Bird Records?

[@Reprint001]

With a bird record you'll always get a lot of flutter!

[@hfidek8286]

wow!!

[@waldnew]

​@@hfidek8286and flutter

[@Bonedadyo]

I call fowl on that one!

[@ek8710]

Wow!

[@DeanHSmith]

Through his tweeters

[@danieltobey]

For the first device, do you think the spindle is meant to engage in the center of the disk while the card is pressed down into the spring? That way, when Eject is hit, the spindle retracts and the spring pushes the card up. That might also explain the wobbly audio, as the read head would be swinging up and down if the disc was offset.

[@andreagarbin1726]

Sure this is it : if you see , without doing so , the needle moves up and down while playing because the disk is not centered.

[@paul1329]

This was stressing me out the entire time 😅

[@WaltherBrandl]

I had to skip ahead to see if he'd figured it out, but he never did 😢 So frustrating.

[@EvenTheDogAgrees]

Yeah, seems like Mat starts missing more and more obvious stuff lately. I mean, where's the logic in marking a button "eject" when you're not supposed to use it to _eject_ the card? The fact that it's marked "eject" should tell you that it probably pops the card out, like every other "eject" mechanism in existence, and that it's therefore more than likely that the card would be held in under spring pressure. And voila, at the end of the travel, you have a spring that pushes back. Why on earth would you insert the card without putting this spring under tension?

[@gbolton200]

Putting the card in for the second time I was willing him to let go of the eject button and push it further, but he never did. So frustrating!

[@alexdbird]

The reason they look 'a bit Victorian' is that Audubon died in 1851. His work is really worthy of a viewing. To quote Wikipedia: His major work, a color-plate book titled The Birds of America (1827-1839), is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed.

[@caseysmith544]

My Brother has my Grandpa's copy of the books.

[@apu_apustaja]

I wish I had a brother@@caseysmith544

[@CKyIe]

@@caseysmith544 My brother has a really cute pet rabbit.

[@apu_apustaja]

What colour is the rabbit?@@CKyIe

[@CKyIe]

@@apu_apustaja Brown!

[@pjfonline]

As mentioned before,the cards are not inserted properly. Now the needle wobbles around. The cards need to go lower, fully down.

[@footrotdog]

The reason the first player was playing slow is because it's American. You needed to use 60hz AA batteries.

[@jackbaxter-williams8059]

Lol

[@TuriGamer]

Nah I think its because his electricity uses meters instead of feet Got the poor thing confused

[@Matt.Willoughby]

​@@TuriGamermetre

[@BlackVegaReal]

For real tho it might be because the records were intended for a different speed/system and that thing was incompatible with them

[@paulmurgatroyd6372]

@@Matt.Willoughby no

[@esalehtismaki]

You didn't figure it out? There is a hole in the middle of the disk and the tap goes into it. You push the card all the way in, obviously you don't leave it sitting loosely on the spring. You played the disk about 1 cm off center, hence the wow.

[@98Zai]

Oooh, I hope we get an update if this is true :9

[@baronmeduse]

Guy is always in haste and never reads the instructions. Spends more time babbling about the packaging.

[@RSP04]

at least it sounded better than the first player, which... erm... 13:16

[@mackpines]

If it has a tap, why would you need a spring on the bottom? Kinda confusing really. Certainly would confuse me. Obviously, the people who designed this thing weren’t into birds.

[@flyingmoose]

You can see the cartridge moving in and out as it spins. It looks like you need to push the card in all the way against the spring before releasing the “eject” button. It also looks like there’s a v-shaped slot in the center designed to align it left-to-right with the center pin.

[@audiolsave69]

I was screaming this every time he was sliding a card in

[@electronash]

I just posted the same thing. lol tbh, I don't get why anyone would *assume* that the spring was there to push the card against after playing, rather than the spring pushing the card out WHEN you press Eject. You could hear the motor straining as the stylus was being forced around an elliptical path. I was trying hard not to scream at the TV, as it's not quite 7:30am yet. lol

[@electronash]

Usually Mr Techmoan would be one for reading the manual, sometimes even before the device arrives. I'm not quite sure what happened here, but it was super frustrating, Maybe it was done "for the algorithm"? :P

[@serge933]

@@electronash I felt the same way, he's usually very thorough with his videos and this felt so rushed.

