Why should you be excited, then? Well gadgeteers, both players feature high quality playback of music files, including FLAC and WAV, up to 192 kHz/24 bit. Sweet. But oh, that’s not all.

We’ll get you started with the N-50 which has dual transformers and USB/Optical/Coaxial digital inputs to work alongside the RCA and Optical/Coaxial outputs. Additionally, (and quite fantastically) it can support internet radio and iPod files, so, whatever format it’s in, and no matter how far it’s embedded within the deepest, dankest and darkest corners of your computer’s musical collection, then it’s likely to play for you. It is very good like that. Is there a catch at all? Unfortunately, yes; you do need an additional adapter for wi-fi compatibility… wait… wait… it’ll be okay. Read on and feel comforted by the horse’s mouth… no wait, that’s really not right. Ah yes, feel reassured by some info straight from the source… better.

Technology and Product Information Manager at Pioneer Europe, Philippe Coppens says: “Audiophiles now want to enjoy audio playback from their whole music library as well as online media, in the best possible sound quality. Keeping that in mind, Pioneer’s network audio players were developed to offer a new listening experience, giving access to music files wherever they are stored —PC, NAS, HDD, iPod/iPhone/iPad, or USB— as well as internet radio programmes from around the world.

“For the N-50, we have further integrated asynchronous USB DAC functionality and DSP processing, along with the parts and construction to make sure the requirements of even the most demanding audiophile are met.”

What about the N-30 then? Well, err, dear audiophiles, it’s not quite as good as the slick N-50, but it still does a top-notch job. Yeah, it lacks the dual transformers and digital inputs (excluding AirPlay and DLNA, of course), and the iPod compatibility, but otherwise carries out the same functions as its “big brother” model.

These luscious new Pioneers are available in black now, priced at £349.99 for the N-30 and £499.99 for the N-50.

[Source: Pioneer’s new Airplay-enabled Network Audio Players]

NAMM is the largest music product trade show in the world. It’s essentially CES for music, and this year was a record year for the organisation with 95,709 registered attendees and over 1,400 exhibitors.

We’re only going to cover a small percentage of what was on offer, from DAW (digital audio stations) to apps and synths to midi controllers.

One of the main talking points of the show was a new DAW (digital audio station) Bitwig. It comes from some of the clever bods behind Ableton – and  the Berlin start-up is clearly very brave considering they’re setting up shop in the same town as goliaths like Native Instruments and their main rivals Ableton.

There’s no information on pricing, which would give us an idea on who they are looking to target. But, Bitwig’s main appeal is flexible editing tools and a super-fast workflow.

Included are features such as multi-track recording, clip automation, instruments and effects, time-stretching and VST support. They haven’t revealed too much yet – but you can sign up for a chance to beta test the new software later this year at Bigwig.com. Check out the video below for an introduction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V_t8GfH-v4

One piece of hardware that caught our attention, and probably the attention of all the world’s music producers, was the new MPC Renaissance from hardware stalwarts Akai. This substantial, vintage-esque, piece studio equipment is designed for music producers and digital DJs and offers Akai’s class-leading drum pads and more rotary controls than a steam train.

The audio circuitry is the same that you would find in a Modern MPC, but the Renaissane comes with a special party piece: vintage mode. According to Akai the software is built in-house and will work with your preferred recording suite by running in VST, AU, or RTAS mode.

It also includes a 6GB sample library for reproducing some of the classic sounds of the MPC3000 and MPC60. On the hardware side, the Renaissance is the mother of all controllers with no expense spared — there’s plenty of room for 16 backlit MPC pads, 16 Q-Link controls, and a ton of I/O, including USB, MIDI, 1/4-inch stereo, and a dedicated turntable inputs.

The Renaissance will cost you though, with a street price is expected to be around £1,000.

But, if you can’t afford that sort of money – then have a look at MCP Fly. Built for the iPad 2, it comprises a 16-pad controller that comes in laptop-style case, which also houses your Apple tablet, and an app that enables you to sequence up to four tracks simultaneously.

The concept seems pretty sound to us, though we’re keen to find out just how capable the MPC Fly is in practice.

Digital music store Beatport was at Namm and from what we saw they are getting into the hardware business. One product that caught our eye was their incredibly practical range of gigging cables.

