Monster Clarity HD Model One: Beatweek 2012 Best of Show at Macworld-iWorld

by Bill Palmer

Monster’s two piece Clarity HD Model One stereo system is, in a word, a beast. The units are only about seven inches wide each, but stand a few feet tall and offer a commanding presence without a large footprint. The audio output is ferocious and easily cut through the surrounding noise in the busy Macworld-iWorld 2012 exhibit hall. The audio remains pristine even at super high volumes.

Hardware niceties on the $749 Model One include an iPhone-iPod dock on the top of one of the speaker units and a choice of bold colors like red and yellow, along with handles built into the top of the units. The speaker units aren’t particularly heavy, but the audio certainly is.

Monster Power Control: Beatweek 2012 Best of Show at Macworld-iWorld

by Bill Palmer

Monster Power Control takes the concepts of home automation, power conservation, and app integration and combines them in one of the more uniquely ambitious products to appear at Macworld-iWorld 2012. Not only can you use an app on your iPhone or iPad to wirelessly turn the lights in your house on and off, you can also use the app to measure how much power is being used (or wasted) when it comes to household devices like your cable TV box.

The setup allows you to identify and do something about those devices which are wasting energy, meaning you can cut your electric bill and do right by the environment. And here you thought Monster was all about cables and headphones.

Monster Inspiration headphones: Beatweek 2012 Best of Show at CES

by Bill Palmer

When one hears the phrase “Monster headphones” the first thought is typically Beats by Dre. But at CES, Monster showed it has more up its sleeve in the headphone department than merely Dr. Dre’s lineup, and that came across the most clearly with its new Inspiration product. Notably, the Inspiration headphones are active noise-canceling, which means they’re battery powered and they surround your head with anti-noise so as to block out any external audio while you’re listening. More notably, the Inspiration is the rare active noise canceling product which also sounds plenty good when the noise canceling is switched off, either because the battery is dead or because external noises need to be heard.

That makes Inspiration perhaps the first active noise canceling headphones which don’t represent a compromise when it comes to using them in either mode. Stylistically, the headphones come in standard colors like white and black but allow the user to shake things up with a choice of magnetic bands across the top. These bands, which look like a permanent part of the equation when attached, can transform the Inspiration from a subtle corporate look to a zany colorful motif in seconds.

The only caveat here is that while most headphone companies include three buttons and a mic so iPhone and iPad users can have full functionality, while sometimes also including a watered down cable with a single button to keep Android users from getting their feelings hurt, Monster told us that they intend to only include a single-button cable with the Inspiration, effectively punishing iPhone and iPad users for the fact that Android devices are behind. That’s unacceptable, but we’re assuming Monster will come to its senses by the time the product ships and include multiple cables. We sure hope so, as Inspiration might be the most ideal active noise canceling product in the industry.

Monster’s Diddybeats earbuds: hands on review

Once Monster and Beats by Dr. Dre successfully launched the era of headphones being designed to the audible and stylistic tastes of a certain musician, you knew there was no going back. Lady GaGa has her Heartbeats, and now Diddy with Diddybeats. At $179, the Diddybeats are priced the same as Monster’s Beats by Dr. Dre Tour, so it’s no surprise that in my hands-on tests I found the two to offer largely similar audio quality. When listening to some music genres the Diddybeats felt like they offered fuller, thumpier bass while the Beats Tour offered clearer treble. But the differences were on the slight side, and with some less-rangy genres, I felt like I was listening to the same set of earbuds twice. And that’s not a bad thing, because the Beats Tour are one of the better $179 earbud options on the market to begin with.

The bigger differentiation comes in the physical styling. While both employ flat earbud cables which resemble a big rubber band, the Diddybeats eschew Dre’s bright red cabling and highlights in favor of a nearly all-black styling, with just bits of silver highlights here and there, creating a much more understated theme (also available in white and powder pink models, not tested).

But the functional difference is with the bud design. The truncated cone shape of the Diddybeats runs too close up against the rubber buds, making them less comfortable than the Beats Tour, at least for those users with smaller ears. This surprising flaw makes the Diddybeats a little less recommendable than the Beats Tour, hence Diddy only earns four stars out of five instead of the 4.5 that Dre’s earbuds earned. But if your ears are on the larger side then you have nothing to worry about, as the Diddybeats sound excellent and easily earn their price tag. The model I tested includes a built in mic and three buttons, which Monster refers to as ControlTalk, which allows for interaction with the latest iPhone, iPad, and iPod models, along with various other devices.