[@electronash]

@@serge933Yeah, it might have just been that, to be fair. Can't always expect people to have time, or to get everything right. It was just a bit out-of-the-norm for Mr Tech.

[@cheekychappy1234]

At the very least playing those records shouldn't get you a content match

[@davebeat]

Unless there's a Legal Eagle.

[@stevecole90099]

@@davebeat or a Big Bird.

[@AnonymousAnarchist2]

It is content matching for the birds.

[@F40PH-2CAT]

Sorry you got a content strike by: "BIRDCO". Your content has been de-wormed.

[@Kazu89]

You never know in a day and age where recordings of numbers stations get claimed...

[@AB-Prince]

if I had to guess, the extreme wow and flutter is probably coming from the record being off centre from the mechanism, as well as the skipping.

[@Atzanteol1]

I actually think that "bird songs" is a pretty brilliant use for a device like that. Knowing what birds sound like is very helpful for recognizing birds you hear but don't see. And being able to double-check the song "in the field" would be pretty great - especially in 1970.

[@WildVoltorb]

It's probably meant to attract birds for photographers

[@dand5593]

7:05 i think you shoud press down the card, release the stop button and the card will be centered and play ok.

[@TheVintageApplianceEmporium]

So if you wanted to listen to birds and summon Satan at the same time - this machine is all you need!

[@RichardFraser-y9t]

All hail bird satan.

[@bethaltair812]

The Necronomiswan

[@computeraidedworld1148]

Stick this thing in the attic of someone's house you don't like.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭

[@adamwishneusky]

Definitely sounded like the voice on the tape from Evil Dead

[@graemecarter3600]

"Oh, that's a*really* clean battery compartment" Cue "ooohhhhh yyeeeaaaahhh" music

[@L555HEP]

What's the point of the spring? Surely you should press the card all the way down until the spring is compressed then let go of eject so it stays in the compressed position? When you press eject the card should pop up.

[@ytsm]

I think everyone is sharing your assessment/frustration.

[@studyofme]

This is a good question! I posed it to my partner, and he said that it's so the card will pop out. He thought it was weird that a little bit of the card was sticking out in the video.

[@clubley2]

Wouldn't the spring mechanism on the first need to be pushed down?I don't think the cars should poke out the top. The playback issue to me seems like the disk was off centre. It works fine for a bit but speed is messed up, then when it gets too close to the center it can't reach part of the disk and slips.

[@TheThomasites]

Cringed as he pulled it out with the pin out. Lol

[@flyingmoose]

You can see the cartridge moving on every rotation because the card isn’t pushed in far enough.

[@spugintrntl]

I was checking the comments for this exactly.

[@tocaamerillo431]

same, it seems like it should be pushed all the way in, and the unstable speed and general wobbliness seems to come from the cartridge having to make awkward movement to stay within its track.

[@HenryLoenwind]

The centre pin needs to hook the V-shaped groove on the record, holding it in against the spring. When he inserts it after opening the device, you can see him pushing the top of the card a couple of times, so it looks like it's hooked.

[@haraldlonn898]

Did you push the card far in enough? Seem like the record was of center.

[@svenjansen2134]

*off

[@der.Schtefan]

My parents paid so much money for this EXACT encyclopedia, hoping it would benefit my education. Those books provided me with an alternative to messy human friends, I was so happy to be alone and read about the world. Graduated as an engineer in 2002, never had to speak with a human again. Thanks mom and dad!

[@DougPaulley]

He said, whilst talking to human beings :-)

[@MrKnowwun]

Wasn't him, it was his AI alter ego.@@DougPaulley

[@jimfarrell4635]

No humans here, just AI friends.

