5:55. If outputting from a headphone jack, that's an amplified signal (as opposed to regulated line-level), so keep the volume/output under 70%. Over that can cause distortion depending on how powerful the output is.
Good video. I'd say the only thing I would have liked would be to 'hear' what the recorded records sounded like on a normal turn table. If they might have sounded a little better, or maybe even worse.
I wish more companies made budget record cutters, right now for new ones it's either this cheap, low quality one, or a $5000 professional one. I'm sure some company could make a descent one for $500, it's not like they're that much more expensive to produce than a player, this proves that.
Was relieved to see this, albeit with no great sound, works as you might expect. Very much unlike various kits of cutting stuff Techmoan has tried in several videos which were almost complete failures. As a matter of fact, I believe one of them even was by this very Gakken brand, hence my fears! Loved the intro BTW!
Ha! That's a pretty good Teddy Ruxpin impression. It would be spot on if you could do his little laugh, then compress the audio, record it on a metal cassette with saturation, then play it back on a bitty full-range speaker that's encased in foam.
There seem to be some Gakken kits that are promising to cut audio onto something. At least this device shows actual results that don't seem to be that bad for an experimental toy.
Teddy Ruxpin... I remember it was released officially by TecToy here in 1988. I was already kinda old for this kind of toy (8 years old) but remember it was not cheap priced here.
I was 5, and i got the Korean nockoff called Gabby Bear... Ruxpin had a pulse code on one track to control upper/lower jaw and eyes. Gabby's eyes would continuously blink; music and secondary characters on one track, Gabby's voice on another that would get mixed down into its mono speaker. Sound on the voice track would activate its mouth, but it wouldnt be lipsynced like Ruxpin's... build was extreamly cheap in comparison... someone should do a video on it. Gabby, although cheaper build, was much more durable than Ruxpin. All original 88 Ruxpins require thevmotors to be unfrozen (dissassemble the head)... Gabby will just work.
Great video but what about that never dust or clean the walls again recording? It's 2020 and I still have to dust. I need that technology they were discussing on the vinal.
I wonder if 3D printing PLA material might work well for cutting records, it can pick up and maintain surface detail quite well and has high surface hardness. If you have a friend who 3D prints and has a bag of failed print they hope to recycle, maybe you can melt them down on a sheet of parchment paper in an oven. The bottom surface is then smooth and hopefully recordable.
Thanks for this video! I was just looking at Teenage Engineering's (rebranded?) Release of this. As for the poorer sound quality on the external speaker, I wonder if it has to do with setting the EQ to get the best sound out of the internal speaker.
Wouldn't the quality be slightly better if the vinyl was warmed up a little bit to soften it slightly instead of cutting on a hard cold vinyl plate? Just curious.
The comparison is not with a studio cut record 45rpm, since that is a pressing from a master metal mould. Which was itself made (before 1930's) from a master recording on a delicate surface. To compare like with like, the nearest is an original wax cylinder recording. Although if you experiment with a wax coating, or even a very thin fragile wax resist on a polished piece of copper pcb the track would be deeper and get the best out of the primitive cutter head. You could also cut at half speed, since the audio file can be edited with an effect so easily.
I would have loved this about 30 years ago when DJing with Technics was the thing. I know the quality is low but they'd be great for scratching with! 👍😎❤️
Never seen that before, but I hope maybe Crosley, Victrola and Music Pacific Kingdom would love to have the record cutter in the US in the future. No word on that they’re going to announce yet.
Good video. But why instead of inventing your own EQ curve, why not just use the existing RIAA standard? It is a preset in the filter curves in Audacity. I see that you actually figured out you need pre-emphasis to keep the needle from jumping out the groove, kind of like the early pioneers of recorded sound in 1920's. cool
The RIAA curve is a preset EQ in Audacity, HOWEVER it's the curve used for playing records and not cutting them. You'd need to have the opposite RIAA curve in the preset EQ for cutting records, which suppresses the low-end and boosts the high-end, similar to what Databits did to make it work, except he suppressed the low-end(bass) completely.
@@michaelturner4457 should have mentioned, there is an invert button. The one in audacity is infact default for payback and you would press invert for record.
I also wondered about the RdIAA curve, and playing the resulting recording on another turntable with a clean, or at least not a compromised output. I hope you figure out what the deal is with that as well. I also wonder if you get that same kind of audio if you tap directly from the output that normally feeds the internal speaker.
