What is it? (photo)

This is where record cutters raise questions about cutting, and trade wisdom and experiment results. We love Scully, Neumann, Presto, & Rek-O-Kut lathes and Wilcox-Gay Recordios (among others). We are excited by the various modern pro and semi-pro systems, too, in production and development. We use strange, extinct disc-based dictation machines. And other stuff, too.

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blacknwhite
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What is it? (photo)

Post: # 6774Unread post blacknwhite
Fri Nov 20, 2009 10:27 pm

What is it?

Seller calls it a "ANTLAB TURNTABLE RECORDING STUDIO vinyl record cutting", and further describes it as "Here you have it folks one of if not the BEST ANTLAB on eBay":

Seems to me it's definitely NOT a record cutting lathe. Maybe some industrial tool used to burn circular patterns on round cuts of vinyl or leather... Scratchin' my head...

- Bob

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audiocarver
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Post: # 6775Unread post audiocarver
Sat Nov 21, 2009 12:35 am

I'd guess its some kind of chart recorder.
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MEGAMIKE
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Post: # 6776Unread post MEGAMIKE
Sat Nov 21, 2009 9:19 am

is that speakers?
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cuttercollector
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Post: # 6780Unread post cuttercollector
Sun Nov 22, 2009 2:19 am

I would second some kind of circular chart recorder.
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Dub Studio
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Post: # 6790Unread post Dub Studio
Tue Nov 24, 2009 9:21 am

Reminds me of this old recorder my grandad picked up at a boot sale. It had magnetic paper!? Bit like a cross between a tape recorder and a vinyl cutter :)
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emorritt
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Post: # 6792Unread post emorritt
Tue Nov 24, 2009 10:27 am

That sounds like a Brush "Mail-A-Voice". I used to have one - it was mainly for dictation and business communication. You could record on the magnetic paper disc then fold it and mail. Probably didn't work too well on the receiving end after being destroyed by the USPS; probably about the same as Dictabelts that had been crushed in the storage file for years. :wink:
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Dub Studio
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Post: # 6796Unread post Dub Studio
Wed Nov 25, 2009 4:02 am

Yeh that sounds like it! Kind of like a very primitive floppy drive I guess. Any idea when they were made? Back in the days before people thought there was any point recording music?
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emorritt
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Post: # 6797Unread post emorritt
Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:58 am

They were not intended for home entertainment or recording music - strictly a "dictaphone" device. They did make a version as a child's toy in the 1950's (I've seen one on eBay) but it probably didn't go over well because of the need to use a guide disc, getting the pickup/recorder in just the right place, etc. - there was a knob for adjusting this due to differences between machines. Would have been difficult for office personnel to use much less a child. These would have been produced somewhere between the late 1940's through the mid to late 1950's. Maybe through the early 60's but I doubt it. The pickup/recorder was sort of interesting - basically a magnetic tape head gap thrust out from the actual electromagnetic assembly that looked like a thick, flat "stylus".
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Bratwurst
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Post: # 6927Unread post Bratwurst
Fri Dec 11, 2009 2:54 am

I think Antlab used to produce industrial radio/microwave equipment. It could be for metering radio signals on the aforementioned circular charts.
I was going to make a bad entomology joke too, but I'm glad I didn't. :shock:
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