[@tezcanaslan2877]

@@DougPaulley i think it’s more akin to speaking to a wall, except the wall can reply back

[@graealex]

I can always appreciate someone rotating AA batteries so the label faces upwards. Although completely unnecessary.

[@airattoz]

It sounds wobbly because of record is offset of the turn table. So the linear speed varies. And when it goes way off so that stylus cant rich the point it starts skipping

[@blacklion79]

These bird cards are so beautiful! It was painful to see one cut :-(

[@markderoller7645]

It's not a distress signal. It's a warning!

[@silverknight66]

lol, I had the same thought

[@F40PH-2CAT]

Danger! This device has been shown to cause untreatable boredom, possibly leading to death. Do not demonstrate interest!

[@AtheistOrphan]

Game over man!

[@heathwellsNZ]

My mommy always said there were no bird sounds - no real ones - but there are...

[@daveayerstdavies]

Look up John James Audubon to see why they used those old fashioned bird paintings

[@aimeeaaw]

When you had to cut the card down to size I thought "Hang on a second, he's winging it."

[@CarlosPCmx]

OMG

[@datadavis]

lol!

[@stevenlagoe7808]

🙄 What a hOWLer....

[@darkdeity2012]

Have to assume there's a really specific, limited generation of people who'll know what you mean by "pre Encarta" - basically people who were using computers in the CD drive era before "everything on the Internet" became a thing.

[@jimroberts3009]

Ahh Encarta. I remember it well!

[@retsamyar]

eh? we had dialup internet access with basic web and gopher as the early 90s at least thats when i was using it... so no cd drive era was after everything on the internet. It just wasnt going to play you a video you had to read or slowly load pictures.

[@thesteelrodent1796]

You say that, but here in Denmark in the early 90s, a decision was made to make a new comprehensive encyclopedia (Den Store Danske Encyklopædi). It was a big deal and got a lot of coverage in the media since it hadn't been done since the 1970s. They got a lot of experts to write articles for it and people had to pre-order it and pay in monthly instalments (because it was stupid expensive). Then in 1994 the first volume was published, just as encylopedias on CDs became a thing (Encyclopedia Britannica was already on CD by then and Encarta came along in 1995) and since the first volume had an accidential omittance, they immediately proved why book encyclopedias were doomed in the digital age, and thus the big deal became a big and very expensive joke. They nevertheless continued publishing the entire thing, all 20 volumes of it, until 2001, and then started on supplementary volumes to fix everything they forgot and that had to be updated. So basically, it started pre-Encarta, and was completed right around the time the internet made it irrelevant. By 2006 the entire encyclopedia was replaced by a paid online version, which in 2009 became free for everyone. For concepts in Danish, the online version is still a great reference (and unlike Wikipedia, usually factually correct in all its articles), but it's not very well known thanks to Wikipedia, and since it's only in Danish its userbase is a bit limited

[@DJ-Drakken]

The bird art on the cards are absolutely fabulous.

[@diebesgrab]

“If we cut one of these cards down” *internal shrieking*

[@ypoora1]

I'm quite sure the cards were not inserted correctly on the first device; look at how much the stylus is swinging back and forth! Definitely off-centre.

[@stuartchapman5171]

I actually have quite a few bird records on standard vinyl discs, they're great for creating really varied oscillator sounds when using turntablist techniques. Agreed though, they're of limited interest under normal usage. 5min 50secs RTFM. I'm the same though, half the fun is working it out. I love the Tardis noise in the background.

[@smolbleat]

"I don't know if it's suppose to do that, but it's just done it" 17:49 Such a relatable quote.

[@SlimbTheSlime]

Nooo! You must didn’t even push it all the way down! This is exactly what it sounds like when you put a 45 on a 33 1/3 spindle and fail to “eyeball it” into concentricity

[@TossMySalad2]

My grandparents had that exact same bird record player with all the records and cards when I was a little kid way back when.

