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Eigenharp Pico and Alpha slowly remove shroud of mystery, gets stratospheric price tags
We can almost say with certainty that neither the Eigenharp Pico nor Alpha will actually be remembered as the "most revolutionary instrument in 60 years," but that's not stopping creator Eigenlabs from keeping its hopes high. If you'll recall, these funky instruments were unveiled courtesy of an enigmatic YouTube clip early last month, and now the outfit is slowly dribbling out official details on its contributions to the musical realm. Neither instrument is being aimed at the bargain banger, with the Alpha going for £3,950 ($6,302) and the Pico for £349 ($557). Both of 'em sport keys, a breathe pipe, a so-called strip controller and their own native soundsets, though currently they'll interface only with Macs. If you're really interested in learning something new, you can surf on over to the outfit's website for a look at the specifications -- just bring the checkbook if you're easily tempted. Update: Looks the The Beeb snagged a little mouth-on time with it!
Phoenix Wright musical, now with English subtitles
We've been quite happy to watch clips of Takarazuka Revue's Gyakuten Saiban: Yomigaeru Shinjitsu (Gyakuten Saiban: Resurrected Truth), the first Phoenix Wright musical performed by the renowned all-female theatre company.YouTube user GKKLJapan has added an element to the clips that increases our enjoyment significantly: subtitles. Now you can not only watch the show, but see what's happening! The translator's LiveJournal is being used as a project log for the translation, and suggests that the entirety of the play is in progress. In the meantime, enjoy the two clips after the break (do not miss the Edgeworth song) ... and think about this: if Phoenix Wright games had full animation and voice acting, they'd look a lot like this.[Via Kotaku]
Gender-bending Phoenix Wright musical becomes a franchise
The Phoenix Wright musical that ran in Japan last month was a success for the all-female Takarazuka Revue theatre troupe, with tickets selling out on opening day. If you thought an operatic, all-female performance of stories based on video game characters couldn't be a hit, TAKE THAT! In its press release about the show, Capcom described this presentation as part of its "One Property with Multiple Uses" strategy, in which Capcom properties are marketed for multiple media.Because of the success of the courtroom crooning, Capcom and the Revue have announced plans for a sequel! The revue will perform Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 2 (which, like the first one, will probably be an original story) at the Takarazuka Bow Hall from August 20 through August 31, and at the Akasaka ACT Theatre from September 5 through September 15. We eagerly await the first pictures from the new show -- will we see a female Godot this time? A Female Dr. Hotti? A female Franziska von Karma -- oh, wait.
New technology provides greater control to paraplegic pianists
Technology allowing paraplegics to operate the right pedal of a piano has been developed by a team of scientists in Heidelberg Germany, trumping earlier systems which didn't allow for half pedal or flutter variations. The device consists of a tiny remote module that's placed inside the pianist's right cheek, and a wireless transmitter and motor attached to the pedals of the piano. A small battery in the left cheek of the user provides up to twelve hours of power. The player grits their teeth when they want to control the pedal -- the module is sensitive to different amounts of pressure, which allow the pianist greater control over footing than previous tools. From the sounds of it, this thing would work just as well on a wah pedal, right?
N-Tune adds a tuner to your guitar's volume knob
Although Gibson's self-tuning Robot Guitar is mighty snazzy, buying an entirely new instrument in order to ease your tuning woes isn't exactly practical. Truth be told, the N-Tune won't do the tuning for you, but it does make adjusting those flats and sharps a lot more interesting. Essentially, the chromatic tuner replaces the volume control on your electric axe and can be retrofitted in most every guitar / bass out there. Once installed, users simply pull the knob up to mute the volume and turn the tuner on simultaneously, and then you can check out the on-knob LEDs to gauge how accurately your strings are tuned. Best of all, this thing is slated to ship within the next month for just $100, but alas, it's recommended that you pay a professional to actually rig it up.
Cinemassively: Odissea the Musical in Second Life
Odissea: The Musical Comedy, will be appearing soon in Second Life. Written by Mark and Massimo Grieco, it promises to be a great adventure. Considering that their blog is entirely in Italian, not much is known at this point, but I do hope to see more about this production in the media. They have already held callbacks, so it can't be too long from now!I chose this video because I think that SLers need to experience more of the performing arts. A production of this size in real life would cost exponentially more. To have it in our virtual world is a real treat. Would any of our Italian readers care to supply us with a quick translation?
Cinemassively: HMS Theramore
Myndflame is committed to releasing the sequel to their smash hit Machinima, Illegal Danish: Super Snacks. Illegal Danish: Escape from Orgrimmar has been a year in the making and they're still working on it. I hear that the full movie will be "coming before Armageddon," but you don't have to wait to get your IDEFO fix!To tide us over, they've released another scene from their film. This short clip is a musical adventure filled with wonder and excitement. HMS Theramore is a parody of the broadway musical, HMS Pinafore. Created in World of Warcraft, it's about a ship captain, Puff, that sets sail with his guild. Are you looking forward to the full release?
Cinemassively: Could It Happen?
I was just thinking to myself the other day that what Second Life needs is a Machinima musical. It's a good thing that Bret Heilig made one before I attempted it because my voice is awful! Trust me when I say that he spared you.This video is apparently based on a new musical, The Time Travelers Convention. Three students hold a convention where they put flyers in classic books, hoping that one day a time traveler will come to their party. When one actually shows up, they must face what they want to change in their lives.I hope that this starts a new trend of SL Machinima that's about more than scantily-clad girls dancing around to Fergie songs. In an ideal world, what kind of Machinima would you like to watch?
