Hasta La Gadget!

I’ve tried playing the guitar on a few occasions in my life, but I always got frustrated with proper fret placement that I like to blame on my fat fingers rather than my lack of coordination. So when I saw these miniature guitar models from Japan, I realized that things could be a whole lot worse for me.

These 10 inch-tall Guitar Legend models from Media Factory are incredibly detailed 1/8th scale versions of authentic electric and bass guitars, from brands including Fender, Gretsch, Ovation and Zemaitis.

Each one is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, but no detail has been left out – other than the ability to actually play them. Depending on the model, they include accessories such as tiny guitar stands and cases as well.

They’re available from Amazon Japan or Media Factory for ¥1,764 (~$17 USD) each, but the guys at White Rabbit Express can import them to other countries for you if you’re interested.

This is gonna be a classy Friday night. You don’t have to groove to Duke Ellington all the time, but when you do you should turn on Jack The Bear. This chart showcases Jimmy Blanton (Jack the bear…get it?), a bassist who at 22 brought the band to a new level in the early 1940s. Even if you hate 32-bar form and blues choruses, or you think pretentious nonsense is happening right now, listen to the end of the track for the bass solo. That’s what it sounds like when someone nails it. [Amazon, iTunes, Spotify]

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The Roland TB-303 bass sequencer is one of electronic music’s founding fathers, which had its heyday in the early 1980s, and later became the backbeat to just about every piece of house and rave music ever recorded, and is still popular with musicians today. And while Roland is no longer making this seminal synthesizer, at least you can now eat one. Say what?

What you’re looking at here isn’t a synthesizer at all, but a delicious Japanese sushi dish, prepared to look like a TB-303.

I’m not sure what all of the ingredients are, but there’s definitely plenty of rice, and some salty salmon roe in place of the LEDs. In the immortal words of Blondie, Eat to the Beat!

[via Ableton Live School via Wired Italy]

Despite the increasing number of robotic musical acts, I’m still always tickled by the idea of a band that does away with the human element, and puts robots in their rightful place – to entertain their masters. The latest robot musician – a mechanical bass-playing ‘bot.

Engineering student James McVay created the MechBass as his honors project at New Zealand’s Victoria University. The robot uses a set of four individual bass strings along with a motorized pick wheel to jam out its tunes.

A linear-motion system moves a pitch-shifter that frets the strings by applying pressure to them, and a servo-controlled damper mechanism can stop the strings from vibrating quickly. Optical pickups then capture the sounds, and send them to an audio circuit and amplifier.

The whole system is controlled using MIDI signals and an audio programming language called ChucK, so it can play pretty much any tune that can be played on a bass. A custom controller board using an ATMega328 processor acts as the bridge between the software and the hardware.

But don’t just take my word for how cool this thing is. Here’s a video clip of MechBass pounding out the intense bassline of Muse’s Hysteria.

While I don’t know if it’ll be replacing Flea in the Red Hot Chili Peppers anytime soon, I’m still totally impressed by MechBass’ musical talents.

Check out complete details on the build here (PDF).

[via Wimp]

If you’d like your Sony headphones to be a little less judgmental, we’ve got good news. The company’s MDR-XB400, MDR-XB600 and MDR-XB800 Extra Bass headphones, along with the MDR-XB60EX in-ears, have arrived in the US for those who want low-end frequencies without the talent show branding. All four carry Sony’s newer Advanced Direct Vibe to emphasize the sub-bass notes of “today’s music styles” (read: electronic and hip-hop) as well as a serrated cord that keeps the cord tangling to a minimum. Working your way up the range mostly improves the frequency range, which starts at an already bass-heavy 5Hz to 22kHz in the XB400 and scales up to a tooth-rattling 3Hz to 28kHz for the XB800; you’ll also see the sensitivity jump from 100dB/mW to 106. Provided you don’t mind tweaking software to occasionally recover some treble, the entire collection is ready to wobble your head at prices that range from $60 for the starter XB400 headphones to $150 for the XB800.

Continue reading Sony ships new Extra Bass headphone lineup to the US, delivers that Direct Vibe to your brain

Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Sony

Sony ships new Extra Bass headphone lineup to the US, delivers that Direct Vibe to your brain originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Oct 2012 01:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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