November 2023

• San Francisco's KQED takes on a trip of How a Photocopied Zine (The Bomb) Helped Turntablism Go Global, focusing on DJ's Z-Trip & Peanut Butter Wolf
• The Verge covers the demise of Discogs’ vibrant vinyl community being ruined by enshittification by fees.
• TechRadar copies the press release and boasts Technics' next-gen SL-1200 turntables are here and they’re as impressive as you'd expect
• Too old school for you? Get this transparent turntable, sure to match any interior decor!
• I've never considered that I could love a pocket-sized turntable more than when I met the The 1924 Mikiphone
• Forget Vinyl resurgence, how about Cassette Tapes? Maxell wants you to know they still make blank ones!
• The Guardian follows a shopkeeper in Pakistan who has collected more than 1,000 rare music tapes in a bid to thwart the Taliban’s cultural vandalism.
• DJMag.com asks What is the future of the DAW? (Digital Audio Workstations)
• Every want to separate a song into it's parts? Use the free-music-demixer, an AI-based music demixer running for free in your browser! It'll split vocals, drums, guitar, etc. into separate parts!
• Put an end cap on your DVD and Blu Ray 5" Optical Media Collections, as Fox News delivers the bad news: Best Buy to cease selling DVD and Blu-ray media after the holidays (Other vendors will probably follow suit, and online only might be the future!)
• Brain Baking steps up to offer Overlooked Reasons To Still Buy Physical Media, especially now when 'new' releases will not be 'new' anymore.
• Have some free 'me' time (or a long drive ahead of you?), and want to hear some classic audio books? Browse The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection and be lulled to sleep by the robot speaker.
• Uncle Bernie is always right: Sanders Champions '32-Hour Work Week With No Loss in Pay'

September 2023

• We haven't covered any vinyl turntable releases lately, so let's fix that with the House of Marley releasing its revamped Stir it Up Turntable made of bamboo and featuring bluetooth for a low $400. Rasta-inspired felt hemp turntable mats are not included.
• From the Blog of Splice - A History of the Amen Break: From The Winstons to Futurama and Om Unit, a recounting of the many, many reuses of a single drum loop.
• Ever need to do some quick audio editting, but don't want to download an app? Stumbled across Wavacity, a browser based open source port of Audacity, the world famous Audio Editting App. You can also Download and Build from the source on GitHub if you got the skillz.
• Matt Sephton over at Get Info welcomes our new AI overloards, and walks you through Automatically classifying the content of sound files using Machine Learning
• Fortune Magazine (they're still around?) reveals the dirty secret that Music labels sue nonprofit Internet Archive for copyright infringement. They're complaining about converted Acetate 78 RPM discs, which we all know are a huge source of revenue for these corporate executives.... Not!
• In the local news department, Above the Law follows the Push To Strip Fox’s Broadcast License Over Election Lies, which affects my local Philadelphia area Fox vomitorium.
• CBS News suggests that not only adults benefit from a shorter week, and ask What a 4-day school week means for teachers, students and families in Philadelphia. It seems a growing number of larger districts are moving to a 4-day school week!

July/August 2023

July was a busy month, with our annual national birthday celebration and all... So we combined the single story from July into our August report. Pictured to the right, an end table for a man cave made from recycled VHS tapes! You're welcome for the recycling idea!

• The Vinyl Factory reveals the odd Bauhaus style two tonearm turntable from Reed. I suppose so you can play track 3 first? DJ with the same record? Make any track an endless mix?
• Found this photo archive of Syrian Cassette Archives, which have jacket and cassette tape scans of mix tapes and album releases from yesteryear (and from Syria).
• SlashGear offers the frank truth of The Reason Cassette Tapes Are Making A Big Comeback
• Open Culture dips it's toes into the archives and reminds us of this ludicrous claim from record labels: Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the Music Industry Waged War on the Cassette Tape During the 1980s, and Punk Bands Fought Back!
• The Ringer delves into the murky 'copyright vs. publishing' confusion with Speak Now, Play Again: Taylor Swift and the Rerecording Revolution
• Did you know the Internet Archive has the USC Optical Sound Effects Library available for Free Download, Borrow and Streaming? The Wilhelm Scream beckons!
• Speaking of Wilhelm, watch YouTuber Soundly gets behinds the scenes of How the World's Most Famous Scream Was Recovered [03'01 runtime] Watch on YouTube [Embedded below]
• Cinema Sojourns has their own tribute to Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box.
• 7NEWS from down under has some disturbing news of the sudden death of home media: Disney to stop releasing DVDs and Blu-ray discs in major change for Australian customers
• Business Insider speaks the obvious truth: 4-Day Workweek Made Workers Happier and More Efficient
• ...and Yahoo News takes it further: Workers at companies that tested out a 4-day workweek are happier and more efficient — and firms made more money. One lawmaker says it's 'here to stay.'

