Tag Archives: Music

Jameasy Helps You Practice the Violin at CES

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Jameasy LogoIt’s only natural that musical performance and technology would collide in some interesting ways at this year’s CES. Musicians, music teachers, and students are always looking for new ways to hone their skills. And eager hardware/software developers are stepping up to provide some innovative tools to help.

One such company is called Jameasy. Todd met with Dawon from Jameasy. Dawon is a violinist (and a capable one at that). She showed off the Jameasy system which uses a Bluetooth-enabled sensor on her violin that measures all kinds of information from the instrument and transmits it to the Jameasy app on her iPad. The app then tracks her performance and shows her where her playing might be off from the original composition. Correct notes show as green, wrong notes as red, and notes that were just a bit off show up as yellow.

The Jameasy system is expected to retail for between $59 and $99. Jameasy is planning on expanding its product to all stringed instruments, but the product will be available for violin first.

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Noted Adds Support For SongSync, Spotify, Apple Music

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Noted SongSyncNoted, the music-centric social sharing service that lets users receive a “news feed” style stream of songs selected by friends, has added support for SongSync, Spotify, and Apple Music. From a recent Noted e-mail announcement:

 

SongSync lets you integrate with your Spotify/Apple Music account to share songs and build playlists across services.

Here’s an example: Now friends can share a music video from YouTube and you’ll be able to add it to your Spotify playlists through Noted.

In order to use SongSync with Noted, users should follow these steps:

  1. If using Noted on a mobile device, update to the latest version.
  2. Sync with your favorite library (if you aren’t a paid subscriber, choose YouTube for full tracks).
  3. Noted automatically converts every available post to your synced services and your posts to your friends’ services.

Once the process is completed, Noted users will have automatically synced playlists on connected services based on their own Noted activity, as well as the activity of friends. This is a pretty handy feature, as it can be difficult to follow everything happening on Noted, especially if a user has a lot of friends.

Noted has stated that this is only the beginning of its SongSync integration and that it will be sending more information and tips about how to best utilize the service.

Spotify rival SoundCloud arrives in the UK and Ireland

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Music streaming has become a big deal with many major players like Google, Apple and Amazon in the game. However, the biggest player in the game these days seems to be Spotify, but it’s tough competition in a crowded market.

Now SoundCloud is trying impinge on its territory and it announces availability in both the UK and Ireland. The name may not be as familiar, but the streaming service is becoming a major player in this market.

This is a bit different, as it features up and coming unsigned artists as opposed to established acts. However, there are 125 million tracks available.Don’t worry though, there are top 40 songs as well.

“And just like in the US, we are sharing part of that advertising revenue with a growing number of creators. When you hear an ad, artists get paid”, the service claims.

There is also paid plans available, which run £9.99 per month in the UK or €9.99 in Ireland on Android and £12.99 / €12.99 on iOS.

Nervana is Changing the Way You Feel Music

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Nervana playerMusic fans have explored many options over the years to heighten their experience while listening to their favorite jams; Hi-Fi stereo sets, finely tuned components and speakers, and mind/mood-altering chemical substances to name just a few. But what if you could truly enhance your music experience using only a handheld media player and a set of earbuds? That’s exactly what Nervana is hoping to do.

Nervana is self-described as, “The World’s First Consumer Product to Stimulate the Body’s Pleasure Center in Synchronicity to Music.” The prototype Nervana player resembles a classic iPod. It uses special internal technology along with a unique set of earbuds to stimulate the user’s Vagus nerve:

NERVANA is a wearable device that sends a gentle electrical wave through the left ear canal to stimulate the body’s Vagus nerve, while syncing with music. This elicits a calm, relaxed feeling for most users in a natural way, which stimulates the brain’s pleasure center, known to release neurotransmitters (the body’s feel-good messengers).

In more technical terms….A central signal-processing circuit receives both music and stimulation signals and routes those signals appropriately to the two ear buds. The right ear bud receives only the right channel of the music signal, which is output to a hand-picked, high-fidelity speaker in the right ear bud. The proprietary left ear bud, in comparison, not only receives the left channel of the music signal at its speaker, it also receives the stimulation signal within the ear bud material itself, to deliver electrical stimulation to the inside surface of the ear canal and, thereby, the Vagus nerve.

