[Arainach]

Not even a price listed. I don't understand the market for this - fancy musical instruments for creativity, sure, there's a market, but who wants to own cutting vinyl? How many records would you need to make for this to be more economical than paying a dedicated shop? How many would you need to do to "achieve higher quality"? How consistent are your results?

[rtpg]

This isn't that but their "record factory" toy[0]... I'm like 90% sure is the same thing as something Gakken released in Japan for half the price as a little fun toy[1]

Even in the age of the internet there's a huge business in people basically taking a "normal" thing from another market and then rebadging it to release as an elevated thing.

Studio neat has a $231 tiny box cutter[2]. OLFA (A "professional" box cutter maker) sells a 2 pack of tiny box cutters that probably are 5x more ergonomic on account of being made to be used instead of to look nice on a website, for $10. [3]

The best version of a thing is likely whatever people who do it all day use. But you can totally make a market for consumers who want "fashionable" things but who don't really get the space.

Studio Neat is a big offender on this honestly... basically all of their stuff have "better" things at least at half the cost just available in random stationary stores. I'm all for wasting money on pens, but at least waste them on good pens!

[0]: https://teenage.engineering/products/po-80

[1]: https://hon.gakken.jp/book/1575072200

[2]: https://www.studioneat.com/products/keen

[3]: https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/OLFA-Compact-Knife-Pieces-95B2...

[lucaspiller]

The best box cutter is the Moby Safety Knife. I used it when I was working in a supermarket 20 years ago, and I haven't found anything even remotely comparable.

The short blade on top is perfect for breaking the tape to open the box without damaging the contents. Then the mouth can be used for quickly breaking down boxes or cutting shrink wrap. You are just cutting tape, so the blade never wears out.

I cringe every time I see someone using a Stanley knife in a supermarket.

https://www.safeknife.com/

[radley]

I learned about the Pacific Handy Cutter from my local grocer. It's cheap and excellent. It has a dull edge for 95% of tape cutting needs, and a safety guide for when you need to use the blade. Admittedly, it's not useful for slicing up / cutting down boxes.

This model is right handed, but they make a lefty too.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HXLNCMM

[dhosek]

I remember someone talking about their $100 box cutter and thinking, huh? I just use my keys.

[1123581321]

That fancy box cutter looks high utility; what don't you like about it besides the price? The retraction seems designed for frequently opening boxes, but not constantly. (I open few boxes and have a bog standard box cutter; I haven't used Studio Neat's or OLFA.)

[cowsandmilk]

> frequently opening boxes, but not constantly.

If you are frequently opening boxes, that spring-loaded mechanism is going to cause repetitive stress injuries. No competent workplace health and safety employee would approve it.

Also, if you are using a utility knife frequently, you likely have a depth you want to keep it. Say I’m installing carpeting. I want to set the razor at a depth for the shag of carpet I’m working on today and have my blade at that depth until I’m done. With a spring load, the only depth that can easily be set is fully out where I’m pushing it all the way. Any intermediate depths will result in me shaking back and forth trying to hold a constant intermediate pressure.

This is a utility knife for someone rich who uses it for the day’s amazons packages because they think using the blade from their scissors is beneath them.

[1123581321]

Maybe frequently was the wrong word; I would think spring-loaded would be designed for a lot of cycling between quick cuts and some other tasks, and you didn't want to leave the blade open.

Fixed blade would be best if you were constantly opening boxes and/or you could set your knife down open. And yes, for doing tasks where you are doing longer or more strenuous cutting (carpet is a great example.)

They money is fun to grouse about, but I thought the complaint about the low utility was the interesting bit.

[rtpg]

The OLFA small box cutter is more ergonomic, does the job, and costs 100x less so you could buy a 10 pack of em and put them everywhere you want one.

Other people have linked serious box cutters for "I need to use a box cutter on 100 boxes" cases, and OLFA's small box cutter will work well for a bunch of other stuff (OLFA also has like 20 other form factors all at reasonable prices).

[Our_Benefactors]

It’s not made to fit in the hand. There’s no way to lock the blade forward. It’s one of the stupidest designs you could have for a box cutter.

[sandcat_]

For what it’s worth, a non-locking blade is a plus for some people. I wouldn’t really want to leave a locking box cutter around, I’m too forgetful, but one that stows itself away automatically I’d feel a bit safer about. Still a silly price, though.

[ryoshu]

Looks good for light-duty uses. Scared for my fingers for anything heavy.

[foobarian]

The other nice feature is using standard utility blades.

I have several Stanley type box cutters and blade retraction is an infuriating experience on each one because it gets stuck, the lock button gets stuck, it doesn't slide properly, often doesn't click into place, etc. I can definitely see the appeal of an object that is actually designed to work properly.

