The Vinyl Project by Nick Tann

UK based singer-songwriter Nick Tann really wants his music on vinyl. He's written 33 songs and is looking to arrange an album of 10 - 14 songs on a vinyl only release of 1000 records. The problem? It's pretty expensive to do.

The answer? Ask the community for help.

Nick went ahead and setup a blog to document his venture and has a donation function where you can pre-order his album for £10. Here's the plan:

• Find 250 people to commit to pay £10.00 upfront for my VINYL album (the remainder will cost £15.00)
• Find a studio that can record specifically for vinyl.
• Record an album.
• Master the tracks.
• Press a minimum of one thousand records.
• Distribute to the 250
• Sell the rest

It's an interesting story and we hope Nick can pull it off. Check out his blog to hear his music, keep up to date on how it's going, and to help fund his dream. Also, be sure to follow him on Twitter for the latest.

Good luck Nick!

Gotta Groove Records pressing vinyl

What happens when 4 guys that love music combine entrepreneurial spirit, their experience, and a love for records? A new record pressing plant opens!

With some loft space in Cleveland and some vintage record presses, the team at Gotta Groove Records announced their first successful test pressing at in late August (shown right).

They have lots of affordable options for jacket printing, color vinyl, and can even create and manage digital download cards included with each record.

Here's a bit about them from their site:

There are four of us at the company - Vince Slusarz (owner), Dan Greathouse (operations), Tyler Kremberg, and Matt Earley (sales & marketing)– and we are all music guys.  But, additionally, Vince and Dan have 30+ years experience in plastics manufacturing and operations management; Tyler has 10 years experience in mathematics and applied technology development; and Matt has 9 years experience in music distribution.  Together, we are able to mesh some diverse backgrounds to get some truly innovative results.  We are a “one-stop-shop”— in addition to having high-quality vinyl records pressed by us, you can have your jackets printed and download cards hosted here too!  We are also implementing some technology and processes which (quite possibly, although we can’t verify) have never been used on record pressing equipment anywhere in the world.  Through all of this innovation, our mission is to produce the highest consistent quality records attainable, and concurrently achieve the least waste product.

We are located in Tyler Village, a former elevator factory in Downtown Cleveland– the Rock & Roll capital of the world.  We have a great space, and invite any bands, customers, or just folks curious about us to come by for a tour.  We also have some great friends at local recording studios– some of which have equipment to record entirely in analog (in addition to the latest recording technology, of course).  So, theoretically, a band could record in complete analog here in Ohio, and then listen to their test pressings & watch their records being made from our listening room in downtown Cleveland!

Want to learn more? Check out their site, price list, and follow them on Twitter.

Keep it up guys. We'll definitely stop by when we're in town next!

Making Records - 72 years later

Interesting film from 1937 highlighting the production of 78 RPM records (more on 78s later this week) with Duke Ellington.  What's fascinating is that this process hasn't changed all that much.

72 years later, we see the Ryan Adams version from last week about the same process being used today.

DIY gallery-style album holder for $5

Have a blank wall and looking to spice it up with some album art? Sure, you could pay $15 for a frame that doesn't allow you to easily access the record or you could spend a lot of money on a fancy frame that was designed for easy access.

Instead, why not DIY?

We just came back from a trip to the hardware store and picked up a couple items:

• 1 long piece of L-shaped wood molding about 3/4" on each side
• Some picture framing wire (about 10')
• Two small washers
• Two hooks to screw into the wall / hang on molding

Then, here's what we did.

• Step 1: Cut the wood molding with a little handsaw into two 12.5" pieces (one for the bottom, one for the top)
• Step 2: Drill two small holes in the bottom of each piece about 3" from the outside edge
• Step 3: String wire through one hole and through one washer. Twist the wire to make a small knot. Repeat with other hole. This will be the bottom of the record holder.
• Step 4: String the other end of the wire through the two holes in the other piece of wood. This will be the top of the record holder.
• Step 5:  Hang two hooks on the wall next to each other about 6.5" apart. Attach the end of the wire to the hooks.

When you're done, you'll have a bottom piece of wood held up by the washers attached to the wire and a top piece of wood that moves freely on the wire.

Then, just place the record in the bottom piece of wood and move top piece of wood on the top of the record to hold it in place.

Step back and admire your gallery-style display. We hung ours on a piece of molding and it looks really great. What we like about this approach is that it makes it easy to take the record off the wall. Simply lift the top piece of wood and take the record out.

We'll be trying some new approaches in the coming weeks and we'll be sure to let you know what we come up with.

You can also experiment with different materials and approaches. If you come up with something cool, let us know in the comments.

The classic record crate for $13

It's safe to say we're suckers for innovative ways of storing our beloved vinyl records. But, there's no denying the sheer economics and simplicity of a standard milk crate for storing your vinyl.

This Supreme Crate from The Container Store is a good choice if you're storing records on the floor. It is taller than your standard milk crate, allowing you to stack them when you're not using them. At $13 each, they're more expensive than stealing a milk crate but less expensive than some of the fancier solutions out there (and less expensive than ruining your records by not storing them properly).

Check them out here or for other Analog Apartment posts on storing your records, click here.