The developer of the first 3D printed vinyl record has taken her experiments a step further by laser-cutting wooden discs into playable records.
Ever get the feeling
that MP3′s sound a bit wooden? Not satisfied with the synthetic
properties of polyvinyl chloride and want a warmer, more organic sound? Amanda Ghassaei
may have created just what you’re looking for. The software engineer
turned hardwood etcher has created the first ever playable wooden
record, using a 120-watt Epilog Legend EXT laser cutter to carve grooves
that are up to ten times the width of those on a standard vinyl into
maple and plywood discs.
She’s gone with
Radiohead’s “Idioteque” on ply and a brace of Velvet Underground hits
(“Femme Fatale” and “Sunday Morning”) on maple to showcase the
extraordinary technique, all of which play back remarkable well, with
their recognisable hooks shrouded in an eerie and atavistic fuzz that
compliment both Thom Yorke and Nico’ fragile voices surprisingly well.
As Ghassaei explains:
“Some songs are better suited for this process, songs that are very full
in the lower to mid range, but also very sparse overall are best.
“Idioteque” was a great example of this, it has very strong low to mid
tones with minimal backing synthetic drums.”
Working for Instructables, Ghassaei has made the vector files available online
and hopes “that people will download my code and make their own
records, or make something I haven’t even thought of yet.” It could be
bad news for the Rainforest Alliance. [via Wired]
Below is a video from YouTube demonstrating the disc. As you'll hear, the sound quality is not great but still an interesting experiment.
No comments:
Post a Comment