June 2023

• Who needs satellite radio in your car when I can just keep a stack of my favorite 45's! My favorite blog Hackaday delves deep into Retro Gadgets: I Swear Officer, I Was Listening To A 45! (Pictured to the right - Muhammad Ali flipping wax in his car!)
• The Guardian follows up on the missing John Coltrane recordings lost in New York Public Library will finally be heard!
• YouTuber Half as Interesting offers Why Tape Storage is Making a Sneaky Comeback [6'21 runtime] Watch on YouTube [Embedded below]
• Components defends vinyl with the claim: "You can touch your music"
• The Verge delivers the first sign of the apocalypse when it comes to advertising based televisions: This FREE TV comes with two screens (one is devoted to ads)
• Electric Literature sounds the alarm and shouts that LaserDiscs Are Dying —And Here’s Why That Matters

May 2023

I'll leave you with this brain fart before we dive into it: Cassette Tapes had a Side A and Side B, therefore it was logical that its successor would be the CD!

• In the Gotta Have It But Don't Know Why excuse of surging vinyl sales, Half of Vinyl Buyers in the USA Don't Have a Record Player! That's odd, right? Anyone want to introduce them to us?
• In the Satisfying As %#$@ department, check out this retro cassette tape deck with automatic side flipping as an embedded video on Reddit
• YouTuber Phil Edwards delves deep into Why VHS won in the videotape format wars [12'15 runtime] Available on YouTube [Embedded below]
• Ted Gioia takes us on The Decline and Fall of the Hit Instrumental Song, a fascinating deep dive into 'musicians' vs. 'singers' debate today.
• The Freesound Blog puts on the headphones about Preserving the Sunset Editorial Sound Effects Library from the USC Archive including a recovered version of the original Wilhelm Scream!
• The AudioNotch Blog answers the inevitable: What are the most common tinnitus frequencies? Too many concerts in your youth will do this to us all!
• CNN Business returns some significant numbers: Microsoft tried a 4-day workweek in Japan. Productivity jumped 40%!
• Ben Burgis over at Jacobin laments A 32-Hour Workweek Is Long Overdue.Agreed!

April 2023

• The Guardian reports that rock mega-band Metallica buy vinyl factory as format outsells CDs for first time in US since 1987
• Wall Street Journal (paywall?) repeats the above: Vinyl Records Outsell CDs for the First Time Since 1987
• Ever wonder how they pack a stereo signal in one record groove? This quick visual tutorial will turn you onto the 45 degree difference!
• Current offers a peek behind NPR’s signature sound with an in-depth story from its top audio engineer.
• Yes, even libraries are moving to the internet. For example, have you seen the Digital Public Library of America?
• Need to make a DVD of Family Videos? Check out this free DVDStyler - Free DVD Authoring Application to author your DVD with menus and title screens!
• The Guardian witnesses South Korea U-turns on 69-hour working week after youth backlash.. Imagine a 69 hour work week being the government minimum!
• In the Someday It Will Pass sentiment, This Bill Would Make the Four-Day Workweek a Federal Law in the US.

March 2023

• Chris Dalla Riva over at Tedium asks and answers: Why Do Modern Pop Songs Have So Many Credited Writers? (TLDR: Too Many Producers, Too Few Royalties!)
• Been to a Live Rock Show lately? You might have seen the work of Pennsylvania's Rock Lititz. Esquire Magazine takes you inside the Amish Country Factory that Makes Tours for BTS, Beyonce and More (from 2020)
• CB over at Sporks Space complains about Poor schemas, poor cataloguing: why music tagging sucks. This longer essay goes into details about the minutia of metadata and tags, and the mess that it is.
• As we switch from owning physical media to digital files, you might be asking How do I make a physical donation to the Internet Archive? First, check if they accept it, and if they don't already have it before sending to them!
• On that same note, Publishers Weekly reports on the Oral Argument Set in Internet Archive Copyright Case, where they'll start scanning and loaning digital library books to a worldwide audience (if they win the case - Four Major Publishers are fighting this tooth and nail!)
• In an other hand, The Register reports that AI generated artwork can't be copyrighted by the US Copyright Office. While the artwork can't be copyrighted, the layout, cropping and overlaid type might be... Depends when the human gets involved. Feel free to steal any AI generated images with impunity!
• Back to our favorite subject - shorter work weeks! The BBC News follows up on the 4 Day Week Global, a trial that took place between June and December 2022 with 61 UK firms and around 2,900 employees - offering 100% pay for 80% of the time. It was such a good idea, The BBC reports that firms are sticking to four-day week after trial ends!
• Jealous Much? Bernie Sanders Say It's Time for a Four-Day Work Week (according to the Business Insider who checked his Twitter feed)
• Even Canadians are clamoring for it, with Globalnews.ca asking A four-day work week can be ‘life-changing.’ Should Canadians get one?
• Still unconvinced? The BBC Future slings the many climate benefits of a four-day workweek.

