gadgets

Joel Ong, Frank Chen and Justin Leow from Cornell University built this Programmable Synthesized Guitar for their ECE 4760 Final Project.

“Our basic idea is to model an acoustic guitar as closely as possible and then implement additional functions not available to the conventional guitar. This includes allowing the play of the guitar with sound being output to earphones, allowing for practice without disturbing others, as well as a chord-learning mechanism based on LED-signalled instructions and other functions. A close modeling would mean that we use push buttons to simulate actual depressing of strings at specific fret locations, calibrate vibration sensors to detect strumming of guitar strings, and faithfully recreate a representation of the guitar body. For the production of guitar strumming sounds, we used the Karplus-Strong algorithm that synthesizes a plucked string sound signal.”

via abbtech

The Mentalists may get their 15 minutes of fame as the first iPhone girl group.

They do a cover of Kids, by MGMT, on their iPhones and iPod Touches, using only apps downloaded from the Apple App Store. Apps used include Ocarina, Retro Synth, miniSynth and DigiDrummer Lite.

via ijustine

Precisionsound has released Retro Gadgets Vol.1, a collection of 3 legendary retro toy keyboards.

Every half note of the instruments natural range and articulation possibilities has been captured.

The content of Retro Gadgets Vol.1:

Dubrek Stylophone (Black)

The most common of the Stylophone models with a middle range. Every half note with and without vibrato has been sampled.

• A total of 40 WAV files.
• 4 programs for HALion/Kontakt.
• 2 programs for SoundFont

Dubrek Stylophone (White)

This is the high pitched Stylophone model. Every half note with and without vibrato has been sampled.

• A total of 40 WAV files.
• 4 programs for HALion/Kontakt.
• 2 programs in SoundFont format.

Waddington Compute-A-Tune

A more advanced and very good sounding -70ies keyboard, rare to find and with a “bleep” sound that suits electronica and retro pop well.

• A total of 144 WAV files
• 13 programs for HALion/Kontakt
• 3 programs in SoundFont format.

Retro Gadgets Vol.1 costs $25 (+$11 if you want it on CD).

More information is available at the Precisionsound site.

PenguinRadio and Solutions Radio have announced the US release of the Web Radio, a standalone Internet radio appliance that streams Internet radio and podcasts without the need for a personal computer.

“This is not Internet radio for geek,” said Andrew Leyden, CEO of PenguinRadio. “This is Internet Radio for geek’s moms and dads.”

Users plug in the device to their home network, office LAN, or regular telephone line and connect to the PenguinRadio central database of radio stations and podcasts from PodcastDirectory.com. The radio automatically connects to the Internet and starts streaming media from broadcasters and podcasters around the world. Within seconds, the device with PenguinRadio’s database of stations can be operating with the simplicity of a clock radio. Read more…