While these players aren’t as popular as they once were, turntables are still widely available. But this special player called “Years” by German artist Bartholomäus Traubeck is the first and only one of its kind available in the whole world.

The Years turntable plays the music that takes years and years to compose – and I mean that literally. This unique record player spins cross-sections of tree trunks and translates the arrangement and pattern of the tree’s rings into sweet piano notes.

Traubeck came up with this ingenious record player using a digital camera and hooking the entire thing up with computer software.

He basically took a turntable and modified it so that its tonearm could hold a digital camera and light in place of where the needle usually is. As the thick block of wood turns, the camera scans the the rings for their thickness, growth rate, texture, and overall color tone. This data is then fed into the computer software, which fits the information onto a musical scale. The final result? Sweet music – au naturale.

[via Gizmag]

At CES 2012, the company has rolled out a new turntable called the Duo Deck. It gets its name because not only will it convert your 33-1/3or 45 RPM vinyl records to digital tracks, it also has a cassette player in the back that will convert your 80′s cassette collection to digital too. The deck also works as a standalone turntable and tape player, thanks to a built-in speaker. It even will run on batteries.

The device comes with EZ Converter software and Audacity software to clean up the tracks once they make their way to your PC or Mac. ION didn’t talk price or availability yet, but it should be around $100 or so I’d figure. ION is rarely way out there with their pricing. This may be the best way yet to get those Milli Vanilli cassette and records onto your iPod.

As you can see these pieces are much more detailed than Christopher Locke’s fossilized gadgets and are fit for display. Most of the gadgets depicted are still and film cameras, but there’s also the iconic Atari joystick for gamers.

Dig around Bughouse’ website to excavate the Future Fossils and bring them home. Prices range from $65-$495 (USD).

[via Fancy]

The GIF Player is a mechanical device which displays the images from an animated GIF by spinning them in sequence on a rotating disk. The machine was created by Pieterjan Grandry, and is based on a 19th century animation gizmo called the phenakistoscope.

It’s really a rather simple concept, in which images from the animation are spun in a circle below a window which only exposes a single frame at a time. With enough speed, the images create the illusion of movement.

The cool thing is that each animation can be printed onto a single record-like disc, so you could have an entire library of animations at your disposal with this.

While Pieterjan doesn’t provide build instructions for the GIF Player, I can’t imagine it would be that difficult to make your own. Heck, you could probably just hack one together using an old record player and putting that inside a box with a circular cutout.

[via It's Nice That & Coudal Partners via Laughing Squid]

Lim calls his concept the EcoVinyl, a turntable made mostly of fiberboard, cork and aluminum. Lim chose high-density fiberboard “because of its ability to carry sound reverb.” It’s good looks don’t hurt either.

Lim reckons that the EcoVinyl could be sold for $350 (USD). Unfortunately Sennheiser hasn’t reckoned if they’ll turn the concept into an actual product. Check out Lim’s website if you want to see more of his work.

[via Fast Co.Design via NotCot via Dude Craft]

The controller is called the FirstMix and the thing is USB connected to your Mac or PC and allows you to DJ any tracks you can put on your computer. It comes with MixVibes’ Cross LE DJ Software for making music, and has dual decks like a pro DJ uses.

The controller supports digital music files including M4A, AIFF, WAV, MP3, FLAC and OGG. It has a traditional mixer, CD player, and cross fader. The large jog wheels are touch sensitive and have a natural vinyl feel for scratching and cuing. Perhaps the best feature for the beginner DJ is that the controller is just $79.95 (USD) and it will ship this May.

Crosley has a new portable turntable that will let you listen to your vinyl wherever you go. It can also connect to your PC or Mac to turn those old records into digital tracks. The CR6002A can run on battery power and has an integrated FM transmitter, so you can listen to tracks on your radio wirelessly.

I guess if you are brave enough and don’t mind scratches and skipping you could drive and listen to your vinyl over the car stereo. The thing ships with software for ripping vinyl on Mac or PCs when the turntable is USB connected. The turntable is belt-driven and supports 45 and 33 1/3-rpm records (sorry, no 78s, old folks!). Stereo speakers are built-in and the device will ship soon for $149.95 (USD).

This old Bakelite Zenith record player has even had its turntable replaced with a visible DVD-ROM drive – which looks absolutely perfect with those Verbatim simulated vinyl CD-Rs. Modder Alvin Barber (aka “Mach”) completely refurbished this old 1951 Zenith H664 Cobra-matic phonograph, and filled its guts with the brains of a modern computer. The Bakelite shell and glowing accent lighting give the Cobra-matic a wonderfully retro feel that makes it look like something you might find somewhere in Rapture the next time you play Bioshock. Come to think of it, you might even be able to play Bioshock on this thing.

Now you might notice that some of the photos show a different interior configuration. That’s because Mach wasn’t satisfied with his original attempt, and recently rebuilt his original Core 2 Duo-based mod to run on a more powerful Core 2 Quad CPU, and added a RAM cooler to keep it from overheating. After you’ve checked out the pics above,  head over to The Best Case Scenario to see a full worklog for this amazing casemod.

[via Case Mod Blog]

This new record from the guys at Japan’s Kyouei Design was actually intended for continuous play. The Endless Rain Record is designed with a special spiral grooves that keeps the sounds playing in a perfect loop. Side one of the disc features a 10 minute long loop of rain, while the flip-side has a series of five loopable “drop” sounds.

