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Alesis brings a pair of new musician-friendly iPad docks to NAMM
If there's been one must have accessory at NAMM this year it's been the iPad. That's right, no mixer, instrument or microphone is stealing the show, it's Apple's 9.7-inch slab of touchability that everyone is after. Alesis is just one of many companies creating compelling musical offerings around the iOS tablet with its latest products, the AmpDock and DM Dock. The DM Dock turns your iPad into the thumping, bumping and crashing heart of an electronic drum system. You can tap out rhythms and build drum sets with the touchscreen, but it's when you start plugging triggers into the 13 1/4-inch inputs that it really comes to life. The AmpDock, as you may have guessed, turns that A5 processor's attention towards your axe. There's a standard 1/4-inch jack as well as a combo XLR / 1/4-inch plug for connecting a second guitar or a mic. The AmpDock also has a separate pedalboard that allows you to control some program parameters while keeping the tablet safe from stray stomps. Check out the gallery below, as well as the video after the break.
Alesis Vortex brings back the Keytar, piano-neck tie, songs on MTV forthcoming
The guit-board is clearly the finest instrument to grace stadiums of decades past, but despite the innate bad-assery of the instrument, it faded into ironic-hipster use like the Eigenharp and Tenori-On. Fortunately, the geniuses at Alesis refused to let it pass into obscurity, releasing the Vortex in an attempt to propel the shoulder-slung keyboard into the stratosphere. Whilst plenty of body-mounted keyboards are available (Roland's AX-09 springs to mind) on the market, these guys went with 1985-grade body styling and a neck that you wish Steve Pocaro would rock out on (he never did, tragically). The MIDI/USB controller comes with 37 touch sensitive keys, velocity sensitive pads, octave and pitch wheels along that glorious neck. Hook it up to a Mac or PC and it'll draw power from the bus, connect it to any iOS device (USB adapter required) and you'll need to bring batteries. There's an MRSP of $400, but the company lists the expected "street price" at $250 -- if it's closer to the latter, we'll pick up a pair for the Engadget-street band's next world tour.
iPads were everywhere at Musikmesse 2011
If there's any one area of life that the iPad has had a huge impact on, it's the creation of music. Writing for The Mac Observer, blogger Jochen Wolters noted that iPads were everywhere at the world's largest trade show for musical instruments and audio recording technology -- Musikmesse 2011. This year's show was held April 6 - 9 in Frankfurt, Germany. Wolters noted that almost every developer of audio software and manufacturer of keyboards and mixers was demonstrating some way of using an iPad to perform or produce music. While I won't go into all of the many items that Wolters covered in his detailed article, there were a few products that deserve special mention here. The US$99 Apogee JAM is a deceptively simple-looking audio interface for connecting a bass or guitar to an iPad (it also works with the Mac, iPhone and iPod touch). It only works with GarageBand for iPad at this point, but Apogee is apparently working on supporting other iPad music apps. Our very own Brett Terpstra did a great writeup of the JAM back in March. Along the lines of the JAM is the Alesis iO Dock, a soon-to-be-released pro audio dock for iPad with XLR and 1/4-inch inputs, MIDI jacks, an assignable 1/4-inch footswitch input, and audio and video outputs. Synth software was everywhere at Musikmesse 2011 as well, with iPad apps from Reactable, Way Out Ware, Korg, and Spectrasonics catching Wolters' eye. MixVibes demoed an app that is used to remotely control its CROSS line of DJ software, while Akai had a four-octave keyboard with an iPad dock. An image of the SynthStation49 can be seen at the top of this post. You can get more details from Wolters' original post. Next year's Musikmesse is already scheduled for March 21-24, 2012. If your business is music and you want to make or produce it with the help of an iPad, you might want to make plans to attend the 2012 event.
MIDI gear of the 80s: 16 channels of want
It was 1987 in a dark Orange County new wave recording studio when I first saw virtual notes scroll past my eyes on a nine-inch Mac Plus screen. The Yamaha DX-7 and Sequential Prophet 5 were lit up like a space ship, and I knew one thing for sure: I wanted to go to there. I wanted to do what Front 242, Blancmange and New Order were doing. I was hooked: high on aftertouch. So began my wallet-killing, girl-repelling high school obsession and summer-break career. I worked in the keyboard department at Guitar Center, bought racks of gear at cost, and set my sights on becoming the next great electronic music sensation of the late 80s. Or... not. So what was left behind? Several lame Skinny Puppy ripoffs, a few decent dance tracks that I still have hidden away on cassettes in my office closet (of course, I don't have a cassette deck on which to hear said tracks), and plenty of fond memories about some beautiful old electronic music gear. I present here for your perusal some of my more memorable axes.
