Whether you're into Bach, The Beatles or Bieber, whether you can play an instrument or humming is the height of your musical skill, music is a universal language that inspires, excites and brings joy to people of all walks of life. Technology can add a new spin to old favorites or lead to entirely new instruments with entirely new sounds. Whatever your jam, here's where you'll find the latest technological developments from the world of music.
If you're trying to learn a musical instrument from an online tutorial, it can be frustrating whenever you have to take your hands off that instrument to work the computer. That's what Atlanta-based musician Robb Dillon found, so he invented the SMASHmouse.
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Exotic hardwoods are getting harder to come by and tighter tonewood regulations are having an impact on guitar making. France's Alquier Guitars is going all out for its Cosmic builds, turning away from tropical wood, making use of sustainable bamboo and breaking out titanium hardware.
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Even though a ukulele is much more travel-friendly than a collapsible dreadnought or, well, a travel guitar, team Astro clearly thinks that even a 21-inch long soprano uke is too big. The Astro ukulele folds down to just over 11 inches long – and can fit in the water bottle pocket of a backpack.
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Austrian company Rebeat is looking to fundamentally change the way vinyl records are mastered, promising to bring what it calls “HD vinyl”, with longer playing times and better sound quality, to stores sometime in 2019.
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Though the ubiquitous smartphone can serve as a capable audio recorder, there are times when quality counts. Roland previewed a new high resolution handheld at CES in January, with multiple recording modes and the ability to control functionality using an Apple Watch. Now the R-07 is on sale.
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Vibrato systems are designed to temporarily change the tension of guitar strings to create subtle pitch variations or monster dives and sweeps. The Pitch Pilot gives players pitch control of individual strings instead of having to divebomb all of them simultaneously.
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We've seen a number of strange stomps over the years, but nothing compares to the Plasma Pedal, a fuzz box that routes a guitar's signal through a gas-filled tube, turning it into high-voltage discharges, then transforms it back to wicked distorted analog crunch for output to an amp or desk.
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Roli has brought together elements of 2016's Block modular music-making hardware to create the Songmaker Kit. The bundle comprises three of Roli's touch-enabled controllers – the Seaboard Block, the Lightpad and the Loop – and is designed to help players create music tracks while out and about.
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When bass player Yerko Sepulveda had trouble hearing the sound of his instrument in a particularly busy mix, he opted to build a device that would allow him to feel the thunder. The resulting portable rumble box – named BackBeat – is clipped to a player's strap to deliver low end you can feel.
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Following a successful Kickstarter in late 2016, Joué has officially launched its modular music-making interface. The Joué offers musicians a real instrument feel to digital music creation, with flexible hot-swap modules allowing for tactile playing of keys, strings, drums and more.
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