We first took a look at the Pacemaker DJ when it was announced in May. The idea is interesting: it’s a mobile 120GB hard drive with touch controls for internal mixing/cross-fading, effects, a separate cueing output, and pitch control, along with rich format support (even OGG, FLAC, AAC). That’s all well and good, but the device will apparently cost US$700.

Barb Dybwad at Engadget optimistically offers that “it’s a relatively low-cost convenient practice setup for DJs on the road or an attractive option for aspiring amateurs.” Hmmm … I normally agree with Barb, but in this case, let’s make that:

• relatively high-cost
• DJs would normally practice with real decks or software, not this
• aspiring amateurs have much more attractive options. (A laptop and Deckadance, for one. Assuming you’ve got the laptop, that’ll set you back US$99 - 179. And you could pick up a basic M-Audio controller for about US$100, and it’ll be easier to control than this.)

Not that you need me to tell you any of that. I’d still like to get my mitts on one to see what they’ve done; I just can’t imagine who this is for. If you know, write in.

Beatportal goes way over the top and asks if this is “a revolution for DJ and youth culture.” Let me answer that question: no. Youth culture? Dude, I grew up in a generation for which Garbage Pail Kids and slap bracelets revolutionized youth culture. Kids don’t really need that much for entertainment. The ones who really define culture tend not to blow a grand on mobile gadgets. And as far as something that is “set to revolutionize the way we think about DJing and mixing,” didn’t laptops do that already?

Still, since I was one of the people arguing for a “pro-level” iPod way back in 2001, I have to admire the idea. It just seems to lack some meat, like recording capabilities, or the ability to really integrate into a DJ setup. Of course, in 2001 I was much more innocent and immature. I’ve been working out, and now I can lift big boy hardware.

Speaking of things you probably don’t want: Dr. Dre-branded headphones manufactured by Monster Cable. I don’t know, maybe they’re great.

We’re just counting the hours until next week, when the NAMM show hits and we get really cool music stuff. Those gadget bloggers in Vegas at CES don’t know what they’re missing.

Beaport Sync is a free, DJ-friendly music player / librarian / mixing app for Windows and Mac. On its surface, it looks like a hook for online music store Beatport and a beginner-friendly DJ mixer (two tracks, auto tempo detection and time stretching, pitch control) — and it is that.

But aside from the ability to mix and cross-fade, Beatport Sync has some features Apple’s iTunes lacks, which makes it potentially worth a download for just about anyone. First, it has real file format support: MP3 / MP4 / AAC / WMA / WAV / AIFF / FLAC / OGG (plus audio CDs, of course). WMA, FLAC, and OGG are all missing in iTunes. Second, it has advanced meta-data editing and file browsing, making it useful for organizing your music collection. What I really like: not only can you backup your library to external media, but you can browse external media, too. It’s a reminder that iTunes remains pretty primitive for listening and organization — it’s added some decent features, but not so much for the desktop listening experience.

Those aren’t a huge deal on Windows or even Linux with various reliable alternative music players, but they’re big news on the iTunes-dominated Mac. Native Instruments tells CDM that they do expect even their die-hard Traktor users may want Beatport Sync as an organizing tool or basic player.

As far as DJ-style features, this player is pretty decent for a freebie:

• Two-deck mixer with manual/automatic crossfader
• Pitch control
• Time-stretching and tempo detection, for smooth crossfades even if you don’t know what you’re doing (or you’re, say, folding laundry or cleaning your studio and want the software to DJ for you — it happens)
• Rip and burn CDs
• Access external devices for browsing and backup
• iTunes library integration (no playback support for DRMed tracks, though meta-data will appear)

I’ve been testing the release build since just before it came out, and I have to say, I like it. The player is largely no-nonsense, and in terms of format support and playback fidelity, it’s great. You also have the kind of hardware driver support you normally only get from a pro app. And the ability to browse through all your drives instantly is great.

I have just a few caveats for you. If you don’t like getting a music store advertised in your music player, be aware that Beatport is a prominent choice in the sidebar — and the only one. Of course, that’s not to say you can’t buy online music from Beatport rivals like Dance Tracks Digital, or your local record store for those who like physical media. While it’s an aesthetic complaint, you also get the blue and green Beatport colors, which look like they escaped from the local scuba shop. (Give us an alternative black skin, please!) Some might not like the hierarchical file navigation, though I actually do enjoy it. The one downside I did find significant is that there’s not much in the way of stream and radio support. Electronic-music centric Proton is there, if that’s all you want to listen to, but there’s no equivalent for the integrated Shoutcast support in players like Winamp and Songbird. (Hey, I want J-Pop followed by Turkish folk music, okay? Does that make me less of an electronica fan?)

