Tokyo Dawn Labs release the SimuLathe product range (virtual disk mastering)

[dionenoid]

Sounds really good. Very convincing vinyl emulation. Can i assume that the Club setting is like using a Technics SL1200 ?

One possible bug tho : The daw's bypass button doesn't work. The plugin bypass button activates the daw bypass, but not the other way around. Cubase 12, vst3, win10.

[FabienTDR]

Sounds really good. Very convincing vinyl emulation. Can i assume that the Club setting is like using a Technics SL1200 ?

One possible bug tho : The daw's bypass button doesn't work. The plugin bypass button activates the daw bypass, but not the other way around. Cubase 12, vst3, win10.

Yes, a spherical pickup, as used by DJs. They are robust but show stronger effect vs the playback diameter than the others.

Thanks for the bug report!

[pixel85]

Wow, this plugin is phenomenal!
It's not like I need it as I never had an opportunity to put any of my releases on vinyl (or I'm just unaware of it). But the predictions and info this plugin can give, are looking like a huge time saver.

Based on stories from my mastering friends that I heard, you should also include an option when only "you stupid!" text is shown in the GUI, so they can show it to their clients when they're sending them distorted -3LUFS tracks to master for vinyl (hardtekk scene is fun)

To those complaining: are your releases hit Billboard Top 10? No? Then why do you even bother? From your perspective shown here, everything should be made only for a huge profit and smaller markets should be completely abandoned. What a limited point of view...

[astralprojection]

Can i assume that the Club setting is like using a Technics SL1200 ?

No actually the turntable would have nothing to do with the pickup. In this case Club means Spherical as answered above and I assume Hifi means Elliptical or Hyper Elliptical.
Could be any turntable, the most dirt cheap one you can find, or the most expensive one you can find. The pickup is a seperate thing all on its own.

But why doesnt it say that instead of using terms like Club or Hifi? Seems like it would make more sense and clear up more confusion if it said exactly what type of needle it was. Furthermore pickup and needle arent always together, some shure pickups for example can offer both spherical and elliptical needles, but its the same pickup... I think this could be cleared up a bit more in the plugin. And it would be cool if you offered more "pickup" options (rather needle options) since there are quite a few. And how about MC vs MM? This is a bit unclear in the plugin..


Having said that what an incredibly cool plugin. Im curious to its use though, could it be used to make an actual vinyl record should you have a lathe machine? Or is it purely for "effects" purposes, or "pretend" purposes if that make sense. Like you want to master your track into vinyl but dont wanna spend money for an actual vinyl - or can this plugin be used to actually print vinyl? Its a bit confusing what the purpose of the plugin is.

But if its just for effects purposes and "pretend you are mastering and cutting to vinyl" purposes, then it makes a bit of sense.

[dionenoid]

Can i assume that the Club setting is like using a Technics SL1200 ?

No actually the turntable would have nothing to do with the pickup. In this case Club means Spherical as answered above and I assume Hifi means Elliptical or Hyper Elliptical.
Could be any turntable, the most dirt cheap one you can find, or the most expensive one you can find. The pickup is a seperate thing all on its own.

In Dutch, a 'pickup' is the general term for a turntable. So when reading the term 'pickup' in Simulathe (especially in association with terms like Hi-fi and Club), i assumed it's about a type of turntable, rather than about the type of needle or cartridge that is used.

But Fabien and you explained the difference, thanks.

[Digivolt]

Its a bit confusing what the purpose of the plugin is.

Using SimuLathe, audio producers gain qualified insight into the format, the compromises, consequences and the remedies. Curious minds, creatives and students use the plugin to mix and experiment “onto disk” without risking wasted lacquers or precious cutting styli. Record labels and artist can plan and sequence their disk projects ahead, test their material early to prevent costly pitfalls.

It's basically an emulator for people to preprint their music to vinyl, for compatability checks, so there's no having to reprint because something was missed on the first print

It's also just to have some fun to see how your stuff would sound on vinyl if you ever got lucky enough to get it printed

I guess it can also act as a "vinyliser" tool if you want your stuff to sound like it's on vinyl and not digital

[FabienTDR]

Im curious to its use though, could it be used to make an actual vinyl record should you have a lathe machine? Or is it purely for "effects" purposes, or "pretend" purposes if that make sense. Like you want to master your track into vinyl but dont wanna spend money for an actual vinyl - or can this plugin be used to actually print vinyl? Its a bit confusing what the purpose of the plugin is.

Initially, this product purely addressed pro cutting engineers, a.k.a. "people operating a lathe". SimuLathe was developed with and for them, to simulate their machines for predictive abilities and risk-free/lossless quality control. Check the huge list of contributors in the credit screen, it's basically the hall of fame of today's vinyl production scene. In this context SL has been in real world use for over a year, with many records successfully cut using the tech. The largest players are already integrating it or testing SL for their workflows.

Only later we all decided to offer a version for the early production stages prior to project planning/budgeting, before the actual, the "true" disk mastering process. The REF edition, although having simplified lathe parametrization, is directly driven by the CUT editions super precise modelling (i.e. its professional grade predictive abilities).

90% of what the pros struggle with can be reduced to ignorance and naivety of their own customers, often having rather fantastic ideas of the process. Not out of stupidity, but simply due to a lack of (any!) feedback. Much like attempting to paint a nice landscape without ever looking at the canvas. Results will likely be horrible. Vinyl production is similar.

