Cut your own vinyl with the Teenage Engineering PO-80 Record Factory
4,1 / 5,0 | 
Like some kind of fisher-price vinyl cutter, the Teenage Engineering PO-80 encourages you to create your own 5-inch records. Its simple process uses a 3.5mm input to cut the monophonic vinyl discs, bringing your teenage dreams back to life.
How does the Teenage Engineering PO-80 work?
Despite appearances, this device is not intended for children at all. It comes as a kit with plenty of small parts, so be sure to keep the little ones away during assembly. The PO-80 is USB powered and equipped with its own lo-fi mono speaker. However, it does also have an audio out for connecting external speakers.
It will record anything you feed it, including the pocket operator series synths from Teenage Engineering. You get around 4 minutes at 33rpm and 3 minutes at 45rpm per side, which is certainly enough to create a bank of loops and samples to use in your music production process.
The Teenage Engineering PO-80 record factory kit. · Source: Teenage Engineering
As a player, the PO-80 record factory also plays 7-inch vinyl records with the nifty adaptor which is included. You also get a spare cutting needle, USB power and audio cables, and six blank 5-inch disks to get you started. Need more? They can be ordered in packs of ten for $20 from the Teenage Engineering online store.
Overall, it’s certainly a fun way to sample your pocket operators or a portable back-in-time traveler for diving into that old 7-inch collection. Like anything from Teenage Engineering, there is unmistakable silliness combined with practicality that sets it apart from any other tech on the market.
It connects directly to your pocket operator. · Source: Teenage Engineering
Pricing and availability:
The PO-80 portable record factory is currently available directly from the Teenage Engineering store for $149.
More from Teenage Engineering:
- PO-80 product page
- Everything Teenage
- The best pocket synths
Videos:
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8 responses to “Cut your own vinyl with the Teenage Engineering PO-80 Record Factory”
Looks sort of cool, but imo it could have been twice the price and able to use generic 7″ format (and maybe stuff like stereo or changeable playback needle) and it would seem like a really decent way to spend money, now it’s more toy’ish than usable, but maybe demos will tell otherwise
Wow, I visit this site to find out about dope new ish’. This is some dope new ish’! Needed to say, I just purchased it. Surprisingly, they were not sold out. Unsurprisingly, the 10 pack of blank vinyls were.
Just a relabel of the Gakken Toy Record Maker ($55). Eff TE.
The same engineer behind the Gakken Toy Recorder, Yuri Suzuki, is behind the Teenage Engineering PO-80. It has the same roots, but it is an updated design. See Yuri’s IG post here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CjGNOx9sGL4/
Does not matter here, it keeps being a ripoff – of potential customers.
Btw – assuming here, in good faith, that you are not influencing on behalf of TE.
Nope, not an influencer for TE. I think the product is dope though, remake or not. Yuri’s design is obviously solid. I didn’t own the Gakken Toy Recorder (GTR), in fact, never heard of it until the PO-80 dropped. Btw I bought the PO-80 immediately after reading this article. Good job Gear News!
I came across the GTR looking for more blank records to buy since they were sold out on TE’s site. They were sold out before everything else! Well, I found out the blank records are the hardest thing to come by. When I initially saw the GTR though, I thought TE pulled a Behringer. After doing some research, I realized the PO-80 was a collaboration between all parties. Ok by me! Korg and Arp do this all the time and everyone goes ape for the 2400!
I’ve never heard of Gakken, and TE has a strong name. Personally I don’t think it’s a rip off at all. I think it’s easy to hate TE because they do weird ish’ and their pricing is crazy, but this seems like a clear win. I would say thankfully, Gakken was apart of the process, because if not TE would be trying to sell the PO-80 for $600… then I would totally agree with you. But $150, c’mon that’s nothing. However, TE clearly designed the travel bag. It’s literally $60 for no reason.
Alright, that’s my peace on it. You may just be missing out for the moment, but I hope it stays in production. I need more blank records!
That’s a rebranded Otona and marked up 3x. TO is doing their own variation of Behringer but instead of making things affordable, they are marking them up. https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/NEOBK-2453544
TE is definitely not pulling a Behringer rip off. The roots of the PO-80 are based on the Gakken Otana/Toy Record Maker. TE partnered with the original engineer who collaborated with Gakken to make the PO-80.
See the post from Yuri Suzuki (Original Engineer) on TE PO-80 here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CjGNOx9sGL4/
Also, I haven’t found the Gakken in stock anywhere. The link you posted shows it at $55 on backorder. Many other sites show it on sale around $99 (ebay) to $156 retail. I think TE is well within the ball park on this one. 3x markup on $50 is just $150… This may just be me, but I don’t think that’s much at all.
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