[Scott Dorsey]

wrote:

WAY poorer tracking than a Califone. The idea being that if it tracked
on a Close 'N Play, it wouldn't skip on a jukebox.

so what were the attributes of a mix that allowed it to track on a close n play?

limited peak amplitude in the bass?

Surprisingly you could put a lot of bass on there without any issue. More
of a problem putting much top end on because the playback system was slew
limited; the stylus just can't move fast enough.

Any stuff in the sub-20Hz range though would make it go berserk because
there's an arm resonance somewhere around 10 to 20 Hz on a lot of those
cheap turntables and this was even worse.

limited L/R separation in the bass?

ZERO L/R separation in the bass. If bass instruments weren't mixed to the
center, an elliptical filter will fix that. But babying the groove depth
can help a lot if you are trying to get a lot of L-R information on the
discs.

Wide pitch is easier to track and causes fewer problems, and of course you
can cut a lot hotter with the wide pitch. But, there's only so hot you can
cut, and if you have two loud notes at the same points on adjacent grooves
they can be too close. So if you wind up with that, you can recut and start
at a slightly different point to make the peaks come out farther apart.

A little limiting can help but much of it and it just brings your loudness
down, and what you want is to get as much groove excursion as possible
without the grooves being too close to one another and without so much lateral
movement.

You can cut wider and deeper and get more loudness and good stability but
then you only get a minute or so on a side. It's all about juggling
level with running time with the playback system being the primary limitation.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."