Still, overall, it’s a great player. If you’re serious about your digital music collection, I’d say this is worth at least adding to your tool belt — and the price is right.

Beatport Sync [Native Instruments]

Previously:
MediaMonkey Review: The Ultimate Music Player and Library Organizer for PC (though, on PC, no reason not to run both)

We’ve seen DJ parties with iPods and now handheld remote controls for DJ software. But what about building mixing features into the portable player itself? That’s the idea of the Pacemaker, a new portable player promised for Fall.

Pacemaker site (Warning: auto-plays music)
Tonium, the mysterious manufacturers’ site

DJ features and mixing are internal to the player, and there’s rich playback support in general. You can cross-fade on the unit itself, and add effects, with dedicated headphone and line out jacks and cueing features. There’s a multi-function touch control for all these features. As a player, it looks great on paper, with a 120 GB hard drive and support for OGG, FLAC, and AAC in addition to the usual MP3, WMA, and WAV. (Apparently no line recording, which would really make this a must-have, but some of the specs are still unclear.) If they don’t botch the design somehow, I can see this appealing to electronic musicians as much as DJs.

Enough of whining about Apple, Microsoft, and other hardware players: make your own media player instead. Co-Editor Jaymis has been hitting nasty firmware issues with his iPod, and I’ve been having issues with oddities on Zune. So let’s do things the DIY way and build a player that’s exactly what we want!

yampp, “Yet Another MP3 Player”, is a completely open sourced project. It’s designed to hook up to the commonly-available Nokia 3310 LCD, uses standard parts, and connects and charges via USB. The most recent generation runs off of the ATmega161 CPU, a familiar chip to hardware DIYers. You can expand it with CompactFlash cards up to 4GB, play 256kbps MP3s, and powers off of a Li-Ion battery. PC Gamer even ran a friendly how-to that even a hardware newbie could easily follow; it was the Ultimate How-Tos for Gamers special issue if you can dig that up.

Check the project page first, but the jelu Web-Shop carries all the parts, and promises a complete US$99 player with an enclosure. (Pre-built, but hackable since it’s built on an open source project.) Color LCD? Check. MP3, WMA, AAC, and WAV support? Check.

MAKE is getting into the game, too, with an open source MP3 player kit called the Daisy MP3 Player Kit.

These machines may not save you money, but they could be a better investment in the long run, given their flexibility and customizability. And I expect we could hack one of them to work with Wi-Fi support.

Why build your own? You learn more, have more fun, get something that lasts longer (since you can service it), something you can hack to fit your needs, and something that can even be adapted to work in your latest art installation or custom music instrument. (How about this: a MIDI controller that triggers MP3s for when you screw up your live patch or crash your machine?)

Have any of you worked with any of these kits? Want to suggest others? Let us know!

And I know I’ll be asking for one of these kits for Christmas instead of an iPod or Zune.

For Microsoft people who are reading this, let me just say, I look forward to syncing my custom music player to Windows Media Player 11. Really.

[tags]hardware, players, MP3, DIY, hacks, electronics, homebrew[/tags]

Now that the Zune has been unleashed on the wild, we’re getting some more coverage on the player and this mysterious deal with Universal Music Group. (Incidentally, I am hoping to get someone from PR to explain to me what that deal is for, whether it’s intended to cover pirated music played on the device, music ripped from UMG CDs, or just the general music-y-ness of the device. Of course, shooting my mouth off may or may not make people want to talk to me.)

Microsoft To Give A Cut Of Every Zune Sold To The Recording Industry — Though It’s Not Clear Why [Techdirt]
Microsoft Zune: Paying off the Industry One Label at a Time [Gizmodo]
Microsoft Strikes Deal for Music [New York Times]
Trying Out the Zune: iPod It’s Not [New York Times, David Pogue Review]

Now, of course, here in CDM Country readers and staff alike are hardly iPod fanboys and girls. We like playing music, and we play it on whatever works. I actually want to like Zune; it has a clever hardware design and a well-designed interface, and it’s something different in a market that has been iPod-dominated. But here are the main issues for me:

1. It’s not really a Wi-Fi device: Imagine being able to connect to Zune as a normal Wi-Fi storage device, to load and offload files, to sync your media library? Forget buying songs over Wi-Fi; why not be able to connect it to your home network? (Even Linux and Mac would work over Wi-Fi, too.) No can do. An entire Wi-Fi feature is wasted on an over-hyped sharing feature.
2. You can’t share your own files: Microsoft could become a surprise hero to the indie music market, to (ironically enough) Creative Commons lovers and the music maven audience. All they have to do is let you share files to which you own the rights — MP3s of your own band, for instance — with other people. Instead, you’re limited to the same DRM that’s applied to purchased music. That doesn’t make any sense, as Pogue observes for the NYT.


