Under Water Record Player Is Very Mesmerizing

February 16, 2014 by James Hobson 36 Comments

Once in a while we get a really awesome tip about a technical art installation — there sometimes isn’t much info behind it, but the idea and concept behind it alone sparks our curiosity. That is most definitely the case for this submerged record player.

Artist [Evan Holm] has created this awesome installation which features a black pool of water — with a built-in record player. He’s somehow waterproofed the player itself, and integrated the controls and needle into a tree, which is part of the installation.

He has a very long and artsy description about the meaning of it, how it represents loss and mystery, and the collective subconscious of the human race… We just see it as a really cool hack. There’s also a full documentary about how he sets up the installation at various shows.

We’ve included both videos following the break — it is very tempting to try recreating something similar!

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The Ottoman Empire

February 11, 2014 by James Hobson 20 Comments

ottomon empire

Remember the good old days in the 60’s and 70’s when stereos were built right into the furniture? No? Well, that’s where the inspiration for this project comes from. Introducing the Ottoman Empire — a pun so bad we’re not even going to repeat it here.

[Alec] was inspired by Blaupunkt, which is a German manufacturer of electronics who used to make a line of very nice cabinet stereos (examples) which blended furniture and electronics quite exquisitely.

He had recently finished off a rather cool 8-track data backup system, and was left with a spare BSR record player — or as he likes to call it, the “Ford Pinto of record players.” He decided to turn it into something useful by integrating it into a Naugahyde Ottoman that he picked up from a local vintage store. The problem with old furniture like that? No structural elements — it was actually just packed full of shredded wood! He cleaned it all out though and then proceeded to make his own wooden frame to support the BSR — he’s done a great job modifying it to fit, and even hiding all the electronics to make it very presentable.

Now all he needs to do is add a pressure switch in the top so when he kicks back to relax it starts playing some Chopin.

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LEGO Record Player

October 3, 2012 by Eric Evenchick 7 Comments

Some people claim that the sound of vinyl is superior to digital playback. While this hack wont win any awards for audio quality, [Ryan]’s LEGO Record Player is a unique use of one of our favorite toys. Most of the components including the tone arm, counterweight, and base, are built entirely of LEGO. A large gear from an educational construction set is used for the platter. Unfortunately, the rotation isn’t terribly smooth, and the playback is rather distorted.

The turntable uses a standard cartridge and stylus, which should allow it to be connected to any receiver with a phono preamplifier. Using these off the shelf parts, it’s possible to build the mechanical components a turntable out of a variety of things. As the video demonstrates, getting the platter to turn correctly is a bit of a challenge.

Check out a video of the wobbly playback featuring Cindy and Bert after the break.

Via Make

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Zeppelin On The Fisher Price Record Player Now Thanks To A 3D Printer

September 4, 2012 by Mike Szczys 13 Comments

[Fred Murphy] went ahead and revised his method of making custom records for a Fisher Price toy record player. He’s now able to 3D print the discs. The toy works much like a music box, with a comb in the “cartridge” of the record player and notches in the record that pluck the fingers of the comb as it turns. He had previously developed a subtractive method that let him mill records out of a solid piece of plastic. But this additive method means less waste.

The music creation portion of the project is the same as the previous version. That’s because it’s pretty hard to outdo the C# software he wrote which serves as a composition studio. The difficulty comes in getting a clean print for the disk. The ridges on the discs are 0.7mm so you’re going to need a well-aligned printer with fine resolution. [Fred] printed in both ABS and what he calls “Vero clear” plastic. The former works but he got better results with the latter.

Exercise Bike Actuates Your Download Speeds; Messes With Music Playback

July 10, 2012 by Mike Szczys 7 Comments

We’re not featuring this project because it involves the tiniest exercise bike in the world. It’s on the front page because the speed-control features which this dynamic duo added are hilarious. They call it the Webcycle and it’s actually two hacks in one.

Way back in 2009 [Matt Gray] and [Tom Scott] slapped an Arduino on the bike and used it to measure the revolutions of the cranks (how fast your feet are going in circles). This was hooked up to the laptop which is fastened to the handlebars. This way you can surf the Internet while you work out, but the bandwidth is directly affected by pedal speed. If you want to watch video you’re going to have to sweat…. a lot. Check it out in the clip after the break.

This March they pulled the Webcycle out of storage so that it may ride again. This time it’s connected to the sound system in their exercise room. A record player motor is the victim in this case. You guessed it — pedal speed dictates the rate of the turntable, modulating the pitch drastically. Make sure the boss isn’t around when you watch this clip because it will be hard not to guffaw.

These guys really have fun with this hacks. It was [Tom’s] birthday that prompted that hacktacular mini golf course.

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Resurrecting A Hi-Fi Cabinet

July 7, 2012 by Mike Szczys 25 Comments

[VintagePC] pulled this old stereo out of a barn. It was in pretty shabby shape, but he managed get it running again and make it look great as well.

While it had been protected from the elements, it had not been protected from the rodents. Mice had chewed their way through the fiberboard backing and made a nice home inside. He mentions that they chewed the string which operates the tuning dial, and we’re sure they were the cause of other problems as well. He gives the wise advice of not powering on an old set like this until you have a chance to assess the situation.

The insides of the amplifier were about as disorderly as the last radio repair we looked at. But after carefully working his way through the circuits, replacing capacitors and resistors as needed, he started to make some progress. The receiver coil needed to be rewound and he used wire from an old CRT monitor for this purpose. The loop antenna was remounted and the record player arm was given a new cartridge and balanced using a clever LEGO apparatus. Some veneer work and wood finishing brought the case itself back to its original beauty. We’d say the hard work was well worth it. He’s got a big piece of furniture he can always be proud of!

Playing With Routers, Vinyl And Music Concrete

December 19, 2011 by Brian Benchoff 40 Comments

When Danish musicians Vinyl Terror and Horror visited [Daniel] and his CNC router at EMS in Sweden, things were sure to get interesting. The band uses heavily modified record players and modified vinyl records to produce strange soundscapes. During their time at EMS, Vinyl Terror and Horror were able to produce some strange vinyl that shouldn’t play on a record, but do.

Most of VTaH and [Daniel]’s work is centered on a CNC router. This soundscape took two records to produce. The spare rectangles were cut from a second record and designed to be press-fit into the host. When the newly assembled record is played, truly bizarre ‘skipping-but-still-playing’ sounds are made. The same process was used on the puzzle piece record the guys made.

The experiments continued by cutting a circle out of a record and gluing it back into place with a different orientation. This idea was taken to its logical conclusion that serves as the exemplar of music concrete.

[Daniel] and Vinyl Terror and Horror came up with a pretty neat spin (HA!) on century-old way of making electronic music, so we’ll give all of them some props. Check out all the videos from VTaH’s time at EMS after the break.

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