Music Diary

Music Diary, Crowdfunding, News & Features

TemPolor Melo-D Wants to Turn Humming and Text Prompts into Playable Music

The TemPolor Melo-D is a foldable generative AI guitar aimed at people who have musical ideas but not necessarily the finger strength, theory background, or patience to wrestle with a traditional instrument. The company is pitching the TemPolor Melo-D as the world’s first generative AI guitar, capable of turning humming, text prompts, style tags, chord progressions, and uploaded audio into original songs or playable guitar parts. That’s a big claim, and the real test will be how musical the results feel, but the concept is easy to understand: make songwriting and guided playing less intimidating.

Music Diary, Gear Bits

Fender Player Plus Series Introduces Fresh Looks, Tones, and Feel with 4 New Guitars and 3 New Basses

Gear Bits, Music Diary

HeadRush MX5: A Compact, Easy to Use, and Fully Featured Guitar FX and Amp Modeling Processor

Music Diary, News & Features

BOSS Announces EUROS GS-1 Electronic Guitar, First Wireless Expression Pedal, and Gig Bags

Reviews, Music Diary

Fender Mustang Micro Personal Amplifier Review: An Amazing New Must-Have Guitar Accessory

Music Diary, Events, News & Features

IK Multimedia Introduces the UNO Synth Pro and UNO Synth Pro Desktop

Gear Bits, Music Diary

The Most Metal Conspiracy Theory Ever!

It seems like the past few years have spawned more conspiracy theories than at any other time in my life — or at least, there have been more conspiracy theories that were totally ridiculous yet not laughed off universally. But this week, I came across a conspiracy theory I could get behind! A couple of common conspiracy theories from recent years are how 5G circuits are responsible for all manner of things and that some kind of secret tracking chip is being implanted in people as part of the COVID vaccines. These combined in a conspiracy theory out of Italy,…

Music Diary, Reviews

Scofield and Swallow’s Musical Journey Continues on ‘Swallow Tales’

My first encounter with guitarist John Scofield came forty years ago as a young bassist looking for work by Steve Swallow and finding a new release by a trio led by Scofield called ‘Shinola.’ I was thrilled by Swallow’s playing, but also instantly fell in love with Scofield’s jagged, angular lines, and innovative fretboard shapes.

Gear Bits, Music Diary

Watch Beyoncé’s ‘Black Is King’ Starting Today on Disney+

Beyoncé’s Black Is King is debuting on Disney+ today. It’s a visual album in which Beyoncé “reimagines the lessons of “The Lion King for today’s young kings and queen’s in search of their own crown. The voyages of Black families throughout time are honored in a tale about a young king’s transcendent journey through betrayal, love, and self-identity.”

Music Diary, Reviews

Fender Acoustasonic Stratocaster, the Shape-Shifting Guitar

Fender has mixed technology with its usual craftsmanship and iconic Stratocaster shape. The Acoustasonic Stratocaster retails for $1,999.99 and comes in five colors. This unique guitar will allow players to get both acoustic and electric sounds out of the same instrument — all the while playing on a great looking guitar with the quality expected from Fender.

Music Diary, News & Features

Steinberg Brings Cubasis 3 Audio Workstation to Android Devices

Back in 2012, Steinberg released Cubasis, a fully-featured DAW (digital audio workstation) for iPad with plug-ins, full audio, MIDI recording and editing, and many other professional features. Having used Cubasis on iPad quite a bit through the years, I have always loved how they were able to pack so many features into a mobile platform. Last year’s Cubasis 3 took things to another level, making the iPad version a true mobile DAW. And now Steinberg has brought the acclaimed full-featured mobile studio to Android.

Music Diary

Master & Dynamic Joins Forces with Leica Again for the MW07 Plus and MW65

Back in 2017, Master & Dynamic joined forces with like-minded luxury optics brand Leica Camera AG and their high-end accessories brand 0.95; the signature collection features four reimagined versions of M&D’s products. Three years later, the relationship is going strong, and they’ve partnered again.

Music Diary, News & Features

Esperanza Spalding and Fred Hersch Announce 5-Song Duo EP to Benefit Musicians

The global pandemic has presented nearly all of us with unique challenges and hardships in every phase of life, but there are many people whose chosen profession requires them to live from day to day without a safety net or health care resources. Musicians fall squarely in that camp, with fewer than 5% able to make more than the poverty level based on their music alone.

Music Diary, Reviews

Fender Fullerton Series Ukuleles Bring a Rock ‘n Roll Style to the Island Scene

The Fender Strat Ukulele as if a Fender Stratocaster went on vacation to Hawaii, decided to settle down and assimilate with the local music scene. It’s as if a ukulele went through a teenage rebellion phase and got all rock ‘n roll. And for just about $200, the Fender Fullerton Series of ukuleles are well-built, stylish ukulele with great features.

Music Diary, News & Features

Fender Releases Tone 3.0 App and Mustang GTX Series Amps

The Fender Tone app originally released in 2017; the app is free, and it allows users to dial into presets and tones the brand’s connected amps. The newest iteration of the app, Fender Tone 3.0, is now available on iOS, Android, Mac, and PC. Fender’s most sophisticated connected modeling amps, the Mustang GTX series, will be releasing on April 14.

Gear Bits, Music Diary

Fender Adds Stratocaster Model to American Acoustasonic Series

Fender announced the American Acoustasonic Telecaster which sold out at launch in January 2019. They have now added a Stratocaster model to the lineup. It takes what was so popular with the initial model and mixes it with the original Stratocaster electric bringing a new genre-blending tool.

Game Diary, Music Diary, News & Features

MacOS Catalina … Is It Safe Yet?

I have always been an ‘update first and ask questions later’ kind of guy, but every now and then an update arrives that hits at something critical me – and that is the case with MacOS Catalina. Because it is incompatible with 32-bit applications, everyone has known that older applications would be in danger – but for me an entire industry seems to have been waiting for the last possible moment: music production.

Music Diary, News & Features

Learn to Play Right Away with Roland’s New AE-01 Aerophone Mini

Last week we were treated to some awesome new Roland synths and controllers, and to follow it up they are announcing a new digital wind instrument that us powerful yet easy to learn: the AE-01 Aerophone Mini.

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