Do you break out into air guitar solos when you hear your favorite rock or metal tune? For real serious enthusiasts, there's even a competition to crown a national air guitar champion. But if you prefer to experience a slightly more tactile experience, well, there's an app and tool for that. What if you're ready to take it a step further and actually learn how to play the guitar, but at your own pace and without having a teacher lecture you about getting enough practice? There's an app and tool for that, too.
Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Zivix is on a mission to educate and empower musicians with its lineup of electronic instruments. Its portable products are designed to make it easier to learn how to play an instrument and to create music.
- The Jamstik battery-powered, MIDI-capable electric guitar allows players to produce and record music seamlessly with MIDI.
- AirJamz are app-enabled, Bluetooth-powered guitar picks that connect to an app and allows users to rock out for an experience much like that of karaoke.
- Puc+ provides a wireless MIDI interface that integrates to wireless audio editing workstations. USB-MIDI and 5-pin MIDI controllers can connect to apps and digital audio workstations (DAWs) on an iPhone, iPad, or MAC with the device, which converts MIDI activity into Bluetooth MIDI.
When Zivix began designing its newest iteration of the Jamstik guitar, a full-size device, the company's engineering team wanted to provide users with accurate battery life data, the ability to charge the guitar while using it, and the ability to charge via USB and drive the indicator LEDs without requiring the microprocessor to be on. After evaluating battery management and power management ICs from various vendors, Zivix recognized that Maxim chips would meet their stringent criteria. The company is integrating into its new guitar the MAX14636 USB charger detector, the MAX14699 high-accuracy, surge-protected overvoltage protector, the MAX8903C 1-cell Li+ DC-DC charger for USB and adapter power, the MAX17260 1-cell fuel gauge with ModelGauge
m5 eZ, the MAX38643 nanoPower buck converter, and the MAX38902E low-noise 500mA LDO linear regulator.
"We expect our finished guitar will have long battery life and provide accurate data on remaining charge," said Bobcat Cox, the company's chief technology officer.
Learn more about how Zivix addressed its battery management requirements by reading the testimonial. For more information about how fuel-gauge ICs can support portable devices, read the white paper, "Extend Runtime of Portable Devices Via Accurate, Low IQ Battery Fuel Gauging."
The Zivix Jamstik electric guitar allows guitarists to produce and record music seamlessly with MIDI.
