The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

But how do you cut LI and LO grooves on a Presto? All the ones I ever saw or trained on (like the double-cutter double platter version in a console at the middle school I used to go to's radio station they had but never used) couldn't do it - or cut bands inbetween tracks because there was no way to...

And they go on eBay for $3500? Wish I would have known that when the schools were throwing em all away in the 70s because they were converting to tape. I think a few got traded to a guy with some surplus Ampex 2 track and 4 track e g. 440 types but the rest just got tossed along with about a million...

Well here's the episode number and descriotion - now all you gotta do is find it.

http://www.neighborhoodarchive.com/mrn/episodes/1248/index.html

Season Four 1971-`72 Premiered May 3rd, Recorded July 22nd 1971

As far as I been able to tell NOBODY wants to deal directly with customers no matter if they are a recording studio a mastering lab or a plating/pressing facility. Everybody wants previously-knowledgeable people who know what they want how they want it and how they want to proceed. Plating and press...

I regularly use two identical...with identical ...and identical... and identically calibrated. Their performance is so closely matched, that it is almost impossible to hear any difference. But as you just admitted - there IS a difference simply because it IS analog (even though two digital machines...

Remember though that embossing styli are never the same size or produce a groove in the same shape as a normal cutting styli - so playing back an embossed record on a normal turntable with a normal stylus is going to be only passable at best. Adding in constant linear recording (CGS/Grey Audograph/M...

Since there's presumably no such thing as a stereo Rek-O-Kut cutterhead for it - would one of the others i.e. Grampian SC 1 work on it if you added a second amp to it?

My aunt worked on his staff during part of that period. She probably knew my late uncle who was one of the medics that came in periodically. She told me that the "reproduction" was faked in post. It sounded like they recorded the repro on like an old Stenorette rim drive reel to reel or something a...

Did you/would you ever consider being the only one to be bringing DMM back to the U.S.? I trained under Len Horowitz for Scully and been to a couple masterclasses by e.g. Marcussen and would like to end up being retrained to be one of the few remaining combination lacquer/DMM cutting engineers. Ther...

First thing you have to understand is everybody is doing the same mylar-over-11-1/4 inch paper over the same black or opaque color 11-7/8 biscuit as everybody else. Being no thicker than a soundsheet, the sound quality of the mylar is of course terrible and wears out fast - some say having fewer dec...

One thing you have to remember if you are cutting from tape: Unless you are working with a production master that was recorded all in the same session all on one (or two) reels of tape on the same machine (e.g. if you get original work-parts and have to mix and master on the fly) then - as everybody...

Everybody I know or know about has contracts with all the major plating and pressing plants - so it's usually a staffer's job to ask the customer what price range he has in mind and what quality he's looking for and then try to strike a balance inbetween. Obviously you are not going to get a 200G vi...

I found out from an entertainment attorney friend of my Dad's that looked it up and showed me where it says ``if a ``reasonable'' person cannot be expected to playback the media on commonly available currently-manufactured players, it's considered ``art'' in the same vein as warped LPs being made in...

I don't think this is the same thing exact,ly but I know a couple guys (neither of them on here) that have been trying to emboss on old CGS linear velocity discs with the lateral on one side and the vertical on the other side. If they had two embossers and mounted an e.g. Soundscriber vertical head ...

PBS is re-running all the really old First Series (1968-75) shows on Saturday mornings and the one that was on this weekend featured Fred making his own record on a portable cutter in a suitcase with a linear overhead carriage vs a pivot arm such as one might find on a General. Anybody know the name...

Wait, so, cutting lacquer masters is not profitable either? As stated above - not for the vast majority of people since you can't hire immigrants at below minimum wage to do it for you while you reap most of the profits like How about burger flipping? In the case of plumbing or any other electrical...

That kind of legacy - with apologies to Patsy Cline - you can't buy, make or steal. Scuse me while I go wipe off all the plastic Halloween puke Len would have certainly thrown at me if he had ever heard the above comment either Live in Person or else with Glorious Technicolor Breathtaking Cinemasco...

Think of...Prosaic.... Which is another good idea. or Wellbutrin, Lexapro, Zoloft... even an occasional Xanax will help you deal with both mechanical and electronic as well as failures on the artist's part. even if the clients all LOVE records all that does is allow you to lessen the dosage and/or ...

One thing I WOULD do just to get started like a lot of us did is start cutting audiobooks - off of cassette-to-computer restorations if CDs aren't available. Before I got with Len and his Scully in the early 90s, that's what I was doing. It's good because you can start off with voice-only titles and...

IIRC the three (or four) pin stereo versions are the same size bakelite as the mono - meaning if you find one and it's corresponding mate in a parts pin someplace you should be able to remove both from their couplings, glue the new ones in and go on about your business.