Picture this: you're sat in front of your digital piano noodling away, and a bolt of inspiration strikes. Caught up in the creative flow, you embark on a fifteen-minute jam that sounds like some of the best material you've ever improvised. As you finish jamming, you suddenly realize you've no idea how to recreate what you just played - and you didn't hit record.
Jamcorder is a nifty little device that makes sure this will never happen again. Designed by pianist and software engineer Chip Weinberger, this small blue box sticks to the side of your piano and automatically records everything you play via MIDI, storing up to 25,000 hours worth of jams on its 16GB microSD card that can be wirelessly synced to your phone via Bluetooth or exported to your DAW.
Jamcorder's mobile app lets you listen back to your impromptu performances and spot where you might have played a bum note on its keyboard visualizer. You're even able to bookmark noteworthy improvisations using a handy shortcut on your piano; just hit the highest five black keys twice and Jamcorder will bookmark that recording in the app. It stops recording automatically after a few seconds of silence, so you won't end up with countless hours of empty MIDI files stored on the device.
The USB-powered gadget can hook up to your digital piano or keyboard via 5-pin DIN MIDI or USB, and it's equipped with Bluetooth MIDI, so you can use it to connect your piano to your DAW wirelessly. There's also a MIDI out port, so you can connect Jamcorder and a computer or tablet to your piano at the same time.
While it seems to be aimed at players that like to improvise, Jamcorder could also be a useful way of tracking and reviewing practice sessions for pianists trying to improve their skills. And while Jamcorder is primarily aimed at piano players, it'll work with any MIDI-equipped instrument and records all MIDI messages on all 16 channels, so it could be a useful way of recording complex synth jams too.
Jamcorder is priced at $99. Find out more on Jamcorder's website.
