A quick search through the posting archives reveals that we have not put forth an audio tech roundup since June 3rd.
The wait is over! In honor of it being Friday, we will end the drought and allow you to devour tasty bite-sized morsels of audio-related information.
To get the ball rolling, check out the piezoelectric fibers developed by MIT's Yoel Fink. Piezoelectric materials (or contact mics as they are often called in the audio world) generate an electric field as a response to applied physical strain, allowing them to produce and detect sound. Fink's piezoelectric fibers could be used to develop fabrics that would work as a speaker or microphone.
Being so new, the piezoelectric fibers are yet to yield a music-making device, but the technology could create something worthy of this list from PSKF. The trends research and innovation company offers up 10 futuristic musical instruments that could make their way into the mainstream. Items on the list range from new spins on century old gear (bows for string instruments with embedded sensors) to completely new toys (the Swarmatron analogue sound generator, pictured above).
Moving toward the more mainstream side of audio technology, new ZEM headphones use a single amplifier to produce pure sound in the earpieces. These snazzy ear goggles have the ability to imitate studio conditions for listening in even the noisiest of spaces.
Also of note in the world of rich, high fidelity sound, UK's APRS (Association of Professional Recording Services) recently drew a crowd of professionals to Mark Knopfler's British Grove Studios to demonstrate the PenteoSurround 3D Audio process. PenteoSurround has created technologies and services that convert any stereo audio into 5.1 surround sound, with automatic downmixing back to stereo- sort of surround sound on steroids, if you will.
Perhaps 3D audio would improve the listening experience of the recently remastered Duran Duran albums. EMI's latest versions of the Brit pop bands catalogue drew criticism from fans and Andy Tailor, the group's guitarist, who's Twitter feed stated, “sounds like it was done down the pub."
Sony, on the other hand, is attempting to eliminate the pub-audio aesthetic from classical music downloads. They announced the launch of an online store dedicated to classical music, and perhaps jazz as well. The specialty store will feature high fidelity downloads, and will include music from the other big labels--Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group (WMG) and EMI.
Lastly, for anyone with bright ideas who aspires to make their way onto a PSKF list of new instruments, or perhaps even a humble blog posting such as this one, MidemNet Lab is calling for music tech startup entries for its 2011 edition.
