Riding on the popularity of the Guitar Hero game comes the POWER TOUR Electric Guitar from Tiger Electronics (Hasbro). While the game is meant as a loose guitar simulation for players of all ages the POWER TOUR is actually aimed at teaching the younger set the basics of playing the instrument.
The neck of the guitar lights up where your fingers should be placed while you learn to play six different rock classics including Wild Thing and Smoke On The Water. A strum sensor replaces the need for strings or a pick and you can even connect the guitar to your MP3 player and play along with whatever songs you’ve downloaded legally purchased. What’s particularly cool is that the POWER TOUR guitar is designed to look like an actual Gibson SG electric guitar and even has the Gibson branding on the headstock.
The POWER TOUR Electric Guitar is available in a white or black finish for $69.99 and if the instrument’s built in speaker isn’t annoying enough for you there’s even a POWER TOUR Amp you can buy ($49.99) complete with a volume dial that goes to 11.
Casio has ruled the low-end electronic keyboard market for many years now but I predict their reign of terror will soon be over once people discover you can actually store a piano in a can. Available from StrapYa the fact that this keyboard can be rolled up is not that unusual. What is odd though is that it rolls up into a can that’s adorned with graphics of a somewhat depressed looking duck. Maybe he’s just sad that the keyboard can’t play chords, sharps or flats and is missing quite a few keys when compared to a full-sized piano.
Still at only about 9$ the Piano In A Can could be fun for a few hours. And for those that are curious I’ve included a video of it in action after the jump.
This tubey balloon monster that’s taken over the atrium of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles is a sculpture/industrial waste depository/musical instrument designed by artist Tim Hawkinson. Called Ãœberorgan, it’s air powered and can play hymns and pop music. At least, that’s what the description says it plays, but I can’t for the life of me discern any actual melodies coming out of the thing:
The Ãœberorgan uses an array of photosensors to read dashes of black paint as they move past on a 250 foot long roll of laminated paper. Each dash activates a valve, channeling pressurized air through a sort of trumpet thing, which sounds until the dash ends (much like a player piano). Although it definitely doesn’t sound any less, um, atonal in person, it’s quite impressive to see. The Getty is free and there’s a bunch of other, you know, arty stuff in there, so check it out if you’re in the LA area. The Ãœberorgan will be on display until September 9.
You can add another item to the ‘current fad’ list today, roll-up-(insert product name here.) So far I’ve only seen computer keyboards and pianos but now you’ll be able to easily carry your synthesized drum kit too thanks to this roll up USB drum set. It uses six pads that can each be configured with different sounds or samples from an included library. Hopefully you can add your own as well.
The included software also has a learning feature if you’re just starting out that allows you to play along with a song at your own preferred tempo. Once you’re more confident with your skills you can even record your beats and put together a killer demo tape.
The Drum Kits should be available by the end of April (from Dream Cheeky) for about $30 with a limited initial run of 1000 units. More will be available come August but at an increased price of $45.
As we grow up most of us move onto ‘big person’ toys like gadgets, video games or even cars. But it seems that Jeff Hoefs is still fascinated by the building blocks he enjoyed as a child. So much so that he’s constructed this multi-track drum sequencer that uses specially designed wooden blocks to represent the ’samples.’
The blocks are laid out in sequence on the interactive board and each block actually has its own sub-sequence identified by the blue tape. Electrical contacts on the board touch contacts on the blocks allowing each one’s sequence to be recognized and played back. The Beat Blocks can even be integrated with MIDI hardware or use MIDI to connect to a computer. And while the prototype shown here only has 4 tracks future versions designed for actual performances will include up to 8.
Now here’s an impressive bit of hacking. Someone has programmed two Kuka industrial robotic arms to function as scratch DJs. Each robot is surrounded by a collection of vinyl records and of course a turntable that has the tone arm raised up off the platter. The robots act independently of each other and will each retrieve a single piece of vinyl and then bring it around to the needle with a surprising amount of accuracy and precision. Once the needle rests on the record the robot then spins the vinyl back and forth not unlike an actual scratch DJ does.
From what I can tell in the videos (included after the jump) the Kuka Juke Bot is even capable of properly positioning the needle to hit a particular sample while it’s placing the vinyl under the cartridge. And sure while it’s no DJ Q-Bert it still does an impressive job given its limitations.
Watch a couple videos of Kuka in action after the jump.
First it was Gibson who hi-tech’d up their electric guitars with the HD 6X Pro model and now Yamaha is doing the same but with one of their acoustic models instead.
Apparently amplifying an acoustic guitar can result in the desired sounds being lost in unwanted but unavoidable feedback so to resolve this the CPX900 features a new 3-way preamplifier system specially developed by Yamaha. The A.R.T. as it’s called (Acoustic Resonance Transducer) uses four special contact pickups strategically placed in the guitar’s audio sweet spots that “dramatically reduce feedback while achieving rich, beautiful and natural tones.” The controls on the side of the guitar also include a 3-band EQ for fine-tuning the sound.
The CPX900 lists for $1,400 but can be found online for about $850.
Since I don’t know of a professional studio out there that doesn’t rely on digital technology these days for the recording and mastering processes it seems odd to me that analog pickups and mics are still a common means for recording instruments. Now I realize that most instruments are analog in nature but the sooner you can get that sound converted to a digital signal the cleaner it’s going to be in the end.
Gibson seems to be heading in the right direction with their new HD 6X Pro electric guitar. First off the most important aspect is that the guitar is a traditional Les Paul design so that the musician doesn’t have to compromise by playing on some weird digital hybrid. The pickups on the HD 6X are a new ‘Hex’ system designed by Gibson that uses 6 small humbuckers positioned under each string at the bridge that send 6 individual signals to studio-grade preamps allowing them to be immediately digitized.
These digital signals are then sent to a BoB (break out box) via a special ethernet port designed by Gibson called ‘MaGIC’ that can carry up to 32 bi-directional channels of audio over a single cable. The BoB can then be connected to a multi-channel sound card where the guitar can be recorded with a piece of professional software such as Cakewalk SONAR which is included with the instrument.
The Gibson HD 6X is available now and retails for about $5,000.
I personally don’t think it’s ever a problem with the hardware that prevents most people from learning to play a musical instrument like the piano. Sure learning proper finger placement and what key relates to what note is an important first step but the hardest part is really sticking with it through the endless hours of practicing year after year. That’s where most people fail.
Well unfortunately while there’s no clever trick to getting someone to dedicate themselves to the practicing part there’s at least an easier way to get past the first hurdles of actually learning what keys to press. The LK-100 keyboard from Casio has special keys that light up indicating what key to press next as you play through the built-in library of songs that range from pops to more classical pieces.
The Casio LK-100 can be found at various online retailers like Amazon for about $120.
The next time you’re booed off the stage at your local pub instead of going home and dedicating yourself to improving your guitar skills just grab a few of these light-up picks and at your next gig everyone will be too mesmerized to realize you actually suck.
The Light Pick from Santa Cruz Light Wells comes in light, medium and heavy gauges and a variety of colors for both the LED lights and the picks themselves. And to avoid having to buy a whole new pick when it wears out the nylon tips can also be easily replaced.
However if you’d prefer to go the practice route instead the Light Pick can help you there too since the LEDs can function like a metronome with seven different programmable beat patterns.
The Light pick is available starting at $59.99 and replacement tips can be bought for only $1.29 each.
Related Tags: Instruments, Toys
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By Andrew Liszewski
By Andrew Liszewski