3. You can’t record: One of the things I love about the Windows players is that they have recording ability, often featuring not only internal mics but line-in capability. That makes the average Windows media player a much more versatile investment than the iPod. Not so with Zune, though, sending me back to PlaysForSure players like the iRiver clix (which, incidentally, can be made to work with other operating systems if you have the savvy to install some device drivers).

For many of us, listening to music — and managing our collections of music — can be as important as making music. Jaymis has me sold on MediaMonkey, available in cheap / free versions, for Windows. Note that this doesn’t run on the Mac — feel free to discuss Mac alternatives in comments. Listening software is often one of those few apps we run every day, so here’s Jaymis’ exhaustive review of his favorite. -PK

I received my first MP3 file over ten years ago, as a zip archive spanned over three 3.5″ floppy disks. In the time since there have been advances in codec, hardware and software players, metadata formats and online sales, but after more than a decade the humble MP3 is still a dominant force in computer based music listening.

In my time as an MP3 consumer I’ve used a plethora of players, both hard- and software. In the early days, developers racing to add new features had me switching and trying out new applications regularly, but by the late 90s I was a dedicated Winamp user, even through the troublesome Winamp3 days. This all had to change. When faced with a year travelling and working in Europe I decided to retire my trusty 256MB “James” and replace him with a shiny, white, inevitable, 20GB (3rd Gen) iPod. After considerable wrangling (warning NSFW language and unrelated ranting in comments) I grudgingly switched to iTunes, which is an ok piece of software. Really. If all of your music comes to you via iTunes music store or major label CDs you’ve faithfully purchased and ripped (after reading and understanding any included EULAs) then you probably won’t ever need or want another media player. iTunes also has some truly fantastic features: Coupled with judicious iPod-based rating while travelling, Party Shuffle and Smart Playlists changed how I listen to music.

However, If you’re a discerning music listener. If you consume music which is copied from friends or MP3 Blogs, acquaintances with bands, records digitized from your dad’s vinyl collection, or if you occasionally change computers, use multiple computers or multiple ipods, then iTunes will eventually cause you grief.

It’s not the most full-featured application either. Apple’s “less is more” philosophy does make for friendly, simple software, but a quick look at Apple’s supplied Applescripts give you an idea of the basic functions they haven’t bothered with.

Enter Mediamonkey

MediaMonkey is amazing. I’ve been running it for 3 months now and still feel like I haven’t scratched the surface of what it can do. Here’s a quick feature overview from the site:

• Organize music and edit tags in your audio library with a powerful, intuitive interface
• Automatically lookup and tag Album Art and other metadata
• Manage 50,000+ files in your music collection without bogging down
• Play MP3s and other audio formats, and never again worry about varying volume
• Record CDs into OGG, MP3, FLAC and WMA files
• Convert MP3s, OGG, FLAC and WMA files into other formats with the Audio Converter
• Synchronize with iPods / MP3 players effortlessly and convert tracks on-the-fly
• Party Mode, which allows users to make requests while protecting your library from being modified.

CDM got some early exclusives on the future of Microsoft’s media plan and PlaysForSure, including an explanation of why Zune isn’t part of the PlaysForSure program, thanks to Dave McLauchlan of the Windows Media Group:

Microsoft Not Turning Back on PlaysForSure with Zune Player
MTP, Portable Player Standard? Microsoft’s McLauchlan Sets Us Straight

At the time, Microsoft wouldn’t say anything publicly about its upcoming player. Now, it has made its Zune announcement official. Translating the marketing-speak is too painful for me today, so you can read the press release after the jump, but here are the interesting points:

1. Wireless sharing: As widely predicted, the Zune will feature wi-fi music sharing, via Zune-to-Zune connections. Microsoft also promises a “platform” for sharing music and video. Sounds interesting; as long as this eventually involves the ability to freely stream VJ sets and sound files in any format I want anywhere I want, I’ll be really happy. (Okay, that could be wishful thinking …)
2. Share recordings: The portable music consumer product makers generally don’t seem to understand that lots of people make their own recordings. So it’s comforting to see among the sharing features that you’ll be able to share “homemade recordings.” (Homemade, I think, is in contrast to the DRMed music purchased for the Zune, which will have plenty of sharing restrictions — but all the more reason to stock up on your own stuff and non-DRMed music and share that instead.)
3. Surprise! Hip music! Microsoft apparently wants to build its street cred by pre-loading indie music on the device. The device will feature music from “DTS, EMI Music’s Astralwerks Records and Virgin Records, Ninja Tune, Playlouderecordings, Quango Music Group, Sub Pop Records, and V2/Artemis Records.” Sup Pop? Ninja Tune? Quango? Wow, we might actually get some music we like. And meanwhile Apple is shilling with John Legend. Am I in bizarro world?

