Recording vinyl records
This wonderful lathe directly records onto vinyls after Digital Luthier®, along with the Swiss company Vinylium®, spent 3 months restoring this 50 year old jewel. The machinery, as well as the electronics, has been restored with the leading and latest advances in technology. It has been given a new set of functions, like recording directly onto vinyl without the need for using soft material, or those that are liable to wear down. Instead of that, what we get is a long-lasting record, well-traced and with an exceptional stereo quality.
Presto 8DG Cabinet
The Presto 8DG was originally made in 1947 by the American company Presto, and was acquired by an old recording plant which closed its doors many years ago. The lathe remained unused for several years, until finally crossing the Atantic to arrive at our installation at the request of one of our clients. Additionally, the whole restoration process has included an upgrade of the mechanical parts and a new stereo heat cutter. Also, it has been endowed with new amplifiers and RIIA converters. Everything has been integrated into the same, single cabinet, without the need for external supports or auxiliary racks.
Neumann Replica
The magnetic recording head of this lathe is a replica of the legendary one from the company Neumann®, the SX74® model specifically from the magnetic cuttingheads line. It was ordered to the Swiss company Vinylium® GMBH along with the electronic and circuit parts that compose this recording system. Basically, our plan is to create a system that would record directly onto vinyl records and, in this way, produce a final copy. Our development defied the physical conditions that are liable to appear with this kind of recording. In the end, it not just recording onto vinyl, but also supporting materials with higher hardness thanks to its sharp diamond stylus and a heating process that is applied on the surface of the record, via an integrated system that has been built in the record.
Servocontrol
The whole traction system has been redesigned with a system of servomotors, and all the machinery related to tear and transmition has been replaced. All the supports and moorings have been redesigned and implemented to reduce the possible vibrations that may have been caused in the system while recording. We have installed a new servomotor system that is in a console, located on the upper part of the recording booth, and which can control the following: turning speed of the motors, heating systems, shaving suctioning, static electricity cleaning, additional lighting and marking, and shifting speed functions related to the magnetic cutterhead.
We keep developing
The result of the restoration was better than expected; it gave the machine the “vintage” look, along with improvements from the present day, that allow better precision and better results. Digital Luthier® is in a constant process of development and investigation of new ways and systems that can be used for the needs and requests of the customer. If you have any kind of project or idea and you would like to discuss, or you need to re-engineer or restore a device, do not hesitate to contact us at info@digitalluthier.com. We would be delighted to assist you and analyze your proposal.
Presto Corporation
The new york based company Presto® originally manufactured the 8DG cabinet mounted model in the year 1915 and it was refounded in 1932. During and after those years the company was a pioneer in the manufacture of recording instruments and they provided studio recordings at that time around the whole world. At the end of the 20th century, and driven due to the decay of the analogic recording systems, the company cease their activity. Due to the age of the forementioned equipments, it is practically impossible to acquire replacements or spare parts for these recorders. In the case of the contemporary recorder, there has been put a lot of work into its industrial restoration, since all the parts that form the basis and the mechanics are handmade.