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Music
Music does indeed improve the mind
By Mike Hanlon
21:48 March 16, 2009 PDT
March 17, 2009 A number of studies over the years have reported positive associations between music experience and increased abilities in non-musical (e.g., linguistic, mathematical, and spatial) domains in children. Now a new study, published this week in the Journal Psychology of Music, report that children exposed to a multi-year programme of music tuition involving training in increasingly complex rhythmic, tonal, and practical skills display superior cognitive performance in reading skills compared with their non-musically trained peers. Read More
Wacom nextbeat: wireless digital DJ controller
By Tim Hanlon
17:29 March 15, 2009 PDT
Wacom has taken an unlikely detour from the digital imaging market to create the nextbeat, a complete digital DJ package with a wireless control unit that can be removed from the base unit, and promises to liberate DJs from the booth - but we're not quite sure how that works when the headphones jack is located on the base unit. Read More
Apple's new talking iPod Shuffle
By Darren Quick
23:20 March 12, 2009 PDT
Call it anti-social if you like, but a lot of people listen to portable music players to avoid being spoken to. This hasn’t stopped Apple adding a new VoiceOver feature that speaks song titles, artists and playlist names to the latest iPod shuffle while also shrinking it to nearly half the size of its predecessor. The third generation Shuffle can store 4GB (around 1,000 songs) worth of music in a unit that is smaller than an AA battery. This reduction in size has seen the controls moved from the unit itself onto the included earphone cord - an immediate issue if you don’t happen to like Apple’s earphones. The featureless aluminum design includes the usual built-in stainless steel clip for wearability, but the feature sure to get the most interest is VoiceOver. Read More
Silent Drum wins applause
By Darren Quick
22:27 March 10, 2009 PDT
New technology means new ways to create and express music and new types of interfaces that broaden the definition of a "musical instrument" way beyond traditional parameters. Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology seeks to recognize the creators of new musical instruments with the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition. The first winners of the competition include a robotic guitar, SLABS touch pad and a Silent Drum that generates sound by manipulating the elastic spandex head of a drum shell. Read More
For sale: second-hand 1952 Gibson Les Paul Guitar (with history)
By Mike Hanlon
14:26 March 7, 2009 PST
An auction next week in London will see a guitar of quite remarkable lineage go under the hammer. The 1952 Gibson Les Paul was once owned and made famous by cult UK blues legend Duster Bennett, the “One Man Blues Band”. The guitar was given to him by Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac who got it from Eric Clapton. Clapton received it from the blues king BB King, who acquired it from Muddy Waters. Remarkably, the guitar is only expected to sell … Read More
Yamaha's hybrid digital piano - the Avant Grand
By Darren Quick
23:34 March 1, 2009 PST
Yamaha’s new Avant Grand digital piano fuses twenty-first century technology with Yamaha’s more than a century of piano-crafting experience. The result is a digital piano that mimics the touch of an acoustic piano by using the same key, level, and hammer mechanisms of an acoustic piano combined with special embedded speakers to recreate the feel of an acoustic piano's keys to the player's hands. Read More
Gizmag road test: Sonoma Wireworks 4-track recorder for iPhone
By Loz Blain
19:58 February 12, 2009 PST
The song you're about to hear will probably never win a Grammy, but it was recorded entirely on an iPhone using only the equipment that came with the phone - and one very nifty application. FourTrack, from Sonoma Wireworks, is a US$10 iPhone app that brings 4-track audio recording capabilities to the iPhone, including the ability to adjust the volume and pan of each track. Each track is recorded to WAV at CD quality and auto-compressed - and once you're done you can WiFi the results straight to your computer. Apart from a couple of niggles, it's a pretty amazing little songwriting tool that lets you flesh out a tune with harmonies or instrumental tracks when you don't have GarageBand handy. Read More
Learn guitar using laser guidance
By Darren Quick
19:56 February 9, 2009 PST