While they don’t offer anything particularly new they did have couple of clever ideas. First off, their range of cables come colour-coded – something someone should have thought of ages ago. There’s no doubt these will be a god-sent for digital musicians and DJ’s, who are often struggling with low lighting levels in clubs when they’re trying to setup their equipment. Another clever touch was the use of hinged USB ports – meaning you can connect equipment securely into the smallest of spaces.

[Source: The Best of NAMM: Beats, beats and more beats]

Another feature of the service is PURE Tag, which lets you bookmark tracks you hear on the radio, and find out more about the track and artist using the search and recommendation facilities of the PURE Lounge, to discover more about the artists and their back catalogue, podcasts, or even discover similar and related artists. This is an updated version of PURE’s FlowSongs music tagging service, which was launched in 2010.

Your choice of albums and tracks can be dragged and dropped into playlists, which will automatically be kept synchronised across all of your PURE Music listening devices. Playlists can be shared with social networking contacts on Facebook and Twitter.

There will be one price to start with – £4.99 – but be aware that there is no caching offered as yet, so you won’t be able to experience offline play. As more functionality is introduced, PURE will introduce a tiered pricing structure.

PURE Music went live in December and you can register your interest at www.thelounge.com/puremusic

[Source: PURE music’s Spotify rivial]

What’s the big deal then? Well err, QuNeo (pronounced kyoo-ne-oh, FYI) seemingly covers all of the functionality of other controllers, while adding some new and rather funky dimensions. Big deal? Yep. The QuNeo provides 27 pads, sliders and rotary sensors with 3D Multi-Touch recognition for pressure, velocity, and location sensitivity, which in-turn allows musicians playing electronic sounds to change their timbre (the quality, brightness and volume…). That means that harder or softer sounds can be varied by simply varying touch pressure – fancy yourself the next Thom Yorke (Radiohead) or Trent Reznor? (Nine Inch Nails, The Social Network OST), then this bad-boy could be for you. The pads are also responsive to X (left – right) and Y (up – down) and recognise multiple gestures for pinching and swiping. Fancy (yet refreshingly simple) stuff, eh?

We admit that with most of the first-gen software that’s come before, the options for controlling music have seemingly been pretty limited. To be fair, us using the term limited might even be a stretch; you could only ever hit a pad, twist a knob or push a button to manipulate sounds and effects (nope, the theremin’s got nuttin’ on this). KMI though, has attempted (and potentially resolved these restrictions) with its new line of Multi-Touch controllers:  SoftStep, 12 Step, and now QuNeo, that transforms musical intent into audio through physical control of 3D Multi-touch sensor technology. Well funky, yeah? The other cool thing about the QuNeo is that it’s built for portability. It’s basically a low-cost iPad-shaped music controller and as such, it fits into most iPad accessories (stands, clips), and cases. It actually feels a lot easier to handle than the iPad itself. Seriously.

KMI founder Keith McMillen says of the product: “Great musical instruments push back and convey a sense of the physical. They have depth and dimension and show you what they know. We have developed sophisticated and innovative sensor technologies for musicians that enable this next generation of musical instruments – controllerism 2.0.” Nice term there, Keith.

If you needed any further proof of this thing’s quality (aside from our nice words, obviously), the QuNeo has had a viral effect on internationally-recognised crowd-sourced funding platform Kickstarter (it’s the first time a music tech company has actually used this method) with record-setting pre-sales, hitting its original funding goal in just 36 hours. Why Kickstarter? The KMI QuNeo campaign project is currently doing its level-best to make use of the platform and enable electronic musicians, DJs, VJs, and DIY hackers the opportunity to get in on the ground floor and order through a pledge of just $200. Now, as a result, the product is well over 400 per cent funded. Good work.

The QuNeo will be available by March 2012. It will be priced at $200 (around £129) for pre-sale at Kickstarter.com at the following link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kmi/quneo-multi-touch-open-source-midi-and-usb-pad-con.

[Source: QuNeo 3D Multi-Touch Controller]

your_DUO – two active wireless loudspeakers that fully support 24bit HD audio technology, coming complete with a receiver and remote control.

your_DOCK – an iPhone or iPod docking station, that can be used as a wireless transmitter and charger, complete with remote control.

your_STICK – PR or Mac compatible USB transmitter adapter.

