Bongiovi Acoustics - DPS Insider » itunes

Apple Ping

Joseph Beaty — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:00:02 +0000

I am sure many of you have noticed we mostly talk about audio here. It has not been too often lately that we talk about new musician and people tools for the artist and music listener. While updating to the new iTunes 10 I realized there was so much more in this particular update. There was Apple Ping! A social network for people and artists to share what they are listening to. I highly suggest checking it out if you are already using iTunes. I have found iTunes to be rather mediocre since I began using it with my 2nd Generation iPod. Ping makes iTunes more of an experience instead of a place where MP3′s go to die. I hope the rest of iTunes users jump on this. If nothing else it will serve as a great place to follow musicians we love. Much like the way a lot of us use Twitter to follow celebrities. I like Ping much better to sort out the musicians from that mess. Here is my profile as an example-

http://c.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZConnections.woa/wa/viewProfile?userId=182526387

It will ask you to choose iTunes as an application to check out my profile so make sure you have it installed along with your DPS Plug-in!

Cheers!

-Joseph Beaty

DPS Insider

iTunes Cloud Service?

Joseph Beaty — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 12:00:40 +0000

A lot of talk is generating about Apple quite possibly turning iTunes into a cloud subscription service. A recent study by the NPD group concludes that millions would pay for a cloud-based iTunes that would let the user listen to anything in the iTunes catalog. It is not clear on whether or not this will happen but many seem to think 10 dollars would be the monthly fee. Not bad considering the platform would be servicing Computer, Phone and Mobile device users. I for one think it could be a great service. Especially if they get some kind of cloud transfer device in the works that would allow the consumer to stream and broadcast content to our devices at home such as, TV and Radio. Much like the way Blu-Ray Players have Netflix and Pandora built in. Apple already has a huge music and Movie catalog. I do think Millions would jump on board if they were able to stream everything whenever and where ever they want for 10 dollars. I think Apple may have me on this one if it actually goes down. What about you?

Making your music sound great

Joey Butera — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:00:24 +0000

I wanted to take a minute to talk about what makes the Digital Power Station truly unique among audio technologies… The DPS Plug-In has no fancy knobs or meters. It doesn’t have a Minority Report style user interface. It’s just a few buttons. So what gives? Why is it special?

It’s the people.

The buttons on the user interface switch between the different “profiles” you pick in the “preferences” window. So what is a “profile”? A DPS profile is definitely not your everyday “rock” or “jazz” or “hall” eq effect preset! Those presets-of-old tried to tailor the device to suit what you might want the music to sound like. Once you found the preset you liked on your old boombox it pretty much stayed that way, right? That ubiquitous smiley face eq curve. Or maybe you did it Twisted Sister style and slammed all those little eq sliders all the way up! \^^/,

Well, the DPS Profile is a whole new animal. The DPS technology is a powerful and adaptive tool that Bongiovi Acoustics audio engineers can use to optimize the audio for any device. And it is all done by hand.

Hence the people.

So a real live person (like Tony B, Phil or myself) sits down with the proper tools and “tunes” that audio device with the DPS technology to perform as close to an ideal as possible. The ideal we hold is the sound of music being played back in our studio control room. The control room is an acoustically accurate environment in which we have chosen speakers and amplifiers that match that space so we have the tools to create music that sounds great everywhere. The sound in our control room just reaches out and grabs you. And it also tells us what is right and wrong about the sound! So, short story long, the DPS technology optimizes an audio signal to be most efficient for a specific device. And that only happens after a Bongiovi Acoustics engineer has laid their hands on the thing.

You might ask another question… What gives you guys the right to muck about with my audio signal, buddy? The answer is a whole lot of years of making music come out of speakers! Tony got his start at Motown records in Detroit as an engineer when he was just 17 years old and has had the privilege of working with Jimi Hendrix, The Ramones, Ozzy Osbourne and many other music greats. Any of the other engineers that tune devices for the DPS technology have a minimum 15 years of experience behind a recording console. (Check out Power Station Studios ) Let us do the hard work so you don’t have to!

Tony actually invented the DPS technology as a solution to listening to music in his airplane. He has a small twin engine Comanche that has two propellers whirring right next to your ears. It is LOUD in the cabin. Any time he would play music over the stereo in the plane, it would be totally distorted and awful sounding by the time it was loud enough to be heard. After years of experimentation, eureka! The Digital Power Station was born; a device that creates a highly efficient audio signal that the speakers and amplifiers can easily reproduce. Music can be crystal clear in acoustically hostile environment and at low levels all while compensating for differences in volume between songs and restoring previously inaudible frequency content. Nifty!

So we are continually creating new custom profiles for all kinds of popular audio devices. The Windows version of the DPS technology is also right around the corner which vastly opens up the range of devices that can benefit from DPS. We want to be sure profiles are available to those of you who own these devices so let us know what you are using! It’s all about big sound from small packages.

What headphones do you use?

Joseph Beaty — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:50:39 +0000

The DPS team at Bongiovi Acoustics is always striving to know what our customers and friends use to listen to music. Let us know what kind of headphones, Ear-buds, External Speakers and Laptops you use. Tell us what you do and don’t like about them so we can get cracking on making YOUR i Tunes and overall audio experience a better one. Stay tuned everyday for more audio and celebrity blogs.

