Vinyl view: Satchmi launches new record player

To honor the launch of Satchmi’s second edition of its Motorino record player, the mixologists at EDSA Beverage Design Group (EDSA BDG) concocted an eponymous drink. It was a mix of orange liqueur, cold-brew coffee, gin, and Chartreuse. The drink was smooth but it had a slightly fiery tail. The founders of Satchmi wanted it to represent what their new record player was all about.

The firm was founded by a couple of former Vancouver residents, Edric Chua and Ronald Sy, and the city is one of the many backdrops of the revival of vinyl in recent. They realized that there were not too many decent record stores in Manila and felt it was time to help acquaint its citizens not only with the vinyl revival—their brand can be seen in music chains like Astroplus, for one—but also with things that come with the love of vinyl.

Managing director Edric Chua, told GMA News Online, “We decided to not just make it about vinyl records, but pretty much everything about that lifestyle that people can experience.”

Their initial focus on vinyl records led to the creation of the Motorino. Chua calls it “an introductory turntable,” and he argues it is cheaper than most new-model set-ups.

The first Motorino was launched in 2013, and the event was the occasion for launching the Motorino II, an upgrade of the earlier player.
 

The new Motorino player is less bulky than the first edition, but the other differences are more subtle. First, Satchmi replaced the ceramic stylus with a diamond one, which adds durability, but another intriguing feature was the addition of a counterweight to the arm. The new counterweight reduces the risk of scratching a record. More importantly, the player now has a new battery with up to eight hours of battery life, and it can be hooked up more easily to an amplifier.

“There isn’t a new technology in terms of vinyl,” Chua observed. “It’s not like people suddenly learned how to press vinyls in a different way, but the number of people getting back into vinyl has been increasing for the past few years. We do think that it’s not because a fad.”

He credits, ironically, how the Internet has helped educate people about the virtues of vinyl and how it could be an alternative to digital music formats. However, one issue that impedes wider adoption is two-fold: records are quite pricey, and few recent records are available from Filipino musicians.
 

Satchmi has carried the Diego Mapa project Tarsius’s “Primate” (Number Line Records) and at its 2013 Vinyl Day sold the “Ang Nawawalang Soundtrack,” with album art by Cynthia Arre. Part of the reason is that there are no vinyl pressing plants here, but Chua argues that prices of recent vinyl editions are comparable to what they would cost in the United States.

The launch event held last Saturday was also a way for Satchmi to introduce other aspects of its lifestyle brand programming. For one, they are partnering with EDSA BDG, which is opening this week.

Here, Satchmi not only plans to offer vinyl players and records but specialty books, magazines, and European board games. They believe that this best complements the specialty coffee and drinks at the new third-wave coffee and cocktail establishment.

However, Satchmi will not neglect the music: Vinyl Day 2014, a night of independent music, is currently in the works. — VC, GMA News