Taking the Mikiphone
It has been sitting in a drawer for a year, but a recent reorganisation has brought it to the surface and now to your screens. I present for your 'entertainment' the Mikiphone. A brand-new one hundred year old gadget.
UPDATE: A one-letter typo necessitated a re-upload. New (corrected) version above.
Comments (45)
Did your 78 survive the "Mikiphone"?
I don’t think it did it any damage. There are much heavier reproducers than that on some phonographs. Then again I don’t plan on playing it again either.
What a piece of junk!
Fascinating. Once my ears stop bleeding, that is. It's interesting that some of these precision devices -I'm thinking the Curta calculator -have a Hungarian origin.
This is just a PROJECT! Aaaaaah! (Sorry.)
Oh yes the ‘proyect’ guy - I remember. Good callback.
Your text comments throughout the video were hilarious!
This device reminds me of a rather well-known example of a BBC newsreader corpsing on-air (link below). She was describing a newly-found example of very early voice recording, then had to follow it up with announcing the death of US TV producer Abby Mann. I suspect it was the similarity to the sound of the recording and 'A Bee Man' that set her off, but I dunno. Here's the link, for those that have never heard it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFSjxlcOOS8
My grandfather had a crank operated projector exactly like this mikiphone. He throw it in the bin when i was 3yo, but i still remember that 8mm projector and the reels with Stan & Oliver ... I never seen another one in my entiere life.
That music was so beautiful it almost brought a tear to my eye. Tears of pain, but tears nonetheless.
Me: Oh cool, Beatles songs on 78s! Those would be awesome to play on my dad's Victrolas let's check eBay annnd nope nope nope nope nope nope
If you think the Mikiphone is a tad large for one's pocket, have a look at some "pocket-sized" cameras from the 1920s and '30s: The Vest Pocket Kodaks, the Vest Pocket Exakta just to name a few. Mae West would have had a heyday if she spotted a fellow sportin' one of those giants in his trouser pocket!
"You have wear these special trousers" :)
Oh, Miki. You NOT so fine!
Discovered a dynagroove 33rpm record. Wiki says "Dynagroove is a recording process introduced in 1963 by RCA Victor that, for the first time, used analog computers to modify the audio signal used to produce master discs for LPs.". Sounded great wondered if you have experienced it Mat?
From what I understand every record you buy today (and for the last few decades) use a similar process to Dynagroove.
https://images.app.goo.gl/oAWVaP4tUj7Xg3NDA. Appears to show smaller sized gramaphone records to. I quite like these think they are cool, nice to have a history of them. Miki and then Mickey mouse wonder if there was any relation
Sounds like an old car trying to start in the winter. Nice video!
Got a typo there at 6:00 carcophony -> cacophony
Thanks for letting me know. Looks like I’ll need to do a re-up.
The Indians obviously haven't caught on to Kickstarter yet. With items like this I always wonder if they start off with the philosophy that some Westerners will pay good money for any old rubbish.
It's a profitable philosophy!
How disappointing - that's of those 'could have been great' devices that just doesn't make it. Neat idea, terrible execution. You should set up a Rogue's Gallery of such things - didn't you test a knock-off of the Soundburger a while back that was also rather grim? Great video, as always, Mat.
I did and it was. Incidentally my yellow Soundburger is destined to be on TV - well at least that’s what the people who borrowed it told me. I’ll talk about this in a future update.
After slowly recovering from that lovely sound, I almost fainted away while watching that professional stuntman performing his breathtaking act. Imagine the clicks that video would have been generated, when... I am glad that nobody got hurt! I have to say the original sounds better. Yours sounds more like a Mickey. ;-)
I’ve seen comments in the past complaining about me using a knife the wrong way to open a box - like I’m a child, and this would be useful and new information. I feel as a grown old man, I’ve earned the right to cut my fingers off whenever I see fit. Thumbs up to that (if they’re still attached).
Thanks for showing that. You are absolutely correct, it's horrible, but an amazing tech for the time.
besides the terrible audio, the wobbling, the terrifying steel needle, this is a real record torture device. even if this wasnt intended to be used, im confident the originals werent much better (if at all). watching this thing run and listening to it is real nightmare fuel
It’s definitely a wind-up.
Excellent video as ever,. And speaking as a viewer who is genetically 75% Hungarian you earn extra credit for the correct pronunciation of Miklós. Thanks.
I knew if I got it wrong - that would take up a good 85% off the comments.
OK, let's get the obvious one out of the way. 0:58 'Is that a Mikiphone in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?'
If the original sounds anything like a good 78 RPM player, that would be extremely cool, but this is of course rubbish... I'm stil looking for a decent player, I always heard: "buy an old one, anything new is rubbish" so... My father has a suitcase one from about 1945, you need to stuff a towel inside, but then it sounds beautiful! Ideal for a candle-light evening with no electricity ;-)
I think the sound of the original is compromised given the size - but unlike this one it is still listenable. You can find a few YouTube videos of it playing discs - here’s one. https://youtu.be/KzYtYhZUqHY
That is so atrocious, it's wonderful. :D
Now that was interesting. I thought it looked like a tiffin so I guess it is appropriate the reproduction came from India. I didn’t know they had been using 78s for so long.
I have no need or want for such a device, but the problem solver in me wonders how much modification would be required to make it correct?
Everything is just different - different size, different width, different angles, different shape. You’d need to replace every component. It’s like a drawing from memory of a bad photocopy of a distant photo of the original taken in the dark.
"that beautiful, hard-to-reproduce analogue sound" (laughs too loudly for the office)
This is 10000% cool!
You needed deeper pockets in the 1920s because of the financial crash. Perhaps I will stick with my VW Camper van for wrecking my records that way I won't be accused of taking the Miki
Shoddy replica and lens dirt aside I must compliment you on the beautiful clean shots of the Mikiphone. After hearing the whiny screech it made out of the music I could easily imagine it stomping on an innocent vocal in some dark and evil parody of the Pixar lamp.
Thanks, I really tried to get some good angles of it and with the right light- it's a weird object to shoot.
That's why you always reorganize your workplace, kids. Free ideas for your videos! But seriously though, neat gadget
Besides the first playback, that's what nightmares sound like