2012 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition brings innovation

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Bandesnaci

Now in its fourth year, the Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition has featured some incredibly original and innovative musical instrument designs. Hosted by The Georgia Tech School of Music and the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, the competition awarded this year’s winners a total of $10,000 in cash prizes. The final performances and results were webcast live on Feb. 17th, but for those who missed it, all the videos are available at the Georgia Tech website.

Marco Donnarumma won first place with Xth Sense, a wearable biophysical system which captures, amplifies and manipulates sounds produced by muscles in the human body. The organic, yet glitchy sounds produced by this are controlled by movement of the body, resulting in very physical performance.

Cracked Ray Tube, a system that “disrupts the interfaces of analog televisions and computer monitors to create self-generated electronic noise and video,” developed by Kyle Evans and James Connolly, took second place.
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SF MusicTech Summit brings all the geeks together

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Justyn Myers

The Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco was swarming with the best and brightest musicians, programmers, investors, journalists and music tech geeks in the business today at the 10th SF MusicTech Summit.

Some of the coolest stuff we saw came from the recent Music Hack Day winners, including Aaron Leese’s new VST/AU plug-in, Cloud Browser, which brings the power of the cloud into your favorite DAW. Cloud Browser lets you drag and drop content from SoundCloud, iTunes and other sources right into your mix. This is the first time I’ve seen this kind of integration on the music production side.

There was also a lot of innovation in the realm of music education technology, including the Jammit app, released about three months ago, which helps you learn new songs with original master tracks from top artists. The app allows you to mute, slow down and loop different tracks so you can practice your instrument with your favorite songs. It’s like a modern version of a method book.
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The NAMM Show 2012 controllerism roundup

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Justyn Myers

The sun sets on Anaheim, Calif. as the teamsters load up the last crates full of trade show booth parts and the leather-clad aging 80′s rockers slink back to whatever coke-fueled nightmare they came from. Another NAMM Show is concluded.

Business was done, products were announced, Stevie Wonder played some new keyboards and many new friends and connections were made. The NAMM Show is a hotbed of activity and can drive a lot of change and innovation in the industry. So what’s the next big thing? Where is this crazy world of music technology headed? I can’t really say, only time will tell.

But we did see a lot of cool stuff at NAMM, all sorts of exciting new products from all your favorite manufacturers. Here’s a quick roundup. Let us know what you think.

Akai MAX49

The Akai MAX49 features CV and Gate outputs to control analog gear

Akai has a pretty exciting new keyboard. Semi-weighted keys with after touch, built in arpeggiator, step sequencer, touch strips with LED feedback and velocity sensitive pads all make this a pretty killer box. But the most interesting feature, to me, is the analog CV and gate outputs. This thing is essentially a MIDI to CV converter, giving you control over your software DAW and your vintage analog gear. Hello eBay, time to pick up that old Juno 106! If you play keyboard, the MAX49 will definitely be a powerful tool.

Totally amazing piece of controller!

Keith McMillen QuNeo

The QuNeo is pretty much the only truly innovative piece of controller gear I saw at NAMM. I’ve been waiting for a chance to play with this thing ever since the Kick Starter was launched, and it has definitely delivered. The QueNeo has so many different layers of control on each pad – velocity, pressure, position, etc. – I can’t even visualize how to play it yet. And the fact that they managed to fit all of those features into such a small, bus-powered package is simply mind boggling! I can’t wait to spend some more time with this controller.

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Controllerism.com is going to NAMM 2012!

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Justyn Myers

Yup, we’re about to get all up in that NAMM! More than half of the Controllerism.com staff will be attending the 2012 NAMM Show in Anaheim, Calif. this weekend. So expect all kinds of shenanigans, schmoozing and geeky press coverage of all the hottest new controllerism related products from your favorite manufacturers.

I’ve been receiving an endless stream of press releases and invitations to press conferences from just about every music manufacturer known to man. I’m excited to see the 12 Step and QuNeo from Keith McMillen, as well as Livid Instruments’ new CNTRL:R. But mainly I can’t wait to see what surprises this music technology geek-fest has to offer. I mean, who knows what or who we may encounter while we’re down there. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, but you can expect continuous coverage of all things controllerism.

And, of course, there is the aforementioned Interface LA show on Friday that will feature Controllerism.com staff members Moldover and Nonagon. Carson and I will be there as well, so if you’re in the area, please come out and meet us!