Now you can record your own vinyl records with a single push of a button
Arguably regarded as the most iconic analog sound storage medium, the vinyl record as made an incredible comeback in recent years
Phonocut spirals inward into the analog groove. An average music listener listens up to 5 hours of music every day with the majority coming from electronic devices such as smartphones and laptops through streaming platforms.
The digitalization of music has reduced the physicality of records to ever lower numbers but at the same time has given a special and characterful value to analog formats such as vinyl.
The same phenomena have happened with other art forms such as photography in which film has been almost entirely replaced by digital formats, either from digital cameras or smartphones.
The vinyl format has made a surprising comeback in recent years but the production of the vinyl records has continued limited to high volume production and a user-friendly quality disc recorder has never been achieved successfully.
Phonocut is the resurgence of the past and insight of the future. While digital formats are incredibly efficient and accessible, only analog stimulates all senses, creating a real bond with the user.
Not only that, digitality gets easily forgotten among millions of other files while the analog physical presence remains accessible for encounter and discovery by future generations.
Despite the fact that Records have the potential to be scratched or warped if stored incorrectly, records have the potential to last for centuries if they receive the proper care.
The minds behind Phonocut – Florian Kaps, Flo Kaufmann, Creaholic, Kamran V, David Bohnet
Florian Kaps aka Doc, most known for rescuing polaroid film from extinction with The Impossible Project which later evolved into the Polaroid Lab is now refusing to accept the near extinction of another beautiful analog format: the vinyl.
Together with a team of experts such as Flo Kaufmann, KamranV, CREAHOLIC, and David Bohnett, Phonocut gave a shot at making the dream of owning a personal vinyl recorder a reality.
Materials and Techniques – Plastic Engraving
What is vinyl anyway? A vinyl record is a form of phonograph record in the shape of a flat plastic disc, made of polyvinyl chloride and is arguably regarded as the most iconic analog sound storage medium.
Vinyl was the main method for reproducing music throughout the 20th century. The format suffered a decline with the introduction of new digital formats such as the compact disc. Despite this abrupt transition, vinyl records continued to appeal to some niche markets and in the first decade of the 21st century, the vinyl format has made a spectacular renaissance.
Analog sound storage mediums such as vinyl, store music in the form of physical grooves, spiraling inwards across the disc. The engraving is felt by a thin stylus and then converted into audio.
Vinyl records can have different diameters and different revolutions per minute (rpm), determining the time capacity of the record. The different lengths of vinyl coined music terms still used today such as LP (long playing) or EP (extended playing).
Style & Aesthetics – Technological vintage
Despite the cutting edge technology and superb user-friendly approach to the vinyl recorder, Phonocut maintains the charismatic vintage look associated with traditional vinyl players.
The vinyl records themselves create a powerful aesthetic related to the device, not only portraying the user with an image of an audiophile but also of a technophile and analog enthusiast.
Design memento – Music and analog legacy perseverance
Phonocut is a manifesto that some technology, despite its age, can maintain an incredible and extremely charismatic legacy. The Analog vs Digital antagonism has come to define countless aesthetics and Phonocut and well as other devices such as the Polaroid Lab merge the opposite sides closer and into a new and fresh perspective.
Writers comment – Higher value experiences
Not only does Phonocut provide an opportunity for analog recording to small scale music enthusiasts but it also provides a chance of recording moments into a medium that will likely live longer than the people involved in the recording, creating a physical portal to the past, hardly achievable with the same experience intensity by other similar digital formats.
It also provides the chance for visual artists to take on the prestigious and valuable large records covers that vinyl comes with – a common dream of many visual and graphic artists.
