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Gadgets, Musical Instruments
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silly
retromodo
Stylophone, Scourge of Seventies Britain, is Back, Back, BACK!
Rather like the kazoo, the Stylophone is what you might term a "musical" "instrument." The farty-bontempi sound was a feature of school playgrounds up and down the land—and even David Bowie used one on Space Oddity. And then, suddenly, rather like white dog poo, and "I choked Linda Lovelace" T-shirts, the Stylophone disappeared from view. Until now. More »
guitars
Thanks to Gibson's Powertune system, now even tin-eared guitarists can push a button, strum the guitar a few times, and then it's as if a ghost has taken over the machine, turning the tuning pegs until the guitar is accurately tuned. It tunes each string to within .02 cent, which is pretty damn close to perfection. It can tune to the default A440, or it can tune the strings to pitches that are relative to a note of your choice. You can also store a variety of tunings and quickly call them up. Hey, this could really be useful. More »
Gibson Powertune Automagically Tunes Up Guitars, Tin-Eared Guitarists Rejoice
Thanks to Gibson's Powertune system, now even tin-eared guitarists can push a button, strum the guitar a few times, and then it's as if a ghost has taken over the machine, turning the tuning pegs until the guitar is accurately tuned. It tunes each string to within .02 cent, which is pretty damn close to perfection. It can tune to the default A440, or it can tune the strings to pitches that are relative to a note of your choice. You can also store a variety of tunings and quickly call them up. Hey, this could really be useful. More »
11:15 AM on Tue Oct 2 2007
By Charlie White
19,963 views,
30 comments
Latest by n/a: yes, it can do any tuning you want, not just the traditional ones, and being able to switch from one to another in the middle of a song is the feature that appeals to me. more »
internet piano
Yamaha PSR-S900 Keyboard is Not Your Grandpappy's Player Piano
This Yamaha PSR-S900 keyboard bridges the gap between musical instruments and the Interwebs, and it can play music and connect to the Net at the same time. It has an Ethernet port that gives you a direct connection to the Internet without even using a computer, and that lets you download thousands of compositions and 7,000 karaoke arrangements. It's pretty much a computer unto itself, with a 5.7-inch 320x240 color display. Have pianos come a long way, or what? What else can it do?More »
gadgets
Blackbird Rider: Carbon Fiber Guitar Waited for this Moment to Arise
The Blackbird Rider is a guitar made out of carbon fiber that was designed using 3D CAD software. It's 2/3 the size of an ordinary guitar but makes up for that by being hollow throughout—even in its neck and head—making the entire guitar a sound box. The goal of this design was to get the sound of a big acoustic guitar in a smaller form factor that's easily portable. More »
gadgets
Hottie Amplifier: Burnin' Sound, In the Slot
That's right, that's a real guitar amplifier inside that toaster. It's a Hottie Amplifier, available in a variety of toaster styles for $149. More »
gadgets
Hello Kitty Stratocaster Guitars
So, today I realized it has been almost two months since our last Hello Kitty related post, which happens to be two months too long. So here is a Fender Hello Kitty Stratocaster guitar. It is available in pink or black and features the famous Hello Kitty head. If bass guitar is more of your bag, there is always the Bronco featuring that son of a bitch penguin, Badtz-Maru. Either guitar will set you back $200 from Musicians Friend with optional Hello Kitty accessories also available. More »
gadgets
Roland's Karaoke Music Keyboard / Digital Hub
Microsoft, Apple, Sony, Nintendo, and others want to turn your living room into a Web-enabled entertainment center. Roland wants to make it into a full-featured karaoke parlor. Their new "VIMA" keyboard is a bizarre mash-up of digital piano, digital media hub, and karaoke machine. Plug in your iPod, hit center cancel to remove vocals, plug in one or two mics, and the keyboard transforms into a karaoke workstation. The keyboard can even store digital audio, photos, and videos for making custom music videos or karaoke accompaniment, with full support for lyrics display. It's either the perfect way to start your own karaoke bar, or, if you believe the Roland press release, to create "customized family entertainment." Coming hot on the heels of the do-all entertainment center / DJ-VJ station / Windows PC synth MiKo, the VIMA is a further sign that music keyboard makers want in on the battle for the living room. But will it catch on outside Japan? (Hint: large quantities of your favorite alcoholic beverage might help the customized family entertainment.) More »
gadgets
Hohner Six-Sided Harmonica Plays the Blues Six Ways to Sunday
Blues harmonica players, or harpists as we like to be called, play the blues for a number of reasons, but one of them is that our diatonic instruments are so limited. When the band changes keys, we have to go rummaging around for another harmonica. Not any more with the Hohner Six-Sided Harmonica made by the company that's been supplying blues harmonicas to the stars for way over a century. More »
