Posts tagged as:

instrument

Misa Digital Guitar – Future Rock!

by Jay Garrett on February 2, 2010

If you’ve been brought up with playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero then you may be surprised to discover most guitars have strings.

Most……?

Well this bad boy uses a large touchscreen to get you shredding.

The Misa Digital Guitar is the work of Sydney-based designer Michael.

It has 24 frets and a large multifunctional touchscreen which hooks-up to the appropriate software on your pc.

It is an advanced type of MIDI controller that is powered by a 500MHz AMD Geode CPU and runs Linux under the hood – you don’t need Linux to use the guitar though.

The Linux firmware code is open source, which allows programmers to modify it to their liking.

While MIDI controllers and guitar-emulating synthesizers are nothing new to the music world you have to admit that the Misa does look rather more special than a short keyboard with dials and knobs.

I am obsessed with digital guitar. But I also love electric guitar, and I have learned what it’s good at and what it’s capable of. Some of its most important qualities and characteristics stem from the very fact that the electric guitar is made out of wood and strings. A guitar string is “beautiful” – because the sound generated comes from the very vibration of the string, interfering with a magnetic flux and inducing an electric voltage, which is then amplified. Why would you want to emulate that? It is perfection. It is pure nature. It is in the analog domain. I did not intend the Misa digital guitar to replicate a traditional guitar.

Watch and listen to the clip below:

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percussa-audio-cubes_1I’ve just been pointed in the way of the Percussa Audio Cube website and I’m totally intrigued.

This totally looks like a cool, futuristic way to make music.

The cubes work with your existing audio software through MIDI as well as with any existing VST plug-ins that you have and require minimal setup.

Templates and sounds are already included to get you started quickly.

If there’s a bunch of you using AudioCubes they’re able to ‘talk’ to each other wirelessly without any complicated setup.

AudioCubes are available in a set of 1, 2, 4, 8.

The more cubes in a set, the more you can save on your cubes and software.

One cube setups are great for quick hands-on manipulations of effects, while 2 and 4 cube setups are great for Live performance and more complex sound and music creation. The 8 cube set gives you the ultimate hands-on setup to control various aspects of your music and performance simultaneously.

I’m eager to give these a blast and I bet they’ll look good on stage :)

Check out the vid clip below.

Percussa AudioCubes – An Introduction from percussa on Vimeo.

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Reactable Musical MultiTouch Table

April 2, 2009 Click to read more →
Thumbnail image for Reactable Musical MultiTouch Table

This is pretty cool and I can easily image Jean Michele Jarre having one of these in his living room
The Reactable built by researchers at Pompeu Fabra University has been doing the rounds at various trade shows and it looks like those same people are actually forming a company (Reactable Systems) and putting the device [...]

Korg Kaossilator – Pocket Sample Synth Studio

February 19, 2009 Click to read more →

The Kaos pad has been used by people such as Radiohead to manipulate live samples and generally mess around with sounds.
It’s a groovy tool/instrument but is a tad on the expensive side if you just wanted to have a play-thing.
But now you can get your hands on a Korg Kaossilator portable synth for about £70-80 [...]

Guns and Stars Cable – Scenesters Prepare To Want!

February 4, 2009 Click to read more →

Ok scenesters, glamsters, sleaze fans and perhaps gangstas – here is an instrument cable for you.
What better than stars and guns to set the mood before you flick the switch and crank out something at 11?!?
Say “howdy” to the Pistol Instrument Cable.
Shove one end into the axe of your choice (no doubt a beat up [...]

Apple Gives Music Lessons via New Garageband

January 6, 2009 Click to read more →

Here’s a bit of news that will make quite a few people happy, especially my bro – who’s getting a guitar soon so he and his daughter can learn to play
Apple has unveiled a new version of Garageband that, as well as adding some new features, includes the option for users to actually [...]

Zoybar – Modular Guitar Kit – Build Your Axe

November 24, 2008 Click to read more →

I play in a variety of bands and projects with an equally ecclectic range of styles.  I could be playing out-and-out pop one day and then a few days later playing Drum and Bass and then covering an Iron Maiden set.
It would be great to have the choice of set-ups, necks and pickups for each gig.
That [...]

iPhone – Is That A Piano In Your Pocket? Grand!

July 1, 2008 Click to read more →

Fancy tinkling in your jeans pocket?
Well to avoid embarrasment you could do with iAno or Pianist as it is more recently known.
Don’t expect a full keyboard – the iPhone aint THAT big!
What you do get is five key polyphony so you can rattle off Cmaj9s and such thanks to its multi-touch screen.
There’s even soft and [...]

Another Gibson Robot – The SG

April 12, 2008 Click to read more →

Remember the Gibson Robot Guitar? The amazing auto-tuning Les Paul that covers various tune settings as well as the regular A440.
Well, now Gibbo have released a buddy for the Les Paul in the shape of the equally iconic SG.
Both models will apparently be available in a funky, Prince-tastic purple metallic finish, and will go [...]

Beamz Makes You Jean Michel Jarre!

March 31, 2008 Click to read more →

For all of you JMJ wannabes you get can one step closer by playing lasers just like the great man himself!
The Beamz Laser Music System uses a series of six lasers which you can break with your hands in order to ’play’ instruments such as guitars, violins and even a cowbell (!!??)
There’s 30 preloaded backing tracks and musical genres that can be played [...]

Revolution R2 – Star Wars Style Synth

February 25, 2008 Click to read more →

Here’s a pretty cool looking synth by Future Retro.
The Revolution R2 looks fantastic with its aluminum construction finished in gun metal grey and white with blue leds.
It has a circular sequencer interface, which allows single handed control as well as remote pattern selection using MIDI program change messages.
A built in remix feature allows 265 variations for each [...]

iBand – The most lightweight band so far?

February 22, 2008 Click to read more →

Back in the day jamming with your buddies involved carting real instruments to a garage/studio/back room of the local Workingmens Club, etc and making a racket - now it seems like anyone with a coupla iPhones and a Nintendo DS can become the latest in New York avant-garde. 
My real gripe is that this could be then end of “must have own [...]