#zivix

New Guitar Controllers from Zivix & Jamstik

You wait ages for a MIDI guitar controller, and then two similarly named ones come along at once. Well, not quite — one has in fact been around for a while in a prototype form — but what is unusual is that news of both of them came to the attention of SOS within days of each other. Zivix were interviewed by the SOS team covering the Summer NAMM show about their original Jamstik MIDI Guitar in 2014

AirJamz is a wristband that turns air guitar into wear guitar

Jamstik

First, they took a 16” plastic guitar neck and made it indestructible (mostly.)  Adding six authentic metal guitar strings and five authentic frets, they have set it up such that it tunes itself – no retuning necessary. A virtual capo lets you extend the frets up or down. Since most accomplished guitar players can play all their chords within five frets, a longer neck isn’t necessary.

The Jamstik isn’t set up to work alone – it needs an iPad, iPhone or Mac to amplify and play the music you’ll be creating or learning. First you turn on the Jamstik and wait for it to generate a wireless network – maybe 10 seconds. Then on your iDevice, you’ll switch your Wi-Fi setting to the Jamstik created network. Launch Jamstik Connection and pick your instrument from a list of a dozen or so choices.  Now you’re ready to start making music.

Two additional apps are available for free:  Jam Tutor and Jam Mix.  Jam Tutor does just that – it teaches you how to play.  Both a combination of notes, chords and gaming interfaces attempt to get you familiar with guitar playing. I found that the gaming exercises ran from entertainingly achievable to excruciatingly challenging and all those were in the first 30 minutes of lessons.

There are dozens and dozens of lessons that can be repeated at will until you master them.  If you just want to learn a couple certain chords, Jam Tutor is probably not the best program – but the Internet has thousands to pick from – many for free.

Speaking of other programs, the Jamstik is also a MIDI controller, so you can literally use it with all the MIDI programs on the market to lay down a melody track or to do accompanying harmony. It really is amazingly versatile.

Check out all the instructional videos and other uses for Jamstik on their website: http://jamstik.com.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Want a whole band in a duffel bag?   Combine the Jamstik guitar with the Cliphit drumset and the K-Board keyboard.  Nothing is longer than 16” and all three together probably weigh under 10 pounds. You’ll have the ultimate orchestra and can travel anywhere with all of them in a carry-on bag.