Deep Grooves Mastering - Project Bladerunner

[Wlee_]

Spring Steel!!!! Yay!!!

Now, I wait for the cutting bits to arrive.

Greetings from Asheville, NC! I'm a record-cutting/Lathe Troll n00b, about to dive headfirst from the Eurorack synth/Muffwiggler world. I've feverishly read through this thread and feel like I've learned a lot (albeit, clearly the tip of the iceberg) regarding the differences between a lot pro-sumer setups and high-end, studio-grade equipment. Anyway, I can't wait to hear more on the status and availability of your Mantra feedback head, Todd.

I really appreciate how much you've shared from your own learning experiences, as brutally honest as you can come across in some of your posts. As a result, I soon hope to be able to support DGM as much as possible when building my first lathe in order to start with tried-and-true, no-bullshit, studio-grade equipment from someone who clearly knows wtf they're talking about. If I've learned one thing from analog synthesizers, it's that not all things are equal when it comes to audio circuits. I know I'm definitely going to make mistakes, so your modular head design with some level of speedy serviceability seems like a must-have.

On a tangent, I'm thinking of trying to order one of Sauri's T560 (probably sans cutting head atm), but I wanted to see what you thought of the suspension and feedback amp. Is there a similarly-priced option you think would work better? (Feel free to pm response.) Just want to be sure I do my best to hit the ground running when Mantra is ready. In the meantime, I've got a lot more reading to do.

Thanks! And keep up the hard work,
-Lee

[dimi751]

Hi Todd

Great job on the Presto bobbins !

It's hard to work with any metal because of the tight

Tolerances, you have seem to have nailed it so to

speak ! Really nice work Todd defiantly you always inspiration to me.

have you forecasted a rough Release date for mantra ?

Dim

[opcode66]

Thank you both for replying. Much appreciated. I'm trying my hardest to push the envelope here and provide some reasonable cutting solutions for myself and others.

With respect to the T560, I will be making a mount that will allow my cutterhead to be hung on that system. No problem. The electronics could also be used with some modification. Or, you could ditch those and purchase mine when completed. Either way.

I will be putting together a video documenting a lot of the presto work I've done over the past couple weeks. Up to and including hanging a Presto on my Neumann VMS70 for embossing tests into plastic. That will happen later today. I perfected a mount last night.

I will also put together a video showing how I'm making my metal bobbin/push rod combo parts. I have gone back and forth on this a few times. What and how much I should show. I need to protect my interests. So, some amount of my work will be exposed here. I can say that if the simple metal bobbins for the Presto cutterhead impresses you, then the actual bobbin/push rod part would likely blow you away. It is very detailed, and very small and now I can bang them out.

I can't really give a release date. All I can say is that you are seeing first hand my progress in metal. I'm giving updates as they happen.

Here are some quick pics of the Presto To Neumann mount. I don't think anyone outside of myself would ever want to do this... However, I'm happy to print and sell anyone one of these mounts very cheaply.

[dimi751]

Oh man todd that looks great your really good at 3d design !

[opcode66]

Thank you. Very kind of you to say. 3d printing is great! Being able to do metal work now is even better. I feel very empowered now.

By the way, you are my biggest fan. The ongoing interest and support is more than appreciated. I feel like we are old friends now.

I will post some videos tomorrow. I now have both the correct cutting bits and spring steel. So, I can try cutting some more springs. After I make some and work out the mounting of them in the transducer, I plan to CNC a stamping die in steel that I can use in a press to stamp out the springs efficiently. The first few that I'm cutting directly are just to get some immediately for testing. Anyone have a suggestion for a small cheap press for stamping spring steel???

[opcode66]

Not directly related to the cutterhead. However, I will be making panels for rack gear using the CNC. I wanted to work on a little starter project to get proficient at that sort of work. So, I milled a 1 slot Eurorack panel for my friend's custom modular synth board. He created the panel in software that exports a dxf. I used CamBam to create MOP's with a pause for a tool change for engraving and then profiling. I generated the gcode and cut the panel. I think it came out ok. I will be making the text etching better tomorrow. I'm hoping to soon borrow a laser engraver which will make very nice text. But, this will do for now. The final version of the eurorack panel will be in Aluminum instead lf lexan.
My future rack gear should be very nice looking.

