MP3 Insider

Ludacris gets down with Monster (and me) at CES 2009

Jasmine France — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:25:00 GMT

(Credit: CBS Interactive/Sarah Tew)

Excuse me a moment while I brush the stars out of my eyes. I just spent the better part of my lunch hour chilling with a bunch of Monster executives and rapper Ludacris, who creates some of my favorite workout-friendly and anger-releasing tracks. OK, so maybe I only spent 5 minutes one-on-one with the guy, but it was enough to ascertain that he's not only a talented artist, but also an exceedingly nice and polite guy. He also has no idea what an MP3 player is. Well, now he does. But when I asked him what MP3 player he used, he replied with something along the lines of "a what, now?" I proceeded to explain that it was a portable device, something that you might take with you to the gym to listen to music. He held up the iPod in his hand and said, "like this?" Exactly. He also has an iPhone.

With this information in hand, I was pretty sure I already knew the answer to my next question, but I pressed on to ask him what headphones he used, the just-announced Monster Turbine In-Ear Speakers hanging from his ears as I spoke. He wasn't sure, exactly, but he could say that the Turbines were much better, due to the "suction thing" on the tips. So you have it from Ludacris himself--sound isolation is where it's at. And I confirmed that he had been using the stock Apple earbuds before that; no wonder the Turbines sounded better. It never ceases to amaze me that so many musicians never get around to upgrading their listening experiences, despite the fact that I've seen plentiful photos of music-minded celebs like Justin Timberlake cruising around with the ubiquitous white earbuds.

From left to right, Head Monster Noel Lee, Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges, boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Kevin 'The Little Monster' Lee. (Click for more pics.)

(Credit: CBS Interactive/Sarah Tew)

The real news from Monster and Ludacris, however, is the release of Ludacris' new album, Theater of the Mind, in High Definition Stereo Surround. The album was actually mixed by Head Monster himself, Noel Lee, and I must say it sounds fantastic. If you get a chance, it's definitely worth listening to the format--hopefully places like Best Buy will have listening stations set up in the near future. It's difficult to describe in print, but let's just say you feel like you are in the studio. If you want to enjoy the album in HDS--on DVD, by the way--you'll need at least a surround sound system to notice the difference between it and a standard CD. The cheapest systems now are running for around $300-400. Monster also has plans to release a mixed down version that will be compatible with Dolby Digital Technology, which lets you experience the surround sound through headphones.

Note: stay tuned for more info on the Turbine headphones.

Photos: Audio gems from Macworld 2009

Donald Bell — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:19:00 GMT

Blue Microphone's Mikey iPod accessory was a surprise find at Macworld 2009.

(Credit: Donald Bell/CNET Networks)

The Macworld show floor can induce deja vu for habitual attendees. From a hardware perspective, often it's the same vendors offering the same products, with slight variations from year to year. Despite the gloomy economic outlook, however, I found a surprising amount of new products on the show floor (or, at least new to me). Here are the highlights.

Pacemaker 2.0 brings beats to the masses

Donald Bell — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:00:00 GMT

The folks behind the Tonium Pacemaker, a DJ-focused MP3 player that made its debut in the middle of 2008, are gearing up to release a new version of the device in 2009.

The second-generation Pacemaker DJ MP3 player will help tempo-challenged DJs keep the beat.

(Credit: CBS Interactive/Corinne Schulze)

The new version of the Pacemaker announced today doesn't replace last year's model, but instead offers amateur DJs a light version of the full-blown product, loaded with a smaller hard drive (60GB instead of 120GB), a simpler user interface, and automatic tempo matching.

Physically, the new, consumer-focused version looks exactly the same as the $800 professional model. You get the same 1.75-inch color LCD, multigesture trackpad control, playback control buttons, and a touch strip crossfader. The rest of the specs, however, are a mystery (we'll try to pry more out of these Swedes at CES).

Tonium claims that the real difference between the professional Pacemaker and the new entry-level version will be apparent in the overhauled and simplified graphic user interface. Users will also feel the difference in their wallets, with the new version of the Pacemaker priced under $500.

Tonium predicts the new Pacemaker model will hit shelves in Spring of 2009.