The designboom shop sells the Endless Rain Record for $39 (USD). Fill up a room with 3 or 4 turntables, and you’ll have a virtual rainforest. I suppose if I ran a spa or a funky urban boutique hotel, it might be cool to have a bunch of these records playing at once. Sure, there are plenty of  iPhone apps that generate white noise and nature sounds – but they don’t look as cool doing it.

Put the needle on the record… put the needle on the record… put the needle on the record…

The Scratch DJ coffee table from Bughouse features a distressed image of a pair of turntables and a mixer under its glass top. As an added bonus, you can customize it by placing your favorite records on top of each platter. Too bad it won’t actually play your music. It’s available from Bughouse Art + Design for $850 (USD).

[via A criação via NOTCOT]

Like the Scoutmaster, the Scoutmaster II will come equipped with VPI’s JMW-9, a “virtually friction-free” unipivot tone arm. Want to experience the “purest sound possible”? That’ll be ¥525,000 ($5,422 USD) please. Contact TEAC or visit their website for more details, written in Japanese of course.

[via Akihabara News via electrobeans]

DJ Hero has been on the radar for quite some time, ever since the trademark turned up last year. And while the title has yet to be officially announced, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick recently confirmed not only the game’s existence, but that it was due this year.

Gameplay in DJ Hero is said to be similar to that in Guitar Hero, and the game may even include sections in which players can use a guitar controller. That way, if you don’t already have one, you’ve got a reason to buy one. It’s brilliant!

[CNBC via Joystiq]

The mini speaker is small enough to carry on your keychain, hang from a briefcase, bookbag or purse strap. In keeping with the turntable theme, volume is controlled by spinning the mini platter (which also happens to be the speaker grill) clockwise or counterclockwise.

They’re available in three colors: black, white and orange, and aren’t much bigger than your average media player. Each speaker has a built-in rechargeable battery which gives about 3 hours of sound for a 1 hour charge in you computer’s USB port.

I haven’t had any luck finding these outside of Japan so far, but if you happen to speak the language, you might be able to grab one over on Dreams6 for ¥2980 (about $32 USD).

The Tokidoki watch is presented in a much more tongue-in-cheek rendering than this other turntable-lookin’ watch. It features a black and orange display and is stainless steel with a leather strap. The record face rotates as the second hand, and the time is displayed on a faux radio dial. It comes in an attractive black box.

You can buy one of these beauties for $175 at fredflare.com. The only downside: no actual scratching can be accomplished with this watch. For pocket-sized scratching you’ll still probably have to go the iPhone route.

DJ bonus: if you prefer your turntable references a little sweeter and more delicious, check out this turntable cake by Ashley Holt.

[via GeekAlerts]

MixMeister Scratch lets you choose from a bunch of digitized scratch sound effects, then lets you perform some turntable wizardry on any tune you’ve got loaded into your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Just pick your track, load MixMeister Scratch, and you can start scratching ’til the cows come home. The touch interface also lets you adjust the volume of your tunes as you use your fingertip to “spin” the virtual turntable. I’d love to see this running on a pair of iPhones side by side.

The application isn’t quite ready for download yet (I’m assuming it’ll run on the Apple iPhone SDK, but I’m not certain). But you can sign up to be notified of its availability here.

Designed by FludWatches, the TableTurns watch has a face that looks like a miniaturized version of the classic Technics 1200 turntable. While all the visual details are there, don’t expect to scratch any tiny records on yours. The only part of this turntable that rotates is the clock hands.

To top off the look, each watch ships inside its own miniature flight case. The TableTurns watch comes with either a black leather or stainless steel band, and is available from TurntableLab for just $59.

[via Albotas]

The DaVinciAudio Labs AAS Gabriel turntable bases its unique design on the same process that’s used to cut grooves into masters for vinyl discs. In theory, this provides the absolute ideal playback environment for records. The turntable is designed to produce absolutely zero noise or vibration, and goes so far as to completely isolate the pick-up arm from the rest of the player.

For those with a deep love for vinyl, and even deeper pockets, the Luxury Edition is available for $41,250 as shown (in 24-karat gold and white), while the “cheap” silver and black version will set you back only $35,400.

[via Audio Junkies]

The Crosley Keepsake USB Turntable not only lets you play back and listen to your old albums through its built-in stereo speakers, but includes a USB output. The portable player has speed settings for 33, 45 and 78 RPM records, so you’ll be able to convert just about any record you might have in your collection (unless you happen to own some really ancient 16 RPM discs). The player also includes the software you’ll need to convert and clean up your tracks in MP3 digital format.

While Ion has been making a similar USB turntable for a couple of years now, the Crosley bests that player in the style department for sure. The Crosley also doubles as a fully-functional sound system, while the Ion has no speakers or amplifier. You can find the Keepsake turntable at Brookstone for $149.99.

Looking more like an uber-modern electric guitar than a turntable, the Vestax S-1 Premium lets DJs move around the stage just like other members of the band. By incorporating a 12-inch platter controller which operates a skip-proof CD/MP3 player, musicians can spin tunes complete with all the effects that they’re used to having on traditional turntable. There’s also a built-in sampler, but it’s limited to just 8 seconds of recording for some odd reason.

Vestax custom makes each S-1 Premium controller to order, and they sell for around $3000 each.

[photo via ScratchWorx]

These two Kuka industrial robots have been programmed to maneuver through a series of LPs, grab them one at a time, then place them on a turntable for playback. Then, the automatons gently move the records back and forth under the needle to create what some might call music.

Personally, I think it all sounds a bit like a cat stuck in a blender, but you’ll have to be the judge of that. Maybe they can get together with Toyota’s trumpet playing robot and make beautiful music together.

[via Hacked Gadgets]