Pull on these USB enabled gloves and you’ll be on your way to creating music just by tapping your fingers on a flat surface. Each fingertip plays a different note. The gloves which are attached to a speaker, are powered by 4 AAA batteries and offer you the choice of 8 different instruments, 20 different background rhythms, along with volume and tempo control.  You can purchase these Electronic Piano Gloves from Brando for $35.

Filed in categories: Musical Gear, News

Tagged: Instrument, Spotlight Gadgets

Turn any surface into a piano with Brando’s Electronic Piano Gloves originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 19, 2011 at 5:30 pm.

The Eigenlabs Eigenharp Alpha is a radical looking USB electronic instrument that requires a Mac to play. The Alpha is a professional level instrument which allows the musician to play and improvise, change scale and key, transpose, alter tempo, program beats, create arrangements, switch and layer multiple sounds all while performing live on stage. Check out this extremely cool version of the James Bond Theme being played with two of these instruments. I would love to have one of these, but the $6450 price tag made me want to scream like a little girl.

Filed in categories: Musical Gear, News

Tagged: Instrument, Spotlight Gadgets, USB

The Eigenharp Alpha will guarantee you a spot in the Star Wars Cantina Band originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 16, 2009 at 6:03 pm.

If your previous attempts at learning to play an instrument ended in failure, the Novation Launchpad might be your ticket to musical bliss. This device is an audio controller that you can use with your computer. It consists of an 8-by-8 panel of buttons. Each button is used to launch an audio event – a sound sample, a rhythm, melody loop, etc. Start a rhythm from the library of provided samples, then layer additional sounds on top, edit to taste and bingo, you’ve created a song. You can even plug a microphone into your computer to add live vocals or other sound sources. Launchpad by Novation sells for just $199 and is available at fine music retailers everywhere.

Filed in categories: Musical Gear, News

Tagged: Instrument, Music, Spotlight Gadgets

An instrument for the terminally tuneless – LaunchPad originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 5, 2009 at 6:19 pm.

The Rhythmring is a small polycarbonate tube filled with beads that you wear on your hand to add some extra rhythm to your guitar and ukulele playing while you strum, without hindering your playing.

Filed in categories: Musical Gear

Tagged: Instrument, Music, Spotlight Gadgets

Rhythmring adds some cha cha to your guitar playing originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 5, 2009 at 4:35 pm.

Friend of The Gadgeteer and music man extraordinaire Mark Rosengarten sent me an email tonight to tell me that he’s waiting to take delivery of a Tenori-On. Since I had no clue what he was talking about, I went directly to my BFF Google for the 411. The Tenori-On is a really wild looking musical instrument from Yamaha. It has a 16×16 matrix of LED switches that you touch to play different tones. It looks like a Lite-Brite for the 21st century and could be a lot of fun to play with. I’m sure Mark will come up with a cool song to feature it. In the mean time, here are some Tenori-On YouTube videos to check out.

Filed in categories: Musical Gear

Tagged: Instrument, Spotlight Gadgets

Is it a Lite-Brite or a musical instrument? originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 27, 2009 at 9:51 pm.

The DT-4 is a strobe style musical instrument tuner from Korg. It might be a good alternative to the more expensive Peterson strobe tuners. I’ve ordered one to review and use with my ukuleles.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Instrument, Spotlight Gadgets, Tuner

Spotlight Gadget – Korg DT-4 Chromatic Tuner originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 28, 2008 at 9:36 am.

As a kid, I remember sitting in front of my Mom’s vertical Baldwin piano, trying to learn to play Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 Ode To Joy. I never had real lessons, I just used the many lesson books that my Mom had used when she was a little girl. The piano bench was full of them and I loved paging through them, seeing the cartoon-like pictures for each new song. Once in awhile my Mom would sit down on the bench with me to give me pointers, but for the most part she never criticized my talent or lack there of. I just loved plunking those keys, making music. It didn’t matter if I was any good at it or not. Wow, I’m tearing up just writing this. I miss my mom…

I didn’t pursue piano, and wound up becoming more interested in guitar. But over the years I’ve often thought about trying to learn to play again. That’s why I was really interested when I was asked if I might like to review the Piano Wizard hardware / software learning system by Allegro Rainbow.

Piano Wizard is a new way of learning to play piano and is geared more towards kids (ages 8+) than adults. That fact really didn’t bother me though.

