Can you count the clues?
Can you count the clues?
TURN ME ON DUMB MAN
Well, I can accept that the platters were possibly really floating and turning in some magnetic field but the idea that sound was coming off of it is insane.
Assuming there is no trick photography going on, and the discs are really floating, I'd say they are more likely to be floating on a cushion of air/gas. Perhaps that central bit contains dry ice, which vaporises and emerges underneath at the centre, forming an almost frictionless cushion, like the dry ice pucks we used to use in physics experiemnts at high school (do they still use those?).
As for the sound, I would not have predicted that, but I'm prepared to believe that the gas streaming between adjacent discs sets up a vibration, much like the way you can make a high pitched screeching noise by blowing between two pieces of paper held tightly together.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
rcarlberg: Is there anything sadder than a song that has never been played?
Plasmatopia: Maybe a song in D minor that has never been played?
bob_32_116: That would be a terrific triple bill: Cyan, Magenta and Yello.
trurl: The Odyssey: "He's trying to get home."
And the sound doesn't slow down as the discs do.
Good job sleuths!
Well, the sound actually seemed backwards and slow to me so ok, points for that. But it seemed to start before the tone arm got near the discs, the stylus never touches anything and the pitch doesn't warble with the extreme off level warp of the discs. I like the gas theory though, and there is that odd extra tube sticking out of the tone arm so maybe something else is going on.
This is the description in the Youtube video:
In this concept, 7 vinyl records are suspended in the air by electromagnets. A toenarm (sic) is mounted with an optical sensor which picks up the light patterns from the surface of the record. There is no needle touching the record. The optical sensor acts as a virtual stylus hovering above the grooves. Sounds are processed in a sound-generating software program and amplified through speakers.
Which is more of an art installation type thing. If they are using magnets to do the suspension, which could work although they'd be honking big ones, the idea of a light sensor also makes sense since it seems it's not really tracking the record groove per se; it's just triggering "a sound generating software program" which could be any damn thing. In other words, if the sensor sees there's anything there under it it probably tells the software to make noise. So looked at that way it probably does just what we see in the video. It's not playing records and I don't think it's meant to make people think it is...
Yes. The sensor doesn't track the record, that's the point. It only senses that a record is there and it tells the software program to make noise. It would do the same thing if you just stuck anything sort of shiny in there. It may be that the program at least responds to "brighter, dimmer" or something like that but I'd guess that's about it. I'm sure they could do the same trick with a cd.
Quite possibly. But I don't see any reason why the setup they describe wouldn't work. Remember, the records and the way they move don't have any real bearing on the sound that comes out, they are just a trigger for the event. It's like saying sitting on a toilet with a light sensor switch triggers the sound of a flush when you stand up. It's not farfetched. The idea that the sound is coming from the disc itself- that's farfetched.
Well, there is the ELP laser turntable, but this is not that.
Also, if you listen to the music through to the end of the video, it's audibly forwards. I'm even pretty sure it's Fripp.
So yeah, totally fake.
rcarlberg: Is there anything sadder than a song that has never been played?
Plasmatopia: Maybe a song in D minor that has never been played?
bob_32_116: That would be a terrific triple bill: Cyan, Magenta and Yello.
trurl: The Odyssey: "He's trying to get home."
I was thinking Eno's music for airports whilst listening (though it's been a very very long time since I've spun that on my turntable).
rcarlberg: Is there anything sadder than a song that has never been played?
Plasmatopia: Maybe a song in D minor that has never been played?
bob_32_116: That would be a terrific triple bill: Cyan, Magenta and Yello.
trurl: The Odyssey: "He's trying to get home."
The reading via a laser cell was easy enough to grasp , if you know the technology exist (I did >> they're thinking about commercialising it, as for vinyl lovers to actually play the discs without demolishing the groove with a stylus... ), playing the vinyls backwards is not a problem >> many idiots tried discovering evil incantations on them that way
As for the magnetisation to float the disc, the middle piece should be enough indeed.... what I don't get is why are there more than one slice of wax (I suppose a question of weight) , but I also suppose they're stacked up unevenly to keep the momentum going once movement was installed.
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
I just want a turntable that works. The motor on my Dual 455 went tits up a couple months ago and with other pressing needs it looks like I won't be getting a replacement for at least another year.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
It's. Not. A. Laser. Turntable. It's an art installation. The. Sound. Is. Not. Coming. From. The. Record. And yeah, real laser turntables are mighty sophisticated!
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