Make your own vinyl records at home | Teenage Engineering PO-80 & Gakken Record Maker

I have a “homemade” record of my dad singing that he sent home when he was in the army WW2. It was done by the Red Cross. Pretty good quality and I treasure it despite it being a bit scratchy. Cool video thanks!

As a child I used to have fun putting my fingernail into the record groove while it‘s spinning — yes, you can actually hear the music that way! I found that fascinating. As an adult, I have to add that you should only do that to records you don‘t care about too much 😂

As someone who has worked with both home and semi-pro level lathes for a while now, I think the biggest problem in fidelity is due to cutting cold into the plastic. Try heating the blank record under a lamp just before, or while making the cut. I've gotten much better fidelity simply pressing a groove into a sheet, or "embossing," than I ever have when trying to actually cut into plastic. Maybe something to consider as a mod for the machine?

The first chord you played with the sampled instrument shocked me, turned out really cool. Great work!

Its just insane to me how a needle can make all these millions of sounds from just plastic it’s magic

When in my 20s (mid 1960s) I was servicing electronics, I had acquired a Presto cutter with the hot needle add on, repaired the record amp, and cut many acetate records. I learned how to operate my lathe from Glenn Campbell of G&C Records Pittsburgh, and even worked with him learning the business using the 2 presses he had. I met him when his Ampex 8 track (tube record/play amplifiers) needed service. Watching this video made me wish I had kept the Presto! Glenn retired and I lost track of him. The studio electronics were all tube including Neuman condenser tube mics, Western Electric board, Ampex 1" 8 track, Ampex 1/4" 2 track, Ampex 1/4" full track, Pultek EQs, EMT plate reverb, Altec amps, and more than I remember. As Bob Hope would say.......Thanks for the memories! Lou, Clearwater FL

When i was 15 I built a recording phonograph that used: 1) cardboard discs cut from the plastic-coated cardboard boxes refrigerators came in, 2) old acetate-covered transcription discs, 3) thick candle-wax poured on top of shirt cardboards cut into discs. I used a needle stylus glued to a thin plastic sheet glued to the open end of one of the weight retainers on a barbell, with the whole affair amplified by a swiped orange road-cone horn. The results? Really not bad at all when played on a regular HiFi at 78 RPM. I still have "Shortnin Bread" played by my Troop 188 boy scout band. Other than the fact that you had to shout and record really close to the mouth of the horn, these DIY experiments were really a lot of enduring fun. Keep at it yourself! you'll succeed without Gakken!

if you are able to get enough volume onto the needle, you can get an ok sound with ambient music. it also helps to use a small paintbrush to brush away the swarf, and it helps if the record blank is warm when you cut. we used to do them on cd singles as bonus tracks. you could play the compact-disc as a record as well as a cd, they were done on a homebrew cutter.

this is so freaking cute how you two collaborated. thanks so much for introducing this musical tool/toy to me, for the unboxing and essay around the device, and for providing these beautiful, eclectic samples. i greatly appreciate all you two have done and look forward to more collaborative work between you two

The coolest thing in the video is how you turned out the usual expectations around the device and made it into a sound producer instead of a reproducer. Awesome job, Dave. <3

I was super curious about the TE kit, so it’s really cool to see this deep dive into the history of consumer record cutters. My neighbors had a record cutter in their bar/rumpus room, I wish we’d been allowed to play with it. Also learned a few things about how records are made that I never knew. And now I want to write a song called “Swarf” Thank you!

Your videos are so cool! You make audio equipment and sound design look like the coolest things ever!

7:32 - The hit of nostalgia I experienced for a time I wasn't even born in, is fascinating. So many stories told, so little time to listen to them all.

For some reason your videos haves a very calming effect on me Such a friendly and peaceful narrator voice Thank you for your beautiful work!

A very interesting library and great to hear your wife getting in on the act, definitely need more of you both working together in the future.

While watching this video, I couldn't stop thinking about a way to use it in sound design and then you went and did it. The sample library sounds amazing. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Beautiful little video and record player. I am so glad that I came across your channel a few months back. Got me into synths!

I decided to come back to this video for not only for the fact that you can create homemade vinyls (though that is very cool) but for the one song you used in this. I feel captivated by this song. Think you should turn your sample into a full song for people to listen! I don't think I've heard something like this before! So please do! I would love to hear something just like what you just made!

great what you made in the ending finding an alternate use, this sounds so smooth and calming

Best new channel I've discvovered. Love it even more by each new video I watch.