Have you tried acrylic on your Montgomery Ward cutter? Normal Field can get standard 78 quality from it. He has played recordings he made on his channel. They sound like any other 78. Also, there is a guy named Roger York who gets absolutely outstanding quality out of an acoustic 78 player. You would absolutely swear it is being played on a modern player with modern electrical amplification. Most of the songs on his channel are being played with a Victrola Electrola electrically driven, but acoustically amplified. The late 1920s-early 1930s reproducer he is using can supposedly reproduce north of 10khz but only if it is there (in the recording). Acoustically recorded records will still sound like early acoustic players.. This is significantly better than early cassette decks.
the static and distortion is probably from the volume on the record player itself not being adjusted and way too high as your outgoing volume, if the speakers up over a 1/4 of the way its gonna do that, instead reverse it to the 1/4 the way volume on the record player and the speaker up over halfway for loud clearer clarity
I was looking through the comments to see if anyone else had already said this. I got one of these for Christmas and can confirm that’s exactly what’s happening. It’s just an earphone jack that outputs the volume when plugged in and the volume here is too high. The records sound pretty good played back on the unit itself but are reeeeaaally bad when you play them on a proper turntable.
i want my own Record cutter but they so expensive and finding a working one even harder so i wounder if i can get this tiny thing and scale it up to big side
Loved the intros/outros. very clever:) if you like quadrophonics i have an old sears quad amplifier/tuner/8-track unit. last time i used it one one channel needed to be recapped, it has a slider for each channel and a big quad input panel in back it also has an early ic based signal processor. interested?
bought one for Christmas and did some testings on and and i used a mixer with a built-in pre amp and a compressor and it sound pretty decent 👌 lo fi sound its a great experience with learning how to cut vinyl records 😀 😄 😊 before getting the real deal machine
If this was actually your last video, it would have been fitting, considering it features record cutting like your videos featuring the Montgomery Ward.
I don't understand... I subscribed to your channel, and this video only appeared on my feed today?????????? Keep on the good work, btw, love your videos.
Hi. Great video, but I have a question. I’m blind, so I can’t see your EQ curve. Can you describe what’s going on there? Graphic or parametric? What is being cut and accentuated, and by roughly how much? Thanks.
The curve is reducing the low end by 15db boosting the high end by 15db The curve goes from -15db at 50 hertz to +15 decibels at 15 thousand herzt. It looks like it a 45 degree angle. Thge midrange of 500 hetz is at 0 db boost
How come when I cut my record it stays in one place and won’t move towards the middle and sometimes the blank disc won’t move but the turntable does when I’m trying to cut it
18:30. RIAA equalization. They did the same thing back in the day. Bass should be reduced when cutting as a reproducing stylus can't track huge modulations (which also gobble up surface area), treble increased. Your RIAA phono circuitry in your stereo corrects this. SOOO MANY LPs being cut today sound flat because people mastering for them don't know this.
Every record cut person knows it as without RIAA equalization it would be super muffled when played back by a photo amplifier. The challenge is more that with stereo cutting there are some sounds perfectly well in digital but not working as stereo groove - when the two signals left and right which actually move the gut head in 45 degrees slanted moves mask each other out in a way that the reading stylus of the record player doesn't produce any sound...
I just put one of these together and the playback doesn't seem to work. I get no sound from the cartridge either with the internal speaker or an external one.
Try installing the google translate app thingy on your phone and it should be able to translate the japanese words in realtime looking through your phones camera to see if it says anything about EQ levelling or any other tips
Seems to sound better the the teenage engineering record factory.... maybe put a coin onto of the cutting part and record it something slow if it's anything like a low fi sampler it would sound better sped up
@@databits They have just launched a cutter that looks pretty identical to this, but in orange. PS +10dB in VLCs pre-amp is quite a lot, plus you were running VLC at around 120% volume. So unless your original recording was really quiet, you have probably introduced distortion yourself.
Make sure the tonearm connector (the plastic rod that snaps into the base) isn’t too tight. You may need to pull it back out and put a little oil on the connector. Very light amount.
I hope that you are not dropping the channel and moving on to something else, it is strange that the cutter isn't of the heated variety that greatly enhances the quality of the recording,Actually the Montgomery Airline Record Cutting Record Player most certainly is better than this but this has some novelty value as long as you can get the blanks. Polycarbonate discs might work better than the flexible discs.
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A few have said this already, it would be great to hear the cut record on a normal record player.
Ikr
cap
To be honest this worked a lot better than I thought it would.
5:55. If outputting from a headphone jack, that's an amplified signal (as opposed to regulated line-level), so keep the volume/output under 70%. Over that can cause distortion depending on how powerful the output is.