All three Canton products are plug and play systems, requiring absolutely no drivers at all to work. Operating via one of three wireless channels, each device is easily set up with a touch of a button selecting the correct channel, after which they are all ready to go. Simplicity itself. You can also select one of three audio zones, allowing you to control the volume of more than one set of speakers in a room, while at the same time granting you independent volume control in another room.

There is also no limit to the number of Canton speakers you can connect to a transmitter, so you can have as many or as few as you like in one room or all around your house. Wonderful stuff.

Each of these HiFi products can be purchased as a twin bundle or individually (which two products you decide to buy is up to you), ranging from £129 up to £599, depending upon your selection. Granted they are not cheap, but this is a HiFi system for those with seriously good taste in music. For more information visit: www.canton.de

[Source: Canton wireless HiFi speakers – music to your ears?]

So what’s a good way to preserve the legacy of a musical icon? Lots of poor quality T-shirts, lighters and bongs? If you were loiter in Camden Market then yes you might be forgive for thinking this was the only way. But the Marley Family have put their dreads together and come up with a much better way to carry on their father’s work – the House of Marley MARLEY branded headphones.

The House of Marley, will provide products of superior quality in both sound and design, with all products being made from eco-friendly materials that embody the Marley Family‘s value of equality, unity, authenticity, sustainability and charity. MARLEY is comprised of three collections — Jammin’, Freedom, and Destiny — featuring noise isolating in-ear and, active noise cancelling over-ear headphones. Docking stations and portable audio systems should follow in the UK soon afterwards. And in the Marley spirit of inclusion, the suggested retail prices range from £19.99 to £249.99, offering superior audio products for ―young gongs to ―conscious connoisseurs.

“Our father shared his vision with our family and his fans through the gift of the messages in his music and it is our mission and responsibility to push the movement forward”, said Cedella Marley, Bob Marley‘s daughter. “The House of Marley and the MARLEY audio products that bear our family name were created to spread our father‘s music and vision to a new generation.”

So how do they sound? We were invited down to try on a range of House of Marley headphones and the quality as you expect varies with the price. The budget range are passable (but – like most things – better than Apple’s supplied range of iPhone headphones)

The new range will be available in HMV stores throughout the UK, through Dixons Travel in airport locations, independent action sports specialist retailers and other leading retailers from autumn 2011.

http://www.thehouseofmarley.co.uk/

[Source: House of Marley headphone range: Keep on Skanking]

Enter AblePlanet’s Clear Harmony Sport Earphone (the SP1150 to be precise). It’s pretty clear from the moment you lay eyes on them that AblePlanet take their sports earphones pretty seriously. The Clear Harmony has an incredibly well designed earloop that feels more like a hearing aid than an earphone – I mean that as a compliment. The ComfortFit sound isolation tips block exterior sound and create as you’d expect a custom fit. There’s a very secure feeling as it clicks behind your ear and I tried a variety of shakes, wiggles and even a headspin without managing to dislodge them. Much like a telemarketing campaign, that’s a ringing endorsement.

So the sports part is pretty rock solid. How about the earphone side of the equation? Well the SP1150s come loaded with Patented LINX AUDIO®, Hear the Difference® technology, which is “Award-Winning”. In practical terms, this means that they sound pretty fantastic, with full rich bass sounds, clear high tones and intelligible speech (unless of course you have your mumblecore playlist on full blast).

All in all, a thunderingly good pair of earphones.

AblePlanet’s Clear Harmony Sport Earphone SP1150 are yours for $189.99 from AblePlanet.

[Source: AblePlanet’s Clear Harmony Sport Earphone SP1150 review]

You might remember the Australian brand BlueAnt for their high quality bluetooth headsets from earlier on in the year, as well as some pretty great in-car devices. When review some of the bluetooth in-ear headsets I remember thinking “wouldn’t this be great in both ears.”

BlueAnt have answered my prayers (and then some) with the new BlueAnt Embrace, a high end pair of headphones for stylish audiophiles.

So what do you get? I popped on Music for Airports and gave them a twirl. The big (but not ostentatiously big) 40mm dynamic drivers are impressive at delivering sound the way God (or in this case Brian Eno) intended. I then tried mixing a few tracks, composing a few beats and monitoring the leves on a live recording I had to do, and the Embrace headphones performed admirably on all fronts – these are a lot more than toys.