[@thesteelrodent1796]

Just a guess that you can't run the off the transformer while the batteries are inserted. Some older (cheapish) devices work like that, where you have to use one or the other, but if you try to have both at the same time they get too much power, and thus they just shut off instead. Might be worth reading the instructions if you have them/can find them

[@turtledovechen176]

As a life long birder and now work in this field, this reminds me when I was a kid and buy CDs and tape of bird song and call, listen to them on my Walkman or desktop CD player all the time, even playing them when I'm sleeping Thinking back now, I'm a really weird kid lol

[@EvenTheDogAgrees]

I thought I was the king of weird back in the day, but you definitely demonstrated my unworthiness of said title. We should probably arrange to have someone pick up my crown, as it now rightfully belongs to you. ;)

[@caseysmith544]

My Dad had an Entire Casset maybe 2 of Frogs of North America, Big 1 hour each side where reel is nearly filled on one side when fully wound. A older Sony CD/Casset player ate the tape by playing songs too hard and ruined tape, other player on machine a week later killed an rare live version of 1812 Overture with both a Choir in beginning/end and a Howitzer cannon at peak part in recording as well as several Bells in it.

[@datadavis]

no, sounds peaceful man!

[@Cammi_Rosalie]

Looking closely at the white player, I saw the tonearm swinging to and fro during rotation. Good indication that the card was not fully seated. Are there any dimples in the center of the playing surfaces? It's possible that the spindle should latch into such a dimple. Then the spring loaded mechanism pops the card out when the stop/eject button is pressed. Edit: I now see that I'm late to this party. There is already a whole comment-reply thread going on about this.

[@Sigma-INFJ.]

In the description, Mat wrote: "These bird records have nothing to do with Taylor Swift, The Eagles or the Black Crowes". Here are some artists that weren't mentioned: The O'Jays, The Yardbirds, The Penguins, The Partridge Family, The Flamingos, A Flock of Seagulls, Sheryl Crow, The Roadrunners, and of course, The Byrds.

[@PerSkeles]

The Sparrows.

[@lowkeylunatic]

...and the Black Crowes

[@befoerderungsfall]

Not to forget Raven, and of course, The Eagles.

[@PerSkeles]

The Flying Lizards

[@brucepickess8097]

The Eagles, Robin Gibb, The Sandpipers, Lieutenant Pigeon, Tailor Swift, Wild Turkey, The Vultures, The Housemartins, Thrush, The Nightingales, The Falcons, Hawkwind, The Nightjars, The Songbirds, Whistler, The Magpies, The Bay City ROLLERs, The Hummingbirds, LARKin Poe, Ducks Deluxe, Screamer, Billy Swan, and finally, sorry about this Little Weaver (Eva).😏

[@SockyNoob]

As somebody with one of their hobbies/passions being prairie restoration in the southeastern US, I really hope you upload these to the internet archive. Some of these birds are potentially seldomly heard or completely extinct nowadays thanks to the overgrowing of slash pine and fire suppression.

[@Laundry_Hamper]

Send this to Boards of Canada post-haste

[@ProgrammerInProgress]

I thought my comment was original, but you beat me to it, haha

[@Laundry_Hamper]

@@ProgrammerInProgress and I just replied to a guy who got one in before mine to let them know they'd beaten me!!

[@joshuascholar3220]

I thought Laurie Anderson might appreciate it.

[@stephenswift9868]

I immediately thought of Boards of Canada! It had that eerie 70’s dystopian sound to it. I liked it!

[@MrDDawson]

Was only missing the little intro song thing. Too funny.

[@CrowContinuum]

I remember having "Talking Books" when I was a kid. I'm not sure if they were the same ones that are in the catalog you were looking at, but they way it worked was that the mini records were embedded into each page and you would place the player device on the record in the page and hit the button to play whenever dialog, voices, or sound effects that corresponded with that page.

[@riffhammeron]

That pin should pop into the center of the record. Not inserting card far enough

[@councilofkarens729]

Sounded like the device had a dodgy tweeter.....

[@nonsuch]

Definitely don't slide it out without holding "eject". Otherwise you're dragging the record over that center pin and can potentially scratch it.

[@caseysmith544]

My thoughts as well.