[Bahndahn]

Nice!! Turned out really nicely. The text looks gooooooddd!!

[opcode66]

Today I made another panel with a bit deeper text engraving and more elegant gcode. Just experimenting a bit. Going to cut in aluminum sheet in a day or two. CNC milling/routing/engraving is flipping awesome!

I also tried grinding my own engraving blade from another tool.

[ilovethelawrencearms]

Hey Todd. I just wanted to tell you that I love you. I truly can't wait for your head. I may buy 5 of them (not joking).

[Wlee_]

Very nice work!

I work for a Eurorack manufacturer called Make Noise. We use anodized printed faceplates (Metal Photo of Cincinnati) for production units, but our prototypes are all handcut and punched from project aluminum w/ a clear printed vinyl sticker for labels. I would love to have a laser engraver for this very reason.

[opcode66]

I've had some more good successes here. Updates to follow after the weekend.

[dimi751]

Ha Todd you have an admirer ! Lucky you

Watch out Charlotte might get jealous.

[opcode66]

Better to be loved than not. Better to be hated than not. To live a life that is full.

[opcode66]

I've had no updates the past week due to a project that took priority. I transferred my dad's web site to Wordpress. Getting Wordress, PHP, MySQL and IIS to all play nicely with each other was a hassle. Additionally, finding good solid plugins for Wordpress and writing one of my own was also time consuming. Just getting to understand the infrastructure and how to go about doing things was also time consuming. I'm used to being able to make direct modifications to functionality in other environments. Wordpress doesn't provide the means to make some direct changes easily as other environments do. But, I now have everything looking, working and running great for my dad. And, it will be really easy for him to make updates on his own now. I've gone from greatly disliking Wordpress to sort of loving it within a span of a week.

Now, it is back to business. I will be attempting to cut some springs tonight. If that is successful I can start building out a hybrid feedback transducer pair! Should have the tapered reamer soon for the torque tube. No more distractions.

[sakuszi]

C++

Developped on and for Windows. Mac version to follow.

Features to include:

- Flip Left and Right channel

- Invert signal

- RIAA and Inverse RIAA

- Eliptical EQ

- High Frequency Limiting to replace the Neumann BSB Acceleration Limiters

Currently, I have code written to essentially do stereo expansion. It flattens a panning signal when I turn the mix percent to 100. So, it is working. I'm now implementing code similar to a 2 band EQ. The band division is the MonoFreq slider. The lower band gets the expansion code applied. That should get me to an elliptical EQ. All the other features except the HFL will be simple to implement. The HFL will use the description and math from a Neumann whitepaper to mimic the BSB's.

Hello, my question to you, whether this application VST is the same as MID SIDE? because they quickly realized that without the appropriate signal combinations will not be able to record in stereo. At the same time I have a question which program or the Lord is using a electronic system that give you stereo effect. I can not find on the blog, but there is indication of this on the Lord. Modulation is a horizontal mono speakers are connected in phase modulation in stereo left and right channel is vertical [Speakers are connected in anti-phase], how can I achieve this in an electronic or computer using an application .What is the price in US dollars for this application VST? Please reply .

[opcode66]

I am not selling this software. It is free. It is also not finished.

[sakuszi]

Well, thanks for the reply. But it is another question whether Mr. performs such applications that encode and decode the stereo signal, does not want for free, I would buy. For sale are such things but I'm not sure whether they will be appropriate to my system. Please advice

[opcode66]

IRIAA and bass summing work. Check my web site for downloads of the most recent installations zips.

[sakuszi]

thanks for the quick response, easy to see that in your head is heard well the experimental stereo effect, thanks very much for your help

[opcode66]

True stereo separation is tricky to achieve. With it is vertical motion.