Guitar Hero and Rock Band have allowed masses of people without the time or patience to learn the guitar to become Rock Gods in their own living rooms. For those looking to take the next step and pick up a real guitar, this concept for a guitar learning aid from designer Eugene Cheong promises a faster transistion. The “Maestro” would attach to any guitar and get budding guitarists jamming in record time by using lasers to guide their fingers. Read More
BeatBearing: drum sequencing gets touchy feely
20:02 January 22, 2009 PST
Readily accessible electronic platforms have paved the way for some innovative music, but in the process some of the magic of physically interacting with an instrument can be lost. Belfast PhD student Peter Bennett has set out to investigate different ways in which to blend tangible interfaces with new musical instruments, and one of his creations known as the BeatBearing is drumming up a storm on YouTube. Read More
Disney Star Guitarist: Guitar Hero with a real guitar
By Tim Hanlon
13:01 January 14, 2009 PST
US Music Corp., parent company of several music brands including Washburn Guitars, have partnered with Disney to create the Disney Star suite of applications - which unlike console-based music games, will teach children to play a real guitar or piano using familiar songs from Disney franchises like Hannah Montana and High School Musical. Read More
Roland's DT-HD1 drum tutorial software will teach you to play the drums
By Tim Hanlon
22:36 January 10, 2009 PST
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
Ears-on with Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones
By Tim Hanlon
00:15 January 10, 2009 PST
While we covered the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones back in July 2008, it took a trip to the Monster Audio booth at CES 2009 for Gizmag's Tim Hanlon to get his ears on a set. So how do they compare with the benchmarks set by the German engineering coming out of companies like beyerdynamic and Sennheiser? To put it bluntly, he was blown away. Read More
Shure announce PG27USB/PG42USB condenser microphones and X2u XLR-to-USB adapter
By Tim Hanlon
00:06 January 7, 2009 PST
With the democratization of digital music recording and production in full flight thanks to applications like GarageBand, Shure have released three new USB-based products to cater for the ever increasing market of users who need to record audio to their computers, but don't have access to professional pre-amplifiers - the PG27USB and PG42USB USB condenser microphones, and the X2u XLR-to-USB adapter which turns any existing XLR microphone into a plug-and-play USB microphone. Read More
Pacemaker portable digital DJ system gets an update, lower price
By Tim Hanlon
23:59 January 6, 2009 PST
We first covered the Pacemaker portable digital DJ system back in June 2007, and it has since won a number of awards including a CES Innovations and Engineering Award for 2009. A new model targeted at consumers has arrived with a smaller 60GB hard drive, a lower price point (US$550) to match, and one key new feature designed to aid beginner DJs - the ability to beatmatch and synchronize two songs with a single button press, and get straight to the fun stuff like EQ, filters, effects and crossfading. Read More
iTunes changes: more DRM-free music, three-tiered pricing and iPhone downloads over 3G
By Tim Hanlon
11:45 January 6, 2009 PST
Apple today announced a number of changes to their popular iTunes Music Store, with all four major labels on board to offer a substantially increased range of music in the DRM-free iTunes Plus format, access to the store available via the 3G network for iPhone users, and a new three-tier pricing system. Read More
GarageBand '09 will teach you how to play guitar and piano
By Tim Hanlon
10:52 January 6, 2009 PST
Today at MacWorld 2009, Apple unveiled the next feature to be added to their entry-level music production application GarageBand, that is sure to capitalize on the mass of budding musicians created by games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero. The software ships with nine included lessons for the guitar and piano, and an integrated store that allows you to buy "Artist Lessons" from famous musicians such as Sting and John Fogerty. Read More
Parrot announces sleek Philippe Starck designed wireless speaker system
21:25 December 21, 2008 PST
