This is a story of a not so environmentally friendly, but rather groovy repurposing idea: reusing CDs as records (remember them?) At the UK's Futuresonic festival last week, a guy named Aleks Kolkowski had his vintage record-cutting machine ready to carve sound tracks into old CDs and DVDs. People simply had to turn up with an old disc and a sound file and he'd "overwrite" the CD with a track ready to be played on a turntable. Neat! I'd have been there asking Aleks for a copy of my first ever record (that'll be the theme to Watership Down— I know, I know) on a crappy old AOL CD I found recently. [Futuresonic via DIYDaily via ]
CDs Get Into the Groove, Do Music the 45RPM Way
4:22 AM on Fri May 9 2008
By Kit Eaton
3,753 views
24 comments











Comments
omg... there are landfills of old AOL CD's waiting to get stamped.
So, this is what dual layer is.
Or does this make it triple layer?
[www.dykfoto.nu]
Actually, I still say this is environmentally friendly. Not like more CDs are being made. Its taking something that already exists (that you don't want and would likely throw away) and giving it another "life". Pretty cool. I think the first thing I ever wanted to own for music was the Bay City Rollers single "Saturday Night" S A TUR DAY NIGHT!
Hey...cut me some slack. I was like 10 years old. It was catchy! Too bad 45's didn't look like CDs...that would have been SWEET... all shiny and stuff.
When I was very very young they would stamp phonograph records onto the backs of cereal boxes!
You'd cut the record section out, punch a hole in the center and viola!
Ruined phonograph.
I know the Jason 5 did one for what was at the time Super Sugar Crisp, but I don't remember the others.
We also had a big box of 45's as well, with such hits as "The Green Green Grass of Home" and "Marry Me Bill".
I guess reproducing some 45s in this manner would be kinda cool.
How do they sound though?
i'll keep my discs for their intended purpose, however it is kinda cool that someone can do that.
it is a good idea for a thread as well
when your first music was purchased, and media it was on.
me?
1964, the beatles first american single released, "i saw her standing there" on 45 rpm vinyl.
god, am i old.......
[www.hood.de] Watership down, how sweet! My first record was "Alf's Super Hit Parade"...
@strider_mt2k:
it was the jackson 5, back when michael wasn't nearly as creepy.
@godwhacker: -and sugar was super. :)
@strider_mt2k:And sugar was sugar and not high fructose corn syrup.
vinyl = soft, plastic = hard, needles = ouch
@strider_mt2k: How much spare change did you have to pile around the center of the disc to get it to turn with the platter? Mine needed about $2.50.
My favorite 45 back then was Outfield- I Don't Wanna Lose Your Love.
This would be awesome for those Verbatim CD's that already have a vinyl look.
[www.amazon.com]
National Geographic use to put floppy little records in their mag all the time.
good use for old cd's but, i prefer nuking them for 5 seconds and using them as coasters.
@strider_mt2k: You're killing me with all this nostalgia. I totally remember those 45s and when that cereal still had the word sugar in it.
[theimaginaryworld.com]
I think mine was the little single with the Cantina theme from Star Wars, I dont even remember what was on the back. I might have to go upstairs and check later today, still got it sitting in a drawer.
complete with the little yellow spindle adaptor
@strider_mt2k: The Archies!
Anyone remember those booths where you could make a record at fairs & such?
I've got some family memories on a couple of those.
No real connection, but that's what this record-cutting machine reminds me of...
Pink Floyd, "Atom Heart Mother," vinyl LP my Dad sent me for my birthday.
Strider- I remember that cereal box medium. Sounded like doody as I recall, but we were so amazed that we didn't care. By the way, does anybody remember the Close-n-Play record player? I remember the tough kids in my elementary school would cut class and have a dance party in the hall, with MFSB and the Iseley Bros. cranked up right outside the classroom. Hey, apparently I'm old too.
Bugger. "Isely." I meant "Isely."
@strider_mt2k: Also, the Monkees!
@strider_mt2k:
Yep, I remember that Super Sugar Crisp record!
How about the one in MAD magazine that had two spiraling grooves on it, so that depending on where you happened to set the stylus, you got a different ending to the song?
@CSX321: This wasn't a 45RPM, but Monty Python's "Matching Tie and Handkerchief" album had three sides.
Early 45s: "They're Coming to Take Me Away (Ha Ha)," "Gimme Dat Ding," and "Ding, Dong, the Witch is dead."
We also had a Dictaphone machine that cut little floppy plastic "records."
Good times...
@GadgetPlay:
Yeah! "They're Coming To Take Me Away (Ha Ha)"...where the flip side has the whole song in reverse! Good times, indeed.
@ideaman2020: Yes! They had one on one of the upper floors of the Empire State Building in the mid-50s and I remember making a record for my mom in there.
It'd probably be a laugh riot if it had survived into the 21st century.
There were several magazines that had vinyl records bound into them. And various companies used to send them out as promos. Time Life was one of the major purveyors of one-sided paper/vinyl records. My brothers had a field day making their own "commercial" over a Time Life Clone of "String of Pearls."
Those were the days.
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