About this epilog thingie

It's not a device, yet, so much as some diagrams.

Basically, I have been trying to make lathe cut records forver. I don't have a lot of money, and after investing about $500 in three different machines, I gave up. One day, it hit me, why use this old equipment?? Science has come a long way! So, I have figured out how to do the work of a record lathe, but without actually having one. And, also, without having to have a heated cutting stylus, a vacuum system, and all the other stuff that comes with doing a good job of cutting records.

Basically, going to convert a signal into an image, then cut that image into lexan or something. It's a really odd hybrid of analog + digital. Hard to explain. I need an old, non-working lathe, still, though, to make a master... I still need a platter with a head that moves on a feedscrew type thing. Dammit, I wish my other half didn't make me trash non-working gear all the time!!!
 
The first ones will only be mono, as stereo would requite either two passes in the laser cutter ("epilog") or it would require doing the live cut with lasers, which is way more advanced than where I am starting from.

There are generic "Epilogs"/laser cutters for $1500!! Dang!! A lot closer than I thought!! Plus, there's a place in Seattle (close to where I live) where you can walk-in and use one, although it's a bit pricey.
 
Since I am being vague, I'll go into some more detail here....

The "master" will be made sort of in the way a real record is cut... Except instead of having the cutterhead being made of metal, it's going to be a PEN. We're going to transcribe the audio signal to an image. This image will be scanned at high resolution, and covnerted to an SVG file, which is what can be cut by a laser cutter. I don't know if this will work. Someone tried something like it, but it is NOT a playable record, as it does not seem to contain audio and was for novelty purposes only.
 
First off, you are a serious nutter, I love your avvie dude! Very rightous :cheers:

I think I know where you're trying to go with this laser thing, waaaay cool idea, when I get rich again, I'll back you on the venture. I was thinking you were trying to make a laser cartridge to read the grooves. You are thinking way ahead of me. Are you bouncing ideas on other forums? I'd like to read up on this theory.
 
No, I only have one friend that even comprehends, and/or cares about, these sorts of things! :)
 
nripley said:
No, I only have one friend that even comprehends, and/or cares about, these sorts of things! :)
Click to expand...


You have come to the right place we do all kinds of things here. I have a thought. If you could convert the signal to what the laser generator could understand why couldn't you use a blank LP? You can buy them. I have seen them. Record to tape and use the conversion to the laser to cut the LP. This way you could play it on a regular TT. You may have to ADC then back to DAC.

Larry
 
The end product would be playable on any turntable. The first cuts would be mono, but playable.

The only real "digital" part of the process would be scanning the image of the audio, for laser enregistration. Even though it's digital, it's a fairly mechancial process as it's simply using an optical pickup to create a representation of a physical image. I don't know if that makes sense, but it does to me.

Let me dig up the link to the device I am gonna copy to make my master.
 
I was going for something like this: http://gieskes.nl/gramophonerecorder/

Although replacing the cutting stylus with something to make an image of the waveform onto paper, rather than cutting into a chunk of plastic.

The only other way I could think to do this would be to digitize the output of some kind of oscilloscope, maybe??? I don't know how to do that, though.

So, then, once this image is done, it's scanned and then converted to an SVG, which is just a graphics format that can be read by a laser cutter. Then, I can cut the records onto any type of material, and they would be real records. All theory.
 
I can't see why it wouldn't work like you discribed, The one in the link has a freakin' garden hose :shock: , what the hell does that convey? Weird! There should be some tubes in the analog signal path for the best sound...tubes and Mono :cheers: Awesome!!
 
nripley said:
No, I only have one friend that even comprehends, and/or cares about, these sorts of things! :)
Click to expand...

And I have always thought The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia was the coolest song, Helen Reddy not withstanding.

Mama is a class act.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top