Exactly duh
You had me worried for a minute as I really enjoy your videos and don't want you to stop making them.:)
Good video. I'd say the only thing I would have liked would be to 'hear' what the recorded records sounded like on a normal turn table. If they might have sounded a little better, or maybe even worse.
would love to hear the recordings on a better turntable 😉
I wish more companies made budget record cutters, right now for new ones it's either this cheap, low quality one, or a $5000 professional one. I'm sure some company could make a descent one for $500, it's not like they're that much more expensive to produce than a player, this proves that.
Was relieved to see this, albeit with no great sound, works as you might expect. Very much unlike various kits of cutting stuff Techmoan has tried in several videos which were almost complete failures. As a matter of fact, I believe one of them even was by this very Gakken brand, hence my fears! Loved the intro BTW!
Ha! That's a pretty good Teddy Ruxpin impression. It would be spot on if you could do his little laugh, then compress the audio, record it on a metal cassette with saturation, then play it back on a bitty full-range speaker that's encased in foam.
There seem to be some Gakken kits that are promising to cut audio onto something. At least this device shows actual results that don't seem to be that bad for an experimental toy.
I *think* the internal speaker also suffers from the same issues as external playback, but has them masked by its frequency range.
I still have my Teddy Ruxpin to this day. Great video bro.
That is funny how you got this done. To have the voices sync to them very good.
Teddy Ruxpin... I remember it was released officially by TecToy here in 1988. I was already kinda old for this kind of toy (8 years old) but remember it was not cheap priced here.
I was 5, and i got the Korean nockoff called Gabby Bear... Ruxpin had a pulse code on one track to control upper/lower jaw and eyes. Gabby's eyes would continuously blink; music and secondary characters on one track, Gabby's voice on another that would get mixed down into its mono speaker. Sound on the voice track would activate its mouth, but it wouldnt be lipsynced like Ruxpin's... build was extreamly cheap in comparison... someone should do a video on it. Gabby, although cheaper build, was much more durable than Ruxpin. All original 88 Ruxpins require thevmotors to be unfrozen (dissassemble the head)... Gabby will just work.
This just seams to be a fun little hobby like activity. I want one!
Would love to see a separate video on the teddy and tree making parts, thanks for the fun video and keep it up
Great video but what about that never dust or clean the walls again recording? It's 2020 and I still have to dust. I need that technology they were discussing on the vinal.
I know! I would like that technology to as I am blind and a terrible sweeper. LOL!
Yess, it's Douglas!!
Ooo. I REALLY like the box. So classy that they include such a great box. Nothing says quality like a really sweet box.
Can you cut lead in/run out grooves? That would be pretty cool.
I wonder if 3D printing PLA material might work well for cutting records, it can pick up and maintain surface detail quite well and has high surface hardness. If you have a friend who 3D prints and has a bag of failed print they hope to recycle, maybe you can melt them down on a sheet of parchment paper in an oven. The bottom surface is then smooth and hopefully recordable.
Thanks for this video! I was just looking at Teenage Engineering's (rebranded?) Release of this. As for the poorer sound quality on the external speaker, I wonder if it has to do with setting the EQ to get the best sound out of the internal speaker.
All a part of the experiment!
I just got one and plan on doing a video on it soon
Cool! Enjoy this fun toy!
Ok, the Gakken stuff was cool, but you better talk more about Teddy and Douglas soon. That was amazing! Vocals were spot on.
Wouldn't the quality be slightly better if the vinyl was warmed up a little
bit to soften it slightly instead of cutting on a hard cold vinyl plate?
Just curious.
The comparison is not with a studio cut record 45rpm, since that is a pressing from a master metal mould. Which was itself made (before 1930's) from a master recording on a delicate surface. To compare like with like, the nearest is an original wax cylinder recording. Although if you experiment with a wax coating, or even a very thin fragile wax resist on a polished piece of copper pcb the track would be deeper and get the best out of the primitive cutter head. You could also cut at half speed, since the audio file can be edited with an effect so easily.
I would have loved this about 30 years ago when DJing with Technics was the thing. I know the quality is low but they'd be great for scratching with! 👍😎❤️
@Tech Tinkering There's still Turntablelist,who still use Technics.but I get your point
Now I wanna know what's that thing that cleans walls and dusts the house.
Never seen that before, but I hope maybe Crosley, Victrola and Music Pacific Kingdom would love to have the record cutter in the US in the future. No word on that they’re going to announce yet.
You can improve the device. You can install a big diameter washer on the flywheel. It will have reduces flatter.
That's a pretty neat record cutter. They should make a stereo cutter version.
That would be a whole new can of worms. Lateral cutting is easy. Stereo channels are cut at 45 degrees.
