Vivace: the next-gen musical laptop?

All-in-one studio showcased
Ben Rogerson, Mon 20 Apr 2009, 12:48 pm BST


With MIDI controller keyboards and laptops/netbooks getting ever smaller, creating a truly portable music-making system is now easy. However, Vivace is a solution that looks to be more integrated than anything we've seen before.

Designed by Young-Shin Lee and Hae-Jin Jung, it looks something like a musical laptop: a slimline device that offers a touch-sensitive musical keyboard and fold-out touchscreen display.

Vivace is a concept product at the moment and 'specs' are thin on the ground, but you can clearly see octave up/down buttons to the right of the keyboard, and we can only assume that audio I/O is built-in.

However, while the product is certainly eye-catching, we have to wonder about its viability in the current marketplace. As we've already noted, creating a portable studio that can run fully-fledged production software isn't difficult, so the Vivace would have to be something pretty special in order to compete.

Whether its developer will ever give it that chance remains to be seen.
(Via Yanko Design)

AVENGED SEVENFOLD, PAPA ROACH, BUCKCHERRY Interviewed In Iowa; Video Available - Apr. 14, 2009

Bryan Odell, a correspondent for "The Omaha Buzz", a weekly entertainment show on WOWT in Omaha, has uploaded videotaped interviews he conducted with members of PAPA ROACH, BUCKCHERRY and AVENGED SEVENFOLD on February 14, 2009 at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Watch the 10-minute report below.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD will finish its current U.S. tour with two epic SoCal shows before a crowd of beloved hometown fans at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on April 16 and at the San Diego Sports Arena on April 17. AVENGED SEVENFOLD will also perform at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday, April 18 with special guests ATREYU and REV THEORY. This will be the last chance to catch the Orange County quintet until 2010, marking the end of a hugely successful touring cycle as the band heads into the studio to work on their next album once the tour is finished.

The band is touring behind the self-produced "Avenged Sevenfold", which topped the Billboard Alternative, Hard, and Rock charts the week after its release in October 2007. It also won the award for "Best Album" at the 2008! Kerrang! Awards. The follow-up to 2005's million-selling "City of Evil", "Avenged Sevenfold" debuted at No. 4 on The Billboard 200, marking the biggest sales week ever for the quintet. The album has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

PAPA ROACH's fifth studio album, "Metamorphosis", sold 44,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 8 on The Billboard 200 chart.

PAPA ROACH's 2006 CD, "The Paramour Sessions", opened with nearly 37,000 copies — a drop from the 52,000 first-week performance of 2004's "Getting Away with Murder" — to debut at position No. 16 on The Billboard 200 chart.

"Metamorphosis" was written at the legendary Paramour Mansion and recorded at NRG Recording Studios. The album was co-produced by Jay Baumgardener (311, EVANESCENCE, INCUBUS) and PAPA ROACH. James Michael (MÖTLEY CRÜE, SIXX: A.M.) also co-produced five tracks.

ROADRUNNERRECORDS.COM TOP 20 OF ALL TIME!

So this week we're switching it up a bit on you! We've decided to do a little more research and bring you the top 20 of all time on RoadrunnerRecords.com from both video and audio! Going through all the information on these was really interesting, and we're going to give it to you. Take a look at how many plays each video got, and how many times the audio tracks were played! Then watch YOUR favorites!

Top Songs of All Time on RoadrunnerRecords.com
1. Nickelback "Rockstar" ... 193,872 plays
2. Killswitch Engage "Daylight Dies" ... 154,647 plays
3. Nickelback "Too Bad" ... 148,511 plays
4. Suffocation "Breeding The Spawn" ... 124,752 plays
5. Cavalera Conspiracy "Sanctuary" ... 124,537 plays
6. Cradle Of Filth "The Foetus Of A New Day Kicking" ... 105,038 plays
7. Nickelback "Far Away" ... 101,527 plays
8. Slipknot "The Blister Exists" ... 87,993 plays
9. Slipknot "The Heretic Anthem" ... 83,420 plays
10. Trivium "Anthem (We Are The Fire)" ... 71,695 plays
11. DragonForce "Operation Ground And Pound" ... 68,778 plays
12. Killswitch Engage "This Fire Burns" ... 61,316 plays
13. Dream Theater "Constant Motion" ... 59,630 plays
14. Killswitch Engage "Holy Diver" ... 55,663 plays
15. Cradle Of Filth "Dirge Inferno" ... 54,591 plays
16. Dresden Dolls "Night Reconnaissance" ... 54,083 plays
17. Trivium "The Rising" ... 49,560 plays
18. Black Label Society "Blood Is Thicker Than Water" ... 44,293 plays
19. DevilDriver "Unlucky 13" ... 43,715 plays
20. Killswitch Engage "My Curse" ... 43,411 plays

Top Videos of All Time on RoadrunnerRecords.com!
1. Nickelback "Far Away" ... 252,160 views
2. Nickelback "Photograph" ... 215792 views
3. Trivium "Entrance Of The Conflagration" ... 202,127 views
4. Trivium "Anthem (We Are The Fire)" ... 200,628 views
5. Nickelback "Savin' Me" ... 200,154 views
6. Cradle Of Filth "Temptation" ... 182,106 views
7. Slipknot "MTV Teaser" ... 175,130 views (can you believe a TEASER got more views than a music video?! What are you Slipknot fans doing?!)
8. Nickelback "Feelin' Way Too Damn Good" ... 165,692 views
9. DragonForce "Operation Ground And Pound" ... 162,926 views
10. Slipknot "The Blister Exists" ... 161,012 views
11. Black Label Society "Concrete Jungle" ... 151,286 views
12. DragonForce "Through The Fire And Flames" ... 148,854 views
13. Nickelback "How You Remind Me" ... 136,837 views
14. Killswitch Engage "My Curse" ... 128,780 views
15. Slipknot "Before I Forget" ... 125,617 views
16. Nickelback "Someday" ... 124,679 views
17. Nickelback "Rockstar" ... 120,780 views
18. Nickelback "If Everyone Cared" ... 114,189 views
19. Stone Sour "Through Glass" ... 106,351 views
20. Slipknot "Voliminal DVD Trailer" ... 97,853 views