Technology News

iBand Gigs with iPhone Instruments

Source: All About Jazz
July 21, 2008

GEEK ALERT! Geeks Form First iBand With iPhone Instruments

Small format, handheld touch screen musicians are the future, so you had better get used to it. If you haven't seen Pocket Guitar (iPhone guitar) or iAno (iPhone piano) function on Apple's iPhone then you're going to jaw drop when you hear the newly formed band of geeks calling themselves iBand. It' the first iPhone band to form around touch screen instruments and the delusion of miniature rock stardom. ...

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Guitar Amp Sim Power User Tips

Source: All About Jazz
July 21, 2008

While some people debate endlessly whether amp sims sound just like the “real thing" or not, others are forging ahead and creating new sounds with these new tools.

Reality check: If you want the exact sound of a Vox AC30, well, buy a Vox AC30. But if you want a sound that's based on an AC30 but then goes places conventional hardware can't, amp sims can do some fun tricks. Like these...

NATIVE INSTRUMENTS GUITAR RIG

Better Sound. Click on ...

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Class D Amplifiers Are Shrinking and Greening Your Electronics

Source: All About Jazz
July 20, 2008

Class D Amplifiers

Technology has democratized the music industry in many obvious ways -- notice how every band, regardless of stature, has a MySpace page? But one of technology's more subtle effects has been to make our sound systems smaller, lighter and greener.

The special sauce: Class D amplifiers, the first real advance in speaker design in decades. These amps were once thought to be appropriate only for low-end audio devices like cellphones. But with continuing refinements they have started ...

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World Mural Project

Source: All About Jazz
July 20, 2008

Four Score and some years Musicians Find it Hard to Land a Gig

Forty years in the future, humanity will be on the brink of mass extinction due to its blatant neglect toward the environment; robots will steal most of our jobs (even mine); I'll be too old to care about technology. But those are just my predictions. Let's hear what people less jaded have to say -- the children, in particular. The Intel Computer Clubhouse Network on Thursday launched ...

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Bass Management: Taming the Wild Upright Bass

Source: All About Jazz
July 20, 2008

Recording Technics These days, the upright bass is not just used in jazz, classical, rockabilly, and country music.

It's everywhere from roots rock to hipster lounge to salsa. It's also known by many names: double bass, contrabass, bass violin, bass fiddle, string bass, and, thanks to some Wikipedia research, bull fiddle. Whatever it's called, however, you'll likely be recording this beast someday, and here are some tips for capturing the instrument's ballsy tones.

First Steps The ...

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Science and Art of Recording Acoustic Guitar

Source: All About Jazz
July 19, 2008

String Theories IT DON'T PHASE THEM

Some of the most innovative guitarists in the world -- and the engineers who record them -- share their scientific, artistic, psychological, and sometimes complex approach to capturing a good acoustic guitar sound. It's an often painstaking and complicated process. And you thought all you needed was a mic and recording machine. Oh, if only it were that simple!

The concept of stereo and multiple miking an acoustic instrument to provide proper ...

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MLB to Track Homers with Holograms, Database

Source: PC Magazine
July 19, 2008

For years, bleacher bums could pretend that their home run ball was hit by Barry Bonds, rather than Duane Kuiper. No longer. Major League Baseball will now validate home runs with a special hologram, which fans can verify in an online database. In addition, through a partnership with IBM, a special portal will be made available to umpires to allow them to plan schedules, plan for inclement weather, or receive a heads up on a possible beanball war that might ...

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Who Wants to Play a Rock Star? You Do

Source: PC Magazine
July 19, 2008

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It turns out everyone just wants to be a rock star. Music-genre video games “Guitar Hero" and “Rock Band" are bona-fide smash hits, entering the rarefied air once reserved for only the elite first-person shooters, “Mario" games or sports titles. And success breeds imitation. Music games seemed to be everywhere at this week's E3 video game trade show and it wasn't just Activision Blizzard Inc showing off its upcoming “Guitar Hero: World Tour" or MTV Games, ...

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