Good video. But why instead of inventing your own EQ curve, why not just use the existing RIAA standard? It is a preset in the filter curves in Audacity. I see that you actually figured out you need pre-emphasis to keep the needle from jumping out the groove, kind of like the early pioneers of recorded sound in 1920's. cool
The RIAA curve is a preset EQ in Audacity, HOWEVER it's the curve used for playing records and not cutting them. You'd need to have the opposite RIAA curve in the preset EQ for cutting records, which suppresses the low-end and boosts the high-end, similar to what Databits did to make it work, except he suppressed the low-end(bass) completely.
@@michaelturner4457 should have mentioned, there is an invert button. The one in audacity is infact default for payback and you would press invert for record.
I also wondered about the RdIAA curve, and playing the resulting recording on another turntable with a clean, or at least not a compromised output. I hope you figure out what the deal is with that as well. I also wonder if you get that same kind of audio if you tap directly from the output that normally feeds the internal speaker.
Have you tried acrylic on your Montgomery Ward cutter? Normal Field can get standard 78 quality from it. He has played recordings he made on his channel. They sound like any other 78.
Also, there is a guy named Roger York who gets absolutely outstanding quality out of an acoustic 78 player. You would absolutely swear it is being played on a modern player with modern electrical amplification. Most of the songs on his channel are being played with a Victrola Electrola electrically driven, but acoustically amplified. The late 1920s-early 1930s reproducer he is using can supposedly reproduce north of 10khz but only if it is there (in the recording). Acoustically recorded records will still sound like early acoustic players.. This is significantly better than early cassette decks.
the static and distortion is probably from the volume on the record player itself not being adjusted and way too high as your outgoing volume, if the speakers up over a 1/4 of the way its gonna do that, instead reverse it to the 1/4 the way volume on the record player and the speaker up over halfway for loud clearer clarity
I was looking through the comments to see if anyone else had already said this. I got one of these for Christmas and can confirm that’s exactly what’s happening. It’s just an earphone jack that outputs the volume when plugged in and the volume here is too high. The records sound pretty good played back on the unit itself but are reeeeaaally bad when you play them on a proper turntable.
I hate how good you are at the Teddy Ruxpin voice, it's freaky. Great job, keep up the good work.
This would be PERFECT for recording records of pre-1950s music!
Definitely
Your intro and Outro are really cool! Are these two going to be making appearances more often? I think it’s really neat-similar to Techmoans puppets.
Did you see Teenage engineering just released a version of this? not sure if it's just a rebrand of units manufactured by Gakken?
I heard a rumor this happened!
i want my own Record cutter but they so expensive and finding a working one even harder so i wounder if i can get this tiny thing and scale it up to big side
When you play it back, do you apply the RIAA eq?
Loved the intros/outros. very clever:) if you like quadrophonics i have an old sears quad amplifier/tuner/8-track unit. last time i used it one one channel needed to be recapped, it has a slider for each channel and a big quad input panel in back it also has an early ic based signal processor. interested?
13:05. 45 RPM. The faster the media moves, the better the fidelity.
bought one for Christmas and did some testings on and and i used a mixer with a built-in pre amp and a compressor and it sound pretty decent 👌 lo fi sound its a great experience with learning how to cut vinyl records 😀 😄 😊 before getting the real deal machine
Yes, I continue to experiment with the thing. Had some great results with green bowl lids from Dollar Tree!
If this was actually your last video, it would have been fitting, considering it features record cutting like your videos featuring the Montgomery Ward.
thanks!
can this record a 3 inches vinyl?
Can you plug a microphone in and record through that?
I don't understand... I subscribed to your channel, and this video only appeared on my feed today??????????
Keep on the good work, btw, love your videos.
Hi. Great video, but I have a question. I’m blind, so I can’t see your EQ curve. Can you describe what’s going on there? Graphic or parametric? What is being cut and accentuated, and by roughly how much? Thanks.
The curve is reducing the low end by 15db boosting the high end by 15db
The curve goes from -15db at 50 hertz to +15 decibels at 15 thousand herzt. It looks like it a 45 degree angle. Thge midrange of 500 hetz is at 0 db boost
It basically takes all thed bass out and makes the high tones really loud. It will sound really tin harsh with no bass.
The intro was brilliant and akso worrying. LOL.
hi quad can be done on dvd A software you can cut records the blanks is the heavy
costs i gave up as costs were to high
Maybe a low pass filter would help with the equalization.
is this new TE thingy?
This is the first gen unit.