gadgets
Crystal Roc Instruments Lined With Swarovski Gems
Swarovski crystals (you know, the same kind that every Tom, Dick and Harry company uses to line their products) line a series of musical instruments from Morten Schjolin, the man who helped bring us such useful members of society as Jennifer Lopez. Given the name Crystal Roc, these instruments— microphones, drums and guitars—are also just as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside, with audio circuitry provided by the likes of Technics and Shure. More »
gadgets
Native Instruments Audio Kontrol 1: DJ and Musician-Friendly Audio Interface
It doesn't take long for DJs and musicians to figure out that internal audio cards are crap for any real work, when it comes to sound quality, features, and performance. So, with a mind-numbing array options, how do you choose a replacement? Native Instruments' new Audio Kontrol 1 could be a good choice, with a $300 list price. It's got a slick-looking, honking-huge knob on the top you can use to control sound level easily, and controls that are neither ugly nor confusing as with some of its competitors. Low-latency (4ms) USB 2.0 audio drivers let you can run your instrument through it or play software instruments without a noticeable delay, specially important on Windows. And a dedicated headphone jack lets you cue through headphones, which is handy not only for DJs, but when you want a separate headphone mix for recording or performing. There's stiff competition in this field from other terrific, cheap interfaces, but the Audio Kontrol 1 ought to be on the short list. More »
gadgets
The Breath Car
I may not have a musical bone in my body, but I can understand how difficult it is for beginner musicians to train the mouth to handle horn instruments. Matthew Brown is trying to help the beginner musicians train their controlled breathing with the Breath Car. More »
gadgets
USB One Man Band Keyboard/Guitar/Vocal Box
You sing, you play guitar and bass, you record and play live, you play keys, and now you want a single USB device to handle everything in a single box. First, you're more talented than us. Second, you might want to check out Line 6's upcoming TonePort KB37. Announced at the summer music equipment trade show this weekend in Austin, this small keyboard includes controls for your fingers, inputs for footpedals for your feet, and uses software to model amplifiers, mic preamps, effects, and stompboxes, with processing options for vocalists and guitarists alike. Line6's equipment has plenty of competition, but it tends to be affordable and reliable. You may need to grow two extra feet and two extra arms to take full advantage of the thing, so Zaphod Beeblebrox, your audio gear has arrived. More »
gadgets
Bizarre Fish-Themed Technology
Do you feel attached to your carp? Perhaps you'd like to dip it in ink, rub it on paper, and create a special "memento" of your fish. If so, the Japanese performance-art-manufacturing group maywa denki has the complete kit for you. They've also applied their fish obsession to musical instruments, with a carp-shaped glass armonica (the 18th-century instrument invented by Benjamin Franklin), a beat box in the shape of a carp (look out, Roland), and a "winged" musical device with electronic finger snappers, in case your thumb is tired. These appear to run on batteries, but you can plug in your traditional, non fish-themed hardware using a fish bone extension cord. And if you actually can't stand fish, there's even a fish swatter. More »
gadgets
Guitar Picks From Space: Meteoric Sound, Astronomic Price
Guitar players will search far and wide for the perfect guitar pick, looking for one that will give them just the right bite to their sound. But few guitar players have scoured the entire solar system for that ideal strumming implement, until now. These astronomically-expensive Meteorite Guitar Picks are each unique, and are priced as if their purveyor had to personally go out into space to retrieve every one. More »
gadgets
Datasound: Music for the 23rd Century?
We're still scratching their heads over this one, the Datasound, a device that takes digital bits and turns them into music. On the left side of the "deck," there's a turntable-like device that plays old-fashioned 5.25" floppy disks, letting you scratch its sounds similar to a vinyl record. On the right is an odd kind of sampler with various objects inside that generate data and electronic noise. Under the glass, there's a hard disk, neon light, the innards of a flatbed scanner and some other unnamed electronic objects. All of this is fashioned into an enclosure that resembles a museum case. More »
gadgets
Blue Man Group Musical Noisemakers
If you've ever experienced the Blue Man Group, you've probably wished you could get your hands on one of their other-worldly musical instruments. Now noisemakers patterned after the group's PVC monstrosities have been licensed to toy company ToyQuest, where you can get a Keyboard ($80), Percussion Tubes ($70), a Drum Suit and an Air Pole. More »
gadgets