SimuLathe gives you this opportunity to look at the picture once in a while, at very low cost. By real world standards: roughly 0.1$ instead of 600$ minimum budget to justify a single test cut (not to mention shipping).

Nobody installs a 200 k$ machinery into his studio just for education, fun and experimentation. SimuLathe makes it accessible to mortal beings.

REF offers a representative set of lathe settings you can choose from, CUT offers all means of calibration necessary to precisely match a real world machine for pro uses. But both are super precise (otherwise disc space usage prediction would very obviously be wrong, and completely unusable for pros)

[FabienTDR]

The creative, the "effect" aspects are just a bonus of the physical model basically. They are primarily meant to give a sense for the levels on disc (i.e. get an idea of the signal to noise ratio).

This is why you won't find any WOW effects, they'd only complicate monitoring/decision making.

[BeeDog]

Super-interesting input Fabien, fun to read about it.

As a heavy vinyl-buyer, would you mind posting the credits list of contributors/lacquer cutters/mastering engineers?

[FabienTDR]

SimuLathe Credits:

A crazy idea by Helmut Erler, Vladislav Goncharov and Fabien Schivre.
Technical guidance by Helmut Erler. DSP and UI development by Vladislav Goncharov and Fabien Schivre.
Documentation by Shane Johnson

A thousand thanks goes to the fearless disc production experts who helped shape the vision and final product:

[in random order]
Greg Reierson (Rare Form Mastering)
Harvey Jones (Pitchcraft Mastering)
Flo Kaufman (Flokason)
Oihane Contreras Zubillaga (LathesVille)
Alberto Camerasa (LathesVille)
Bob Weston (Chicago Mastering Service)
Paul Gold (Salt Mastering)
Josh Bonati
Thorsten Wyk (Optimal-Media)
Adam Gonzalves
Chris Muth
Mike Grinser (Man Made Mastering)
Andreas Kauffelt (Schnittstelle)
Alexander Ott
Tobias Lill
Nene Baratto
Olivia Kolsut
Jason Goz
Kamil Kaczmarek
Michael Lawrence
Riccardo Martinelli
Sam Berdah
Arne Albrecht
Diego Ili
Volker Elsässer (Elsässer Galvanics)
Frederic Stader
Misjah van der Heiden (24mastering)
Steven (My Shank)
SONO RECORDS

Product evaluation and quality control by:

[in random order]
Bob Ohlson
Niklas Silen (BManic)
Dax Liniere (Puzzle Factory)
Justin Perkins
Eric Recourt
Gregg Janman
Ian Steward
Ilpo Kärkkäinen (Resound)
Joseph Lyons
Jan Ohlhorst
Joe Caithness Mastering
Mario Krušelj
Miro Pajic
Murray Campbell (Beatworld)
Nicholas Di Lorenzo
Rich Prewett
Nil Hartman
Zvukofor
Roland Löhlbach
Ady (Trkmastering)
Jonas Ekström (Mastertone)

[Yadrichik_Chaya]

As they say, ”two birds with one stone”.
Today while trying out Emergent Drums' new model called ”Creamy” I also made use of TDL SimuLathe…
https://soundcloud.com/yadrichik-chaya/ ... al_sharing

[astralprojection]

In Dutch, a 'pickup' is the general term for a turntable. So when reading the term 'pickup' in Simulathe (especially in association with terms like Hi-fi and Club), i assumed it's about a type of turntable, rather than about the type of needle or cartridge that is used.

But Fabien and you explained the difference, thanks.

Oh its a dutch company? Anyway that is still confusing, just because country x calls something as something else it would be incorrect to assume everyone does? Doesnt make much sense
Furthermore I cant see how different turntables would be a meaningful option? Surely the sound comes from what type of needle and pickup it has.

Initially, this product purely addressed pro cutting engineers, a.k.a. "people operating a lathe".

oki. And what about the pickups? And if the pickup is MM or MC? And what needle it has? How come it just says "dj" and "hifi" and not more specific? And why not other choices? Seems alot is left out and its confusing, since its otherwise a pretty big plugin as far as features. For example it would be awesome to be able to hear how your record would sound using different pickups. Saying just "hifi" is strange cause theres about a thousand different ones to choose from all in various price range... Seems lazy to leave this option out, imho, when you went so far otherwise, with the plugin. Like how it sounds different further towards the middle of the record and so on.

[FabienTDR]

The initial scope was to offer representative target systems that you can click through very quickly. For monitoring purposes.

The creative stuff is very interesting of course, we'll possibly address it more deeply in future updates.

[astralprojection]

its a cool plugin and i hope you make the options a bit more detailed in future updates. i think you already have the RnD for the options to be more detailed, so lets hope there is more in the future.

[dangayle]

Two groups of producers that might really like this are hip hop / trip hop producers and drum and bass producers. Both groups do this thing where they use something like Addictive Drums to make a drum break reminiscent of the Amen break, then process it with tape saturation, vinyl crackles, etc to try to get an "authentic" tone. Then they bounce it down and chop it.

I think this could be just a little extra spice (possibly overkill, but this is art after all) added into the mix. I mean, people already emulate the preamps, the console, the transformers, the tape, and all the other parts of the process.