[@graealex]

Do you think dragging the needle over the record is going to impact audio quality?

[@nonsuch]

​@@graealex I would imagine it could take a toll if you were to do it frequently. I'd be more worried about pulling the record out without holding the "eject" button so that center pin can retract down. Honestly, just like it doesn't let you put the record in without pressing it down, it shouldn't let you take it out either until depressed. But, it is what it is.

[@awesomestuff9715]

@@nonsuch he probably didnt get the card into the locating hole or whatever, so the card didnt get locked in, but this is old tech and isn't as user friendly as more modern devices so yeah

[@ericpode6095]

I thought he should hold the card down against the ejector spring before releasing the stop button.

[@CptnKremmen]

I'm probably wrong, but it looks like you have to push the card all the way in so that the spindle pin thing locks into the card to play it.

[@TeeVeeGames]

I kind of had this device as a kid, as rebranded by Fisher-Price. The Disney cards you showed listed on the order sheet came in spiral bound plastic books, with the recording embedded onto each page.

[@LC-le9ew]

I had the Ghost Chasers book! Never really worked well in the 80's either...

[@flusensieb244]

7:13 Please insert the card all the way in until the centerpin hits the center hole of the card. Look carefully, you can see, how the sound pickup spins in ellipses not circles. The misalignment is the reason for this weird sound coming out of it.

[@mathiasvofrey9240]

pushing in the card whilst pushing eject to lower the center pin, but pulling out the card without pushing eject. hmmm. and yea, pushing the card in further to play. will you make a little update video?

[@Sweedy44]

Finally you presented this device I had in my mind for so long when a uncle brought this when I was a child (+30 years ago). I was convinced you realize this video some day. Thank you very much sir !

[@RTheren]

I wonder if the reason 3V adapter didn't work was because of the batteries.... too late to find out anyway.

[@Zark-Muckerberg]

Yeah it probably has a "switch" that disables the barrel port if batteries are in it.

[@EvenTheDogAgrees]

@@Zark-Muckerberg It works the other way around: the barrel socket disconnects the batteries when you insert the plug. There's a spring contact that carries the battery pole connected to the ring contact, that gets pushed out of the way when you insert the jack. This breaks the connection with the output contact it's resting against, which now makes contact with the ring on the jack. When you unplug, the spring will spring back and restore contact. There's a nice diagram near the bottom of the Sparkfun article titled "Proto Pedal Assembly and Theory Guide".

[@nimoy007]

​@@EvenTheDogAgrees Electrical engineer here. Yes, that is correct. That is so you don't start "charging" the batteries

[@EvenTheDogAgrees]

@@nimoy007 Hahah, my credentials are "that kid that would take apart anything he got as soon as the grown-ups weren't looking" 😂

[@optroncordian7863]

On the white one you should push the card to the end and then release the eject button. The springs at the bottom should stay compressed. They will eject the card later when the eject button is pressed. However, one of the cards is crooked - the record is not centered well. Considering it's color, probably it is overheated by sun and the glue melted at some point ...

[@reddwudd6700]

I don't think you are locking the record in all the way. It should lock in under spring pressure

[@meistudiony]

You should hold the eject button down when removing the card otherwise you can scratch the grooves on the center pin.

[@piratetv1]

That unit reminds me of a children's storybook i had. You'd place a similar player on top of a record sandwiched between each page. They had a lineup hole in the center so it was easier for children to use, and it would tell you a story. Seeing the paperwork, it was the Walt Disney talking books. I had the ghost chasers

[@Neodra]

Ya I remember those, I had the jungle book, I think, I wore the little disks out I played them so much.

[@cf9699]

it sounded like the TARDIS landing in the background when you first played it.

[@PaulLathropMpls]

My grandparents were avid birders and had one of those, but an earlier model, likely from the 1977-78 timeframe. It was larger length and width-wise, and flat on top, but still the same buttons and player on the bottom of the device. I'm pretty sure it also took a 9v battery. The cards were also from the National Audobon Society but as I recall, the cards were fully plastic on the back, with the "record" etched into that backing, and the card also featured a map of the habitat of the bird. Those things always played poorly--not the right speed, lots of flutter, and with a ton of scratching sound at the runout when you played a card all the way through. I'd totally forgotten about it until now.

