I know what you're thinking, but no--this isn't an artificial heart with an iPod inside. The Swedish-engineered Tonium Pacemaker is actually an MP3 player designed around the needs of DJs (and DJ wannabes, like me), offering four channels of audio, a touch-strip crossfader, and a mind-boggling selection of EQ, pitch, loop, and audio effect features.
The Tonium Pacemaker MP3 player, is made for DJs--by DJs.
(Credit: Donald Bell/CNET Networks)We first beheld this pitch-black disco DAP back in 2008, when it won us over with its gorgeous design, but broke our penny-pinching hearts with an $800 price tag. Since then, the Swedes at Tonium have retooled the Pacemaker with a ton of extra features, and now offer a second-generation model for the relatively affordable price of $499 (available though Amazon).
The second-generation Pacemaker shares the exact same hardware design as the original model (same outstanding packaging, as well), but the internal hard drive has shrunk from 120GB to 60GB. That's still enough storage for a pretty deep music collection, and a reasonable sacrifice for the $300 in savings over the original model.
Aside from a lower price and smaller hard drive, the second generation of the Tonium Pacemaker offers tons of little improvements to the firmware. One of my favorite new features automatically matches the tempo of one track to another, taking the guesswork (and skill) out of transitioning between songs. Tonium also threw in four new effects (Crush, Delay, Trans, and Wah), a vinyl emulation mode, independent EQ settings for the headphone and line out mix, new VU meters, a beat sync grid, and audio time-stretching for matching song tempos without shifting pitch.
To read my full report, check out CNET's review and video of the second-generation Tonium Pacemaker MP3 player.
On Sale Now: $499.00
View the latest prices for Tonium Pacemaker (60GB)
The folks behind the Tonium Pacemaker, a DJ-focused MP3 player that made its debut in the middle of 2008, are gearing up to release a new version of the device in 2009.
The second-generation Pacemaker DJ MP3 player will help tempo-challenged DJs keep the beat.
(Credit: CBS Interactive/Corinne Schulze)The new version of the Pacemaker announced today doesn't replace last year's model, but instead offers amateur DJs ...
Read the full post at CNET's CES 2009 blog.
On Sale Now: $499.00
View the latest prices for Tonium Pacemaker (60GB)
The Tonium Pacemaker with its still-fresh-from-the-box peach fuzz.
(Credit: Donald Bell/CNET Networks)Announced back in May of 2007, we were beginning to wonder if the Tonium Pacemaker pocket DJ system would ever actually roll off the assembly line. Lo and behold, the fickle DJ gods have smiled, and the Tonium Pacemaker arrived on my desk just days ago.
Following their efforts creating the Pacemaker online mix community and their free Mac and PC DJ editing software, the folks at Tonium have done well to lay a solid foundation under their first product. At a cost of about $800, however, the Pacemaker is not for everyone.
To find out if it's right for you, head over to my full review and take a look through our Crave photo gallery.
The Pacemaker web site allows you to create and share DJ mixes of your music library, legally.
(Credit: Tonium)Tonium, makers of the as yet released Pacemaker portable DJ MP3 player, have unveiled their new online community DJ mix portal today, along with a free Mac/PC music editor.
The new site allows anyone to create DJ mixes of their own music collection using the Pacemaker music editor software, and then upload the mix to the Pacemaker online community, where the mix can be streamed by anyone. If the Legal section of the Pacemaker Web site is any indication, Tonium have taken great pains in making sure the music sharing service is airtight. Along with agreements Tonium has struck with international music publishing houses, the Pacemaker music editor has some built-in safety measures that prevent users from using too many tracks by any single artist. Mixes also require a minimum amount of songs before they can be uploaded.
The Pacemaker mix editor lets you cobble together a mix of music on your PC, then upload it to share on the Pacemaker community. By the looks of things, I'm making a Madlib mix.
(Credit: Tonium)At first glance, the free DJ music editor offered by Pacemaker is a pretty fun application on its own. Tacks can be dragged into an editing pane and then manipulated with DJ effects such as filters, delays, crossfades, and backspins. The Pacemaker audio editor supports MP3 (16Kbps to 320Kbps), AAC (8Kbps to 256Kbps), MP3 VBR, FLAC, WAV, and Ogg-Vorbis, and can calculate the song's beats per minute automatically, to make beat-matching less of a guessing game.
Once the Pacemaker hardware is realeased later this month, it'll be exciting to see how the hardware, software, and Web site all integrate.
Announced back in May, the Pacemaker sounds like an amazing gadget: a 120GB portable music player that functions like a portable DJ mixing table. Essentially, it plays two tracks at once and lets you crossfade between them, plus play with effects like looping and pitch bending. Check out the Flash demo here.
Coming in 2008?
(Credit: Tonium)There's also a software application, the Pacemaker Editor, that functions like a traditional music player and library manager (think iTunes, Windows Media Player, or WinAmp), only with support for creating mixes. It's coming out in December, according to the Web site.
Well, today's the last day of December, and the Pacemaker Editor page hasn't been updated since August 29. A message in the forums says it's available only to folks who registered on the site before December 16. The release date for the device itself has already been postponed from November to December to February. The only in-depth review I could find was of a prototype. But here's the really weird part: if you want to buy one, you can't just wait for a release date and go to a store or order it online. Instead, you have to pre-register. According to the auto-response I got, registrants can expect receive an e-mail some time in January asking for payment in full of 520 Euros (about $760). Then, they'll ship you one.
All this sets my phantom alert system a-tingling. But the demos look great, so if anybody's had a chance to test the software or a real device, I'd love to hear from you--e-mail me at mattrosoff (all one word) at hotmail dot com. And here's hoping Tonium follows through in 2008.
- prev
- 1
- next