Nervana is currently running a fundraising campaign thru Indiegogo. The campaign has been incredibly successful, having raised 445% of its $75,000 goal with a month left to go. A contribution of $279 will guarantee you a complete Nervana player/earbud system which is a slight discount from the device’s anticipated retail price of $299.

Music Sharing App Nuziki becomes Noted

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Noted homepageLast Fall, I wrote about a new social music sharing app called Nuziki. Since then, the folks at Nuziki have been busy updating and improving the service. This month, Nuziki announced it would be changing its name to Noted:

You spoke and we listened. We’re making some major changes based on the feedback you’ve given us. The biggest news of all is, we’ll be doing it under a new name… Noted.

Your username / password will be the same and all of your history will transfer. If you have ANY problems, let us know immediately and we will correct it.

Update the app to get Noted and don’t be scared when nusiki.com redirects you to noted.fm.

Noted exists to solve the problems that you’re having… so please continue to tell us what you want and we’ll continue to build it.

Until then, enjoy the new noted.fm and we look forward to what the future holds!

Indeed, my old Nuziki bookmark takes me straight to the new Noted website and my old account carried over without any problems. I have been using Noted a lot lately. I’m finding it to be a good place to go when I’d like to be exposed to new music. Noted creates a “news feed” style playlist of songs that have been posted to the site by other users I’ve followed. I’ll admit, I haven’t been very picky about who I’ve followed on Noted. I’ve pretty much followed every account I’ve come across. But for a service like this, that’s kinda the point. I’m there to experience things that I wouldn’t normally choose for myself. And since most of my connections on Noted are strangers, it offers some great opportunities for real music discovery.

Noted is free and is available on most major platforms. Feel free to look me up if you decide to check it out.

Beats for Baby from Babypod at WTS

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The article and interview concerns an intimate feminine product for use during pregnancy. If this is likely to offend, please stop reading now.

Most children enjoy music, rhythm and dance so it doesn’t take much of stretch of the imagination to think that even unborn babies would respond to music while in the womb. Unfortunately there’s a great deal of sound-deadening material between the baby and the outside world. Remember those times when you could feel the music inside? How loud was the music then? Going by my experience, it was ear-ringingly loud, and consequently the problem is getting the music through to the baby without deafening mum. Fortunately, Babypod have the answer to this problem; Andrew finds out what it is from Alex.

As you’ll see from the pictures, the Babypod is a small silicone rubber ovoid with a built-in speaker. To use, the Babypod is inserted into the vagina, bringing the music much closer to the unborn child in the amniotic sac. The attached stereo cable is plugged into a smartphone or mp3 player to play music, and there’s a secondary audio jack to share the music with mum. When in use, scans have shown babies to respond to the music by sticking their tongues out or shaking their heads, with 87% of babies responding to music.

The Babypod website has much more to say on the benefits and the safety of the Babypod itself but it does appear to have been trialled scientifically and safely. The Babypod is available now for just under GB£100.

Babypod

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Gibson Guitars and G Force Self Tuner at CES

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Gibson LogoGibson produced their first electric guitar back in 1936 and since then, the name has been synonymous with the instrument. This doesn’t mean that Gibson trades on its history alone and the company remains at the forefront of instrument innovation. The latest “High Performance” series is the most innovative guitar they’ve ever made. Daniele Mendez gets a demo of the latest axe from Christopher Oliphant of Gibson.

These new SG-standard guitars have a range of new features, from physical changes to the contour of the neck heel through to auto-tuning. The new G Force tuning system self-tunes to both standard and alternate tunings, and the new version is faster and more accurate than before. Extremely easy to use, all the guitarist needs to do is press a button and strum the strings. The guitar will take care of the rest, tuning only one string or all strings. It’s not just for electric guitars either as the G-Force system is now fitted to high-end acoustic guitars too. Amazing to watch in action!

All the guitars are available now with prices from US$1,099 for the “High Performance” models.

Daniele Mendez is a video producer at F5 Live: Refreshing Technology.

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