The PREMIER package ships with the M-Audio Keystation 49e keyboard. This is a USB Midi keyboard with 49 full size velocity sensitive keys. It is Windows and Mac compatible and requires a USB cable for connectivity and power. The package also includes the Piano Wizard software package on CD. There is a version of the software available for both Mac and Windows users.

Setup couldn’t be easier. All I had to do was put the Piano Wizard software CD in my iMac and install it. Then I plugged the USB cable into my hub and was ready to go.

The software uses colors for each key, so three sheets of stickers are included that you use to map the keyboard. Extra stickers are left over, so you have replacements if they become worn.

The M-Audio keyboard is very nice. It has a built in volume slider, a pitch bend wheel, modulation wheel and octave adjustment buttons.

The keys don’t feel like a real piano as they are plastic, but they are full size and have good travel.

On the back of the keyboard, you will find a power port, USB port, MIDI out, a foot pedal port and the power switch. At first I was worried that the AC adapter had been left out of my package. But nope, you don’t need it for connecting to your computer. All you need is the included USB cable. Yay!

The keyboard is large (31.5 inches wide x 8.5 inches deep), so you’ll need room in front of your computer to set it up.

The software allows you to choose Easy Mode or Premier mode. Let’s start with Easy Mode )

When you click Easy or Premier, the software (on the Mac) takes over the whole screen and changes the resolution, so that when you quit out of the application, all your windows have been resized and moved. That annoyed me a bit. I’d rather it just stay running in a window like any other OS X application.

You can decide which lesson block you would like to try, 1-5, 6-10 or Free Play. You also have the choice of how you want the notes to show up. Either just by color, with finger numbering or note names. Beginners will want to start with just color.

Then you can decide if you want to play just with the Left hand, Right hand or both. Again, beginners should stick with the default of the Right hand. You’ll also see a list of 5 songs. The first song “Your Dreams” is the easiest and the last song “Foot of Yonder Mountain” is the hardest.

After you choose your song, you can pick the background, or as the software calls it: World. This is just a background image and associated graphics. The default here is the dinosaur screen with the egg graphic.

The whole idea of the Piano Wizard software is to make learning to play piano easy for kids. To do that, they have created a video game that is a little bit like Guitar Hero. As the song plays, colored graphics move from the bottom of the screen up to the keyboard along the top edge. When the graphic is right between the Yellow and Red lines, you press the matching key on your keyboard, to break the egg and sound the note. Easy huh? At first you don’t even really care where your hands are. You just want to hit the keys at the right time, to play the song.

When the song ends, you are presented with your score. It’s pretty addictive, even for an adult.

After playing with this level for awhile, I started wondering how in the heck this game would allow me to learn to actually play the piano. It wasn’t teaching me the notes or even which fingers I was supposed to be using to press the keys. My questions were answered when I moved to Level 2, which turns the keyboard vertically. That starts preparing you to learn to read a musical staff. Later levels then introduce the actual notes. The colors are still there and you can even show the finger numbering to help you learn to place your hands on the keyboard in the correct way. The last level removes the colors and numberings. This method of learning is actually pretty clever.

The Premier option has harder songs, including popular rock music like Smoke on the Water and John Lennon’s Imagine. This software is very challenging! I spent all afternoon trying to get a good score playing Imagine. The best I could do was about 65%. Pretty lame. Hey, it’s a tough song! Luckily, you can slow the tempo down, to help you learn.

Don’t see your favorite song in the list? No problem, just search around on the internet for the song in MIDI format, and then you can load it directly into the software. Nice!

There’s even a Free Play option that you can use to just jam on the piano using a choice of lots of different instruments. The only feature I didn’t find was a way to record your songs in Free Play mode.

Piano Wizard is definitely an interesting approach to piano instruction. It doesn’t start with theory, but just allows a kid have fun playing a video game. Little by little, the game helps the child learn to actually play music and read notes. The only thing I wish this system had is a music book with all the songs in both the color coded play method and regular notation. Other than that, it’s definitely captured my interest. Now to go see if I can make a better score on that Lennon tune.

Filed in categories: Musical Gear

Tagged: Desktop, Entertainment, Instrument, Software

Piano Wizard PREMIER Keystation 49e Package originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 8, 2007 at 9:39 pm.