Renowned and prolific French Designer Philippe Starck has added to his diverse portfolio in a collaboration with wireless specialist Parrot. The result is the 'Zikmu', an iPod ready wireless speaker system that combines Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capability with 360° NXT surround sound in a design that's a fusion of modern minimalist lines and 70's bell-bottom fashion - it certainly works for us. Read More
Roberts digital kitchen radio
By Emily Clark
03:27 December 8, 2008 PST
This digital Kitchen Radio from ROBERTS fits neatly under the kitchen cupboards and offers a range of features, including - yes - an egg-timer, making it a nifty cooking companion. The space-saving design means the radio won’t encroach on your much needed counter space when cooking up a storm. Read More
Guitar Hero World Tour vs Rock Band 2
By Tim Hanlon
22:21 December 7, 2008 PST
After initially shunning the idea of the full band game, Activision caved, and decided to bring the Guitar Hero franchise up to par with the release of Guitar Hero World Tour - just in time to compete with MTV's sequel to Rock Band, the game that brought music video games to the next level last November. We've spent (far too much) time with both games to bring you this in-depth comparison. Read More
Good Vibrations: the musical and military instruments of Leon Theremin
By Kyle Sherer
21:17 November 30, 2008 PST
After the close of WWII, Russian schoolchildren presented the U.S. ambassador with a “gesture of friendship” in the form of a two-foot wooden replica of the Seal of the United States. Behind the beak of the eagle was a miniscule listening device so ingeniously designed that it took eight years before a routine check unearthed it. The era of electronic bugs had begun, and it was largely thanks to the brilliant mind of Leon Theremin: musician, inventor, and prisoner in Stalin’s gulag. Read More
Lenovo's IdeaPad S10 Reviewed
By Tim Hanlon
19:36 November 25, 2008 PST
Netbooks are typically a "me too!" product, created by manufacturers who think their Intel Atom-based, small form factor notebook is going to stand out from the countless others, despite little to no attention being paid to the areas that could differentiate their product from the rest. Lenovo's IdeaPad S10 is a welcome deviation from the norm that's just as suited to the touring musician as it is to the couch surfer. Read on for our full review. Read More
Gibson Les Paul Dark Fire - every imaginable guitar sound
By Loz Blain
00:47 November 24, 2008 PST
Gibson Guitars have pushed the envelope forward again - barely a year after the release of the self-tuning 'Robot Guitar' in 2007, the company has announced its next-gen technology with the Dark Fire, which incorporates an upgraded Robot tuning system and adds a piezo neck pickup system to let the player blend acoustic and electric sounds for a much broader tonal range. Gibson sees the Dark Fire as a guitar that tunes itself in seconds and offers such a wide range of tone that you only need the one axe for the whole gig - but how will this progressive instrument be received by the market? Read More
RXS launches two new Bluetooth adaptors
By Darren Quick
03:21 November 19, 2008 PST
November 19, 2008 Everyone hates headphone cords trailing around everywhere and getting in a tangle, which is one of the reasons Bluetooth has proven so popular for listening to music from Bluetooth capable players and phones. For those whose phones and portable music players aren’t Bluetooth capable, RXS has released two new adapters, which add Bluetooth functionality to iPods, iPhones or any device with a 3.5mm headphone socket. Read More
UK retailers create logo for promoting DRM free MP3s
By Emily Clark
19:26 November 6, 2008 PST
Ten years after the release of the first MP3 player, seven UK-based music download retailers are giving the universally compatible format a promotional boost by adopting an “MP3 compatible” logo to indicate they are able to be played on every PC, Mac and on virtually every digital music player. Read More
Onkyo upgrades THX Certified Home Theater Package
By Darren Quick
21:48 October 30, 2008 PDT
The new Onkyo HT-S9100THX combines a home theater receiver with a 7.1-channel home theater speaker system, all of which were designed to conform to THX's Integrated System Plus certification protocols. It also boasts1080p capable HDMI v.1.3 connectivity, Faroudja DCDi video upscaling, Audyssey 2EQ and Dynamic EQ, and complete decoding for the latest high resolution audio formats. The system also includes the new THX Loudness Plus technology which compensates for the tonal and spatial shifts that occur when the volume level is reduced below the reference levels. Read More
windykites1
- November 24, 2009 @ 19:38 UTC
