terrible.

If you don't have a computer to tightly pack the grooves, your records will be severely limited in playback time per side or cutting level ("volume" of the record), or they will have to be cut at a rather quiet level (which brings up surface noise).

If you can't measure and control acceleration you will either have to cut at quiet levels or you will increase the chance of cutting a record which has sibilance and/or mistracks when played.

If you don't have a helium-cooled cutterhead, the power that your cutterhead can use will be restricted, and this means you will have to reduce the HF content of your signal and cut at a very quiet level. Or face the possibility of melting the coils.

If you don't use a perfectly sharp cutting stylus, all kinds of problems will arise.

etc etc etc

That's why it's a very difficult DIY proposition. Just to build a DIY cutting head would be a very serious task.
 
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