Here are 2 products from B2′s mi Jam series of sound making toys:

mi Jam Guitar

Are you a wannabe guitar god that can’t even play a C chord to save your life? Or do you have a child that keeps touching your shiny new Fender Strat with their little peanut butter and jelly encrusted fingers? Then I have an inexpensive ‘guitar’ for you or them to check out. It’s the mi Jam Guitar from B2.

Ok, before you get all oooh and ahhhy, the mi Jam guitar is not a real guitar by any stretch of the imagination. It doesn’t even have strings. It’s pretty much identical to the small game controllers used for the Guitar Hero games on the PlayStation and Xbox.

Just like those controllers, this little (22 inch long) plastic guitar has 4 buttons on the neck instead of actual strings, and a strum bar.

Before you can play music for all of your adoring fans, you have to open the battery compartment on the back and insert 4 AA batteries that they didn’t see fit to include with the device. The instructions say not to use rechargeable batteries… not sure why though as they worked just fine when I disregarded the instructions and installed them in the back of the guitar.

After the batteries are installed, just flip the On/Off switch on the side to On, plug in a set of headphones and get to wailing. Well wait a minute, there is something else you should know about this product. You can actually use it play along with songs on your iPod or other audio device. You’ll notice that there is a cable with a 3.5mm stereo connector sticking out of the guitar body. Just plug this connector into the earphone jack of your audio player, queue up a song and then start playing. Both the guitar music and audio player music will be heard through your earphones.

Besides the On/Off switch, we also have a volume control knob, pitch control knob and a tempo control knob on the face of the guitar. The function of the volume knob should be self explanatory, while the other two knobs help you match the pitch and tempo of the music coming out of the guitar to that of the music coming out of the attached iPod.

There are two other buttons on the face of the guitar. One is labeled ‘Effects’ and when pressed, it cycles through 4 different music styles: Heavy Metal, Rock, Blues and Bass. The other button is disguised as a whammy bar. When you press or wiggle it, it changes the pitch of the sound to mimic a real whammy bar.

There is also a rhythm switch that you can use to toggle the background drum tracks.

When you press one of the buttons on the neck, you’ll hear a chord strum sound when you move the strum bar down, and you’ll hear a progression of notes if you move the strum bar up. The trick is to mix and match these two actions to make a ‘song’. Each effects style has different chord and note sounds associated to them.

I recorded all the different sounds the mi Jam Guitar can produce and saved it as a 4.9mb .MP3 file. You can listen to it here.

When the guitar is powered on, it has pretty Blue and Green LEDs. You can ooh and ahh now if you like.

Looks more like a ukulele than a guitar doesn’t it? You can’t expect too much from something that is made of plastic and costs less than $40. 8-10yr. olds will probably have fun with it and at least it has a head phone jack so that you don’t have to listen to all the noise they’ll be making ;o) I actually had fun playing around with this product. It doesn’t take much to entertain me though.

mi Jam Mini Mixer

Guitar not your thing? Well B2 has other noise makers that you / your kids might like better. The Mini Mix is another such device.

Like the guitar, this little device will allow you to play along with music on your iPod (or other audio devices with an audio out / earphone jack) or just play with it by itself.

It’s a small plastic oval shaped device that runs on 2 AA batteries (included). The top surface is a touch panel…

… that lights up when powered on.

Flip the Mini Mix over and you’ll see that it has a 3.5mm stereo cable stowed in the shell. Use this cable to connect your iPod if you wish to play along with your favorite tunes.

On the side there is an earphone jack and the On/Off switch. The Mini Mix also comes with a small round external speaker that is used for the demo mode while it’s in the store. But you can leave it attached and play the miJam sound effects through it if you like.

Here’s how it works. Turn it on and press the Beat button to select one of three background drum beat rhythms. The Digi Fx button will play one of 2 digital effects noises and the voice and scratch buttons will change the noises that occur when you rub your fingers on the effects discs. It’s supposed to simulate mixing and scratching records I guess. In reality this doesn’t work very well at all and the mixing sounds that this device generates can get annoying (I like the background beats, but that’s about all I like). If you get this for your kids, hide the little round external speaker. Trust me! ;o)

I recorded all the different sounds the mi Jam Mini Mix can produce and saved it as a 2.3mb .MP3 file. You can listen to it here.

The mi Jam Mini Mix costs less than $20 and is available through Amazon.com, Target, Best Buy and other retail stores. I didn’t find it to be all that fun, but maybe an 8yr.. old would love it.

