Kerchoonz K-box Selected 'Runner-up' Music Therapy MVP By Therapy Times

The K-box, the first gel audio technology that turns any solid surface into a speaker system introduced by social media platform Kerchoonz.com, was selected as a 'Runner-up' for Music Therapy Most Valuable Product of 2009 in the Therapy Times' 2009 MVP Awards. Therapy Times found that the K-box provided therapists with the ability to create a portable music therapy environment.

"Something new to the field that I think has got a lot of potential to change the way we use music therapy is the K-Box. Using special 'gel audio technology', this handheld speaker can bring people out from the seclusion of their headphones and share what their music with me, just by using any flat surface. We're not shut out anymore, but sharing a musical experience, working primarily on the rhythm and vibrations of the music. Even better, I've found that clients enjoy changing between different flat surfaces I have in my office because it changes the frequencies of the vibrations - wood, metal, or plastic tables can all be very interesting amplifiers." - Ryan Thames, MT-BC http://www.therapytimes.com/content=0302J84C48769286406040441/#Music

By plugging the device into any laptop, portable gaming device, MP3 player, mobile phone, TV or any 3.5 mm audio jack and then placing K-box on a desktop, table top or wall, the product uses the Gel Audio Technology to convert the entire surface underneath it into a giant audio speaker. Unlike most mini-speakers, the K-box does not produce a 'tinny' sound. Instead, the denser the surface, the deeper the bass response. This hybrid speaker has both a standard speaker inside (delivering mid-to-high frequencies) and the Gel Audio Technology (delivering low-end bass frequencies through surfaces).

The size of a mobile phone, the rubber-based device has an average output performance of 95dB at 1m, with the bass performance varying, dependent on differing surface levels with output ranges between 40Hz-20Khz. Recharged through USB connection, the K-box offers up to 20 hours of playtime between charges. K-box is available at www.kerchoonz.com/kbox, selling at £49.99 or $74.50 USD, plus shipping & handling.

About Kerchoonz.com
Kerchoonz, founded by Indiana Gregg and Ian Morrow in 2008, is a forward thinking, multi-media company conceived to help level the playing field for artistic people through the democratising power of the internet and freedom of choice for the artists and the public. Kerchoonz.com is a social networking platform that allows free exchange of music, art, ideas and entertainment. It enables fans to search and discover new music, play games, meet people, watch and upload video, keep up with news, post blog, and a whole lot more. It is an ad-funded model that allows artists and musicians to be paid for their audio and video stream, as well as their free downloads.
http://www.kerchoonz.com

New Media Player Auto Re-Mixes MP3s And Adds Video For Free

These interactive music tracks will be produced using the TronMe software from 3D Solar UK Ltd and will release the potential for millions of new remixes of each song.

TronMe media player (http://www.tronme.com) is free, downloadable software that allows users to control and remix their favorite music and record an interactive music video to go with it. The latest release of the player provides an auto play function. This turns the TronMe player into a home music system. Once the player is open, users don’t need to press anything their music plays automatically and the software will remix the tracks based on the .ivs file and the information analyzed from the webcam with stunning visual effects. Control can be regained at any time, to select new instruments or parts, but it is not necessary. Users can move to the music and see what happens then share it online.

The software is growing well with a hundred new users each day. With this new technology, users are able to play their own favorite mp3 tracks with an interactive add-on file format known as .ivs. These tracks can then be used on the TronMe player.

Patrick Levy Rosenthal, 3D Solar’s CEO said, "If an mp3 file is a gem stone, then to convert it to interactive is to add loops to it so you can see new dimensions shining from it. Every time your track is remixed it is like watching your stone from a different angle showing endless possibilities, bursts of light and color."

After installation, the software will list all of the mp3 tracks on each user’s PC and will provide notice if other users already found interesting loops in a particular song. Therefore, users can decide to use the same loops for their tracks with the TronMe player. If the user subscribe with a small monthly fee he can use all of these along with plenty of new versions uploaded daily. The player can also be used for free! To do this a user needs to convert his own tracks into the interactive format and publish the position of the seamless loops he found in his tracks for other users to try and vote for.

The most common scenario, as the library starts to grow, will be that the interactive track does not already appear on the TronMe server. In this case, users will be asked to go ahead and convert the music by clicking on the icon next to the title of the song. This will open a new interface, like that of a wave editor, where the bars and measures of the track will be visible. The goal now is to detect a seamless loop within the music that can be successfully sampled. A seamless loop must have a clean start and finish it must not have any unexpected noises to detract from the loop itself. The software does help in finding the loops they are often found in measures 2,4,6,8 and 16.

Once the user is happy with the result, loop positions can then be submitted and published on the TronMe server. The player is then able to create remixes of this track for free. The new version is made available for other users to use. On the beta version of TronMe only one solution of each track is available however; soon, there will be up to ten versions of each track. 3D Solar exists to provide a place where people can collectively determine the value of each version. These ten will be split into two halves. The top five will be permanently on the site, ranked by the votes they received. Once something new is submitted, other people will see it and vote for the version they like best. If a user’s submission is excellent and receives enough votes, it is promoted to the top five.

It goes without saying that the first users to convert the most popular tracks will reap the benefits; each time the track is used the user who converted it will receive "Trons" and these will be divided proportionally between those who converted the top five versions of that track. The more Trons a user receives, the higher his score, and with a higher score comes free tools, special effects and songs!

Interactivity is the future of music, be a part of it.

About 3D Solar - http://www.3dsolar.com
Image - http://www.tronme.com/pad/tronme.jpg
Pdf version - http://www.tronme.com/press/tronmemp3.pdf