

Spoiler Alert: First 3-D Printed Records Sound Awful - replicatorblog
http://www.wired.com/design/2012/12/3-d-printed-record/

======
31reasons
Its interesting to note that the results of early stage enabler technologies
are worse than the previous generation technology its trying to mimic and
surpass.

e.g

1\. Digital cameras producing lower quality images than film cameras

2\. Computer memory chips holding less memory than actual books.

3\. Digital Printers producing low quality prints compared to the printing
press.

4\. 3-D printed records sounding awful compared to actual records.

5\. ?

~~~
lukasb
congratulations (no snark) - you're Clay Christensen

[http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-
Chang...](http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Change-
Business/dp/0062060244/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356046845&sr=1-1&keywords=the+innovator%27s+dilemma)

~~~
31reasons
haha thanks. That book is on my list for years!

------
ChuckMcM
Pretty impressive. Of course you could also make a 'needle' out of a solid-
state accelerometer too these days.

But what is interesting is that the fidelity is more about bandwidth than
resolution, so really if you wanted to you could make a very large diameter
disk and turn it faster to improve the resolution that you are hearing. Sounds
like a lot of fun to play with.

------
marknutter
It blows my mind that it played _anything_. Also, the irony behind actually
printing out physical records is delicious.

~~~
jdechko
The future of piracy.

1) Download a 3D model LP file from BitTorrent 2) Create LP from model using
3D printer 3) ??? 4) Profit!

~~~
marquis
I know a lot of people (and am in that group) that would pay for high-quality
vinyl 3D models once we all have a printer in our kitchens, especially for
non-mainstream releases that have little chance of getting a wide distribution
on vinyl. An example of there being a market for make-your-own-music: check
out Beck's sheet music album, it's been very popular. <http://songreader.net>

~~~
dmayle
Oh, the irony... People willing to pay for high-quality vinyl (analog
recordings) built from a higher fidelity digital recording of the physical
object.

Why not just listen to the digital recording in the first place?

~~~
guelo
Isn't pretty much all new vinyl produced from digital sources? It's all about
the hipster factor.

------
afandian
Isn't it a given that using a cartesian co-ordinates to encode polar data
would sound awful (that said, I am very surprised at the quality)?

I'd love to see what they could do with a polar printer, depositing material
on a spinning disc. I'm sure it could be done.

~~~
Kliment
It could be, and has been, but now some fucker is attempting to patent it and
ruin it for everyone else. See
[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wjsteele/ultra-
bot-3d-pr...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wjsteele/ultra-
bot-3d-printer/posts/362119) for details.

"Is it open source? No... this design is so revolutionary that I had to patent
it to protect my IP. This design has the potential to change the 3D printing
industry. It affords many benefits that make it stand out above all other 3d
printers."

It's not a new design at all, one of the first Reprap prototypes was a polar
printer circa 2006 and there have been several other attempts at it since. Of
course, because of the variable accuracy (least accurate away from the center)
they don't usually get much use.

------
Turing_Machine
Edison's first tin-foil phonograph sounded pretty crappy, too.

[http://websnap08.lbl.gov/Tinfoil_files/foil_top_ewc-DC-
FIRFo...](http://websnap08.lbl.gov/Tinfoil_files/foil_top_ewc-DC-
FIRFoil1CH.wav)

It will get better.

------
ahi
Is the improvement of 3D printer resolution simply a matter of time and
engineering or are there new technologies that require significant R&D?

~~~
aidenn0
There's not really a difference. Maximum speed of an airplane in the 20th
century improved at what looks like a fairly smooth curve if you plot it, but
there were lots of new technologies that were required to do so (e.g. forced
induction, jets, etc.)

~~~
shardling
Presumably that's because the new technology is deployed just as soon as it
first overcomes the old. :)

~~~
aidenn0
Of course, that's why there is this illusion of "progress marches on" when in
reality it's a bunch of breakthroughs under the curtains.

------
the-kenny
To be fair, you could never really understand the lyrics of Smells like Teen
Spirit anyways.

------
bane
prediction: people will download the digital files for the record models, then
write software that will play them back from the file rather than having to
print them out and playback on a physical machine...

~~~
Keyframe
I thought there was already tech that allowed you to play audio from pictures
(special?) of vinyls.

~~~
prodigal_erik
I haven't seen anyone image a whole record at once, but there are
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_turntable> units which image the track as
it spirals by (without wear from contact).

------
evan_
We need to figure out a way to 3D print with the plastic they use for Shrinky-
Dinks. Print your record out 4 feet wide with giant grooves and pop it in a
pizza oven.

------
mvanga
So can someone here explain what exactly would be needed to improve the
quality of audio on these? Is it just higher resolution or does it require
better materials? Can the quality of the plastic dampen the vibrations
somehow?

~~~
gregsq
There's so many aspects to that question, but I'll have a go.

The first thing to point out from the materials aspect is that there are
compliances everywhere with vinyl records. They are essentially lubricated
with plasticisers which are needed to give some reasonable playing life given
the accelerations involved. They also depend upon shrinkage in the pressing
stage, the metal stamps engineered to allow for material relaxation. There is
a slight shrinkage in cooling, and this helps shrink errors as well.

However, these processes lower fidelity. The original masters, or even direct
to disk recordings, use chiselled stylii driven by a high precision lathe and
electromechanics to carve the track in the material. Corrected phasing, given
that a difference in track lengths is present between left to right, is also
performed.

So materials that could do with some annealing after deposition could help, at
least until higher resolutions become available. Following a correct RIAA
curve of course matters and using a steep low pass filter rather than down
sampling an already phase damaged mp3 would help.

At the moment all this is hobby stuff though. Allowing material reflow would
probably be the best way to preserve the life of the stylus and reduce noise.
It's first playing will be carving off the printer resolution deposition
errors.

------
aidenn0
They should print it for 78 RPM, they would get about double the bandwidth.

~~~
adestefan
A 78 also has a wider groove than a 33 or 45.

------
webjprgm
If the 3D model file is too large, then can it instead be a piece of software
that converts any given song into a record as it prints? Perhaps a 3D model of
the record + software that knows where to put the grooves and takes an audio
file that is already prepared for the disc but is more compressible than the
full 3D model.

------
CodeCube
It may sound awful, but so does everything else at first :)

------
cpeterso
The Library of Congress used a scanner to restore and preserve old broken
records:

"You Can Play the Record, but Don't Touch" (2007)

[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1185184...](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11851842)

------
31reasons
This technology in future could also be used by criminals to print fake
finger-prints. I guess then physical authentication needs to be updated to
something un-printable. e.g retina scans, voice.

------
Tbj3Y
I wonder if an Epilog laser engraver could do any better.

~~~
webjprgm
3D print the record then laser engrave the song on it?

~~~
anigbrowl
If you can start with a blank record then printing it is a waste of time, for
the same reason we don't print paper.

------
bentcorner
Good thing those records are durable: <http://youtu.be/h4GYg-5AdRw>

------
clarky07
Oh the irony. Printing out records makes me laugh.

------
sequoia
ghostery users: unblock brightcove.

------
mikekij
How has nobody pointed out how awesome that girl is? 3D printing? Algorithms?
The Pixies? <3