[@johngaltline9933]

Lots of comments on the card likely needing to be inserted further in, just throw in that on the second player, it sounded the same until the card was pushed down further.

[@austincromwell]

I see what you mean by weird. That first record was reminiscent of the repeating recording played in the bunker in "Lost".

[@DukeOfTrains]

Some of these you can’t leave the battery in and try wall power it won’t work as a safety feature

[@AudioGuyBrian]

Dude, when you said... My advice to them is.. Bluirrrbrrbllerb. I spit my cheerios cereal all over the table laughing so hard. 😅

[@andoletube]

It's amazing how often people are eating cereal when they laugh.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

@@andoletube I usually watch Techmoan on Sunday mornings after work, it's very good "breakfast telly".

[@gabrielv.4358]

me too haha

[@n1gak]

I've never been a birder, but I can imagine that if someone _were_ one, this would have been really quite delightful.

[@drrattenkaiser5275]

The other countries pretty much agree on the spelling of microphnograph. Germany: Mikroschallplattengerät Unfortunately you don't have a suitable Mikroschallplattengerätnetzteilstecker.

[@xaverlustig3581]

German has the word "Phonograph".

[@dimensiongamer534]

I don't know what it is with my mum, but she always puts batteries in the wrong way around XD So it's normally the first thing I check with stuff that requires them. My dad would have liked that bird set quite a lot too! Great video!

[@ellesmere4117]

The National device was so close to being a 70s HitClip, if only there were music cards for it.

[@ericjenkins2737]

As a birder and lover of weird audio crap, this is awesome. It did pain my heart a bit as you glossed over one of my favorites and most beautiful (Cedar Waxwing) as though it were just some other piece of crap bird haha. They really are interesting and intelligent too…just read about how they purposely eat fermented berries to get drunk and form assembly lines to gather food from hard-to-reach spots and pass the booty on down the line for everyone to indulge.

[@strivingtobalance]

The as an avid birdwatcher, i would love to have this.

[@fierodriver8444]

Did they also sell a set on how to recognise different types of trees from quite a long way away?

[@exodous02]

Fisher Price in the US had this player with WB cartoons. We had them as kids. Ours worked as of like 5 or 6 years ago. Exact same player but beige with brown buttons. The kids books were thick stock with brightly colored records on each page. This looks like the records warped and the clear plastic probably didn't age as well without the dye.

[@aviphysics]

I might guess that you are supposed to let go of the eject button with the card fully inserted and the pin keeps it from popping up, so it stays centered.

[@joaoebordignon]

Child me would love those bird collectible cards. Adult me too.

[@PeterVC]

About the encyclopaedias, not just German, Dutch and French as well (Larouse encyclopaedia). We had the 26 volume Dutch version (in Belgium) with 4 decennium books ('40, '50, '60 & '70) and those contained pages with the audio. It also had an atlas and history book.

[@alexsabber]

So basically... Boards of Canada sample library?

[@georgewhite1972]

Orange..... Yeah that's right!!

[@ericjenkins2737]

God I love BOC, I am so jonesing for a new record. Their “Treat ‘Em Right” track from a few years ago slipped past many.

[@georgewhite1972]

@@ericjenkins2737I wouldn't hold my breath for anything new. It's been over 10 years since Tomorrow's Harvest came out!! In the meantime, there are a plethora of artists who sound eerily similar to them to fill the void. A few off the top of my head are Clocolan, Orange Crush, The Fade Beta, Milieu. They're really good.

[@neonmeatedream443]

Strong Boards Of Canada vibes from those records, especially the narration.

[@alanburns538]

Thanks Mat, loved to see this one both for the tech (the National player really was an elegant little device) and as someone who actually enjoys bird sounds. My go-to is Geoff Sample's 3CD + book 'Bird Songs And Calls', beautifully recorded and well structured, takes you on a little walk through various bird environments (in case anybody's interested).