Alesis iPod JamDock plays the backing band to your Ashlee Simpson
Apparently, when Alesis looks at an iPod the company gets dollar signs in its eyes -- between the 8 track mixer for the home recording set, the pro audio-minded rack mixer, and the ProTrack dock / portable digital recorder, you'd think they'd have all their bases covered -- but that's clearly not the case. Among the many goodies making the scene at this year's NAMM, JamDock is aimed at musicians who want to incorporate iPod audio into their performance. This bad boy sports two 1/4-inch inputs that support both line level and high impedance instruments, 1/4-inch monitor outs, and a single 1/4-inch stereo out for headphones. It can be mounted on a drum rack or stand using the e-percussion Module Mount (sold separately). Pricing and availability have yet to be announced. In the meantime, it looks like bedroom musicians will be stuck jamming to the Miami Vice theme on their boomboxes, just like nature intended.[Via Music Radar]
Ion reveals $299.99 price for premium Rock Band drums
Thought $180 for the original Rock Band package was expensive? You ain't seen nothing yet. The official Web site for Ion's professional Drum Rocker (as recently revealed in Game Informer) lists a $299.99 price for the deluxe drum controller. Only the Xbox 360 version of the set is currently available for pre-order, though Wii and PS3 editions are "expected to ship later in the year," according to the site. It's important to note that this is not the official drum set that will be packaged with Rock Band 2, but rather an officially licensed deluxe set that works with both Rock Band games.While $300 may sound steep (soon, you could get a whole 'nother Xbox 360 for that price), Ion sounds like they've gone to great lengths to make sure serious virtual drummers get their money's worth. According to the site, the four high-durability, quiet, velocity-sensitive pads can be mounted and rearranged in any position and even outfitted with "professional drum brains" from Alesis. Add in a metal-reinforced kick pedal (with velcro and spikes to prevent slippage) and two packaged, mountable cymbals (with the option to add a third) and you've got what's unquestionably the Rolls Royce of drum controllers. The web site also has a short video and some detailed photos of the set, so check it out and figure out for yourself whether it's worth dropping three Benjamins.
Alesis' ProTrack turns your iPod into portable digital recorder
Though not the first audio recorder we've seen to get buddy-buddy with Apple's darling for storage -- nor the first Alesis product to partner up with the iPod -- the ProTrack is still pretty swank in its own right. Hailed as a "professional handheld digital stereo recorder for iPod," this unit enables direct-to-iPod stereo digital recording for folks needing gobs of storage space. You'll find a pair of condenser microphones built-in along with twin XLR - 1/4-inch inputs for connecting external mics and line sources. Folks who can't locate an AC outlet can count on four to five hours of use from four AAA cells, but it should be noted that only select iPods (2G / 3G nanos, 5G iPods and the iPod classic) are supported. Look for this one to land in Q3 for a currently undisclosed price.[Via Brad Linder's Blog]
Alesis unveils the iMultiMix 9R rack mixer with iPod dock
Take a look behind the sound board at most small-to-medium size concert venues lately and you'll probably find the sound guy is playing the pre- and post-show tunes from an iPod jacked into the mixer -- a trend Alesis is hoping to capitalize on with its new iMultiMix 9R rack mixer with built-in iPod dock. While we've seen a lot of mixer / iPod dock combinations in the past, this is the first we've seen targeted at the pro market, and it shows in the lack of chintzy features -- in fact, apart from the iPod dock, you're looking at a pretty standard seven-channel rack mixer: five mic preamps with phantom power, two line inputs (one switchable from the iPod dock to the external input), three band EQ with bandpass controls, and an effects loop. Interestingly, the unit also features a composite video output, which presumably will allow videos to be played right from connected video iPods. Expect these to start shipping later this year for around $299.[Via iLounge]
Alesis iMultiMix 8 USB mixer records directly to iPod
We've seen a number of mixers incorporating iPods around here -- from the four-track Belkin TuneStudio to DJ models from Numark and iTRAX to gimmicky toys from MusicJam and others -- but none quite as polished as the upcoming eight-track iMultiMix 8 USB from Alesis, which combines 48-volt phantom power, 100 28-bit digital effects, and four high-gain preamps into a pretty snazzy-looking mini studio. Once your get your creations down pat, they can be easily transferred to your PC through iTunes, where they'll be converted into 16-bit / 44.1kHz or 48kHz recordings. Wired's Gadget Lab tells us to expect this sometime in the fall for around $500, so aspiring super producers take note.[Via Gadget Lab]
