how to set speed with strobe and speed controller

Marty-

Thank you very much.

-Ryan

Where would one find a strobe light?

at any store that sells hardware, its a flourescent light

Do you really need a strobe light? I just use regular lighting (USA), and I can see the bars pretty well. I have to kind of un-focus my eyes a bit, though. Am I getting an accurate reading doing it this way?
-Bob

a strobe light isn't actually required. You can do this with ANY incandescent lamp powered by a 60hz wall outlet. It works!

If possible, you can follow my setup.

I have the same album for vinyl and cd. The cd plays on my headphones. The vinyl plays on the speakers.

I play the vinyl a split second earlier than the cd then I slow down the platter down by dragging my fingers on the platter. I do this until both are synced. You know this when you have the headphones on and the speakers seems to disappear completly in the background. It's a zen-like experience in itself.

So both are synced right now. If the drums are still locked synced after one minute. You are more accurate than the KAB speed strobe.

The KAB has a .03% error rate. A .03% error rate between the CD and the vinyl has a slight "reverb" sound. It's very obvious.

---technical-----
My profession is in the visual effects industry for tv/film. I did a test on Adobe After Effects on how a .03% error would sound. I did this by slipping an audio track one frame ahead of it's duplicate. Video is 30 frames per second. 1 frame error is .03%. Now I know how 'bad' a .03% error sounds like and use that as a baseline.
----------------

On my vinyl speed test. My vinyl was able to hold up to 6 mins. before it sounds like it has a .03% error, (or .03 seconds time shift between the cd and the vinyl)
6 mins = 360 secs.
.03 / 360 = .00008333

conclusion:
It takes several times to make the vinyl lock in with the cd before you can start timing how long it is synced. But after such, you can brag your turntable is accurate to ten thousandth of a second. :)

Would like to see how long you guys can keep both sources synced. Would make a great contest.

Whatever disc and light you use, you should think about finding a record in your collection that has a dynamic track and play that while setting the speed. This will account for stylus drag.