[@transcanada9028]

With the first device the card wasn't pushed in all the way.

[@SmokeyEdits]

can i just say that i love your upload timing. it's always right after i get off work, so it's the perfect video to unwind with. i feel like i've left this comment before, but i'm coming off an extremely long week so whatever.

[@ytsm]

Is it weird that I'm curious what your work is? It probably is.

[@SmokeyEdits]

@@ytsm really nothing interesting, i work at a retail warehouse for a chain of convenience stores in the US. specifically i load the trucks

[@electronash]

Are we *sure* you don't have to press the card all the way in (against the spring) before playing? Otherwise the record isn't in the centre of the "turntable" part, so the stylus is forced to play off-centre as well, and it's straining the motor?

[@electronash]

I would have thought the arrow on the clear plastic is there, as it has to meet up with the line at the top of the card? Then, pressing Eject really would pop the card out after playing.

[@electronash]

I just watched another video on the same device, and you DO need to press the card all the way in against the spring before releasing the Eject button There should be only about 5mm of the card sticking out the top.

[@electronash]

Oh, I see a fair few others in the comments noticed this, too. This must have been Mr Techmoan before the morning coffee. lol

[@PerspectiveEngineer]

I thought you'd run out of new things new or old things five years ago... and the funny thing is in the last five years I've known 95% of the things you shown. I almost bought that Panasonic cassette tape jukebox thing. I'm pretty sure it was the same one I have pictures thanks Matt

[@Langonica]

This is exactly why I subscribed all those years ago!!! Thanks Techmoan!

[@taofanarchy96-renzomaracas14]

20:31 “My advice to them is- *gigyas sounds”*

[@3DJapan]

I love the ribbon in the battery compartment. Nobody uses those anymore.

[@WizardOfOss]

As convenient as modern tech is, it lost the magic of these old contraptions. As a kid I would have absolutely loved this....even if it was just bird sounds I have no interest in at all. And I bet nowadays kids, born with a tablet in hand, would still love this.

[@Tomsonic41]

The first device looks identical to the Comes To Life Story Player, which was a kids toy that played flexi-discs mounted in special books. Probably runs at the same speed too (when it's working)

[@vsmash2]

4:15 Typo in the german Text on the package, and two grammatical errors. Haven't seen those kind of blunders in a while.

[@flusensieb244]

Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Was für grammatikalische Fehler?

[@PerspectiveEngineer]

Oh yes Cornell university has an excellent phone app that does this exact same thing it's kind a cool to see the reflections in time.

[@RichardDzien]

One of those offbeat ideas to use a piece of tech thats floating about, but would be way more convenient and sound 100 times better if you just shipped a 12" vinyl with a book.

[@highpath4776]

maybe it is for your camping holidays ?

[@oldgrizzlygamer]

I remember a buddy of mine had a wasp record he found at a thrift store. When he put it on for a listen, I could see he was confused, because he knew about wasps, and none of the buzzing sounds on the record sounded like any wasp he was familiar with. He then went over and checked on the turntable. He did a literal facepalm and said "Stupid me, I had it on the Bee side".

[@LordHPLovecraft]

@18:20 Is there any battery operated device that doesn't use the springs as negative? I never look at the inside diagram when placing batteries in a device and wonder if I should.

[@Techmoan]

oddly enough I encountered one a couple of weeks ago - but it was very unusual.

[@themac6356]

@@TechmoanOne of the machines I can point to that has this issue would be the Sabamobil. The orientation of the D-cell batteries is very strange.

[@mattBLACKpunk]

Xbox one controller :c

[@volvo09]

It's rare these days, but does happen.

[@cariza5]

​@@TechmoanYour national card player, well the company National belongs to Panasonic, Matsushita and Global as National, Matsushita, Panasonic and Global are the same company as I have 2 camcorders which are the exact same, one is Panasonic and the other is National which is sold just in Japan, it's the same as JVC and Victor, both the same but JVC Camcorders in Japan will just say Victor on them, JVC stands for Japan Victor Company.