Gifting digital downloads--Ask the Editors

Jasmine France — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 23:18:00 GMT

CNET is about to close its doors for the rest of 2008, but I couldn't take off on my extra-long, well-deserved holiday break without leaving you with one last tidbit of wisdom for the season of giving. Namely, what's a procrastinator to do when he or she wants to give the gift of digital downloads at the last minute? A couple of options for you below.

(Credit: Amazon)

Q: I, as most people, am trying to find the last gifts on my list before Christmas. Instead of sending people CDs or movies in the mail, however, I wanted to send them digital CDs or movies to make sure they get there on time and save shipping. Do you guys know of any good places that would allow me to do this?--Jereme, via e-mail

A: This is a great idea for last-minute gifting; in fact, I may have to steal it from you. Doing a little research, I found that two online stores stood out in making the purchase of digital gift certificates a simple task: Amazon.com and iTunes (warning: link launches the iTunes app). Both services offer a wide selection of both audio and video content, though you may want to note that Amazon's MP3 store and video service are in separate areas of the Digital Downloads department, and the iTunes gift certificate requires that the software be downloaded. I would go with iTunes if the giftee is an iPod user, but Amazon is a better bet for those with another portable device or none at all.

MP3 Mailbox Monday will return in 2009--happy holidays!

MP3 Mailbox Monday is a recurring feature where I answer a selection of questions about MP3 players and accessories, such as headphones, speakers, and music services and software. Check back often to see if the advice presented here might be of some use to you, or send your questions directly to me. (Note: We never include last names, but if you prefer to remain completely anonymous, please state as much in your e-mail.)

Accessorize the SanDisk Sansa family

Jasmine France — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:08:00 GMT

'Tis the season to give, but with the current economic crunch affecting all of our pocketbooks, you may find yourself too cash-strapped to go all out on electronic gadgetry. But that doesn't mean you have to shy away from tech gifting. MP3 player accessories make great gifts and the majority of them aren't going to cost you an arm and a leg. In fact, you can find some cases on Amazon for less than two bucks!

If you have a SanDisk Sansa owner in your family, you've come to the right place. We've rounded up a slew of accouterments that are perfect for stuffing stockings and loading up under trees.

SanDisk Sansa accessories gallery

Get a grip on holiday music

Donald Bell — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:48:00 GMT

Sy Mann's Switched on Santa is the pinnacle of holiday Moog-sploitation music. But the prospect of hearing it in August is terrifying.

(Credit: FaLaLaLaLa)

Nothing brings out the holiday spirit better than music. Whether it's Vince Guaraldi's "The Christmas Song," Elvis Presley's "Santa Claus Is Back In Town," or Snoop Dogg's "Santa Claus Goes Straight To The Ghetto," everybody has that certain song that epitomizes the holidays. Once the holidays are over, though, it's time to pack away the decorations, hide the tacky lawn ornaments, and take your holiday music out of rotation until next December.

That last part, the part about packing away the holiday tunes, has become harder to accomplish in the digital age. Before the dawn of the MP3, you could just dump your records, tapes, or CDs in the same garage-bound box as your ornaments and wrapping paper. In the days of iTunes, however, your imported songs tend to stick around. Next thing you know, it's August, you're at the gym listening to your iPod Shuffle, and "Jingle Bell Rock" hits you like a fart in a spacesuit.

So how do you store a digital holiday music library that can play from your home computer, while keeping it quarantined from the music you want to hear the other 11 months of the year? I've rounded up a few of my favorite techniques. Feel free to add your own suggestions at the end.

Start from scratch (iTunes only)

When playlists just won't cut it, give your holiday music its own separate iTunes library. Click here for a step-by-step guide.

The best way to keep holiday tunes from lingering in your iTunes music library, is to never import them into your library in the first place. Why not give your holiday music its own library all to itself, that can be loaded just one month out of the year? This way, when it's time for the lights and tinsel to come down, you can revert iTunes back to your main library like nothing ever happened. I also like this technique because it allows you to take advantage of iTunes' excellent presentation of music, using unique features such as cover flow and visualizers.

This technique works on both Mac and PC, and isn't recommended for the technologically timid. Click here, for a step-by-step guide on setting up a separate holiday music library on your Mac or PC.