Learn more at diddybeats.com

Monster Diddybeats with ControlTalk: Beatweek hands-on first look

It’s only fitting that Diddy get his own line of Monster earbuds, after Dr. Dre got his MonsterBeats and Lady GaGa got her HeartBeats. As I unpacked a prerelease Diddybeats unit just now for testing, it occurs to me that we’re perhaps now entering an era of personalized listening experiences – not so much in terms of earbuds suited to our own personal tastes, but instead listening experiences designed by artists whose music we personally enjoy. The Diddybeats don’t come cheap at $179, so as was the case with the similarly priced Monster Beats Tour earbuds, the evaluation of the Diddybeats will largely come down to audio quality – which will take some time to thoroughly test out. As far as design, the Diddybeats are much more subdued looking than some of their Monster counterparts, featuring a nearly all-black design with a shiny silver ring around the outer perimeter of each bud, and an equally shiny “db” logo on the outside of each bud. As far as features, built in are Monster’s “ControlTalk” functionality which consists of the same three buttons and a mic built into many other new earbuds designed for use with smartphones like the iPhone – and the controls will also work with an iPod or iPad.

While my test unit comes in black, there will also be white and “powder pink” models available. I’ll now commence product testing on the Monster DiddyBeats, and report back to you soon.

Lady GaGa predicted the fame

It’s difficult to believe that a mere year and a half ago, most people had never heard of Lady GaGa, but that was exactly the case when she first spoke with Beatweek near the end of 2008. At the time she was the opening act for New Kids On The Block – and not even the main opening act, if we’re recalling correctly. We knew she was on her way to stardom – as evidenced by the fact that we put her on the cover of Beatweek Magazine in January 2009 – but probably no one, not us, not her, could have quite predicted this level of fame for her.

So now that she’s become our society’s most famous pop star, it’s no surprise that her musical styling and unique fashion sense have directly and indirectly influenced everyone from new up-and-coming pop stars to teenagers in the malls. But what might surprise you is that GaGa is loving all this, at least if she still stands by what she told us about her impending fame back in 2008: “If anything I really love it when I see that my music and my fashion is affecting pop culture. That makes me feel famous.”

In our interview she also discussed the real meaning behind her breakthrough hit Just Dance, the origin of the “GaGa” name, and what she specifically wanted the world to know about her back then. You can find the full cover story interview with Lady GaGa from Beatweek Magazine’s January 2009 right here.

photo credit: Candice Lawler

review: Monster Beats by Dr. Dre Tour

First Look: Monster iCarPlay FM

New in iProng Labs: a first look at the new iCarPlay 800 and 1000 FM transmitters for iPhone and iPod from Monster, priced at $79 and $99, respectively…

by Bill Palmer

Monster’s latest FM transmitter solutions for connecting your iPhone or iPod to your car’s stereo system come in two models with different prices and vastly different looking interfaces, but the functionality of the 800 ($79) and the 1000 ($99) is largely similar on paper. In addition to charging your iPhone or iPod and and offering three programmable FM presets, both products scan the FM spectrum to automatically find the emptiest frequency while promising to block out any cellphone signal interference (a relief to iPhone users).

Aside from the styling, the primary difference out of the box appears to be that the 1000 sports a USB that allows you to charge a second USB-based device while in your car, which could be handy for those users who also need to keep GPS and bluetooth devices, etc., charged up while on the road. Monster also claims that the USB port on the 1000 can be connected to your computer and used to broadcast your computer’s audio to an FM stereo in your house.

FM car transmitter products require significant road testing to determine signal quality, so our full hands-on review will be posted in one to two weeks.

*****

Learn more about the iCarPlay FM 800 and iCarPlay FM 1000 at MonsterCable.com

*****

Review: Monster iCarCharger 1000

Featureless iPhone and iPod car chargers are a dime a dozen, and even those users with a line-in/aux-in port on their car stereo who are looking for a car charger with a built in line-out cable have plenty of options to choose from. But Monster’s new iCarCharger 1000 stands out from the pack with two distinct additional features.


The less immediately apparent (but probably more widely useful) of the two is that the line-out cable, which deceptively appears to be very short in the photo above, is actually wrapped around a spool inside the head of the charger. Slide the head open, unravel precisely how much cable you need for your car setup, lock it into place, and you won’t have one inch more cable running from your charger to your stereo than necessary. In a word, it’s a brilliant concept – and it works as advertised.