February 2023

• WIRED gives a little peek behind the scenes of How Vinyl Records Are Made courtesy Third Man Records [7'45" Runtime - Embedded below]
• Statista charts The Vinyl Comeback Continues, which concludes that vinyl LPs appear to have become a bit of collectors' item for fans, who listen to music digitally but still want to own a physical object: but only 50 percent of vinyl buyers actually have a record player!
• Ted Gioia [The Honest Broker] asks the hard questions: Did the Music Business Just Kill the Vinyl Revival?
• Dominique Cyprès writes a long and well-noted love letter to compact cassettes on his Sweet & Sour Notes
• Ken Fritz has built the world's greatest stereo system is inside his Virginia home as detailed in the new documentary "One Man's Dream"
• Dominic Szablewski pitches a new audio format Quite OK Audio (QOA), a lossy, time domain audio compression format with a constant bitrate of 277 kbits/s for stereo audio
• Hackaday (my favorite blog) shows off hacker Daniel Rojas who hilariously upgraded old tech with new technology, and made this Wireless MiniDisc Walkman Has Bluetooth Inside, so wireless audio for your wireless device?
• Jason Scott, archivist from the Internet Archive and a fellow gear-head, talks long and hard about Archiving in the Time of Streaming
• Foone Turing hilariously details about lost video formats (in this case: Cartrivision) and his lament: I own porn I can't watch.
• Torie Bosch admits the impossible over at The Slate: My Husband Was Right About DVDs All Along (a testament to owning media vs. streaming it.)
• Insider has the full story of purposefully cultivating rareness through select destruction with the '80s VHS Sold for $80,600 After YouTubers Said They Destroyed 100 Copies (the VHS in question, 'Nukie' is a terrible E.T. knockoff not worth the money paid for it)
• Seems to be a returning theme of audio visualizers, but we found David Lu over at Medium shows off his Audioscope - A Perceptually Meaningful Audio Visualizer
• PsyPost sums up the Health Economics Review: Working fewer hours is associated with higher life satisfaction, according to new research
• BNN Bloomberg starts strong with the claim that the Four-day work week gaining mainstream momentum in corporate Canada, albeit they still expect 40 hours/week - i.e. 10-hour days!

January 2023

Happy New Year! Time to whip out your resolutions list and add 'Clean out my families cherished old vinyl/tape media and get it converted to digital formats at Under Design!' We'd really appreciate it!

• Hyperstep is a web-based volumetric audio visualizer that can be a entertaining tool to turn audio (from your microphone, or uploaded) into a visual model, that can be rotated, zoomed and more in 3D space (that's my voice humming as a blue box with a circle in the center to the the right!). This determinedly beta project as found by the developers post on Y Combinator where he speaks of some bugs and project goals .
• Ars Technica reports on a 3D nanolithography tool that allowed Danish physicists give the gift of world’s smallest Christmas stereo record - it's under 50 nm small!
• Check out Korea's Only LP Records Manufacturing Factory and their Vinyl Record Mass Production Process in 10'53 runtime. available on YouTube [Embedded below]
• Our friends across the pond at The Vinyl Factory offer up a short list of their best ranked and reviewed turntables of last year.
• This heartwarming story of A Cassette Tape Reunited Me With My Father's Voice over at Shondaland really rings true, and it's why we still provide high quality compact cassette tape conversion for these situations!
• I can't tell if this is tongue-in-cheek, or simply a tutorial aimed at Gen-Z, but The Audio Owl shows you the basics of Blank Cassette Tape Types and How To Choose The Right One. Good luck finding a well-maintained tape deck, or supplier of blank tapes!
• Sounds May Affect Your Sense of Taste? Find out more in the 2'22 Runtime YouTube Video [Embedded below]
• What's the Swiss Army Knife of Lossless Video/Audio Editing? I'd say LosslessCut - a better way to edit video and remove unwanted sections without requiring a re-encode. Perhaps, like removing commercials from broadcast TV? Give it a try!
• Joshua Bird goes into super-finite detail in his well-documented 3D Printed Film Video Camera, which shoots onto (common?) 35mm film rolls. He claims it's an expensive and unreliable way to record low quality videos, which I can appreciate!
• Speaking of less hours for equal pay, seems like CNN Business repeats what the organizers say: Global 4-day week pilot was a huge success! (limited to 33 companies and 903 workers, so not a huge test!)