Zune’s focus seems to be music discovery and sharing. Whether Microsoft actually pulls that off or it’s just marketing hype, it’s nice to see them trying, at least — even if they aren’t giving Last.fm a run for its money any time soon.

As musicians, it matters to us, I think, how music is consumed and distributed. Dave McLauchlan of the Windows Media Devices Group at Microsoft had plenty to say about the technologies that drive their devices. As a member of the team behind PlaysForSure, though, he also had some mythbusting to do on the Zune front. While Microsoft currently declines to comment on their upcoming media device, unfortunately many outlets have gotten some information blatantly wrong, including the widely-publicized story that Microsoft was turning its back on its existing Windows DRM and subscription services. Dave says it ain’t so:

There has been absolutely no official correspondence from Microsoft regarding any plan to *not* support Windows Media DRM nor subscription services. The Zune team has specifically not answered any questions related to technologies like subscription and the DRM mechanism behind it.

I think where people are getting confused is that we have confirmed that Zune will not be a member of the PlaysForSure program. PFS is about much more than subscription or DRM although those are two important components. However, a device can meet (or not meet) PlaysForSure certification on the basis of something as simple as the implementation of MSC.

So, not to make ANY claims or “hints” about what features Zune will ship with (the device will ship this year, so more news will be forthcoming) - but it is not necessarily a correct assumption to believe that because the device will not be part of the PlaysForSure program that it won’t use Windows Media DRM nor support subscription. I should also be clear that PlaysForSure isn’t going away. Microsoft remains committed to an ecosystem using Windows Media technology that a large number of partners have committed to. However, there are really two strategies in the market right now - cross-brand ecosystems (PFS) and singular brand ecosystems (Apple). The former is gaining in share and units sold, but the latter has enormous share and won’t give that up easily.

Just as Samsung sells RAM to Apple, but makes PlaysForSure devices too - Microsoft is electing to build an ecosystem around the Zune concept, but remains committed to the PlaysForSure ecosystem which many partners have joined us with.

That should be good news for Windows Media loyalists. If you look long enough at Microsoft’s bizarre Flash teaser for Zune, pictured below, I’m sure you can find many more details, in allegorical form.

Coming Zune: Zune Teaser Site [Official]
Music Site, Regina Spektor, the NYC pianist/singer whose quirky music is featured in the otherwise slightly disturbing Flash trailer

Public relations representatives from Microsoft declined comment on this story, though they did provide the standard line:

Portable music player technology isn’t as simple as it once was. With digital music files have come new restrictions from the music labels on how music is played and transferred, as well as discussion of various specifications for connecting devices to computers. In a June 16 story on Platform-Agnostic Drag-and-Drop Music Listening, I suggested lovers of independent music might be better off foregoing both Digital Rights Management (DRM) and Microsoft’s preferred connection mechanism, the Media Transfer Protocol (MTP).

There has been a lot of criticism of DRM, but in the process, a lot of people have missed the details on Microsoft’s MTP. I advocated using the older USB Media Storage Class (MSC) connection method because it’s compatible out-of-the-box with Mac and Linux as well as Windows. But I did note that MTP isn’t itself “DRM,” since many of its features are unrelated to music, let alone music DRM. That launched a semi-interesting debate with Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow, and in the process we learned many of you really can’t stand Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow.

The best way to learn something about a technology, though, is to talk to someone who actually develops it. Dave McLauchlan from the Windows Media Devices Group at Microsoft wrote me privately to rebut some of what I said, make some corrections, and set the record straight on the Windows Media devices and specifically MTP. Dave is himself a musician — see his music site, and note that even though he works for Microsoft, his music is available on iTunes via CDBaby and in non-DRMed MP3 downloads. His response isn’t the one-sided DRM advocacy you might expect, though he has some pragmatic points to make about DRM, as well. Most interesting to me is some of the insight he provides on how these technologies are evolving for music use. I stand by my claim that musicians should consider sidestepping labels and selling non-DRMed music direct to their listeners. But there’s plenty to be learned here.

I hate ending on sour notes. So, instead, let’s look at some positive opportunities for music distribution. Indie labels and music makers alike on this site I know have no love for Digital Rights Management, but let’s look at some alternatives, from Mozilla-based iTunes alternatives to music on sticks (and reasons to dump iTunes).