A Record Player With No Records, And Lasers Instead Of A Needle

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In an alternative universe, Thomas Edison never invented the phonograph. We figured out lasers, computers, and MIDI audio first. Then, and only then, did someone think to place grooves on a disc and spin it around, reading its bumps to make music.
This is the basic idea* behind Soundmachines. Created by The Product for, of all things, a Volkswagen event, it’s essentially a giant, three-headed laser record player. But instead of playing records--an inforich medium that can only be read one way--it reads something with far less information that can be read billions of ways. more...