Try an iTunes alternative

Songbird is a great little Mac/PC application you can use as a dedicated holiday music jukebox.

Even if you're a big fan of iTunes, it may be worth the extra effort to use a separate jukebox program for playing your holiday music. A program like Songbird is both Mac and PC compatible and just as intuitive and attractive as iTunes. In fact, you may end up liking Songbird enough to keep using year-round.

Songbird is also one of the few applications out there that will play your DRM-protected iTunes music purchases. Accomplishing the same feat in something like Windows Media Player requires you to burn your purchases to CD and rip them back to your computer.

Burn a CD or load a thumb drive

By storing your holiday hits on a USB thumb drive, you can keep Rudolph from infecting the music library on your home computer year-round.

Want the ease and simplicity of playing your holiday music on CD and storing it when you're done? Make it happen by keeping holiday tunes on CDRs, DVDRs, or a thumb drive. Personally, I like the thumb drive option, because I have so many of them laying around just waiting to serve a purpose. You can even go crazy and decorate the drive or buy some novelty holiday thumb drive.

Whether you're on a PC or a Mac, music stored on a thumb drive or MP3 CD/DVD can be opened in something simple like VLC Media Player and set to shuffle and repeat. Using VLC instead of something like Windows Media Player or iTunes helps to prevent the tracks from being mistakenly sucked into your media library.

If you're not picky about hearing specific holiday tunes, or you want to break out of your holiday rut, give free streaming services like Pandora a shot.

Just stream it

In the Web 2.0 era, no one really needs to own holiday music anymore. The stuff is everywhere. Why not let one of the Web's excellent Internet Radio services do all the heavy lifting for you? Be careful, though--if your Internet connection is a little shaky, having your holiday soundtrack buffer every few minutes could break the magic.

There are tons of different services you can use for this, but a search in Pandora offers decent results and SHOUTcast offers dozens of dedicated holiday stations, ranging from choral to country.

MusicBox maps future for managing large music collections

Donald Bell — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:29:00 GMT

One of the most common complaints I hear from people with large music collections is that browsing through songs as if scrolling through a spreadsheet is tedious. For these file-hoarding music fanatics, aimlessly browsing through their music library holds the same appeal as flipping through the card catalog of the Library of Congress.

The problem is: there comes a point when the iTunes paradigm of presenting your music collection as a column-sorted list of files is just absurd. Thankfully, Anita Lillie from MIT's Media Lab has based her thesis around a new way to visualize song data and she's called it MusicBox. The application is an academic exercise and unlikely to be developed into a commercial application, but it opens more than a few doors of perception when it comes to thinking about your music collection.

MusicBox includes many of the practical jukebox features you'd see in iTunes, but the visualization at its center radically rethinks the way we're accustomed to arranging our music collections.

(Credit: Anita Lillie)

Lillie's MusicBox goes far beyond the conventional sorting strategies of ID3 tags and file types, expanding the vocabulary to include factors such as tempo, timbre, and even data summarizing the acoustical properties of a song, pulled from another project of Lillie's called Soundsieve. After dialing-in the particular view of your collection you're interested in, you can plot a path across your songs to create an intelligent playlist capable of, say, playing songs in escalating tempo, or grouping songs with similar acoustic fingerprints across multiple genres (think Lionel Hampton alongside gamelan music).

Of course, from a practical standpoint, I already have a hard enough time explaining to my parents how iTunes works. Demonstrating interrelated acoustical nodes will likely melt mom and dad's brains. For advanced users hungry for new and novel ways to navigate monolithic collections, however, Anita Lillie's MusicBox project points to hope on the horizon.

(Via MAKE)

MP3 Insider 128: 2008 gives up the ghost

Donald Bell — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:19:00 GMT

Beats for your brain.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

In the final MP3 Insider of 2008, Donald and Jasmine discuss Dr. Dre's super stylish in-ear headphones, a way-too-pricey iPod dock from DLO, some touch-screen alternatives to the iPod Touch, and a gaggle of gear for the Creative Zen family.

