The i-Sing MP3 player encourages singing along wherever you are

Ancient Zimbabwean wisdom suggests "if you can walk you can dance, if you can talk you can sing" though we're sure it is also true that if you can hold a note, carry a tune and belt out something relatively pleasant to the ear, everyone has more fun. There is currently a renaissance of music sweeping the world. More people are listening to more music thanks to the low cost high convenience MP3 player, and advances in user-friendly software and devices mean more people are beginning to explore not just listening to music but making it. One such device is the i-Sing, an MP3 player with the ability to digitally cancel out the original artist's vocals on any track, display song lyrics and record the user's own vocals over the instrumental tracks at the touch of a button. Bound to be popular with fans of the (insert country here) Idol TV phenomenon, the i-Sing harnesses some very cool technology and combines it with childproof ease of use.

Karaoke evolved only recently as a mainstream entertainment form, starting in the bars of Japan and spreading to lounge rooms, bedrooms and family automobiles thanks to MP3 karaoke background tracks proliferating and karaoke games on the almost ubiquitous game platforms where they have reached quite a high level of sophistication. The i-Sing, from It's Outrageous, is a very cool step forward in the evolution of the karaoke phenomenon, a portable device that can turn any music track into a vocal-free karaoke track, and allow kids to record their own vocals over the song to show their friends.

The process of recording the latest hit song with your own voice in the lead vocal spot is very simple - obtain an MP3 of the song, type the lyrics (or your own version of the lyrics) into the included Lyric Creator software, and transfer the tune to the i-Sing. While the track's playing, you then have a single-touch button that uses a complex and effective digital signal processing algorithm to strip the lead vocal out of the mix, and another button that records the user's voice onto the backing track through the built-in microphone or another that can be plugged in. There's a built-in speaker so you can play the song back to a group of mates, or a headphone jack if you suspect your efforts may be best kept private. Sound quality will be firmly set at consumer-kiddy level, so recording engineers needn't fear for their jobs just yet.

It's debatable whether giving the wider public the ability to record their own versions of the latest Britney tunes should be viewed as a good or evil use of science, but the i-Sing is certainly a nifty product ... to the user, if not the weary businessperson sitting opposite them on the train.

i-Sing product specifics include:

Play

Download up to 120 3-minute songs onto 512 MB of memory SD Expansion Slot for up to 2gb More Storage or approximately 500 more songs 10 Hours of playback time, rechargeable battery Music plays through built-in speaker or headphones for private listening

Display

Special lyric creator CD and software enables the user to easily input lyrics to songs Inventive software allows users to personalize songs by creating their own lyrics Lyrics stream across i-Sing Lyrics stream across computer screen Visual Lyric Creation and Display on Personal Computer

Sing

Patented voice elimination technologies reduce or eliminate singer's voice to create instrumental karaoke music Sing into i-Sing microphone as the lyrics appear on the screen Listen to your voice through your headphones, internal i-Sing speaker, or plug i-Sing to your home stereo for big boom Karaoke Sound.

Record

Voice elimination feature allows user to record own voice over instrument-only, karaoke accompaniment Playback newly recorded songs Built in Microphone or plug in microphone for singing and recording