If you have been following our projects, you probably already know how many industries and various areas in general have been improved and enhanced by 3D printers. With our latest addition to our lineup, we’re now enabling independent authors to produce their own 3D-printed LP records, bringing a much-needed level of democratization into the music industry.
Introducing Printables Bands
Brands quickly became a hit – presented as a dedicated section on Printables.com, it allows companies worldwide to publish printable additions for their products. From iFixit accessories to printable parts for a Cooler Master case, you can find all sorts of awesome things here. Now it’s time to expand Printables once more.
Our Prusacaster guitar project inspired many makers to print their own guitars and start playing, discovering the wonders of music. This is exactly the story of the frontman of a Czech group called the ThermoPLAstic People. They approached us last Tuesday with their music album about 3D printing and needless to say, we instantly fell in love with it.
You can listen to their songs in the player below or at Bandcamp. The tracklist includes such hits as Calibration, My 3D Printer Sucks, Printer’s Paradise, Mám ucpanou trysku (My Nozzle’s Clogged – performed in the band’s native Czech language) and also the Xmas classic: Phase Stepping into the Silent Night.
You would download an LP record
Nearly anything can be 3D-printed, now including LP records! Simply download an STL file containing a recorded vinyl from Printables, slice it and print it! It’s the digital and physical distribution of music combined into one! This way, every single musician in the world can produce their own vinyl records without spending major amounts of money on manufacturing, and DJs can simply print a new record any time they want. Many of the existing Printables features can be easily used with music records, too – Remixes, for example.
The upcoming PrusaSlicer 2.7.5 release will feature a tool to drag and drop a WAV file into the scene, turning it into a modifier – the program will then automatically embed the audio file into the model by generating the grooves. Adding the code wasn’t difficult, it’s not rocket surgery. By precisely controlling the amount of extruded filament, it’s possible to create the groove with the same precision as with regular vinyl manufacturing, so most of the driving logic was already there.
PrusaSlicer’s new Audio Tool is also compatible with the MMU3 and XL’s toolchanger, allowing you to print music with up to five different colors and/or materials. You can, e.g., try printing a brown note or combine multiple materials in one song – e.g., TPU for “softer” sections and Tungsten for heavier ones.
Now, before you start printing the album you just downloaded, there are a couple of things to keep in mind: first of all, different nozzles have different levels of quality. For more detailed compositions, you’ll want to switch to a 0.25mm nozzle to bring out the finer details in the track. However, for epic Hans Zimmer soundtracks, you’ll be better off with a massive 0.8mm nozzle to really emphasize the mighty sounds of the Inception OST.
For genres such as rock, punk, and especially grindcore, you should switch to a hardened nozzle (check the nozzle replacement tool for ultra-fast nozzle swapping). To play music tracks that feature instruments such as a tuba, trombone, trumpet or bugle, consider a brass nozzle. There are, of course, some limitations. Currently, only one side of the record can be printed – if you use a textured print sheet, please exercise caution: the other side of the LP record will always feature brutal death metal songs.
Last, but not least, please keep in mind that the Original Prusa MINI can only print 6’’ records, so it’s best suited for singles. If you want to print progressive metal songs, you should consider the Original Prusa XL.
Oh, how the turntables!
All internet audiophiles agree that a turntable is the only way to listen to music. Its analog beauty is timeless. However, a turntable can be expensive and it requires additional space, so if you already have a 3D printer, another device may be a bit too much.
This is why we’re releasing a new firmware update for the Original Prusa XL adding a turntable mode. Simply print a needle adapter for the Nextruder and start the Turntable Mode. Instead of using a standard setup with a rotating record and a moving tonearm, the XL keeps the record stationary while it moves the needle around using precise CoreXY kinematics.
The built-in LED strips can be programmed to change color according to the mood of the music track and you can control the speed of the playback with the control knob next to the screen.
Happy listening!
Can not wait to start print these LP's. Another great innovation from Prusa Research!!!
I was very sad when I realized what the date was 🙁
I was almost taken in… until I noticed the posting date.
Don't worry…Someone in the world will figure out a way to make this work
I wonder if it is even possible to produce readable audio with a 3D printer?
Happy April fools day all!
Wow you have really outdone yourself this time! This is hilarious!!
Hahaha amazing 😀
Hol up, is this fake? Seems legit to me. The slicer function seems doable and the band exists (at least that's what the internet told me)
Beautiful… Whoever wrote this, you are a true artist!
well, i know what the date is, but there really is something to 3d printing a record. just search teh interwebz. no joke.
i mean, search through… google and youtube have enough informations on that
Took me till the end if the article to get it… there was a little voice of reason telling me that layer height resolution wasn't good enough for printing a record.
I am still hoping the band on bsndcamp part is real.
Haha I believed it at first, until I saw the date
This i fantastic. you could even combine a MP3 file with the gcode and make your own record.