How come when I cut my record it stays in one place and won’t move towards the middle and sometimes the blank disc won’t move but the turntable does when I’m trying to cut it
I actually figured out why the disc wasn’t moving but the cutter still won’t move towards the middle
How the Gakken made record will sound on a "normal" record player?
Regards from Stig Österberg (in Dalsbruk, a small willage in south Finland).
Honestly your voice sounded pretty clean for a plastic toy
Would the records sound much better on a decent record player?
They would sound much worse.
This was knowledgeable. Great video!
Glad you enjoyed it! Did you buy one of these?
I wonder if there is a way to use a 3 speed motor instead of the 33/45 motor to record at 78 rpm.
18:30. RIAA equalization. They did the same thing back in the day. Bass should be reduced when cutting as a reproducing stylus can't track huge modulations (which also gobble up surface area), treble increased. Your RIAA phono circuitry in your stereo corrects this. SOOO MANY LPs being cut today sound flat because people mastering for them don't know this.
Every record cut person knows it as without RIAA equalization it would be super muffled when played back by a photo amplifier.
The challenge is more that with stereo cutting there are some sounds perfectly well in digital but not working as stereo groove - when the two signals left and right which actually move the gut head in 45 degrees slanted moves mask each other out in a way that the reading stylus of the record player doesn't produce any sound...
These record players are great
Very cool intro.
I just put one of these together and the playback doesn't seem to work. I get no sound from the cartridge either with the internal speaker or an external one.
id change the mini transducer to lower ohm or a better quality speaker on needle
Too bad this doesn't go further beyond the novelty level, so to speak. As far as this video, you did an excellent job as far as laying it all out.
Try installing the google translate app thingy on your phone and it should be able to translate the japanese words in realtime looking through your phones camera to see if it says anything about EQ levelling or any other tips
Seems to sound better the the teenage engineering record factory.... maybe put a coin onto of the cutting part and record it something slow if it's anything like a low fi sampler it would sound better sped up
Excellent video. Some factoids below.
where's the affiliate link?(or at least a Amazon link).
Teenage engineering brought me here haha :) GREAT VIDEO!!
Thanks for watching. Who is teenage engineering? 😀
@@databits They have just launched a cutter that looks pretty identical to this, but in orange.
PS +10dB in VLCs pre-amp is quite a lot, plus you were running VLC at around 120% volume. So unless your original recording was really quiet, you have probably introduced distortion yourself.
I'm sure that tree will give me nightmares 😂
I just received mine and put it together. I've tried to play 7" records on it and it skips like crazy. Any advice on adjustments to make?
Make sure the tonearm connector (the plastic rod that snaps into the base) isn’t too tight. You may need to pull it back out and put a little oil on the connector. Very light amount.
Records made can be played in any turntable? Thanks
Honestly I wouldn’t play these on a “real” turntable.
Can anybody help me? i assembled this but my cutting needle seems to not be moving at the proper speed
It would be fun for a few hours and then it's main task would be to catch dust. Great video though, thank you.
Hilarious! Yes indeed!
what is flutter
Amazing
Where did you get this tree? I want that?
Thrift store.
Does it require a voltage converter?
It does. Input voltage ----> 5V
Can you hook a microphone up to it?
This looks like a po 80
that's because the po-80 is just a rebrand of this exact product
Most interesting
I realy like the vintage equipment better,
Awesome
Teenage Engineering: 'Write that down, write that down!'
Got it!
Don't you need to adjust the EQ during the entire recording like a normal record
You have too. You need to lower the bass a bit and such within the RCIAA curve to make the cutting needle not jumping around too much.
That distortion happens because your external speaker is 40 times stronger than the built in speaker.
Hu looks like teenage engineering isn't engineering much on this one would love to know the price
a bear talking to a tree, that is pretty funny
Well... it does say lofi on the front of the box 😄
Everything is fine
gakken deez nu- *flatlines*
k but actually this is awesome
Iv seen people record on c.ds with them
im sure you can take any record player that is playing a record and spin the record faster or backwards like a DJ
Now it seems to me teenage engineering is jumping onto this trend
So it's a cool toy, but people should treat it as such.
Conversa. Mais do que mostrar o que fuciona kkke um gravador de discos e demais
That intro made me sad.
I hope that you are not dropping the channel and moving on to something else, it is strange that the cutter isn't of the heated variety that greatly enhances the quality of the recording,Actually the Montgomery Airline Record Cutting Record Player most certainly is better than this but this has some novelty value as long as you can get the blanks. Polycarbonate discs might work better than the flexible discs.
19:20 Because it's not really a Toy.. I'm sure it can be modified to do better on better vinyl
aww man...
too bad i used up all my birthdays already...