This project is a 3D recreation of the Teenage Engineering TP-7 sound recorder, designed and modeled entirely inside Spline3D.
The goal was to capture the clean industrial aesthetic and tactile personality of the TP-7 while keeping the model light, responsive, and web-ready.
Modeling Process
All modeling was done using Spline’s native primitives — no imported meshes.
Every component was crafted using cubes, cylinders, circles, and spline curves, combined through boolean operations to achieve the recorder’s precision-cut design.
The disc area and buttons were shaped from base cylinders and cubes, refined with boolean subtractions for realistic seams and separations.
The side knobs and sliders were created with spline curves and cylinders for subtle bevels and curvature.
The overall proportions were referenced closely from the original product to preserve Teenage Engineering’s signature minimal geometry.
This approach kept the model clean, procedural, and editable — perfect for real-time web use.
References used to accurately model the sound recorder
Texturing & Lighting
Rather than heavy texture maps, I relied on Spline’s built-in materials and layered gradients to simulate the soft metallic sheen of the TP-7.
Subtle ambient lighting and a single directional light were used to preserve shadows without slowing performance.
The minimal palette — shades of matte silver and soft gray, with a pop of orange accent — stays true to the product’s industrial identity.
Matcaps used from Spline's library to keep the scene lightweight.
Optimization
The final model runs smoothly in-browser, with:
Minimal polygon count
Lightweight scene structure for embedding
The project was optimized for web with a loading score of 99 and a file size of 950kB while maintaining a premium visual finish.
Takeaways
Modeling entirely within Spline pushed me to think creatively about using basic shapes and boolean logic to achieve complex, high-precision forms.
The end result is a model that not only looks accurate, but also performs seamlessly in web environments — exactly what makes Spline powerful for interactive product showcases.
A lightweight, detailed, and interactive 3D model that reflects the craftsmanship and clarity of Teenage Engineering’s design philosophy — built natively inside Spline, from scratch.