Variable Groove Controller Plugin

[paulo32]

Greetings !!
After a lot of work i can give you a sneak preview of what will be released in a few weeks, here are some pics of the new user interface.







Another great feature i'm working on is the implementation of curves display, it show you in real time an estimation of the theoretical acceleration of the stylus, displacement, groove angles and groove radius, lateral and vertical... and tell you whenever you are reaching one of the limitation.. for example it will tell you if your curvature is below elliptical tip radius or spherical tip radius and therefore if it will be playable without too much distortion... Same for the groove angles it can tell you if your angles are too high.. Really useful feature for being able to anticipate what will be recordable and playable without problem.

For the price the basic system (which will include all features i have listed above on my last post, including the variable pitch algorithm) will be around 2500euro
I'm planning to start taking preorders in 2 weeks from now, all orders taken before the 1 of June will have 20% discount, making the price of the basic system 2000euros. That's for your support. I'll post the link of the new shop in 2 weeks for people to start ordering..

Many thanks

[boryo]

Looks great! I saw stylus heating. Can you give some more info how all this works? Do you escape the VR's main unit?

Best,
Bob

[paulo32]

It's almost straightforward to use once your system is well calibrated:

There is two main modes, manual pitch and variable pitch mode that can be switched even when in cut.
When starting a new cut, you first choose the size of the vinyl and the RPM on the setup menu, once you have chosen those values you can adjust the land width & groove width if you plan to use the variable pitch. If you want to stay in manual pitch, you can adjust the pitch (in LPI or in µm), accordingly to the pitch you choose and the number of tunes by side there is, it tells you the maximum duration of your vinyl so that you can choose your pitch more easily.

Once you have setup the size, rpm and pitch, you can go to the navigation page. In the navigation page you can do all the "offline" moves you may want to do. If you choose pos1 for example, the cutting head will move to the exact beginning of the vinyl (accordingly to the vinyl size you have chosen).
Once you are ready to cut and your cutting head is at the right place, if you have the relays extension, you can press the "Arm" button that will sequentially power up your vacuum suction unit, and then after few seconds (for current stabilisation) it will power up your amplifier (Unarm does the same in the invert way). After that you can press START. you then put the cutting head down , power up the stylus heating (on souri's main unit or with the relays if you have the relays extension). Then you press Lead-In, it will make the lead-in groove and it will switch at the right position (everything is accordingly to RIAA dimensional standards) and go to the target pitch you have chosen if you are in manual pitch or variable pitch accordingly to the preview signal. Then after each song end you just have to click on crossover to do the crossover groove, if you are in manual mode, the crossover duration has been integrated in the pitch calculation. In variable pitch, crossover duration are taken into account for calculating more precisely the rest time.
When the actual diameter goes after the lead-in max position, the Lead-in button will become Lead-Out button and you can click it at any moment to finish your vinyl and it will stop at the exact position and do the concentric groove before you put you cutting head up. Then you can press the Unarm button. Switching side is done in one click and so you keep your settings . You don't need to worry about positioning your cutting head again, it is done automatically in a single button press.
The VR's main unit is just used for the stylus heating and that's because i didn't took time to design a stylus heating unit..
Concerning the RIAA unit inside the VR's main unit it was causing too much distortion and cutting all trebles of the cutting head, i rediscovered my cutting head when i bypassed souri's RIAA unit. I will post some resources to explain that more in details.

[mrmoo]

Concerning the RIAA unit inside the VR's main unit it was causing too much distortion and cutting all trebles of the cutting head

How about sourcing that part out onto a Teensyduino. They are pretty powerfull DSP's for §20. Maybe your software offers just the interface and send only modeswitch commands via usb to the teensy and this toy does the rest?

[paulo32]

digital RIAA is already implemented inside the GM-1 CPU, you can choose in the settings either you want him to apply RIAA eq to the SPDIF input or not (to permit adaptation in any case, you can that way supply preview signal PRE-RIAA or POST-RIAA)

[David34]

Is this unit available?I will PM also

[paulo32]

Yes GM-1 is available for order, first units already shipped, website is on the way

[petermontg]

Nice unit and great work. Do you think it could be made compatible with say the likes of scully or some neumannn models.

Best
Pete

[misjah]

looks good. would be a shame only to be able to use with T560.

[petermontg]

If its relay based I cant see much of an issue. I have an old LS76 here with no cpu, if possible it could be a nice option.

[paulo32]

This is in my plans, but I have to do tests on those units to check all details as i did on the T560..

[Redhousc]

Yes GM-1 is available for order, first units already shipped, website is on the way

Hi,
Is there any news on the website to buy this?

[David34]

Is this the unit that is $4k?

[Redhousc]

Is this the unit that is $4k?

I believe he’s working on an upgrade (the variable groove controller) for the $4k unit (T560)

[farmersplow]

Great job!

I know how much work this is (I have done nearly the same with Microcontroler but with seperate displays and touch buttons).

Bild1.png

Air suction control in progress..


Your "future" with:
"Another great feature i'm working on is the implementation of curves display, it show you in real time an estimation of the theoretical acceleration of the stylus, displacement, groove angles and groove radius, lateral and vertical... and tell you whenever you are reaching one of the limitation.. for example it will tell you if your curvature is below elliptical tip radius or spherical tip radius and therefore if it will be playable without too much distortion... Same for the groove angles it can tell you if your angles are too high.. Really useful feature for being able to anticipate what will be recordable and playable without problem."

...this will be an very innovative support. - Also great job!

My question about this: is the device able to process the music for the filler writing method? Or is that not part of this already excellent control?

Greetings and keep it up!

[paulo32]

Thank you for your support, also great job too !!!
Yes for sure we agree it is a lot of work..
Concerning your question, I'm currently not planning to implement physical music output connectors to the controller but we never know )

[paulo32]

Also I finally had some time to finish the website, everything is up and running, you may check additional informations on the GM1 System here:
https://sawasoundengineering.com/product/gm1/

[David34]

Also I finally had some time to finish the website, everything is up and running, you may check additional informations on the GM1 System here:
https://sawasoundengineering.com/product/gm1/

Please can you PM me with costs to Australia?