You may not be familiar with the company Tronical but you will know their work because they are responsible for Gibson’s Robot Guitar tuning systems. Well judging by this video it appears that Tronical are about to launch some standalone systems that can be retrofit to pretty much any guitar be it a Les Paul [...]
Category: Audio
Five Features We Want to See in Google Voice
Google Voice is one of those great services none of us knew we needed until it came along. Now that it’s here, we’d like to suggest a few changes that could shape it into an even better productivity tool.
Why offer up our unsolicited advice on where Google should next look to improve its phone-controlling service? Because we, and many of our readers, spend a good chunk of time thinking up dream uses for our computers and gadgets, and we want to see those dreams come true. To firm them up, and make a geeky, early-adopter service something everyone can benefit from, we offer up these five features and fixes we’d like to see Google Voice take on.
Not quite sure what Google Voice can do already? Take a tour around our screenshot-filled first look, and read our take on who does and doesn’t need Google Voice.
Phoning It In – The First Album Made Completely On iPhone
Nuclear O’ Reilly produces the world’s first album done entirely on the Apple iPhone.
The album, entitled Phoning It In, was created from start to finish on the iPhone app Beatmaker by Intua Software.
We utilized the Beatmaker app by Intua Software to create this electronic music project. From writing to delivery, the only hardware used was the Apple iPhone. The freedom of this mobile studio app allowed us to create our newest music on the go: at friends’ houses, parties, on the crosstown bus, and on the world famous A train, to name a few spots.
The album is available as a free download (.zip file).
Demo of MIDI Mobilizer and Planet Waves Rig Remote iPhone Application
When used with the upcoming Planet Waves® Rig Remote™ application for Apple® iPhone™ and iPod® touch, the MIDI Mobilizer™ gives guitarists the freedom to control Line 6 Variax® digital modeling guitar
Abbey Road online marks ‘death of traditional studio’
If you fancy letting some of the UK’s leading music and sound engineers from London’s world famous Abbey Road Studios master your music then you just might be in luck.
Musicians and producers can now upload their music at abbeyroadonlinemastering.com to have it mastered for CDs (from a mere £90 per track) or vinyl (from £150 for a 7-inch single) ‘to put the Abbey Road finish to their music.’
The new service gives musicians the ‘opportunity to have recordings mastered by Abbey Road Studios’ award winning engineers in their famous mastering suites’ with your CD or vinyl delivered to you within five working days beginning from point of purchase.
Total Guitar magazine’s Stuart Williams reminded TechRadar that ‘mastering is the often expensive, rarely fully understood final stage in the recording process… it’s the icing on the cake of your mixes.’
And, Williams added: ‘While there are plenty of mastering processors and packages available on a relative budget, top end equipment, experienced ears and a transparent acoustic environment are usually premium commodities. Abbey Road’s new online mastering service opens up a world class level of quality at a project level price-point.’
Abbey Road online
So how do you get your tunes mastered by the best? Simply head over to www.abbeyroadonlinemastering.com upload up to 2GB of uncompressed stereo WAV or AIFF audio files to a secure server (with a bit depth of 16 or 24 bits and a sampling frequency of 44.1kHz).
The studio’s press release adds: ‘Abbey Road Online Mastering work will be carried out in its mastering rooms which house a varied range of classic analogue equipment and the latest in digital hardware and software technologies; namely the original and exceptional EMI TG mastering consoles with the SADiE 5 PCM8 digital audio workstation.
‘The Studios are all also equipped with Neumann cutting lathes for vinyl, Meyer and B&W main monitoring, Benchmark A/D/A’s, outboard from the likes of Prism, Weiss, Junger, SPL and TC Electronics and an extensive range of the CEDAR software plug-ins.’
Jonathan Smith, General Manager, Abbey Road Studios, added that they were ‘delighted to launch our online mastering service and offer the expertise of our engineers to producers and musicians anywhere in the world’ and that the initiative was ‘a fantastic opportunity to make that Abbey Road sound available to emerging talent whilst continuing our tradition for innovation within music technology.’
Death of tradition
All of which begs the question – is this latest move from Abbey Road the final nail in the coffin for the traditional studio?
‘Yes, the traditonal studio is dead,’ agrees Joe Wilson, lecturer in Popular Music at the University of Gloucestershire.
‘It is very diffcult for studios to make money from just recording acts, when technology has allowed artists do it themselves and in their own environment(though with a detriment of standard).
‘With Abbey Road offering this service they are cashing in on their heritage status, but it is telling that a studio with this reputation has to offer this service.’
(Via TechRadar: All latest feeds.)
Notable and Crazy Sony Cassette Walkman Editions
Sony’s cassette tape Walkman came to life in many shapes and forms through the years. Here are a few of the great, the important and sometimes plain weird Walkman models.
The original TPS-L2 Walkman went on sale 30 years ago today, July 1st 1979, in Japan. It played stereo and had dual mini headphone jacks for sharing audio with a friend. There was a mic, but it was not used for recording, but to output your voice to your buddy’s headset so he could hear you over the music. The press received it in a lukewarm fashion, but the device took off thanks to celebrity product placement.
The 1981 WM-2 is the first attempt at making a Walkman so small, its only slightly bigger than the tape.
Brian May’s homemade guitar
Seven Sexton sent us a link to this awesome 1992 video of Queen‘s Brian May talking about “The Fireplace,” his famous electric guitar that he and his dad built from scrap bits such as a mantle from a 100-year old fireplace (hence the name), a chunk of a table, a spring from a motorcycle, a piece from his mother’s knitting needle, etc. Amazingly, this is not some fragile relic he keeps in the closet, but a working guitar, one you’ve heard on many Queen songs. His family was poor and his dad built most of their home electronics, including their television and radio. Wonderful, inspiring little piece. I love the opening quote from him:
I’m still a kid. Basically, I LOVE the sound of the guitar. I love making it. I love standing there and making that noise.
(via MakeOnline)
Songbird 1.2 Integrates into iTunes and iPods
Windows/Mac/Linux: Songbird is a powerful, clever music manager, but iPod/iPhone integration is its Achilles’ heel. The latest version aims to halfway heal that weakness by integrating tightly with iTunes playlists, while adding custom library management and Last.fm radio.
Full import and export functionality from Songbird to iTunes does, in a way, make it possible to manage your iPod touch or iPhone music (and other iPods you could already could sync) from Songbird—you just have to actually sync the device through iTunes and set it to grab those Songbird-managed playlists. Whether that’s an acceptable or convenient hack depends on how you regard iTunes, but it’s at least a nice gateway for those using more than one media player and Apple’s more locked-down devices.
More useful for the serious music collector is Songbird’s new folder and file management features, which definitely scores over iTunes’ one-size-will-fit-you-all option. It’s not quite boolean, but you can get specific on how your album folders and track titles are named. Last.fm radio works just like you’d think it does, and there are a good number of speed boosts and bug fixes included and explained at the Songbird blog linked below.
Songbird 1.2 is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.
Songbird 1.2 is here [Songbird Blog via ReadWriteStart]
(Via Lifehacker.)
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