The great Abbey Road Studios has brought us a number of musical masterpieces, including albums by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and even the Lord of the Rings soundtrack.
Now it seems as though the music studio is trying to push the envelope when it comes to the tech behind the music, and has announced the launch of a new music technology incubator.
The incubator is being dubbed Abbey Road Red, and was unveiled in the famous Studio 2, with a number of tech startups being included in the first set of companies to take part in the incubator.
In total, the incubator will host three startups every six months, and will offer things like mentorship and advice on products. In exchange for this, Abbey Road Studios will take between a 1 and 2 percent stake in the company.
Abbey Road Studios was bought by Universal Music Group back in 2012, which is currently the largest record company in the world. The purchase was part of a massive buyout of EMI, which owned Abbey Road Studios prior to 2012.
One of the products that has been unveiled is called the Pulse, by a startup called Titan Reality. Pulse includes a sensor pad that is able to replicate the sounds of a number of instruments, and is even able to detect objects on its surface and above it, enabling the user to trigger sounds like guitars notes, vinyl scratches and drum beats. Pulse will even recognize things like how many fingers the user is holding up. It will retail for 800 pounds, or around $1,238, when it is released later this year.
Another of the products on display is from a company called Jukedeck, which is an artificial intelligence music creation company. Jukedeck is showing off a pretty impressive VR Kasabian concert, which can be viewed through the Oculus Rift while wearing a set of headphones. The team is focusing on realism, and even has the music fading in and out based on which direction the user is facing.
Last but not least is a pair of gloves called Mi.Mu, which was actually designed by singer-songwriter Imogen Heap and turns the wearer's hands into the instruments, enabling users to trigger MIDI instruments based on movements. The gloves capture movement and hand gestures with analog bend sensors, then send it wirelessly via an input-output board to a computer.
No word on price or release dates for the Jukedeck and Mi.Mu products.
The products to come out of Abbey Road certainly seem to be interesting, and it will be worth keeping an eye on the incubator in the future as more startups take advantage of Abbey Road's expertise. Any startups that want to apply to the Abbey Road Studios incubator program can check out the process here.
Via: Mashable