[Arainach]

I'm confused because over the past 20 years I've owned four Stanleys[1] and used many more and never had those problems. Are you using the absolute cheapest ones they make? Because even the ones you get at Home Depot these days have metal innards that hold up over time.

One of mine got left outside in the garden for an entire winter. One side of the enclosure is sun bleached and I had to replace the blade, but otherwise it still gets used every week and works fine.

[1] This one. None of them have ever failed, I just keep 3 of them in different locations and physically lost (maybe loaned out) one a few years ago. https://www.stanleytools.com/product/10-179/hi-visibility-re...

[sandcat_]

That used to be $95 at launch, which still is very expensive of course, but slightly more palatable. I wonder if the current price is due to tariffs perhaps?

[klodolph]

Teenage Engineering seems to run partly on hype and halo effect. It makes cool things you can’t afford, and you buy something cheaper. Selling a vinyl cutting machine keeps them in the news, which keeps them in your mind, and then you think about how you always wanted an OP-1 but oh maybe you could buy the EP-133 instead.

I’m sure there’s a price at which the vinyl cutter is profitable.

[darnfish]

It's also possible that TE are full of people who are passionate about design and sound and want to work on and release interesting products in that space. Not everything is a psyop

[klodolph]

That took my comment to a much darker place than I anticipated—I think basic marketing is ok, and even if you’re passionate about design, you still should be thinking about the business’s bottom line.

But, like, https://teenage.engineering/store/field-desk

Or maybe the TP-7 is a better example.

They are obviously following the playbook from brands like Supreme. At least in part.

[steve1977]

That's basically a bad Eiermann desk ripoff, but about twice as expensive as the original.

https://www.richard-lampert.de/en/furniture/eiermann-1/

[actionfromafar]

The Eiermann looks more sturdy at a glance too, since the legs aren't at the corners.

[kev009]

That is hilarious. Ikea with the Rexroth price tag.

[aaroninsf]

They're passionate about style and brand, not design and sound.

I say this as someone with expertise in a domain they nominally targetted.

Very "cool" looking kit, but: missing basic features, unremarkable in those provided; serious issues rendering it fundamentally inappropriate for its nominal application.

[dahauns]

...if only they were at least somewhat as passionate about QC.

It really pains me to be that cynical, because I do find their products incredibly fascinating and inventive. But for anything but their lowest-end toy products the design aspirations - and boutique price tag - clash hard with the reality of their quality track record.

[mieses]

They make cool stuff but it's performance art. They're not a serious product company.

[thenthenthen]

There is one company that sells similar lathe cutters in Europe. To aquire it you need to go on a multi day training in a remote Swiss forest. Then it’s around 10.000 EUR in equipment, granted you supply your own record player (sl1200 ~700EUR). But yeah cutting high quality stereo records is an art. No matter the money you throw at it, it will involve a lot of maintenance, skill, experience, spare parts, mastering skills, consumables, and time (these cut in real time). Indeed, who wants to do that? I welcome any effort in this niche though!

[thenthenthen]

Consistency is super hard to achieve if you are not cutting daily in a (climate) controlled environment, even then, you will burn out the cutting head transducers, your cutting heads will dull (super fast). Operational costs are pretty high. Wonder how much they will charge for this lathe. I guess 40-80k USD?

[TylerE]

Producing a lathe cut is the first (physical) step of many of pressing vinyl.

This isn’t targeting consumers, or even record stores, but record pressing plants.

This is kind of a big deal because this sort of fundamental equipment hasn’t been available new for decades. The vast majority of plants/mastering facilities are using old Scully lathes from the ‘50s and ‘60s. Those are getting ever older and harder to source parts for, and with the vinyl boom the number of pressing plants is actually going up.

[cmrdporcupine]

Back when I DJ'd techno in the 90s I would have killed for this for what it could bring creatively to a set. Just the ability to cut my own tracks onto white labels and put custom loops etc on vinyl would have really changed things entirely without having to front a whole bunch of cash (which I def did not have) to get a batch of records pressed which probably nobody else would order or play.

But now mixing is done digitally and playing with vinyl is a mostly lost art and it's trivial to put your own material together into audio files and mix it.

[dylan604]

I've heard tales of Ritchie Hawtin playing multiple turntables (6-8 depending on who's telling) where he'd have tracks separated as stems into dub plates and do live remixes by swapping out the plates. The things people did before Ableton!

[cmrdporcupine]

I saw him do 3... maybe 4? tables? But mostly 2 or 3 decks plus a 909.

Around here in Toronto area we had a local (Jeff Milligan / "Algorithm") who was famous for absolutely precise beatmatching, and often 4 deck mixing. Very minimal wonky/bleepy techno.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2083209238436343

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAthnDk7ZcA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6EJOzGj4xM

[dylan604]

Playing that minimal techno, I'd need at least that many tables just to keep from being bored.

[cmrdporcupine]

I mean, it's not listening music, it's dancing music, and contextually needs to be placed in a very atmospheric, very dark room. And mixed well.

