Here is a very cool walk-through of how Amanda Ghassaei went about printing 3D records.
“In an effort to boldly 3D print where no man or woman has 3D printed before, I’ve created a technique for converting digital audio files into 3D printable 33rpm records and printed some functional prototypes over the weekend,” Amanda writes. ” These records play on regular turntables, with regular needles, at regular speeds, just like any vinyl record. Though the audio output from these records has a sampling rate of 11kHz (a quarter of typical mp3 audio) and 5-6bit resolution (mp3 audio is 16 bit), it is still easily recognizable, check out the video above to hear what it sounds like.”
The resulting 3D records were printed on a UV-cured resin printer – Objet Connex500, which has a resolution of 600dpi making it one of the best in the 3D printing business.
“Despite all this precision, the Objet still at least an order of magnitude or two away from the resolution of a real vinyl record,” Amanda reports. “My hope with this project was that despite the lack of vinyl-quality precision, I would still be able to produce something recognizable by approximating the groove shape as accurately as possible with the tools I had.”
It’s obvious that there is still a lot of work to be done to improve the sound quality of the records. However, Amanda needs to be congratulated for the great work she’s doing.
