Music

Bose has updated its wireless speaker lineup with a new Bluetooth-enabled portable unit. Featuring an integrated cover which doubles as a stand, the Bose SoundLink Wireless Mobile Speaker is tailored for outdoor use with a built-in lithium-ion battery delivering up to eight hours of playback (make that three hours if you crank it to 11) and a shock-resistant shell/stand that's designed to withstand salt-fog, sand, or moisture. Read More

How many people out there like headphone cords? Probably not a great number, but audiophiles will tell you that hard-wired headphones offer far superior sound quality than their wireless counterparts. Sennheiser, however, would have us believe otherwise. The company states that thanks to its Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) technique, its new RS 220 wireless headphones sound like they’ve got a cord coming out of ‘em. Read More

Walk into any guitar shop in any city center and you'll be faced with rows and rows of "me-too" guitars, all built around the same few tried and trusted templates. Instrument designer and builder Hector Trevino has spent the last three years trying to break away from traditional electric guitar design and has now produced what he calls an open chamber guitar. The radical Sonic Wind guitar is said to offer players more resonance and natural sustain than more familiar solid-body electric guitar designs. Read More

Roland says that realism is at the very heart of its new Jupiter-80 performance synth. The company claims that the kind of expressive acoustic instrument authenticity delivered by its analog sound modeling technology simply couldn't have been made available before now. Studio and live performers can access a huge bank of preset sounds which are said to go beyond mere sampling of acoustic, electric, orchestral and ethnic instruments, then manipulate those sounds into something vintage, modern or futuristic, or create and store their own layered sonic stacks. Control of the action comes courtesy of a touchscreen display and numerous buttons, knobs and sliders. Read More

Since the late 90s, the holy grail of music technology companies like Line 6 and others has been to digitally re-create guitar amplifiers so that hundreds of iconic tones could be stored in one box and used in the studio or live. Unfortunately, the dynamic behavior and feel of a tube amp is an extremely complex system to understand and while many thousands of guitar amp modellers have been sold due to the sheer convenience, they could not be said to be entirely convincing. In September, a new product called the Kemper Profiling Amp will hit the streets that aims to do away with that complexity and within 30 seconds perfectly re-create any guitar amplifier. Read More

While more and more music is being created on computers with a QWERTY keyboard, researchers at the University of Southhampton are looking to bring the tangible interface one gets from actually playing an instrument to creating music on a computer. The Audio d-touch system uses a computer, a standard webcam, a printed sheet of paper and physical blocks that are moved around to determine how the computer samples and reproduces sound. Read More

I have to admit to feeling a flutter of excitement when Digitech announced its programmable iPad pedalboard. Now it's the turn of vocalists, musicians of all kinds, producers and writers to access the wealth of digital music apps available for the iPad with the release of the iO Dock, from professional audio and studio equipment manufacturer Alesis. Read More

Perhaps you’ve entertained the idea of becoming a dance club DJ, but were intimidated by the thought of those expensive turntables and mixers, not to mention the logistics of lugging them around, along with stacks of LPs and/or CDs. If so, then you’re the part of the target market for Numark’s iDJ Live. The one-piece device features two turntable-like music-cueing decks, a mixer for cross-fading between tracks, and uses your own docked iDevice as its brains. Read More

Ever since the bizarre-looking Birdfish guitar was first shown at Frankfurt's Musikmesse in 1995, there's always been a certain buzz surrounding new releases from acclaimed German luthier Ulrich Teuffel. The recent Summer NAMM in Nashville played host to a new high-end, light gray version of the teardrop-like headless Tesla guitar - featuring three custom pickups with noise controls, aircraft grade aluminum hardware and pickup covers, control knobs and fingerboard made from exotic timber. Read More