in 2014 and beyond: realistic first lathe?

[joe_caithness]

So it's an open as hell question.

I am a mastering engineer working in a large (and potentially expandable) space in Nottingham, UK.

I have access to a lot of nice stuff: analogue transfer from every angle. But I can't cut lacquers for my clients, at the moment I can't even begin to learn.

It's always been a (pipe?) dream to be able to do this for my clients at some point in the future (I'm five year into my mastering career).

I read the forum and lurk about a bit. Some stuff seems to be clear: lathes are hard as hell to find and it gets harder but there is some DIY projects and hobby developers making some progress.

If I were to make a long term plan to own and operate a lathe in, say 5 years time, what should I be watching / looking for on the classifieds? just so I can get an idea of the prices and what's surviving.

Thanks in advanced,

Joe @ Subsequent Mastering

[Virtalahde]

Hi Joe, good to see you here!

Four years ago I was pondering the same exact question here:

http://repforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php?topic=33809.0

The best advice I got came from Paul Gold: "I say jump in with both set or don't jump"

So I ditched the idea of anything cheaper and bought myself a Scully which I'm restoring right now. I'm hoping to do test cuts in August or so. I wanted a lathe because I wanted to be in control of the way the masters sound like. Anything lesser wouldn't do. And eventually I figured out a Scully/Westrex system was what I really wanted.

I would think through what you want to do. If it's just a lacquer every now and then and nothing too serious, then some sort of a DIY solution like Flo's Caruso head on a solid lathe mechanicsm could work. But it would be a fairly limited system.

[petermontg]

Welcome onboard.

Am thinking for the ability to cut lacquers, you would be searching for a pro system.

Maybe the Neumann VMS manual on Ebay would be a good start for you. Understanding the schematics and what goes where and why...
Post back any questions you may have.

Be prepared to invest a lot of money and a lot of your time.

When the time comes you will need to be quick to the purchase.
If you want to dip your toe in between now and then a presto 6n is a good start. Alot of us started on these and plenty of people still use them.

Hope it helps somewhat.

[joe_caithness]

Hey Jaakko, good to see some familiar names on here, I loved your interview with Adam Gonsalves about designing your own chain, gave me big ideas.

Hey Peter, I follow your build thread on Facebook at Cutter Head and will be asking about a test cut at some point (I have a good solid contact for pressing for my clients, but not for lacquer cutting in lieu of myself doing it!)

Part of me wants to do something like: grab a Vinyl Recorder or similar to mess with, make some lofi stuff for noise/lofi/punk artists I know and learn about the physics of cutting, while at the same time learn about the Neumann and Scully machines on paper. I always keep an eye out for a lathe and have a place to store it and a guy who could restore it with me in house potentially...

Finding this stuff in the UK aint easy though!

[petermontg]

Moved in last weekend. lovely room.some tidying up on reflections is needed and I feel I need to add the "Center HTM" now. Work in progress.

You could pick up flo's head, it's stereo head and start cutting dub plates on 6n. When you move to a VMS or Scully you can get the head modded to run on that system, whichever you choose. You will always have a stereo head.

It's hard to get hold of a VR. Some are available second hand, but can be a struggle to get support for it if something goes wrong.

Here is a ink to keep up with Flo
http://vinylike.de/index.php/caruso/

Here is the Neumann VMS manual
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEUMANN-VMS-RECORD-LATHE-OPERATION-SERVICE-MANUAL-SET-/151303480602?pt=US_Other_Pro_Audio&hash=item233a63e51a

Jaakko has lots of info on the Scully I think. Maybe he would be willing to share some with you. It is a different beast than the Neumann's.