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Vinyl record production has finally joined the modern age
When you think of manufacturing in the US, vinyl records probably isn't the first thing that springs to mind, but the industry has been chugging along as best it can. For decades, pressing plants have been using aging machines that require a complex infrastructure of piping for the steam-based heating (and cooling) mechanisms -- not to mention an engineering support team to keep them in working order. New vinyl presses just weren't being made, at least until a few years ago. Two companies emerged to fill that need. Newbilt Machinery launched around 2015 in Germany with slightly updated (cloned) versions of old presses, adding electronic controls and hydraulic power. In February 2017, Jack White's Third Man pressing plant opened in Detroit running Newbilt's manual Duplex machines. That same year, Toronto-based Viryl Technologies joined the market with its WarmTone presses. These machines weren't clones, but built fresh from the ground up including a modular construction, fully automated operation and remote machine monitoring (even from a mobile device) with its ADAPT software. Viryl's tech support can log into the system remotely to help troubleshoot any problems. Still, like Newbilt, they required a large boiler system and network of piping to support their operation. Anyone looking to start a pressing plant still faced hefty startup and maintenance costs, a difficult permit and zoning process, as well as a less-than-ideal impact on the environment.
Columbia House hopes you'll come back for vinyl records
To put it mildly, Columbia House has seen better days. The mail-order service went bankrupt this summer, and it's hard to see the allure of regularly buying movie discs when downloads and streaming are within easy reach. The company thinks it has an answer, however: it's restarting the Columbia House Record Club with a focus on vinyl records. It's betting that the resurgence of the old format and the popularity of subscription services (think Birchbox or Lootcrate) will draw in a younger audience. Columbia hasn't nailed down the launch details yet, but it'd return to the outlet's roots with membership and steep discounts.
Vinyl demand is so high, a record label opened its own factory to keep up
Jack White and his Third Man Records imprint aren't the only ones benefiting from the vinyl boom. Oxford, Mississippi-based Fat Possum Records took matters into its own hands, building a pressing plant to meet the demands of its avid collectors. After using other record makers and encountering issues with backorders and the headache of international shipping, founder Matthew Johnson (with a hand from others) bought used equipment and set up shop in Memphis. The plant is modest compared to other more established operations, but with the new setup, the goal is to crank out 13,000 to 14,000 records a day -- plus it'll keep everything in-house. Fat Possum's vinyl releases include LPs from Modest Mouse and Waylon Jennings. If you'll recall, White's Lazaretto is the best-selling vinyl release in two decades, serving as more evidence that the classic format refuses to die. [Photo credit: David Buchan/Getty Images]
Jack White's 'Lazaretto' Ultra LP is the best-selling vinyl release in 20 years
Since its release in early June, Jack White's Lazaretto Ultra LP has sold 238,000 copies -- making it the most popular vinyl release of the year. That tally also earns the artist's second solo album the best-selling record of any year since Pearl Jam's 1994 effort Vitalogy. Billboard also reports that number two on the vinyl sales chart for 2014 is Arctic Monkeys' AM with 29,000 units sold and Daft Punk's popular Random Access Memories sold the most in 2013 with 49,000. Of course, Mr. White adds this accolade to a trophy case that includes a Guinness World Record for the fastest release awarded back in April. [Photo credit: Gaelle Beri/Redferns via Getty Images]
Daily Roundup: Motorola Droid Maxx review, Google buys Bump, and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Ion reveals digital conversion turntables for iOS, PC and Mac, we go hands-on (update: video)
Vinyl may be the format of choice for discerning audio connoisseurs, but those harboring love for both digital and analog options may have their interest piqued by Ion's latest lineup of turntables. The iLP Lightning takes a traditional turntable, replete with RCA outputs, and adds a 30-pin dock connector that's compatible with Cupertino's Lightning to 30-pin adapter. Leveraging a free app, the table converts a record's audio to MP3 files, separates it into tracks and saves it to docked iOS devices. If you'd rather not have songs sent to your iDevice of choice, the rig also includes a USB cable for routing tunes to a Mac or PC with a gratis desktop app. Ion is also serving up the Pure LP, which removes the 30-pin dock from the equation. As for availability, the iOS-compatible tables are expected this summer for $99.99 in white, red, blue, black and a woodgrain finish. Analog diehards can have some fun too with the Live LP table, which packs stereo speakers, standard RCA outputs, a natural wood finish and nothing in the way of digital conversion. Click on to the break for photos and the full press release. Update: We've just given Ion's record player a test drive, and we've posted the footage after the break. Initially, we had some concern about how anything larger than an iPad Mini might dock to the hardware, but it handled one of Apple's miniature tablets well enough. Audio quality from the turntable -- at least from what this editor could hear over the din of other journalists -- passed the ear test. Though we weren't able to try out the desktop experience for converting audio from vinyl records to MP3 files, the conversion experience on the iPad itself was a breeze. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub.
Scientists scan damaged audio discs, resurrect fresh beats
Digitizing your analog archives? Vinyl to CD / MP3 / iPod turntables might do well enough for your old 45s, but the folks at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory prefer to listen to their old beats by taking pictures of them. More specifically, restoration specialists are using a system called IRENE/3D to snap high resolution images of damaged media. The cracked discs -- often made of wax on brass or composition board -- are then repaired digitally, letting researchers play the digitized discs with an emulated stylus. So far, the team has recovered a handful of 125 year old recordings from a team in Alexander Graham Bell's Volta laboratory. The all digital system gives researchers a hands-off way to recover audio from relic recordings without running the risk of damaging them in the process -- and no, they probably won't let you use it to listen to that beat up copy of the White Album you've had in your closet since eighth grade. Hit the source link to hear what they've recovered.