Filed in categories: Musical Gear

Tagged: Instrument, Toy

mi Jam Guitar and Mini Mixer originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 11, 2007 at 5:35 pm.

From an early age, I wanted to learn to play the guitar. I took a few lessons here and there through the years, but for the most part taught myself from books and tapes. I never was a very good player, but that hasn’t stopped my love of the instrument and music. I’ve had several guitars, from electric to acoustic, to even a mini electric that I built myself using a kit. I even had a dial up BBS back in the day completely devoted to TAB (tablature files) that was named CrossRoads BBS.

I haven’t made time to play for years and years, but just recently decided to try to revive the desire. What better way to do that, then to buy a new guitar! I didn’t want or need another regular acoustic since I already have a very nice small bodied Collings. I didn’t want an electric because I don’t have an amp. That doesn’t seem to leave any other choices does it? Wrong… I decided to buy a travel guitar! I’ve had a thing for little guitars probably since I began loving the instrument.

Which would you rather lug around with you? The guitar on the left, or the guitar on the right? What guitar on the right you ask? Would you believe that they both cases contain a guitars that are basically the same size?

Open the small zippered case (4 in x 6 in x 30 in) and you will find the Miranda S-250 steel stringed guitar. Yes, it comes in pieces. Seven pieces (if you include the 3 thumb screws) to be exact.

The main body of the S-250 is made of Mahogany, with a Rosewood fretboard. The sides are made of high-impact, scratch-resistant acrylic and the center brace is made of Aluminum.

The assembly of the guitar requires no tools, no skills and no time.

All you do is attach the center brace between the two sides with 2 thumb screws.

Next you insert the bottom post between the two sides.

Then attach the assembled frame to the main body using another thumb screw.

Last but not least, you rotate the attached struts into slots on either side of the ‘shoulders’. That’s it! It’s a very easy procedure that takes less than 3 minutes.

The fully assembled guitar looks like this. Pretty wild huh?

To give you a size comparison, here it is next to my Collings 0002H. The S-250 has a scale length of 25.6 inches with an overall length of 33.9 inches. Upper bout width is 10.7 inches, waist width is 9.3 inches and lower bout is 15.0 inches.

Even though the S-250 looks like an acoustic guitar, it doesn’t have an enclosed sound box, so it doesn’t really project sound like an acoustic guitar. In order to hear sound from the strings, the guitar has to be amplified like an electric guitar.

Speaking of strings, the S-250 has a an interesting neck / headstock design. The strings feed through slots at the top of the neck where you would normally find the headstock.

The strings then wind around a unique pulley system at the bottom of the fretboard and finally into individual tuning posts in the headstock.

Instead of having the headstock at the top of the neck, it’s located behind the fretboard. This design helps keep the guitar compact by decreasing the physical length. Gotoh tuners are attached to the headstock.

The location of the headstock does it make it a bit awkward to tune this guitar. Instead of being able to strum a string with your right hand while adjusting a tuner with your left hand, you have to strum a string with your right hand, stop and adjust the tuner with that same hand. You can stand the guitar upright on your lap and strum with one hand while tuning with the other. Luckily this guitar does seem to stay in tune pretty well.

Like I mentioned before, the S-250 doesn’t have a sound-box, so it can’t project sound like a normal acoustic guitar. You can hear some sound when you play, but not enough to really enjoy the instrument. For that, you’ll either need an amplifier or headphones.

The electronics are housed in a small box on the back of the neck. Powered by a 9v battery, you can either plug a standard 1/4 inch cable, or a standard 3.5mm set of headphones (a set of headphones are included). There is also a 3.5mm line in jack that you can use to plug in another sound source so that you can play along with music. There’s an on/off slider switch, volume level knob and a brightness knob.

The S-250 is easy to play. The action is good and sound through headphones is good although to my ears it sounds a little too much like an electric guitar instead of an acoustic. Not surprising though. I’m always going to prefer a real acoustic guitar over an electric because my favorite style of music to play is finger-style Irish fiddle tunes. And no, I didn’t record me playing this guitar because I’m quite rusty still. Don’t worry though, Miranda’s website has sound bites for both the S-250 and the CFX-200 nylon stringed model.

The Miranda S-250 is an extremely well made musical instrument that should put a smile on guitar playing travelers faces.

Filed in categories: Musical Gear

Tagged: Instrument

Miranda S-250 Travel Guitar originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 10, 2007 at 10:18 pm.