If you are into footing or running you should take a look at the new MP3 player from Yamaha that selects the songs or preloaded mixes which tempo matches your running, footing or walking rhythm. The Yamaha BODiBEAT MP3 Player includes an accelerometer and 4 modes of operation that make it work from a standard portable MP3 player to a heart rate monitor.
The Yamaha BODiBEAT MP3 Player features 512 MB (that could be better), 4 operating modes, free workout, this one plays songs that match your exercise, fitness, adapts the music to keep you in the exercise, for example plays faster songs when you are going slower, training, for those who want to create their own training sessions based on the songs, and music, that makes it work like a MP3 player; heart rate monitor and half tempo (includes songs which tempo match half your current steps per minute), learning (similar to last.fm based on skipped tracks) and normalize volume functions.
There are some other options for this kind of things like Tangerine software or doing it yourself, but this player makes it really easy. The Yamaha BODiBEAT MP3 Player will be available in fall 2007 and its price will be $300.
There have been some companies that are announcing new products but without unveiling its features until they are available. Although I don’t really think this is a good idea, we’re gonna show you the products although you’ll have to wait to see them.
The first one on this serie is the Carl Martin 2 Wah effect pedal (announced September 5), we know that it will have 6 different voicings (3 for hi and 3 for low range voicings) with two presets, level control and true bypass switch. In the official site we only have a coming soon message with a photo of the pedal, no release dates or price.
Another that comes to this group is the Taylor Solid Body Electric Guitar (announced on September 11), the known features of this guitars are Taylor custom-made body and neck shapes, contoured body with exotic woods top, aluminum bridge and new Taylor humbucker pickups (where the idea of making a solid body electric guitar started), and there will be 3 models Classic, Standard and Custom (with different finishes). We’ll probably know something more on October, and the first models will be released in January.
And the last one is, probably an error that happened in the Harmony Central website (the announcing page now appears empty), the announcing of the new Fishman AFX Acoustic Guitar Pedals which we only could read this sentence “The new AFX pedals from Fishman are specifically designed for the acoustic guitar with tonal nuances and rich natural sound”. We’ll have to wait for more details of these products.
If you are a videogame and guitar fan you shoud know that both worlds will join for the release of the new Ubisoft’s videogame. The Ubisoft Jam Sessions is a game that will transform your Nintendo DS into a guitar and as other DS’ videogames, is more funny when more people are involved.
The Ubisoft Jam Sessions will work by strumming the “guitar” with the touchscreen display and selecting the chords with 4-way cross controller. It features sounds from real acoustic guitars, built-in effects (reverb, chorus, low or high pass filters or tremolo), tutorials for people who are not musicians and its controls can be adapted for left-handed players.
With this game you can jam and play your own custom songs anywhere and anytime, and save them to record later or just to keep them. But here it comes the coolest feature, there will be a Perfomance Bundle that will include a First Act mini-amp that will be connected to the Nintendo DS.
The Ubisoft Jam Sessions is now available (today is the release day) and its price is $30, the price for the Performance Bundle is $70.
Singing ad playing guitar is a difficult task sometimes, you don’t have much time to adjust your singing effects like an harmony processor. To solve that problem Summer NAMM brings to you the TC-Helicon HarmonyControl | Guitar that will tell your harmony processor the right key and scale so you can freely add harmony to all your songs.
The TC-Helicon HarmonyControl | Guitar is connected between the guitar and pedalboard or amp and is connected through a MIDI cable to the harmony processor. The device analyzes the chords from your guitar and send the info to the harmony processor, you don’t need to do nothing. Its main features are guitar mute (to control the harmony in a song that hasn’t a guitar track), built-in tuner, guitar-controlled chord mode, set a chord mode preset and play along, listen key/scale, the device will recognize the key from the chords you’re playing and auto-detect, MIDI cable will easily recognize TC-Helicon products.
This device works with TC-Helicon harmony processors like VoiceLive, VoiceWorks and VoiceWorks Plus but also with Vocalist series, VHM-5 or Korg iH, you can look at the complete list on the official site. Price and availability of the TC-Helicon HarmonyControl | Guitar have to be announced yet.
We talked about the MP3 trainers from Tascam but, what happens if your music is not in MP3 files and you don’t want to convert them? Tascam has released new versions of the same trainers with a CD reader unit that can read 8 and 12cm CDs.
The Tascam CD Trainers (CD-GT2 guitar, CD-VT2 voice and CD-BT2 bass trainers) have some more features than its MP3 brothers like flash back function (instant replay of last 5 seconds), 3 octaves oscillator, footswitch connector, 10 banks for user effects and mono (left & right, only left or only right) and sprit (left channel for CD and right channel for mic/instrument) monitor modes.
