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AirJamz is a wristband that turns air guitar into wear guitar
The tagline reads: "AirJamz is the wearable Air Guitar that you have to see to believe." To be fair, you probably can believe it, especially if you're familiar with Zivix. The company is best known for Jamstik, a small wireless guitar that helps you learn to shred, or play more than just axe-sounds, with your iPhone and iPad. AirJamz is for those that want to forego the whole playing part altogether, and just pretend they're slaying. Imagine Guitar Hero boiled down into a $50 wristband with an accelerometer and an app that "plays" guitar if you strum along in time and you've basically got it. We got to see it in action at SXSW, demoed by some of the world's finest fictional fretboard aficionados.
iOS and Mac musicians can ditch wires with Bluetooth MIDI device
Zivix has a new wireless MIDI device for Apple-centric musicians, but unlike the original WiFi Puc, this time it's using Bluetooth 4.0. The Puc+ is the "first Bluetooth MIDI interface that universally supports any MIDI controller," according to the company. It can handle multiple controllers at once, connect to old-school 5-pin or newer USB MIDI devices, and work with any audio workstation running on a Mac, iPad or iPhone -- including GarageBand, ProTools and others. The company claims it has sub-15ms latency that's on par with cabled solutions, and can control devices up to 40 feet away.
Zivix PUC gets MIDI instruments talking wirelessly to iOS and PCs (video)
Zivix promised wireless freedom to iOS-loving guitarists when it unveiled the JamStik; today, it's extending that liberty to a much wider range of musicians. Its just-announced PUC peripheral connects most any MIDI instrument to iOS devices, Macs and Windows PCs through a direct WiFi link. The device works with many CoreMIDI-capable apps, and it takes power through either a micro-USB source or a pair of AA batteries. Zivix plans to sell the PUC for $129 in December, although you'll get a price break if you reserve early -- the company is running a crowdfunding campaign that lets early adopters pay between $69 to $99 for a regular model.
Jamstik portable MIDI guitar lets you play and learn on the iPad wirelessly
We heard from our friends over at TechCrunch (thanks, John Biggs!) that a company called Zivix has been showing off a cool little MIDI guitar at CES, so here it is! Dubbed the Jamstik, this digital instrument serves the same purpose as the already-available You Rock, except this one comes with real guitar strings, works wirelessly over WiFi, features a lower latency (under 10ms instead of about 20ms, according to Zivix's lab test), and it also has a shorter neck plus a much smaller body for the sake of portability -- even for some casual plucking on the plane. The Jamstik also supports string bending thanks to the way it detects finger movement on the neck -- the rows of infrared lights and sensors under the strings make the magic happen. Of course, you'd need a PC or an iOS device (with CoreMIDI-compatible apps like GarageBand and Animoog) to get the audio, and for the latter, Zivix will be offering three apps: JamTutor guitar teaching suite, JamHero game (very much like Guitar Hero and Rock Band) and Jam Live music remixer. We had a go using a wired prototype Jamstik, and apart from the slight delay between our strumming and the audio output (which will be further fine-tuned before going retail), we had a lot of fun with it. Check out the demo videos after the break, and expect to see the Jamstik hit the market this summer for somewhere around $249 to $299.
Jam Live Music Arcade launches the week of May 16
Those dusty, old, cobweb-ridden, spider-infested peripheral instruments collecting mold and animal dander in your living room corner may soon see some use, as Zivix and Reverb Publishing's Jam Live Music Arcade is now set to pump up your 360/PS3's jams and/or volume sometime during the week of May 16.If you made the space-saving decision to rid your apartment of its plastic instruments long ago, you'll still be able to remix tracks from the likes of Atmosphere and Rise Against with a conventional controller. We suppose wearing a giant homemade Deadmau5 mask is also optional, if you can really consider it proper music production without one.
JAM Live Music Arcade: remix with your Rock Band instruments
Now here's a worthy idea: another game for you to play with all your plastic instruments. Here's another worthy idea: a music game that lets you use those instruments to create music. That's the basis for Zivix's JAM Live Music Arcade, coming to XBLA and PSN "later this year."Containing a set of over 30 licensed songs "including hits from Modest Mouse, Fallout Boy, Fatboy Slim, Rise Against, Atmosphere and more," players have the ability to improvise and remix elements of the songs as they play. Check out some very complex-looking gameplay footage, and some random footage of people pretending to perform with Guitar Hero controllers, above.
Zivix's Headliner guitar lets you rock the real and virtual stage
Survey says: kids who pretend rock out in music videogames are more likely to want to learn to play those instruments for reals. For would-be strummers, that means a rather abrupt transition from cheapo plastic toy with buttons to hand-crafted wooden instrument with strings. That could change with the Zivix Headliner, a prototype guitar that also works in both the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series, featuring sensors on the neck to act like buttons and real strings that replace the plastic strum bar. It's not the first game-friendly guitar with strings we've seen, nor indeed is it the company's first stab at creating a hybrid instrument like this (they demo'ed something similar called the Hero Maker last year), but with a little more venture capital infusion Zivix hopes to have this model on sale by year's end for under $250 -- expensive for a game controller and not exactly cheap for an electric guitar. Any takers?[Via OhGizmo!]
