MIDI

Carrying around all the various equipment needed for studio recording, rehearsals or live performance, you'd be forgiven for not noticing all the extra bulk caused by laptops and associated peripherals needed to record, play, store or reload Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) settings, sequences and song data. But if you're on the lookout for something more portable then Line 6 has just announced the MIDI Mobilizer, a hardware interface designed to work with any iPhone or iPod Touch.  Read More

When it comes to teaching children music, getting the little dears to bash away on a piano or strum away on a guitar usually isn’t too hard. Teaching classical music notation, however, is a different prospect entirely. The Noteput table concept from designers Jonas Heuer and Jürgen Graef attempts to make learning music theory fun, and also more effective, by combining the senses of hearing, sight and touch.  Read More

The bizarre looking Eigenharp is what you get when you roll a guitar, saxophone, keyboard and a drum kit into one, and it's capable of delivering an almost limitless supply of musical sounds. The unique design of the keys, breath pipe and pedal inputs allows a musician to easily change scale or key, alter tempo, switch and layer multiple sounds and play and record loops – all during a live performance. Will this instrument revolutionize the electronic music scene?  Read More

A software engineer based in Sydney, Australia has created a digital guitar controlled by open source software which he hopes will see musicians play electronic music in a live environment. Players control the pitch, speed and volume of notes produced by the Misa Digital Guitar via a 24 'fret' neck and touchscreen interface.  Read More

Pioneer Electronics is a name synonymous with innovation in the DJ industry. The company's latest offering is no exception, the DJM-5000 – an audio mixer designed specifically for the growing number of mobile DJ’s and entertainers. It incorporates five products into one neat package; an audio interface, MIDI controller, microphone effecter, audio processor and second zone mixer, which gives users much greater control over their performances and cuts back on the amount of gear they need to carry around as their requirements grow and change.  Read More

While it's awfully easy to sit in front of Guitar Hero or Rock Band for hours on end, having the discipline to practise a real instrument for the long hours required to reach proficiency (and mastery) is much harder. Roland's Drum Tutorial DT-HD1 is the first of many products we've seen at CES 2009 that will help change this.  Read More

March 3, 2007 - Parents rejoice! Finally a video game that you can give to your kids with no immediate hesitation or eventual regrets. The results of long hours spent in front of the game aren't just honed reflexes and hand-to-eye coordination, but the gift of fluency in the most beautiful and timeless language of all...music.  Read More

November 28, 2006 Music on the DS has just taken a giant leap beyond musical games like Electroplankton, thanks to the efforts of German programmer and musician Tob. Previously, using MIDI with the DS required getting geeky with a soldering iron - now the DS's internal WiFi card can be used to wirelessly send/receive MIDI to and from a "server" running on a PC.  Read More

September 21, 2006 Whether it's the pads, the swing, the workflow, or just the countless hours clocked up with one in a dark room, Akai's 'Music Production Center' (MPC) family holds a special place in the heart of beat makers and samplists the world over. The newest addition to the line up is the battery powered, ultra portable MPC-500. Combined with a microphone and a set of headphones it's a field recording and portable studio setup that fits in a backpack with room to spare - a dream come true for musicians on the go.  Read More