design concept

Design firm Pilotfish has announced plans for an advanced music phone, Ondo, that will let you record and edit music on the go:

Pilotfish said its concept — which will reach the market a few years from now at the earliest — will enable good quality recording of three separate sound tracks and allow editing of the music by physically twisting and bending the phone.

The phone’s main touch-screen, which is similar to today’s folder phones, consists of three ’sticks’ that can be removed and separately clipped onto a musical instrument or a person to capture live sound.

According to Pilotfish, the music phone should be “should be available in 2-3 years.”

More on Ondo here.

Would you be interested in a dedicated music phone?

via cybermusic on Twitter

Designers Young-Shin Lee & Hae-Jin Jung came up with this design for a sexy music computer, the One Person Band:

Music aficionados rejoice. The idea of having only 1 device that combines multiple instruments, track recording, equalizer, sound editing, internet connectivity, and a touchscreen interface all into one compact package is drool worthy. The Vivace makes it all possible. Information is scarce on how the interface works but I have no doubt up-and-coming artists like FrankMusik and Bjork could do a lot with such a device.

Here’s another shot:

While the concept looks sort of sexy, I have yet to see a multi-touch music surface to anything that can’t be done cheaper and in a more musically expressive way with hardware.

Let me know what you think of this design. Do you think sexy multitouch functionality will eventually be better than hardware control surfaces?

The KRE-8 is a design proof of concept – which means that you can’t but it and won’t be able to buy it anytime soon.

Here are the details:

Designer Jose Tomas DeLuna thinks that there is a market for the creative music junkies who like to mix their music on the go. As a result he has conceptualized KRE8, which is mobile phone but has plenty of musically enhanced features. It’s a device that bridges musical creativity and communication.

The KRE8 splits into two and uses sensors and accelerometers to figure out the gestures you are making. Broadly there are three modes in the system: Instrument Mode (guitar, drums, violin), Mix Mode and Record Mode. So based on the gesture inputs, the system automatically slips into any one of the Instrument Modes and follows your jam. The output is recorded as MIDI Signal and can be shared with others via 3G, which can broadcast publicly or privately giving you the option to let people jam/mix along with you.

A glass touchscreen allows editing on the fly and more than makes up for the loss of knobs, toggles and sliders used for such kind of work.

What all can this device do?

The music that you create (KRE8…got the connection?) on the device can be transmitted via wireless networks and can be broadcasted to allow any other KRE8 user to listen to the composition or add to it.

The completed mixes can be stored on the wireless network and tagged with GPS coordinates. This way when another KRE8 user comes in proximity to where the original user had tagged their mixes/jams, they’ll get a notification that a creative piece was left there, and can listen, or add to it.

I listen to music but don’t make any, so I don’t know how helpful such a device will be for those who create it. However, for what its worth I think this idea is swell and will be excellent for those who make music on the go!

Check it out and leave a comment with your thoughts! Read more…

The Compose music tablet is a design concept, by Ouyang Xi, He Binbin, Zeng Li & Li Bo, intended to provide a mobile composition solution.

The pen acts as a mic that you sing into. When docked into the digital paper tablet, your vocal harmonies are automatically transcribed from the recording in the pen into a score.

For old schoolers, you can write directly on the display. It also contains sound libraries for an entire orchestra – so once your composition is finished, you can play it back.

I saw this at Yanko Design, which, unfortunately, does not link to the designers’ page or offer much in the way of information. If you’ve got any additional info on this, let me know in the comments.

DJ GO is a design concept by Continuum for a portable system containing 2 mp3/CD turntables and a mixer, combined into one unit that can fold up and turn into a carry bag.

The DJ Go’s internal hard drive stores thousands of songs inside the device, eliminating the need to carry vinyl, CDs or iPods. The intended users are beginner to professional DJs who are looking for a more nimble, convenient and efficient way to carry around their DJ equipment and songs.

It is used by hooking the device up to an amplifier and speakers, and plugging it in with a basic AC power cable.

I’ve seen much more portable DJ gear, like the Tonium Pacemaker, but this is a much more interesting combination of portability and usability.