Spirit of cassette mix magic returns with MakerBot 3D-printed Mixtape

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The dictaphone-like tape box contains the electronic components and the USB cable

The Mixtape kit includes the MP3 player and battery and a USB cable for uploading music to the onboard storage

STL file of the plastic spools, ready for home-based 3D printing

STL file of the main body, onto which the other 3D-printed components are snapped

The Mixtape kit - featuring instructions, electronics and USB cable. The design files will need to be downloaded and fed into a 3D printer

All the components printed and ready for assembly

The main body of the Mixtape, which doesn't necessarily need to be black

The electronics fit in the middle of the main frame, with the 3.5mm headphone jack pointing down

The final part of assembly is to slot in the plastic spools to hold everything together

Assembled and ready to rock

Playback is controlled using the buttons on the front of the Mixtape

MakerBot has also made a ready-assembled Mixtape available to buy

The ready-built Mixtape is printed, assembled and shipped from MakerBot's Brooklyn workshop

MP3 music files can be dragged and dropped onto the 2GB of built-in solid state storage from a Mac/PC via USB

The 3.5mm headphone jack should be at the bottom of the Mixtape when assembled

The compact cassette mix tape of old has been given a modern update by MakerBot Industries with a DIY home 3D print kit that snaps together to make a wonderfully retro tape-shaped Mixtape MP3 player

MakerBot has tweaked the design files to produce this one-off Gizmag edition of the Mixtape

Article Summary

In the days before CD, MP3 or iTunes, when Sony's Walkman was just about the only mobile music player worth having, hip young music lovers engaged in the painstakingly intricate process of recording a 45-minute-per-side compilation of favorite tunes onto an audio cassette tape. A kind of forefather to today's MP3 playlist, the mix tape was about creating a unique musical identity, an expression of personality that could be shared with those near and dear. Technology marches relentlessly on and tapes are now all-but extinct, replaced by digital files on smartphones and media players. The essence of the compact cassette mix tape has now been given a modern update by the folks from the MakerBot Industries Applications team in Brooklyn, New York, with the launch of the 3D-printed Mixtape do-it-yourself music player kit.

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