VinylLove enhances your music with gramophone record crackle and pops

9to5 Staff | Apr 18 2011 - 3:10 am PT

The fondest memories of my childhood involve listening to my uncle’s vinyl record collection (gramophone records we used to call them). A few decades later, our music is delivered as crystal clear digital files, but many audiophiles (rightfully) point out that digital lacks the warmth, depth and texture of analogue.

If that wasn’t the case, there would be no cottage industry of limited vinyl releases for niche markets such as DJing, audiophiles, hobbyists, etc. You’d think that in the 21st century there would be an app to recreate the magic of vinyl. Enter VinylLove, an iPad music player from Swedish developers Color Monkey and BinaryPeak.

I wonder why anyone else hasn’t though of this before. VinylLove mimics the look and feel (and hear) of a gramophone.

The app organizes songs and albums from your iPod library in wonderful old school plastic crates and enhances each track on-the-fly with the small imperfections that many swear were the key ingredients of the magic of listening to vinyl recordings. Yes, I’m talking the familiar crackling sound and pops, sans the very smell of vinyl. You can also pick up the needle and move it ahead to fast forward the song (you can zoom in for precise positioning).

On the downside, VinylLove won’t play your tracks in the background, it doesn’t AirPlay and it’s a five bucks download. Money well spent if you’re nostalgic of your vinyl childhood days, some would say.