But they also have the same features than the MP3 versions like variable speed audition technology that can change pitch without affecting key, instrument/voice canceling, metronome, tuner, mic/instrument input, line and headphones outputs, …
Availability of the Tascam CD Trainers has to be announced yet, but the price will be $199 each.
After the success of the MP3 guitar trainer, Tascam has released voice and bass versions, MP-VT1 and MP-BT1 respectively. That way all the band members can train with their Tascam devices.
The devices feature track canceling (bass and vocals) to play/sing along your favorite bands, USB port to load MP3 files, built-in metronome and tuner, included multi-effects, variable speed audition technology that can change the speed without changing the pitch and enough internal memory to store up to 240 songs.
Other features of the MP-VT1 Voice and MP-BT1 Bass trainers are bass/mic inputs, headphone/line output and input volume control. The Bass MP3 trainer specific features are seamless looping and bass range booster, while Voice MP3 trainer specific features are balance control keys between mic input and playback and built-in reverb and echo in the input.
Price and availability have to be announced yet.
I’m sure a lot of you like to sing when listening to your favorite songs so why don’t eliminate the original singer and give it a try as a rock star. The i-Sing MP3 Karaoke is the first compact and portable karaoke and has the P.D.S.R. technology (play -> display -> sing -> record), so if you’re a fan of American Idol or Singing Bee this is your teacher.
The i-Sing MP3 Karaoke features original vocal track elimination, recording of your performances, built-in mic and speaker, LCD display to show the lyrics, 512 MB internal memory and SD memory card slot. The karaoke comes with a software to create the lyrics for your songs through the computer or in the device.
You can even create your own personalized lyrics, even your own music, and choose if you want to make a duet with the band’s singer or sing alone. The i-Sing MP3 Karaoke is now available in some Wal-Mart stores, its price is $120.
If you are planning to create your own small radio station, I don’t know if there’s too much people thinking this now, but this product can be useful for already existing radio stations. The Denon DN-C640 Network CD Player is a multi-format CD player, means that no only reads music CDs, but also MP3, WAV, WMA or PCM CDs or DVDs, that can stream the music files through the network.
The Denon DN-C640 Network CD Player features 2 stereo channels, 10 Hz to 20 KHz frequency response, 104 dB SNR, internal sample rate converser (working with 32, 44.1 or 48 KHz formats), up to +12% pitch control, 2 analog unbalanced, 1 analog balanced, 2 digital (S/PDIF and AES) and 1 headphone outputs, Fast-Ethernet, serial, parallel and infra-red connections and remote controller.
This player can find one song file from the CD in 1/75 seconds and comes with a web interface to control the device. The Denon DN-C640 Network CD Player is now available and its price is $699.
If you are going to Montreal Musician and Musical Instrument Show (belonging to the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal) and have some money to spend you might want to take a look at the very limited edition guitars that Godin Guitars have built specially for the show. Ten guitars which sale’s proceeds will go for MMMIS Music To Youth Fund that promotes music activities for young people.
The complete set of Godin MMMIS guitars include A6 Ultra, Redline1, Multiac Jazz Spruce, LGXT, ACS Nylon, Triumph and other acoustic models from Godin Guitars’ related brands. All this guitars have been hand-painted by designer Yves Archambault (born in Quebec, Canada), that also named their creations with names like Instant Karma, Tupelo and Sketch of Spain.
If you want any of these beauties you have to do it fast, the MMMIS starts tomorrow. By the way, we wish our US readers to have a happy 4th of July.
When I saw the photo for the first time, of course I didn’t read the title, I though it was an strange new Les Paul guitar but then I realized that there wasn’t a perspective problem, the guitar was very small. The Gibson Signature Series Les Paul Standard Flash Drive is a perfect gift for all the Les Paul fans that could carry their own recording files in a small replica of their favorite guitar.
The Gibson Signature Series Les Paul Standard Flash Drive is a 1959 Les Paul Standard (with honey burst finish, I think) replica that features 1 GB storage capacity, USB 2.0 port, status LED, 14Mbps read and 6Mbps write speeds and USB extension cable (they could have make it like a instrument cable with jack termination). The device, to make it more freak, comes with a Gibson USA hardshell case replica to protect the flash drive.
If you have near you a Les Paul fanatic, you know what you can give him for his birthday. The Gibson Signature Series Les Paul Standard Flash Drive is now available and its price is $89.99.
