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  • DreadPotato@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    591·
    9 months ago

    Excellent April’s fool joke, but man it would be sick if you could actually 3D print your own vinyls.

    • mesamune@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16·
      9 months ago

      There was a hackaday where someone did that…but it was terrible audio quality from what I remember. Cool idea though.

      • Aniki 🌱🌿@lemm.eeEnglish
        101·
        9 months ago

        It will be much easier with a resin printer but controlling for the microscopic pitch shift that would take place with any amount of shrinkage would probably necessitate a specialty printer.

          • Moneo@lemmy.worldEnglish
            4·
            9 months ago

            AFAIK no, audiophiles can be very opinionated though. Definitely do your own research cause I’m a noob.

            Vinyls are analog, which means they (more or less) directly convert imprint the waveforms of the recording onto the physical vinyl. In theory, this should create the best quality recording, but in practice physics gets in the way and it will not sound exactly the same. Digital on the other hand converts the analog waves into digital ones and zeros and most digital music is heavily compressed meaning it uses maths to approximate the original recording. However, lossless digital formats (FLAC) exist which theoretically lose no information from the original recording.

            I’m not sure it’s possible to compare digital/analog quality but I would guess that you would get better sound quality from a vinyl than say Spotify, but better quality from a lossless file than vinyl.

            In my non-expert experience, by the time you get to lossless/vinyl quality you are far more restricted by your audio equipment than by the format, and only experts would be able to tell a difference in quality.

            • arc@lemm.eeEnglish
              3·
              9 months ago

              Spotify and other such services almost certainly sound worse because they are compressed. But it’s not really a like for like comparison with vinyl. Spotify is streaming audio for people who want to play music casually in cars, earbuds etc. It offers convenience, not perfect sound fidelity. FLAC / CD on the other hand could be compared to vinyl and would win hands down for better frequency and range. The only reason they wouldn’t is if the CD master sucked and the vinyl master didn’t.

              And vinyl is very lossy in its own way. The (digital) master of each side undergoes dynamic range & frequency compression to fit the limitations of the format (e.g. to reduce sibilance, track width). Then the master is cut into a lacquer disc from which a “father” is made, from which “mothers” are made, from which stampers are made and from which the vinyl record is made. So the vinyl in someone’s hand is a copy, of a copy, of a copy, of an altered digital master. The stamper too wears out so if someone is unlucky they get a pressing right the end of its life. And playing the disk can cause wow, flutter, distortion and general wear & tear can cause hiss, pop, dullness and scratches.

              So vinyl will never sound better unless it received a better master than other formats.

          • WFH@lemm.eeEnglish
            31·
            9 months ago

            I fuckin love vinyls, they’re beautiful, fragile, tangible, massive objects, but this is bullshit propagated by audiophile circle jerk who believe they need to break-in their $100000 solid gold oxygen-free gluten-free audio cables to properly align electrons.

    • billwashere@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      9 months ago

      Pretty sure a decent resin printer has enough resolution for a record. Not sure about durability though.

      • DreadPotato@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        3·
        9 months ago

        I’m not sure how high the resolution is on resin printers, but the tip of a record stylus is maximum 0.001mm in diameter, here are the specs for records, it’s some pretty small grooves with very fine detail you need for something that’s passable.

      • arc@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        9 months ago

        In the 70s and 80s there were kids toys which played injection moulded plastic discs with a stylus that tracked the groove. I think you might be able to achieve something similar out of a printed record if it was spun fast enough but it wouldn’t sound great.

  • TelcontarEnglish
    7·
    9 months ago

    What about modding a printer with a needle to play records? Could that be done?

  • Bananigans@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    71·
    9 months ago

    I get that it’s a joke, but can anyone eli5 why this wouldn’t work with modern resin printing resolutions?

    • jagoan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      9 months ago

      Turntable uses needle to feel the “bumps” and turn it into sound, if the needle can feel dusts (which is why people always wipe them before playing), it can definitely feel the layer lines.

      Dusts are like what single digit microns? while the best resolution for resin printer is at 10 microns.

      • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        7·
        9 months ago

        which is why people always wipe them before playing

        As an aside, don’t wipe records. While dust is unlikely to damage it, scraping something across the surface can cause scratches which can affect the playback. An air duster is your best bet 👍

      • Bananigans@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        4·
        9 months ago

        The phrozen sonic 12k claims it can get down to .01 mm layers. I feel like that would have a decent shot. But I could be misinterpreting what that means for resin since I’ve never used it.