vinyl cds

From MIA and WIRED

You wanna be on the new cutting edge?

"The idea for last week's Listening Post column, which examined the strange demand for vinyl records in the digital age, was inspired to a small extent by Optimal Media Production's vinyl/CD hybrid, which is just like a normal CD except that on the top, it has vinyl grooves etched in. Place a VinylDisc on your turntable, drop the needle at the start of the track, and you'll hear up to 3.5 minutes of music at 33 RPM.

Since CDs have a hole at their center that's too large to fit on a vinyl spindle, you'll need to use the little rubber adapter that comes with each disc to center the disc on your record player; otherwise, it'll go off-center and you'll hear the music speed up and slow down with each revolution.

As for the overall sound quality, I just finished giving the vinyl side of a Sonic Kollectiv VinylDisc compilation a spin, and it sounded decent -- not as good as 180 gram, but certainly good enough to warrant consideration from bands and labels looking to offer something new to their customers: a CD that everyone can play, with a secret bonus track in the grooves on top for those who have record players.

Other weird offerings from Optimal Media Production include etched vinyl, perfumed CDs, and a partially metallized disc that makes "specially chosen images float through the room, seemingly three-dimensional and extraordinarily vivid."