The Vinyl Album

Joseph Beaty — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:12:47 +0000

A music project of mine has recently had a discussion about pressing a vinyl record. So many regular music listeners cringe when they hear the word “vinyl”! I love vinyl. I like the way it sounds all scratchy. The enormous piece of collector wax and artwork. People get creative and do colored vinyl, 7 inch, 10 inch, 12 inch. You name it. Vinyl is cool. It is like collecting baseball cards or something. It is a huge part of our musical history and I feel it is still very much alive and relevant. Artists are offering download codes with their records now. Makes great sense. Buy a limited edition collectible and go download it and put it in your iTunes if that’s how you want to listen. There is something about listening to vinyl rips digitally that is also very cool. I am not sure why. So if getting a CD is so last decade for you and stealing MP3s has got you feeling guilty, find a local record shop and pickup something that you can keep forever. A good old fashioned piece of vinyl!

Celebrity Blog #2 Jared Subway

Joseph Beaty — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:12:33 +0000

This post marks our second celebrity photo blog. This one is just to great to ignore. We all want to eat fresh and lose that weight like Jared did from the Subway commercials! Here is our Bongiovi Acoustics Spokesgirl, Jackie Fischer with the Subway Star. Watch the whole video here.

Jackie Fischer & Subway Jared.

Dr. Dre Headphone Profiles Available for DPS Plugin

Joey Butera — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:02:01 +0000

Hello DPS Plug-In fans!

We’ve just made custom profiles available for Dr. Beat headphones and Lady Gaga earbuds. They are part of Dr. Dre’s designer line of high quality headphones.

These profiles are for the Bongiovi Acoustics Digital Power Station Plug-In for iTunes. This is an iTunes (Mac only…for the moment) plugin that dramatically improves the sound of your computer’s speakers and any other audio device you connect to your computer.

Do you have headphones similar to the Dr. Beats or Lady Gaga earbuds? Try these new profiles on your headphones and let us know how they sound! Remember, there are no rules to these profiles…if you like it, it’s good!

Special thanks to Yann for suggesting a custom profile for Dr. Dre headphones. The other requests our users have made are in the pipeline. Stay tuned to the DPS Insider for updates!

To get these profiles, go to the “Downloads” tab in the DPS Plug-In “Preferences” menu (gear icon). Then click “Check for Updates”. You will see the Dr. Dre headphones at the bottom of the list.

Bongiovi Acoustics DPS iTunes Plug-In Reviews

Joey Butera — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:11:20 +0000

We will be continuously updating this list of news and reviews for the DPS Plug-In. This list can always be accessed by clicking on the “DPS Plugin Reviews” category on the right.

Feel free to follow these external links and see what people are saying:

MacWorld

TheMacFeed.com

A great feed of DPS Plug-In reviews

http://www.twice.com/article/449932-Bongiovi_Acoustics_Intros_DPS_Plug_In.php

Applelinks.com

EarBuds Are Not My Buds

Joseph Beaty — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:00:49 +0000

Listening to music has been a huge part of my life. Listening in the car at full blast is my favorite environment. I also really enjoy cranking up the home stereo. The 5.1 version of Nine Inch Nail’s “The Downward Spiral” record is amazing on my system. Headphones are a decent way to listen to my all time favorite records as well. Then there is the iPod. I have an amazing iHome iPod dock with you-know-who’s technology on board. That certainly enhances the experience there. However, I cannot help but notice how bad the standard earbuds are plugged right into my iPod. And with no ability to enhance the audio! The EQ settings in the iPod are below average in my opinion. I have only listened to my iPod this way a few times and I can say with certainty that it is not the way I will listen to music. No matter how easy it is. Earbuds are not my buds! How do you listen to your music?

Being a Musician or Fan in 2010.

Joseph Beaty — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:49:28 +0000

Being a musician or music fan in 2010 is nothing like being an active musician or music fan ten years ago. Cd’s were the main source of music distribution. Now they are a distant second. With Mp3, Ogg, lossless, etc, iTunes became our old CD Trapper Keepers…holding things we cannot touch. While iTunes and app developers are keeping things current and fresh, iPhones integrate every aspect of our online experiences into the palm of our hand. We don’t stop to think how far things have come in 10 years very often. Quite amazing really. Especially in the music world.

I am a part of an old way of thinking and very much a part of the way things are done now. Musicians are stuck in the middle feeding the free world and being a fan of getting things before they are released. As a fan of music I believe the artists in my catalog deserve to be paid for physical or digital music. Whether I can touch it or not, I do still prefer a physical copy of my favorites. Most artists are only pressing limited amounts of their work and most rely on the digital realm. I think as a musician I feel both worlds must be fed. I am curious to see how other music listeners and musicians are making it happen now. Itunes, Cdbaby, Torrents, Pandora, Streaming audio, etc. I look forward to hearing your focal points in either realm.

Joseph Beaty

http://www.dpsinsider.com/joseph-beaty/