The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Hmm... I should actually have a listen to my Souri test record again - it's probably the best indicator.

Hi all, Random question, but I was wondering: do you think the T560 is capable of cutting decent quality test records? You know, the type that have fixed tones, frequency sweeps, polarity checks, trackability tests, 0db and so on. I know these records are usually commercially pressed, but I'd love t...

Yes, but what ratio of butter:milk are you using?

What ratio of wax:oil are you guys using?

Hi all,

I just spilled my only bottle of surface denoiser while refilling my denoiser sprayer and it means I'm going to run short before I can get another order of denoiser shipped.

Any suggestions for short-term homemade solutions?

Thanks all. That Aardvark guide is great!

Hi all, I'm cutting with a vinyl recorder and someone recently mentioned to me that there are standards for how far toward the center of a 7" I should cut. Currently if I use a groove distance of around 40 I get 4 minutes on a side, but that's only if I allow the cutterhead to slightly overlap the b...

Thanks guys, this is very helpful.

Hey all, The part of the VR training where Souri explains the potential issues with vertical treble seems to have entirely left my memory. Can anyone remind me of what to check for/compare between vertical and horizontal treble? I remember him showing us some examples of tracks where the vertical tr...

Cool, thanks for the warning - I almost ordered some!

It turns out that there's something wrong with the left channel of my mixer (the one used to toggle between previewing source and cut record). It starts off fine but then after a few minutes the left channel drops about 18db and the sound distorts. The good thing is that it's not affecting the cuts ...

Hi all, I see this site is offering some really nice looking coloured and splatter-type blanks: https://www.diamond-cutting-stylus.com/12-blank-vinyl-record-shop/ I'd love to try cut on these with my T560 but I'm unsure of whether or not that's a good idea. Are pressed blanks suitable for this? Are ...

Thanks Mark - will give that a try!

Thanks Ben - this is incredibly helpful!

The diamond looks fine, but I'm suspecting that the mixer may be the issue. It's also been randomly dropping the volume of one channel every now and then.

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Hey all,

I've started getting some distortion on my cuts, but only on the left channel. It's most noticeable on kick drums and on sibilant vocals, but the surface noise also sounds a little higher on the left channel.

Any ideas what could be causing this? Is it a calibration issue perhaps?

Thanks GeorgeZ, this is good to know. What software did you use for this analysis?

Thanks SpringMan, this is really interesting stuff!

I don't think my technical skills are up to what you're suggesting, so I think for now I'll just take your advice and not try to beat nature

Thanks sven.

I'm using a standard T560 vinyl recorder setup, although I think the issue of cutting piano-type sounds towards the center of a record isn't limited to this setup - it's a general potential problem related to decreasing speed as you hit the inner edges of the record.

It seems like there is another new lathe on the market: http://www.myshank.com/en/zez-cutting-lathe/133-zez-cutter-one.html

Haven't seen any reviews of it but it looks very well put together and MyShank seems like a trusted member of the community.

Hey all,

I know that apparently the noise floor is a bit higher on coloured vinyl, but does anyone know where to get decent coloured blanks (for a T560)? I see that MyShank sells white and transparent and Souri does transparent, but it would be nice to have some colour options... Any suggestions?