Teenage Engineering teases the tape recorder of my dreams, only it’s digital

The kooky geniuses at Teenage Engineering are again with a brand new gadget that’s assured to make you salivate till its price ticket smacks you again to actuality.

The maker of drool-worthy synthesizers simply introduced the TP-7, a teeny moveable recorder that includes a “motorized tape reel” that spins because it captures audio and likewise features like a click on wheel.

Teenage Engineering imbued this digital recorder with layers of nostalgia, evoking each the early-ish days of digital (like Apple’s authentic iPod, Gizmodo factors out) and the yet-more-distant days of tape. The TP-7 additionally appears to drag from some iconic digicam designs; its recording indicator beams like Leica’s pink dot, whereas its leather-based again appears to attract from Polaroid’s basic SX-70. 

In different phrases: The Stockholm-based audio firm is teasing yet one more attractive, completely overbuilt and arguably pointless gadget. It’s $1,499 and “coming this summer time.”

I need one desperately.

Okay, okay, I’ll focus — promise.

The TP-7 additionally options report, play and cease buttons, a fast-forward/rewind set off, 128 GB of storage, and an inner mic and speaker. The gadget additionally helps as much as three exterior mics (through 3.5 mm audio jacks) and it may possibly connect with an iPhone or laptop computer through USB-C or bluetooth. Teenage Engineering says its battery lasts round seven hours.

The TP-7 is a part of Teenage Engineering’s high-end “Discipline System” assortment, alongside the OP-1 music maker and CM-15 mic. However if you’d like a style of Teenage Engineering’s quirky gear with out the prohibitive price ticket, you’ll be able to nonetheless peep its pocket synths, that are largely “bought out” on its web site however usually price simply north of $100 on websites like Reverb and eBay.

Higher but, nostalgia-chasers who lengthy for the times of cassettes can even merely go for a bonafide shoebox or multitrack tape recorder.