Working on your rock star drum solo in virtual reality
Trade show in California highlights the intersection of technology and music
ANAHEIM, CALIF.— Imagine playing the drums, with two sticks in your hands, but no actual, physical drum kit in front of you.
Put on the virtual reality headset and headphones, and now the drum is directly in front of your eyes, and when you hit the cymbals, snare and bass drum, you feel it, see it and sense it. Welcome to drumming, virtualreality style, one of the coolest new products we saw at the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Show 2016.
The show, which showcases the intersection of music and technology, runs through Sunday. NAMM was originally targeted toward music instrument dealers, but has turned into a celebration for the entire industry that attracts 100,000 folks every year, as musicians, producers and engineers come to check out the floor and see the latest.
Sales for music merchants tallied $17 billion (U.S.) in 2016, says Joe Lamond, the president of NAMM, slightly up from $16.9 billion in 2015.
“There’s more music being made today than any time in history,” he says. “The tools made it more democratic. Anyone can now write and create songs in their bedroom.” At NAMM, we also liked: The iRig Acoustic guitar microphone for smartphones. Many like to play solo guitar pieces and post them on Facebook and YouTube directly from a smartphone. But as we all know, the smartphone mics are inferior. This $49.99 mic, for Apple and Android devices, fits on the open hole of the acoustic guitar and promises to dramatically improve the sound. From IK Multimedia.
An app for guitar care. The folks at Taylor Guitars introduced an app to keep players up to date on the battery level of the acoustic guitar pickup, humidity level and what to do when the guitar takes a bump. “We’ve put our years, knowledge and wisdom about guitars” into the Taylor-Sense app, says Bob Taylor, founder of the 41-year-old company.
For the person who has everything and lots of money to spend, there’s Bosendorfer’s $200,000 Oscar Peterson Signature Edition piano. Before the late jazz piano master died in 2007, Bosendorfer arranged to reproduce 13 of his recordings from 1984 on an instrument that could be used as a player piano of sorts, using Yamaha Disklavier technology.