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Spaceways, v. 4, issue 2, January 1942
Page 16
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16 SPACEWAYS SO YOU WANT TO RECORD? by LESLIE A. CROUTCH PART II How To Get the Most from Your Recorder Well, we are home with that brand-new recorder of yours, and aren't you the proud one? Naturally you're excited and very impatient to get everything going and try making your first recording. But let's take things easy. Remember, cutting styli, and the recorder proper, are expensive, delicate equipment and should be treated with due care and proper respect for their value. Treat the machine and component parts gently, operate everything properly, and results will be highly satisfactory. First, place the recorder on a good, solid foundation. A table with stout legs, solidly placed, will do. Don't pick a spot where the floor is springy, or one leg of the table must be shimmed up, unless it is impossible to get away from it. A rocking table, a springy floor will transmit jars and shocks to the recording head and cause various troubles--loud noises in the finished recording, jumping of the styli thus ruining the disc and perhaps ruining the styli itself. When the recorder is plugged in and the motor turned on and the turntable turning you now use the stroboscope. This is placed on the turntable while it is turning and viewed in the light of an electric bulb, or, better still, a neon bulb, though the latter is not absolutely necessary. Around the edge of the stroboscope disc you will see heavy lines, running out from the center like spokes in a wheel. Looking at these lines, if the turntable is running at a greater speed than 78 r.p.m., the lines will appear to run to the right, or clockwise. If the lines appear to run backward or counter-clockwise, the turntable is running at less than 78 r.p.m. When the speed is exactly right the lines will appear to stand still. Some recorders have a speed control. If yours has, it must be adjusted until the speed is at 78 r.p.m. This adjustment would be made while the recorder is cutting an actual groove; in other words, while under working load. A home recording should be almost silent when it comes to groove noise, or needle scratch--that hiss heard on commercial pressings. But to get this quietness, the styli while cutting must be at the correct angle. To check this angle set the recorder head down on the blank disc with the turntable stopped. Look past the styli toward the center of the turntable, and note the reflection in the surface of the disc. If the cutting face of the styli and its reflection appear to make a continuous line the angle is correct. If they form an angle, it is wrong and must be corrected. The styli must always rest on the disc in a true vertical position. There are different ways to correct this cutting angle. By consulting the instruction sheet that comes with your machine you will find the screw in the arm for adjusting the angle. Crystal cutters usually have a set-screw top which controls the downward movement of the arm. Magnetic cutters are usually slotted so they can be moved up and down. Now that the angle is correct, there is the depth of cut to attend to. The reason for this is self-evident as far as too great a depth is concerned. The plastic in which the grooves are cut is bonded to a base for strength. Some bases are aluminum, some steel, others a form of board, cardboard, and even glass now that the war has struck at the metals involved. if the groove is cut too deeply the styli may cut right through the surface and into the base, dulling or even breaking a piece from the tip of the styli. In either case the styli is ruined and must either be replaced or re-sharpened. If the groove is cut too shallow on loud passages the reproducing head may actually jump from one groove to another. In another case of too deep a cut the land, or uncut wall between grooves, may be so thin that actual cutting or skipping from one groove to another may result, or groove echo come into play.
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16 SPACEWAYS SO YOU WANT TO RECORD? by LESLIE A. CROUTCH PART II How To Get the Most from Your Recorder Well, we are home with that brand-new recorder of yours, and aren't you the proud one? Naturally you're excited and very impatient to get everything going and try making your first recording. But let's take things easy. Remember, cutting styli, and the recorder proper, are expensive, delicate equipment and should be treated with due care and proper respect for their value. Treat the machine and component parts gently, operate everything properly, and results will be highly satisfactory. First, place the recorder on a good, solid foundation. A table with stout legs, solidly placed, will do. Don't pick a spot where the floor is springy, or one leg of the table must be shimmed up, unless it is impossible to get away from it. A rocking table, a springy floor will transmit jars and shocks to the recording head and cause various troubles--loud noises in the finished recording, jumping of the styli thus ruining the disc and perhaps ruining the styli itself. When the recorder is plugged in and the motor turned on and the turntable turning you now use the stroboscope. This is placed on the turntable while it is turning and viewed in the light of an electric bulb, or, better still, a neon bulb, though the latter is not absolutely necessary. Around the edge of the stroboscope disc you will see heavy lines, running out from the center like spokes in a wheel. Looking at these lines, if the turntable is running at a greater speed than 78 r.p.m., the lines will appear to run to the right, or clockwise. If the lines appear to run backward or counter-clockwise, the turntable is running at less than 78 r.p.m. When the speed is exactly right the lines will appear to stand still. Some recorders have a speed control. If yours has, it must be adjusted until the speed is at 78 r.p.m. This adjustment would be made while the recorder is cutting an actual groove; in other words, while under working load. A home recording should be almost silent when it comes to groove noise, or needle scratch--that hiss heard on commercial pressings. But to get this quietness, the styli while cutting must be at the correct angle. To check this angle set the recorder head down on the blank disc with the turntable stopped. Look past the styli toward the center of the turntable, and note the reflection in the surface of the disc. If the cutting face of the styli and its reflection appear to make a continuous line the angle is correct. If they form an angle, it is wrong and must be corrected. The styli must always rest on the disc in a true vertical position. There are different ways to correct this cutting angle. By consulting the instruction sheet that comes with your machine you will find the screw in the arm for adjusting the angle. Crystal cutters usually have a set-screw top which controls the downward movement of the arm. Magnetic cutters are usually slotted so they can be moved up and down. Now that the angle is correct, there is the depth of cut to attend to. The reason for this is self-evident as far as too great a depth is concerned. The plastic in which the grooves are cut is bonded to a base for strength. Some bases are aluminum, some steel, others a form of board, cardboard, and even glass now that the war has struck at the metals involved. if the groove is cut too deeply the styli may cut right through the surface and into the base, dulling or even breaking a piece from the tip of the styli. In either case the styli is ruined and must either be replaced or re-sharpened. If the groove is cut too shallow on loud passages the reproducing head may actually jump from one groove to another. In another case of too deep a cut the land, or uncut wall between grooves, may be so thin that actual cutting or skipping from one groove to another may result, or groove echo come into play.
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