Plus, find out how to follow Jasmine and Donald while they cruise around CES 2009.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Episode 128

Monster Beats by Dr. Dre Tour earphones

iPod Touch alternatives

DLO HomeDock HD

Creative Zen Accessories

Cowon S9 priced for U.S.

-----Twitter Alias Winner----

Winning alias: WeirdEaredJas

Winner: Keith G. from Atlanta, GA

CES 2009 preview: Portable audio

Donald Bell — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:46:00 GMT

America's annual Consumer Electronics Show typically isn't a launching pad for new MP3 players. With the iPod's continued domination over the world of portable audio, most MP3 player manufacturers save their big announcements until later in the year--after Macworld shakes out and before a new crop of iPods arrive in September. That said, CES is a great place to spot new iPod accessories, such as speaker docks, video goggles, headphones, and boom boxes. One thing I can say for certain: CES 2009 will be littered with products proclaiming their iPhone 3G compatibility.

Companies such as Iriver are the major exception when it comes to CES MP3 player announcements. In 2008, Iriver launched 11 portable media players at CES and went away with one of our Best of CES awards. We expect Iriver will come back to CES with another treasure trove of portable audio goodies to show off. In fact, CNET Asia has already caught wind of some possible contenders.

Iriver made a big splash at CES 2008.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

I also wouldn't rule out seeing some new MP3 players from Samsung. Rumors are already circulating that we may see an update to Samsung's popular touch-screen MP3 player, the YP-P2.

Sony is another big player at CES with a track record of making fantastic MP3 players. Some speculate that we'll see a new touch-screen Walkman unveiled at CES 2009, although it seems like an uncharacteristic move coming from Sony.

Speaking generally for MP3 players, we're likely to see even more emphasis placed on price and value, as manufacturers race to compete against SanDisk and Coby in the budget MP3 player space. On the other extreme, manufacturers ambitious enough to try and beat Apple at their own game will continue to incorporate touch screens, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other advanced technologies, in an effort to create cutting-edge appeal.

Touch-screen Sony Walkman? Don't hold your breath

Donald Bell — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:06:00 GMT

According to a post on the Sony Insider blog, Sony is gearing up to release a touch-screen Walkman to contend with Apple's iPod Touch (get in line Sony). The blog's author, who cites no sources and saw fit to post his own product mock-up, claims the new Walkman includes a 3-inch OLED screen, Wi-Fi, a Web browser, YouTube browser, and an integrated Amazon MP3 download store. Apparently, the device will be unveiled at CES in January. We couldn't reach any of our sources at Sony for comment.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 has already shown us a touch-screen Sony media player with a Web browser. A standalone Walkman with a similar UI isn't inconceivable.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

I want to give the Sony Insider the benefit of the doubt, and I have to admit the product sounds exciting. The part of this story I have a hardest time believing is that Sony would announce its Walkman in America. Historically, Sony's U.S. division has had a hard time creating buzz on its MP3 players, partly because they tend to pop up in Asia months before reaching U.S. soil, and partly due to their unbearably complicated product names.

Which is not to say I blame Sony. I have no problem believing that Japan's appetite for Walkmans and Rollys outstrip America's by a hundredfold. The iPod's stranglehold on the American psyche is well-known, and an MP3 player named the NWZ-S738F isn't going to change that, no matter how many awards we give it.

All rants aside--will we see a Wi-Fi-enabled touch-screen Sony Walkman in 2009? I don't see why not. Sony's own Xperia X1 smartphone already has all the ingredients. Of course, the X1 runs around $800 in the U.S.--which brings me to my next question.

Will we see a Wi-Fi-enabled touch-screen Sony Walkman for sale in the U.S. in 2009? That's hard to say. The Sony Insider post wasn't too clear on that part. My sense right now is that no one, not even the mighty Apple, is blind enough to release a risky and potentially expensive MP3 player in the U.S. for 2009.

On a smaller note, I have a hard time believing Sony would partner with Amazon (or anyone) for their device-integrated MP3 store. Personally, I think it would be a great move, but Sony always tries to go with a vertically integrated solution first. Just take a look at Sony Connect, the PS3, Blu-ray, or the most Sony of all products, the MiniDisc. Maybe this is Sony turning over a new leaf, but I wouldn't bet on it.