The second feature is flashier but may or may not be of practical value to you. The front of the charger includes basic playback features that allow you to play or pause the music and jump to not only the next or previous song, but also the next or previous playlist. This can come in super handy if your car setup is such that your iPhone or iPod isn’t easily available to you while driving (or if you find trying to operate it via the screen while driving to be a distraction).

The problem, though, is that far too many cars have their charging port in a position too far away from the driver for the buttons to be easily reached. In my own car I could barely reach it with my fingertips, and I’ve owned other cars in which the buttons would have been completely unreachable. The fact that the head of the charger can be rotated upward or downward can help, but the usability of the buttons is a crapshoot based on your particular car layout. So while the whole product is brilliant, the fact that too few users will actually be able to comfortably reach the buttons prevents me from being able to give the iCarCharger 1000 five stars, depending on your car it might be a perfect product for you.

Learn more at MonsterCable.com

review by Bill Palmer

Lady Gaga interview

It seems there are only two types of people: those familiar with Lady GaGa, and those who are asking “who is this Lady GaGa I keep hearing about?” Her hit single “Just Dance” is simultaneously at #1 on six different Billboard charts, and yet her seeming meteoric rise to fame over the past few months belies the years she spent working as a hired songwriter for everyone from Britney Spears to the Pussycat Dolls while trying to break in as a performer but being told by record labels that she was “too theater” and by theater people that she was “too pop.” When I caught up with Lady GaGa she explained that “The Fame” she named her record after is very different from the kind of fame that landed her on the cover of this magazine – and during our conversation she went out of her way to be overly complimentary to everyone from Freddie Mercury to New Kids on the Block to yours truly. If Lady GaGa’s newfound fame is going to her head, she sure isn’t showing it…

How were you influenced musically by growing up in and around New York City and going to school in Manhattan and having that kind of childhood?

I studied classical music and I grew up hanging out in jazz clubs, and being in jazz bands and choirs and rock and roll and stuff. So I was just surrounded by it growing up. I wasn’t the girl that was hanging out with boys after school, you know? I was always doing something artistic.

When you sit down to write a pop song, what’s your approach for writing a song and trying to make sure it fits into pop music?

It’s got to have that undeniable melodic big chorus. It’s something that I’ll really, really look at, and I don’t know how to explain it, it’s like the song comes on and that thing kicks in, and you just know it’s a hit record. It’s not really explainable. I always say that the best songs ever written kind of write themselves. You start writing the melody and then you get the lyrics real quick and then it just kind of goes. If it takes you longer than, like, ten to thirty minutes to write a song, it’s probably not a good song.

Is your approach different when you’re writing for someone else as opposed to writing a song you know you’re going to be performing yourself?

Sometimes when I do something for myself I’ll be a little bit more risk-taking. I’ll just think about something that I could maybe handle that nobody else could. But I pretty much approach them the same way. Writing a pop song and a big chorus, it’s like it’s kind of just special for each song. And sometimes I’ll tailor-make something for a particular artist and use them as my muse, but in terms of melody and stuff I always sort of come from the same soul place.

Just Dance is your big hit single right now. Is there a deeper message behind that song, or is the message really “Just Dance”?

There’s a couple messages. The song is really an ode to New York and being out in the clubs, getting too drunk and you really should go home, but instead of going home you just dance through it and get yourself through the night. But I think on a deeper level, the song is about pushing through in general. I was at a time in my life when I was writing record after record after record, looking for that undeniable first single, and Just Dance was my hit.

Your album is called The Fame, which seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy because you’re at the top of the charts now. Do you consider yourself to be famous at this point?

I always thought I was famous, even when I wasn’t (laughs). So I don’t really consider it now. I mean if anything I’ve grown up a lot making this record. The fame for me is something that really comes from within and is really deep inside me and my work, and it’s something that has infected me and my group of friends in the downtown scene for a really long time. Fame, which I’m experiencing now, is very different from the fame. The fame is when nobody knows who you are but everybody wants to know who you are. I still experience a lot of that. As big as Just Dance is getting, and The Fame climbing the charts, because people are still discovering me.

That kind of fame, to me, is the kind of fame that everybody knows about, and the kind of fame that I write about is a very special kind of fame that I think is really positive and can affect people’s lives in a really, really amazing way. And I think that that other kind of fame that you’re talking about is much more ego-centric and has to do with making sure that people are recognizing me for my work. If anything I really love it when I see that my music and my fashion is affecting pop culture. That makes me feel famous.

