Tape Your Memories
Christine | 5:47 pm | January 21, 2008 | Uncategorized
Sound recording has gone a long way, from first phonographs invented in the 17th century to digital recording, with such pit-stops on the way as gramophone, magnetic tape and optical recording. While first gramophone records were 7″ wide and could reproduce sound for 2 minutes at most, the capabilities of modern media storage devices are astonishing. Although technological progress has positive connotations, it seems to wipe out what we cherish – the soul of our favourite records. Does The White Album on CD or in mp3 sound the same as the vinyl White Album bought in 1968? Hardly.
While gramophone records are still produced and bought, cassettes are slowly but steadily disappearing from stores, mainly because they are so inconvenient to use. However we all remember those times when a favourite cassette was played and then rewound, again and again, and we love these nostalgic memories. MIXA brings you 10-15 years back by presenting a flash drive that looks just like a tape cassette, so all your memories can now be kept at your fingertips. Chose from MIXA’s images or use your own design, buy it for yourself or for your parents, who are still afraid of using a laptop, enjoy it before cassettes disappear forever.
Source: Makeamixa.com
DJing for Dummies
maksim | 9:07 pm | January 16, 2008 | Laptop Music
Consider the life of a sculptor. What an unusual, unexpected choice of a namebadge, not only for a man, but for an artist too. The mountain does not crumble and fall to Muhammad, Muhammad orders the mountain to be blown up, cut, and delivered to him, by UPS, on a Monday morning. And then he is locked away with the rock in a studio, possibly for years, turning it into a huge stone thing looking like a spermatozoid on one side and a teardrop on the other, symbolizing the victims of a 1937 Great Wisconsin Tornado, or anything to that effect involving angry tornado-looking forces and dead spermatozoids.
Life of a DJ is in no way that exotic. It is mostly just sex, drugs, drums till dawn- usual, everyday, mundane routine. Yet they are somewhat similar- to become one, you need a lot of investment and space.
Source: Firebox.com
Cubicle Cucumbers, Drum!
maksim | 1:18 am | December 20, 2007 | Laptop Music
Imagine a stranger looking at you from the side as you are reading this. Looking at you, a hunched, silent, unmoving figure in front of a panel of plastic. Take the monitor, the furniture, your clothes away, and you start to look like an overgrown vegetable hidden away from sunrays in a cellar.
How do you fight this vegetable state? You need something involving physical activity, reasonably addictive to keep you going, yet short enough not to distract you too much. Obviously, nicotine is a perfect choice. But what about us, non-smokers?
How about a drum machine? Small, portable, easy to hide, easy to unhide. Compatible via USB with any laptop. Silent, if you use headphones. It may not be suitable for an office cubicle, as you will look daft, jumping silently up and down while hitting your desk with two sticks. But for a home office, why not? Surely not much worse than shower singing.
Source: Gadgets Club