It’s worth noting that they are super comfortable – like having a pair of slippers on your head. The soft leather earpads block unwanted noise and keep your pretty snug, and the supple leather headband means they can pop on the largest of heads without discomfort.

It’s not just the headband that makes the Embrace a flexible pair of headphones. The mix and match cabling system means you can pop on a straight through cable or a cable with an Apple Remote and OMTP adapter. It also means if your cable snags, you haven’t just destroyed a super expensive pair of headphones. And to help you keep them safe the Embraces come with a tough leather case, which the earpads twist to fit inside.

If you’re interested in high-end design and high-quality audio it’s definitely worth give the BlueAnt Embrace a whirl.

Out now from www.myblueant.com RRP £149

[Source: BlueAnt Embrace headphones review]

Anyone who has used previous versions of Music Maker will be aware of how the software can work for them – and contrary to what many people might think, it’s not that complex to deal with (I was a first-time user, and my brain isn’t fried).

What’s cool is that rather than the software needing you to start off with nothing when it comes to starting the actual creative process, as a user, you are gifted a number of building blocks indicating different instruments (with the accompaniment of a fairly simple introductory tutorial and easy-to-manage difficulty modes [with more options available as your progress]). These blocks, made up of different parts (guitar, synth and vocals for example) and genres (including rock, hip-hop and techno) can be pushed together, dragged and dropped – the whole process really does have a sort of Tetris vibe but on-screen it looks similar to many standard editing software programs for film and music.

The software will give you an option of working with real instruments (proper working musicians rejoice…), or plugging in a microphone to record vocal tracks. Used as a personal studio in this way, you can trust in MAGIX to make and use samples played on your own instruments, or  produce diverse instrumental tracks and add special effects and samples.

What is nice as well, is the incorporation of an online sound archive where you’ll get to grab on to  an additional 2,000 sounds, (it’s all in the intro vid, so don’t panic). The program also includes lead synth that can be used to create decent melodies, but the additional effects and filter can be utilised to knock up all manner of interesting, weird and (hopefully) wonderful sonic concoctions. There’s also the ever-useful drum machine (goths rejoice…) on hand to help create a mildly infectious back-beat.

This edition of MAGIX includes a Soundcloud component that can be used to make your music creations available online through social networks if you’re feeling brave (and no, my work will not be inflicted upon the universe ever, or at least until I get very drunk). You can store your material in a secure space and edit them from any computer with a web connection. In addition, you can also share data between other MAGIX applications.

If you’re serious about creating and recording your own songs and tracks to a listenable standard, then MAGIX Music Maker is a pretty good place to begin. Good luck.

The MAGIX Music Maker MX software is available now for £59.99.

For more information visit: http://www.magix.com/gb/music-maker

[Source: MAGIX Music Maker MX software: Sweet beats on the cheap]

Fortunately a whole third-party ecosystem has evolved of apps to look after your iTunes library for you. The latest of these is Rinse from RealNetworks

Rinse automatically looks up songs in the widely-acclaimed Gracenote music database, downloads the correct details for each song and applies them in your library. With more than 8 million albums and 100 million tracks in its catalogue, there’s a pretty good chance that most things in your library will be covered.Even if a track is misspelt or unknown, Rinse includes an identification technology to recognise audio samples throughout the track.

Rinse is simple but very hardworking, taking over a number of tasks in your iTunes library. Have a bunch of Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prints CDs in your collection? Rinse can take care of that. All your Django filed under Death Metal instead of Gypsy Jazz? Not a problem. Missing pictures of naked babies chasing dollars in swimming pools? Rinse can download all your missing Nirvana album artwork. The push button simplicity is great and it’s pretty unambiguous. There’s also lots of in-app guidance and hand-holding, so you should have no problems sorting through your library. As a word of warning, to be this good takes ages, and it’s taken Rinse days, (literally days) to work its way through my 500GB music collection – although the accuracy with which it is doing this makes it all worth the wait.

Rinse is a downloadable service available for a one-time payment of £30 at www.rinsemymusic.co.uk. A free trial version that cleans up 50 songs in your iTunes library is also available

[Source: Rinse: Taking your iTunes library to the cleaners]