You might need to be an internationally-touring DJ to buy one, at EUR750, but the Travelteq Trip Sound suitcase is awe-inspiring at least as a design gimmick. The aluminum roll-around is designed first and foremost as a suitcase, as in the things that hold your laptop and clothes when you’re on the road, and is even sold as such – no gimmicks, just an ultra-high-end way of toting luggage. But purchase the Trip Sound option, and you can fold an entire sound system into said suitcase.

What keeps it a gimmick is, unfortunately, power. The Trip Sound System isn’t the most powerful thing around — two 15W, 2.5-inch drivers make it too weak for busking or on-the-spot DJ sets. Think of it as boom box, not PA, and for that, it certainly beats most of the things you could drop into a carry-on. It’ll also play from batteries up to 12 hours, depending on playback volume, or can connect to power via a universal power supply. You can also dock mobile devices, or top off a laptop.

WIthout opening the entire suitcase, you can also get quick access to compartments for phones, newspapers, and such, as well as a padded laptop compartment. Fold out legs, and the suitcase doubles as a chair.

Check out the full specs on the dizzying Travelteq site, which itself seems to be designed for people resistant to motion sickness. (Scroooollling… augh!)

Presumably the price is covered by the construction, interchangeable textiles, rugged, ultra-premium… stuff. You can read their explanation. It’s nothing if not drool-worthy as fantasy. And apparently globe-trotting DJs do desire them – Gui Boratto, Andy Sherman, and – so say rumors – Armin van Buuren own one, says our tipster Brandon Carlyle. (Thanks!)

All in all, though, this serves as a painful reminder of certain laws of space, weight, and power that restrict a lot of what we might do with sound. Your shirts take up a certain amount of space, and so does anything that produces a certain amount of sound. It’s unquestionably a cool fashion accessory, at least. There’s something to which you can aspire, should you aim for a lucrative ascent to the top of DJing: design fetish travelware. (Hey, for some of us design nerds, it beats the better-known perks.)

Trip Sound
Travelteq

Despite my complaints, you will find some useful music apps in the iTunes App Store – you can at least get some fine tuners. (Andy Ihnatko was excited on Twitter that one of them helps him tune his ukulele, thanks to four string support!) We do expect more hefty music tools in the coming months, and via the jailbroken platform.

But some of the real stars on the iPhone – or whatever your favorite smart mobile device may be – have to do with simply storing ideas and keeping your life together. That means one of the best downloads so far for the iPhone is Evernote. As Graham English writes in comments on CDM:

The app I’m most excited about for music is Evernote. You can record voice notes, text notes, and it even recognizes the text in iPhone pictures. So next time you write a killer hook on a bar napkin, snap a picture and sync it. Cool.

I’m a huge user of Evernote on my desktops and, via its web browser, on my Blackberry. The iPhone app looks especially great, though; I’m jealous.

Evernote for iPhone

My friend Francis Preve has written a whole set of useful tips for DJs that apply to any gigging musician / artist (which he’s been refining since the first iPod, in fact):

Top 10 iPhone tricks for DJs [Beatportal]

Some highlights:

• Keeping email templates for gig announcements on your device so you can send them quickly. (Recognize this scenario? “Hey, what’s new?” “I’m playing Friday.” “Oh, really?”)
• Mapping: Some providers require you to enable mapping capabilities on your device. Do it. Both the “real” GPS (via a dedicated radio) and the assisted GPS can be lifesavers if you travel at all. (The iPhone 2.0 update adds this feature, in the assisted form.)
• Rescue tracks: The iPhone is a capable music player, so it can, um, save you when your laptop dies or someone steals your hard drive. It even has video out capability, for you Create Digital Motion readers.

And the fact is, you can easily apply these ideas to whatever phone / smart device is your favorite. These could also put you over the top as far as cameras with phones – not because you’ll necessarily be taking attractive photos (dedicated cameras are a must for that) but because they can aid visual memory. (Airport parking spot? Check!)

I especially like Fran’s idea of logging creative time. Invoicing aside, I find that it’s so often a fight to get time to yourself that I really like the idea of keeping track of that time, whether it’s in the studio or just sitting in the park thinking about a new song. It could help give you some positive reinforcement for setting aside some working time or even badly-needed quiet time.

Going back to my first Palm (the PalmPilot Professional, no less), I’ve always found even simple mobile devices can help reduce stress, particularly on the road. And that to me is priceless.

Other ideas that boost your productivity, in terms of gigging, travel, and creativity? Let us know.

Previously:

iPod Touch/iPhone for Music Round-up (which, surprisingly, isn’t all that outdated by the App Store launch – we expect bigger announcements in the coming weeks)

See the map at Google

The results are heavily tilted toward acoustic instruments, naturally, though they happily go well beyond the expected Sam Ash and Guitar Center fare. I’m curious about shops which specialize in electronic gear — analog, digital, old, modern, software, whatever. Of course, not every city can be lucky enough to have a Robotspeak, which is basically CDM heaven (or credit card Hell, depending on how you look at it.) If you do have an electricity-friendly shop, though, let us know, and I’ll add it to my Desired World Tour Destinations list; point it out in comments here.

If you have a shop near you, no matter how small, be sure to mark it!