[@lily_skye]

you might need to remove the batteries before plugging it into the wall. that might be why it wasn't working.

[@Sigma-INFJ.]

That sounded like a frog saying "without" over and over again. If you added a beat to that, it sure sounds like the hit records being made today.

[@andreasu.3546]

13:29

[@AtheistOrphan]

Bud-wise-errrr

[@thejonathandoan]

I am absolutely in LOVE with this device!! If I ever came across one in an antique shop or thrift store (charity shop) - and could afford it - I would snatch it up in an instant! So stinking cool.

[@TechTokOffical]

U know what's kinda crazy. As a "techy" I have recently had a sudden overbearing need to get a full set of print encyclopedias before it's too late. It's already pretty much impossible to find information on the internet that isn't AI generated and just a matter of time before it's completely impossible

[@jub8891]

i feel exactly the same way.. we had a colliers set from 87-88 if i recall.. wish i still had them, only some of the books remain.. another place to look might be the web archive.. they have older encyclopedias scanned

[@drunkenhobo8020]

Wikipedia has become pretty unreliable too as it's been taken over by power users wanting to spread their particular ideology rather than information.

[@highpath4776]

try your local charity shop. of course most are out of date for modern stuff - what about CDs of Britannica or Encarta ?

[@drunkenhobo8020]

It's also a worry how much bias is creeping in to places like Wikipedia. Thankfully most of the science stuff is still fairly solid, but I worry for that in the future too.

[@Zanpaa]

I have no problem finding info on the internet. You'd have to put absolutely 0 effort to run into the AI generated garbage. Not much of a "techy".

[@dwarftoad]

Anyone know how the discs were manufactured? Were they pressed/molded, or made by something like photopolymer etching/photoengraving process?

[@ProgrammerInProgress]

Techmoan made a Boards of Canada album without trying

[@ericjenkins2737]

Maybe these couple of BOC comments will create some new fans.

[@alaskarailroad3996]

As always. Thank you for the video. I always look forward to them. You are so knowledgeable. 😊

[@deneb_tm]

you can't tell me you didn't think to try just pushing the card in further to fix the wobbly playback; no way it's supposed to sit at the top of the spring mechanism like that. you can *see* the stylus tilting back and forth as the device is playing

[@deneb_tm]

bit of a bad design on the manufacturer's part that it attempts to play regardless - the japanese machine does better in ensuring the spring mechanism is pushed down - though i imagine this is mentioned in the manual

[@Peron1-MC]

i think you didnt push down the card enough in the first one. the "disc" seemed to have a notch to hold it down in the correct place. the card didnt come up when you pressed eject. thats why you could just pull the card out without pressing stop.

[@PixelMaker04]

The spoken voice sections that are slow and warbled could be used in a horror movie or video game.

[@InsanePsychoRabbit]

Actually used one of these in an ornithology class at a field station in like 2015. That was also the last year I used my VCR; I brought it to another class at the same field station later that year so the teacher could play a David Attenborough documentary he had on videotape (we couldn't get the VCR that was already there hooked up to the TV).

[@maksphoto78]

Don't forget to play the bee-side.

[@tadnauseum]

These cards are awesome. As someone with multiple full sized bird song records the portability of this feels so modern (for the time).

[@BenGott]

Mat, I had one of those Microsonics devices as a kid-my gran gave me one for my birthday around 1986-1987. I *loved* it-and it was an absolute tank of a player, too. So nice to see this!

[@Thegonagle]

I had a very similar device for adding a soundtrack to children’s books. It may have been branded Fisher-Price, but the overall mechanism was nearly identical as I recall. You placed the device over a green “record” that was glued to the page, being careful to center it properly until the center pin on the player fell into the center hole on the disc. Then you pressed play and it would play through, center to edge if I recall correctly, and automatically stop. That one is definitely running too slow. If I had to guess from memory, it probably spun at about 90-120 RPM.