We’ve already brought you a t-shirt featuring a playable electronic drum kit on the front, but what if snares, high hats and cymbals aren’t your thing? Well there’s now an alternative for you hippy-types with this electronic bongo t-shirt.
Each of the 4 touch-sensitive bongos on the front of the shirt produces a different sound when tapped thanks to a battery-powered speaker hidden inside the tee. The speaker and other electronic components are also easily removed, allowing the 100% cotton shirt to be washed, which is important because at $59.99 from Latest Buy you’ll be wanting to wear this thing as much as possible to get your money’s worth.
A Minneapolis-based company called Zivix has developed a real guitar with special fingertip sensors allowing it to be used with games like Rock Band or Guitar Hero. The idea is that players who’ve spent countless hours mastering the games might actually be able to learn to play a real guitar at the same time, since the Headliner features strings and is the same size as a standard electric guitar.
There’s no official release date for the Headliner just yet, but according to an anonymous submission on Slashdot, Zivix has managed raise about $800,000 and hopes to have the guitar on store shelves sometime this year. But convincing gamers they should shell out $249 for the ‘real’ experience provided by the Headliner, as opposed to the not-so-real experience of a $40 Guitar Hero ax will probably be the company’s biggest hurdle.
Designed to accompany your Roland HD-1 V-Drums Lite set (pictured above) the DT-HD1 Drum Tutor software might not be as fun as Rock Band, but it looks like a better learning tool if you have drumming aspirations beyond just getting a new high score.
With the HD-1 drum kit connected to your PC via an included USB-MIDI interface, the Drum Tutor software provides an easy to follow notation screen complete with a bouncing ball, timing check and indicators for what your left and right hands should be doing. And if you’ve found that Rock Band makes practicing for hours on end a little more enjoyable, the Drum Tutor software even has a Tetris clone game where you learn proper drumming techniques while trying to rack up a high score.
The DT-HD1 Drum Tutor software will be available come March for about $75, while the HD-1 V-Drums Lite are available now, and can be found at sites like Amazon for around $800.
Tired of your guitar being laughed at by all the other guitars at rehearsal? Well I guarantee they won’t be laughing once you connect one of these bad-to-the-bone pistol shaped cables. Ok, technically it’s just the jack that’s pistol shaped… Ok, just the jack’s sheathing, but it still shows all those other musicians you’re not taking any crap! The cables feature “99.99% oxygen-free copper conductors and dual-shielded construction with a single end termination for strikingly fuller tone and drastic noise reduction, quality-molded connectors with corrosion-resistant 24K gold-plated tips to preserve signal strength, and flexible symbol-printed jackets” and come in lengths of 12 ft ($24.95) or 20 ft ($27.95) from Core One Creative.
Not all of us are as naturally talented at drumming as Animal is, but thanks to modern technology, who needs natural talent any more? The FielDrum was created by Graham Grindlay while he was at MIT as part of the Magnetic Musical Training project, and one aspect of the project’s hypothesis was whether or not people could learn to play an instrument by feel, which led to this concept.
The FielDrum’s a regular old acoustic drum that’s been upgraded with a system of electromagnets, permanent magnets and various electronics to induce a push and pull force on a special pair of drumsticks, basically guiding a novice drummer to follow along with a beat. The prototype uses MIDI to control the attract and repel states of the drumsticks, but eventually the team would also like to add a position sensing system so the drummer-to-be could easily learn where on the drum they should be playing.
The Drawdio was originally created by Jay Silver, and it’s basically a simple music synthesizer that uses the conductive properties of graphite in a pencil to create unique sounds based on what you draw on a piece of paper. In fact the name ‘Drawdio’ is a combination of the words draw & audio. As you can see in the photos, it’s built around an actual pencil, and while mechanical pencils work just fine, you’ll apparently get better results by using something with softer graphite.
To use the Drawdio you hold the pencil in one hand so you’ve made good contact with the copper tape wrapped around the body, and then touch your finger on your other hand to what you’ve drawn on the paper. The current from the AAA battery on the pencil flows through the graphite and uses your body as a sensor, producing a unique series of sounds based on what you’re drawing. It’s kind of hard to explain, so just take a moment to check out the YouTube video I’ve included showing the Drawdio in action.
Building your own Drawdio is apparently not that difficult, and you can find the parts list and assembly instructions on the Ladyada.net website. Alternately, they’re also available for sale from Adafruit Industries in an easy-to-solder kit for just $19.50.
Speaking of folding keyboards, the VAX77 MIDI Controller from Infinite Response is designed for musicians who travel without the benefit of roadies to move their equipment for them. The keyboard splits in the middle thanks to a set of pre-stressed hinges, but when opened it’s not only solid, but the keys perfectly align at the split point, so there’s no compromises when playing.
The VAX77 also comes pre-loaded with preset lists from “several dozen popular hardware and software synths” and includes the necessary PC & Mac software to upload hundreds more. A built-in touch screen LCD display allows you to manage the synth library directly on the keyboard, and also provides other functionality like virtual sliders and drawbars. The VAX77 is set to be unveiled at the NAMM show in Anaheim in mid-January, at which point pricing information will probably be announced.
The piano isn’t exactly the most portable of instruments, and you’d be hard pressed to stuff even the smallest of Casio keyboards into a backpack. But these Piano Hands gloves can be easily carried in a coat pocket, finally giving you the chance to put those years of piano training to good use as a street busker.
Each fingertip features a sensor that corresponds to a particular note, and you can even shift up an octave by pressing down with the heel of your hand. In addition to a synthesized piano sound, the gloves can also simulate 7 other instruments including an organ, violin, trumpet, music box, guitar, drums and mandolin.
The Piano Gloves are available from I Want One Of Those for about $92.00 which is actually kind of expensive. But don’t worry, with a lucrative busking career you should be able to pay them off in about 6 years.
Inspiration can literally strike anywhere, but what if you’re a musician who’s just come up with the next Grammy winning song and don’t have any way to document it? Well that wouldn’t be a problem with the iDea guitar from Ovation. It features a built-in MP3 player, and while the technical specs are a bit vague, I have to assume it’s got a few gigs of flash storage onboard allowing you to capture an impromptu performance at a moment’s notice.
On the side of the guitar you’ll find a control panel with an LCD display, mic input and USB connection, as well as a 4-way controller for navigating the menus and a set of basic EQ sliders covering the bass, mid and treb. You’re able to record just the guitar, the mic or whatever’s connected to an additional aux in jack, or you can mix them together for a more elaborate performance. Other features include a pitch-stable variable speed playback option, so you can slow things down while practicing a recorded song, and of course the ability to easily sync your recordings to a PC via the USB port.
The Ovation iDea Acoustic/Electric guitar is available now, and you can find it online for around $600.
By Andrew Liszewski
Related Tags: Clothing, Instruments
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By Andrew Liszewski