High School Musical: a great idea with one fatal flaw
We love the basic idea behind High School Musical. We think a karaoke game would be a big hit with the "expanded audience" out there in the "blue ocean." If we were the type to perform in front of people rather than hiding in total silence, we'd totally play it.The major problem with High School Musical is High School Musical. If we're going to be singing in a game, we'd rather not sing material from a Disney made-for-TV movie. We'd rather belt out the theme from Night Trap than whatever was written for High School Musical.Check the link for some new screens. We hope the game is more exciting than the microphone peripheral!
Video: "I Want Master Chief"
Step 1: Watch the above video. Step 2: Pick your jaw up from the floor. Step 3: Read on.Wow, that was unique. A Halo 2 machinima musical produced by two females starring an Elite pining after Master Chief. Yeah, unique. Enough so for the lovely ladies to deserve interviewing from Frankie over at Bungie.net for their work of art. While it may have left us feeling literally without speech, what's your take? Surely it's going to leave you with some form of an opinion, so lets hear it.
High School Musical brings karaoke, microphone to Wii
The first Wii game likely to ship with a peripheral in the US (not counting foam doodads) is not a Nintendo first party game. It is a licensed game. From Disney. Based on a made-for-TV movie. Disney Interactive is bringing an adaptation of their hit movie High School Musical to the Wii as a karaoke game. The story of the game will follow the first movie, while also affording players the chance to sing the songs from the second. We weren't really aware karaoke games needed or could support stories, but we'll accept it. High School Musical is set to ship this August with an included microphone.High School Musical is facing competition only from Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party in the race to be the first US-released Wii game with a special controller as well as the first full music game for the system. That's pretty progressive for Disney!
High School Musical: from the Disney Channel to your DS
We aren't sure how to feel about the announcement of DS and Wii games based on the Disney TV-movie High School Musical. On the one hand, it they're music games, and we categorically get very, very excited about all music games. On the other hand, it's based on a made-for-television movie, which, despite High School Musical's popularity, still makes a negative statement about the quality of the property. The DS game involves dancing competitively, and creating and sharing videos of those dance performances-- it sounds kind of like Unison. We're going to have to go watch the movie now and try to sort out our feelings.
Fender's modeling VG Stratocaster gets inspected
A legend in the guitar industry pairing up with a heralded name in the modeling biz? No, it's not too good to be true, as Fender and Roland have teamed up to create the first modeling stratocaster. Just weeks after Gibson's own digital axe finally went on sale, the VG Stratocaster is built to look, feel, and play exactly like the strats of old always have, but a few subtle (albeit substantial) alterations open up a whole new world of riff creations. The six-string gurus over at GuitarGearCentral have taken the time to carefully inspect the changes, and it looks to us that even the purists could find something here to love. The thin Roland GK pickup mounted at the bridge provides the ability to emulate "37 Fender Stratocaster, Telecaster, humbucking, 12-string, and acoustic sounds,"while a pair of LED status lights provide a bit of flash and a new duo of knobs (Mode Control and Tuning Function) are used to further dictate the sounds. Dubbed a "Swiss Army knife of tone," this instrument allows you to dial-in alternate sounds and tunings on the fly, giving players the ability to add some chunk with Drop D tuning sans fiddling with the tuning head. Although the crew admired the simplicity Fender somehow managed to achieve with all the complex features that have been added, they still would test out a few more guitars to make sure this is your bag before throwing down the (admittedly reasonable) $1,699 required to take one home.
X-Play: The Musical ... yeah, you read that right
If there is anything that we've learned over the years: Musicals make everything better! Buffy the Vampire Slayer did it well and so did Scrubs, so why not the last video game review show (worth mentioning) X-play? The show has always been cheeky, like their The Breakfast Club episode and such, so this musical episode isn't really that insane. We're not even going to say it's part of G4's identity crisis. Honestly, this episode might secretly be designed to spite the network and its issues.The music was written by GameJew (Jonathan Mann) and produced by Brian Golub. The musical episode is the brainchild of Paul Bonnano, a writer on X-Play who obviously misses when the show was still in San Francisco, a place with some redeeming culture, instead of Los Angeles. The episode will premiere Feb. 5 at 8PM on G4, then will subsequently repeat ad infinitum on the network. X-play isn't taking themselves seriously here and neither will we, definitely worth a TiVo just to see Sessler sing.
More musical Mizuguchi mayhem materializes
Oh, death by alliteration can be most painful indeed. And yet, it's a risk worth taking when it comes to revealing new PSP and DS games from Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the creative, possibly insane game designer behind Space Channel 5 (and it's swinging sequel), Rez, Sega Rally and of course, the criminally addictive Lumines. Featuring heavy musical components that can often be influenced by the player, his recent titles have demonstrated a knack for style and an unusual ability to impart something vaguely resembling inspiration. If you've played through Space Channel 5, you'll know exactly what we mean.Thankfully abandoning orcs and dynastic warriors for greener and more familiar portable pastures, Mizuguchi is now acting as executive producer on Gunpey-R, short for Gunpey Reverse. Based on an older Wonderswan game, Gunpey-R sees the player -- wait for it -- moving square panels up and down in an effort to create lines running from right to left. Success leads to panels vanishing as ooposed to killing you violently when they claw their way to the top of the screen. The PSP version will feature interactive "skins" (in the same vein as Lumines), whereas the DS version will play different sounds as each panel is cleared.Namco Bandai is taking care of publishing duties in Japan, with American and European releases still unaccounted for. Given the success of Q Entertainment's previous games, it shouldn't take too long before everyone is pulled back into a mesmerizing music-and-rhythm marathon. With such a widespread appeal, music is most certainly a sound route to the home of that elusive casual gamer. See also: Lumines Live to hit Xbox Live Arcade Lumines Plus to drop on PS2 Joystiq's top 10 hidden gems of this generation