[Waterluvian]

I have a real “I was born yesterday” feeling having realized that “Teenage Engineering” has nothing to do with making audio tech accessible to young newcomers.

[fragmede]

rich young newcomers are totally welcome!

[Lio]

Is that entirely fair?

Their Pocket Operators are pretty cheap and accessible.

[picofarad]

They're like $100! That's not affordable for a thing that makes beeps and boops. I can only hope behringer continues to undercut them on things I care about.

[Lio]

You can get Pocket Operators new from $59 depending on the model.

That’s cheaper than any of beringer’s copies.

If you can’t afford that consider used or stick to software.

[colechristensen]

Market: music industry veterans that won the race and have boutique record labels for small runs of obscure or promotional or small bands. Have five records printed for the merch table and the next show. Once you have the machine hopefully the marginal cost of a record would make sense for extremely small runs.

Where a band with no money might struggle to afford a $1000 minimum run somewhere else, they might be able to make beer money at a show with records made on one of these. Probably not "economical" in the machine may never pay for itself, but somebody rich buying one as a mechanism to promote musicians on a small scale probably makes sense to them.

[tonypapousek]

There’s certainly novelty to this, I’d love one if the price were reasonable. Direct capture, almost like a polaroid for vinyl records, no need to “develop” it.

I imagine artists could sell a super-limited (i.e. 1 copy) live recording of a show the second it ends for a premium, especially if they kept the machine on stage and personally packaged and signed it.

[jagged-chisel]

These are Designed. The target audience has tremendous disposable income, and Taste (subjectively, of course.)

No one is buying this for economy’s sake.

[phodo]

>> "who wants to own cutting vinyl?"

Well, Sega gamers for one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c744iD0_fWU

[picofarad]

There was software distributed by radio and vinyl i believe, which means my query if minidisc could be used was a silly one (in lieu of a tape drive, not for Sega!)

[enoeht]

they list them too https://teenage.engineering/retailers

[dhosek]

There used to be places where you could make your own one-of-a-kind record: pretty much direct microphone to vinyl¹ which I’m guessing this essentially is. But that said, I kind of feel like most of Teenage Engineering is more stunt than practical.

⸻

1. A booth for making records like this plays a role in the plot of Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock. Elvis Presley’s very first recordings were a similar thing, the two sides recorded in a booth to make a singular record to give his mother as a present in 1953.

[onlypassingthru]

Are there bootlegs on vinyl? Maybe now there can be.

[fileoffset]

yes there is, I bought one by accident the other day

[actionfromafar]

Isn't a vinyl cutter the first step when pressing records?

[wmf]

You might need different machines to cut wax/vinyl directly vs cutting lacquer to make a stamper.

[dylan604]

Might I introduce you to the concept of dub plates? I absolutely love playing vinyl as a dj, and being able to cut my own would be worth it to me. Some people are just silly about their hobbies even without going into lalaland like an audiophile. Growing up, my dad had an 8-track recorder and a box of blank cassettes. I would record my music to them as the car I drove still had an 8-track player. It's goofy. It's fun. It's not logical per se, but it's also not hurting you. So leave me to my idiosyncrasies and go back to your Spotify feed and obey and consume as you do

[atoav]

Teenage Engineering has the market of people who have a lot of money to spend on a hobby, want a fancy product design and don't care about cost.

The exception is their PO series stuff which is actually kind of affordable for what you can get out of them.

[Brian_K_White]

I would buy a machine that makes new floppy disk media if it existed, and not because of any economical argument.

I would buy a machine that makes new laserdiscs if it existed, and not because of any economical argument.

... aluminized paper for electric arc printers

... wax film thermal print head ribbon

... a re-inker for cloth typewriter ribbon (at least this one is straightforward to design and build myself some day)

... extra wide cloth matrix printer ribbon with 4 colors

... 1.9mm magnetic tape for exatron wafers

A record cutter has way more potential audience than any of those. They will sell every one they can even manage to make.

[pstuart]

Nor any clue on what blanks cost. But I could see the thrill of this if money was no object.

[gizajob]

Vinylrecorder.com

There’s been a market for this for nearly 30 years (and the rest).

[CyberDildonics]

Maybe a party novelty for hipsters.

This stuff is like expensive watches. If there was no one to show it off to there would be no one who would buy it.

[pembrook]

Sir, I commend you for your lack of taste for aesthetics, "coolness", and for maintaining the cynical, pessimistic Hackernews status quo.

I've been worried this place has gotten eternal september'd full of redditors, AI bots, and low-IQ emotional mainstream political rants.

But then you swoop in here and remind me that it's still 2007 in Hackernews land: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

Never change.

[nine_k]

To me, "cool" is a slightly derogatory term when applied to design. It usually means that smoke and mirrors play a significant role.