For me it’s much more important to see young girls wearing shoulder pads, you know what I mean? Or having their hair in a different way or speaking differently or using new words or listening to music in a genre that they’ve never maybe tapped into before, that to me is what fame is. And it’s inspiring music to be less lazy. When I first started out people, I used to notice on blogs, they would say “We can’t tell if she’s the real deal or if she’s trying too hard.” But it’s kind of a mixture of both. It’s like I work so, so hard and I work tirelessly and endlessly on the fashion and the show and the music, and it’s because that’s what I love, that’s what I do. I don’t wake up in the morning and I’m too good to do an interview, or too good to write a new song, or too cool to play a show for a small stage. I do anything and everything because I really, really love what I do.

A couple of your songs have been featured on Gossip Girl. Do you watch that show?

Yeah, I like Gossip Girl. It’s very entertaining.

Have you ever been watching and one of your songs randomly comes on and you didn’t know it was going to happen?

That happens all the time, and I call the record label and I’m like “oh my god, I didn’t know that song was on that show.” There have been so many licenses recently that I don’t even hear about all of them. But that makes me feel great because it tells me that my goal, which was to analyze and reckon and struggle with ideas about pop culture, it’s really working because all of these shows that are so emblematic of modern television and modern film and modern movies and modern club shows, it’s like they’re all gravitating towards my stuff, because I guess it’s speaking to something that’s very today.

I have to ask you about the name Lady GaGa. I’ve heard different stories about how you got the name.

It came from the Queen song Radio Ga Ga. I used to perform at the piano doing these really theatrical stage performances where I would do hand choreography and then slam my fingers back down on the piano, and I would wear lingerie and it was kind of like this pop burlesque show, and he just told me “you’re so Ga Ga, you’re so Freddie Mercury.” And I was like, “you mean Radio Ga Ga?” I just thought the name was fitting, so I kept it. He kept calling me that in the studio, so it kind of stuck.

It’s almost like you’re a female version of Freddie Mercury then.

Yeah I think so. I think it’s part of me and what I do, there’s like an androgyny to my stage show. I’m super-feminine and sexy, but then again I sort of carry myself like a dude. You know, the music is a reflection of who I am, and I grew up as a theater kid and studying musical theater and auditioning in New York. I was a dancer, I was a singer, I was an actress. So doing theatrical pop music was a way for me to blend all of those worlds together. And Freddie Mercury was an inspiration for me when I was at a record label and they’d say “you’re too theater” and I’d be at an audition for a musical and they’d say “you’re too pop,” you know? I was able to bring both worlds together.

You’ve been touring with New Kids on the Block. What’s it like being on the road with them? Were you listening to them when you were a kid?

Oh yeah, they’re really really amazing, and I was a huge fan of theirs when I was younger. And they’re the ultimate in pop, in boy-band pop. It’s like they were the test kids, and I’m really inspired by them. If anything I’m so, so humbled by what they have achieved as a band that’s been around for so long, and how humble they are. As a new artist, for opening acts they usually hand you a microphone and an amp and they say “go, you’ve got five feet of stage.” But these guys, they really gave me a lot of creative freedom, and they knew how much my stage performance was an integral part of who I am, and they let me do the show of my dreams.

I’m looking at your tour schedule and it looks really packed. Do you have that workaholic vibe, like you need to be out there doing as many shows as possible?

Sometimes my tour manager and I will book shows on the fly. We’ll say “well we get off at nine tonight, why don’t we see if the gay club around the corner wants Lady GaGa to come.” And they’ll almost always say yes, and then we’ll do a show for free. I love to play and make music. It’s funny when you ask me about fame, because it’s like I’m not on the road right now working towards some ultimate orgasmic explosion of fame that I have in head. I’m living my dream right now. I’m on the road, I’m making music, I’m making art, I’m performing at arenas and in nightclubs and people know my lyrics, they know my fashion and they know what I’m trying to say and it’s affecting them. This is great. This exactly what I’ve always wanted.

What else should the world know about Lady GaGa?

I’d just like to stress that I wrote, obviously, the whole album and that I have a really heavy hand in all of the creative content and the videos and the films and the TV, and I just really care about what I do. So I actually really appreciate your interview. You asked some really poignant, amazing questions.

interview by Bill Palmer