Another silly question.... this time vinyl

Keeping today's desktop size laser printers in mind, is it conceivable to make a high quality LP ( real time transfer) with a blank vinyl disc that could actually play and sound good on a normal TT.

One would have to get the first go around right..no starting over with same disk

Just wondering. I'm no engineer

 

Ar you talking about 3D printer?

 

Then there'd be no one to blame but yourself if the lp is flawed. Where's the fun in that ?

 

Thinking that's not possible with the current 3D technology, maybe possible in the future. A laser turntable was developed just before CD's hit the market, tracks the groove with a laser. The Library of Congress USA has one.

 

There are a few. What I've read about people's experiences with them, they sound pretty bad, which is a shame... though they're crazy expensive.

 

Yes, if you own a Neumann lathe and cutting electronics, a lacquer mastering suite with superb tape machines and DAW station and mastering console and outboard gear, the skill and know how to drive it, expensive master grade lacquers, and lots of $$$$$ to afford it. Not for ordinary people to do. Not like burning a CD at home or a DVD. Allow say, $300,000 or so entry fee or higher.

 

apparently hp does not make anything like that ......

 

There are already several home vinyl recorders; Vestax VRX-2000, Vinyl Recorder T-560 and the Vinylium Cutter being examples, I'm not sure the Vestax is still made, but here are the other two:

dubplatecutter - Vinylium

vinylrecorder, vinyl recorder, dubplate, phono, analog, single, maxi, record, recording, directmastering, pressing, pressung, schallplatten

You will most likely be able to 3D print records in the future, but I think they need to improve the definition so to speak, not sure how good the state of the art industrial machines are, but the domestic printers can't print at a small enough scale to build up the grooves of a record.

 

No, and they never will either. And HP today is not the awesome HP which used to be, that got spun off ages ago!

 

And they're good enough for dictation and low end work. Not for HiFi or Audiophile. Not for top grade work professionally. Vestax is also defunct, support for the VRX-2000 died years ago. Cutting lacquer discs is not doable for home prices and good enough to be legit quality. Not a home thing. Presto mono cutting gear is the beginning of good quality low end broadcast grade/light pro grade. Scully/Neumann/Lyrec is more like it. Not cheap, easy, or for novices. More like professional disc cutting engineer needed to get good. Vinyiium in trained hands is somewhat better. But not plug and play. Still needs skilled operators and quality ancillary gear, and you can't buy that or build it cheap.

 

Years ago, weren't there " make a record " booths?

 

Yes! usually at county fairs, the quality was not good!

 

They used acetates and domestic acetate cutters were around from the early twentieth century for use as dictation machines and similar.

 

Current laser technologies that can cut a high-quality LP transfer on a blank disk is possible but to make such technologies will require highly significant capital, R&D, manufacturing, engineering skills, etc. to be made for manufacturers, let alone for home-use. It might be possible several decades from now, but I wouldn't hold my breath for one.

 

I think I saw Jack White or Neil Young playing with one of those on the Tonight Show not long ago

 

Yes! There's a little cafe/bar/record shop called Songbyrd Record Cafe here in Washington DC that has a functioning model. I believe it's $15 to record your own 7-inch record. I'm not sure of the details as I've never tried it out:

 

Neil Young recorded his (2014) "A Letter Home" CD on Jack White's refurbished 1947 Voice-o-Graph vinyl recording booth. The CD is (understandably) low-fi due to the recording technology, but has a certain charm about it.



On your original question, I agree with the above comments. In theory 3D printing could replicate a record, but the technology isn't ready yet. As noted, the printing resolution will need to be many times better than currently available. The ability to scan a record in high resolution to form the printing file needs to be developed. And finally, I'm not sure that the plastic used to currently print the 3D models has the appropriate characteristics of record vinyl to play with fidelity.