I got a bit in before I realized. I mean the music sure …
Thanks
Brilliant! You had me at first…… 😉
I assume that the writer had a great time! So did I 😉
Well 'played'
I was rolling my eyes until "so you can print a brown note." Lol – cheers.
I got sooooo excited reading this….I didn't think I would get got today, but you got me.
I actually forgot the date. But the article is great, and the idea too. I've already loaded my favorite songs into folders for LPs. In case 2.7.5 gets a wave generator.😀👍
Ma io adesso lo voglio!!! Non è giusto!!!
I got bam boozled when I saw this
i am highly intrigued by this and i am impressed so much it turned of my brain and i dont really know how is this possible.
I'll give it like 8 weeks until someone tries this for real and has a decent working prototype with a resin printer
I know what day it is, but this might actually be possible to pull off. Hear me out:
A typical microgroove LP with a 10kHz signal has a mechanical wavelength of 50-20ym depending on the position along the track with a depth of 28ym and a width of about 36ym at the contact point of the needle. The mechanical amplitude seems to be 5.6ym at its maximum.
The Prusa MK3 has a XY Resolution of ~10ym per Step with a theoretical resolution of 625nm using the full 256 microsteps the trinamic drivers are capable of.
I found a project of someone using an SLI printer with 300 DPI (84ym) X/Y and 30ym Z resolution producing a (very noisy, but recognizable) LP.
It's a tricky project. But using some tricks (like modulating the extruder motor as mentioned in the post) it could be possible to make this happen. One would need a very finely tuned printer and very consistent filament.
LMAO!!!! 🤣 I only use tungsten PLA when printing the my favorite symphonic metal Nightwish playlists.
I totally fell for it, until I saw the date. But honestly, printing functional vinyl records seems possible… not sure how good it would sound! 🤘😎
The tungsten nozzle really cranks "Mám ucpanou trysku" up to 11! Wow!
Absolutely the best marketing ploy and April fools joke ever, all rolled into one. The song lyrics were Prusa accurate! Bravo!
Good grief, I've never wanted an April fools joke to be real so bad before. In fairness, at least the bandcamp site is real.
Never before have I wanted a prank to be real more than now…………..
Someone test if this is possible!
I need this.
Dammit, dammit, dammit… as a musician I wanted this SO BAD, but I kept thinking "no way is this gonna work"… then realized it was April 1!
For getting my hopes up like that, you owe me a listen to my album at wendidunlap.bandcamp.com/album/looking-for-buildings ! I promise it's actually not bad 🙂
I thought this was the coolest thing but as I read, I realized it's currently April 1st and now I'm extremely sad 🙁 I hope this wasn't some cruel trick because I would love to see this happen. (Please don't tell me this was a trick)
Bravo! Totally got me. This is something that should become reality!
One day this will be real. One day. 30 years ago who would have thought you could whip up a replacement piece to some household thing that you broke or print up a thingamabob because you had an idea. I wonder if back in the 90s someone wrote an April Fools news article about a device that would print in 3 dimensions.
Well…it is possible, for all those out there like me desperately hoping this was real. (See here: https://www.instructables.com/3D-Printed-Record/)
The problem is the quality isn't any good due to the xyz steps. HOWEVER, theoretically, if one were to build a rotating print bed, the xy steps would disappear. I'm definitely looking into this, as I feel like it may actually be possible to do?
(See here for a discussion on rotating bed 3d printers: https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?88,493307)
If anyone has any more/other suggestions, please message me!
Love this – so much fun!
i would like to ask if the songs will be available on spotify? because it's so good songs i love them!
In the Premium Package (https://www.spotifyguru.com/), all music, playlists, and everything in the app store are played at 320 kbps quality, without ads, ensuring the smoothest and most comfortable listening process.
I was very interested when I read this article. Hope you will love <a href="https://fourcolorsgame.com">four colors</a>. A pretty good thinking game.
Dear Prusa Research Content Team,
I was at first delighted to read this article as it seemed a perfect fit for my school assessment, which ascertained to design and produce a 3d printed vinyl record.
I smiled with glee as I scrolled through the interesting features and exciting new designs that you came up with, a true breakthrough in record listening technology. My head was filled with hopes and dreams for the future, not only having the perfect project to present to my peers but also the ability to print out records for my own personal enjoyment.
So you can understand my distress when reading the royal FUCK YOU that is the date of this posting. Reading the comments all laughing and saying happy April Fools stripped my head of all good thoughts and dreams and replaced them with an empty dark hole.
That was 3 months ago.
I am now writing to you from the confines of a prison cell where I will spend the rest of my life. See, reading this article made me so angry that I went on a killing spree murdering everything from puppies, to kittens and infant children. It is now my dream when I break out of this hell to strip the world of all that is good, just as you did to me.
Kind regards, Thomas Stevens