We have all been there, a group of people in one car about to embark on a long trip. It is moments like those in which shouting “shotgun!” becomes incredbily important. Why? Not just because you avoid sitting in the back seat with your flatulant friend Bob, but because who ever is shotgun gets to also be the “DJ” for the entire trip. A blessing for the shotgun rider but a possible curse for everyone else in the damn car. Well, Pioneer has found a way to end the “road trip DJ” argument for good with their new “MIXTRAX” technology. MIXTRAX searches a user’s music library and finds tracks that are similar in genre and BPM (beats per minute) and creates “TRAX” that keep the party going non-stop without having to manually scan through your music libaray or radio stations. It even adds DJ style transitions between songs like reverb, scratching, crossfading and more to make sure that the music is a continuous experience. That stuff is all great but I am just happy that MIXTRAX can save me from listening to nothing but “Air Supply” for an entire road trip, everyone knows that “WHAM!” is where its at!
MIAMI – (December 8, 2011) – Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. continues to innovate entertainment and audio technologies and today introduces MIXTRAX™, a proprietary technology which creates a nonstop mix of an entire music library to create a club-like atmosphere. Designed for music lovers and the club-going audience, MIXTRAX takes the music from an iPhone/iPod or USB/SD device and plays it back with added transitions and effects creating a virtual DJ inside select Pioneer products. Derived from Pioneer’s experience in developing world-renowned professional DJ products, MIXTRAX is implemented in a variety of worldwide Pioneer car audio products and STEEZ products designed for the dance community.
“Music has a unique ability to affect our moods, our feelings, and even our energy levels. With MIXTRAX, the listener hears the same kind of high-energy, nonstop mix they’d hear in a club or at a party, but now created seamlessly from their own music collection,” said Andy Parsons, senior vice president at Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. “Pioneer’s MIXTRAX technology combines our rich DJ heritage with our passion for music and delivers a unique DJ infused listening experience to our customers.”
Pioneer’s MIXTRAX technology transforms a consumer’s music library into customizable tracks that can be processed by select Pioneer products. Using Pioneer’s free MIXTRAX music management software, the user’s entire music collection is analyzed and various musical attributes including tempo and beats per minute (BPM) are identified. The software then tags each song and creates an assortment of playlists categorized in different genres and musical styles such as Beat, Chill, and Thump. The advanced analysis of the software identifies the best transition points of each song in the music library and seamlessly mixes and blends the tracks together, much like a DJ performing live.
Additionally, the Mix Style can be selected between Active, Standard and Simple, adjusting the intensity of the effects and transitions used, and the duration of each track within the mix. The custom MIXTRAX playlists can be transferred to a USB/SD memory device (not included) and played through an assortment of Pioneer in-car Audio Video products (see model list below) and STEEZ products, as well as transferred directly into STEEZ products for playback. Pioneer’s in-car Audio Video receiver takes advantage of its large LCD touchscreen by animating the album art of the currently playing track in time with the mix, creating a truly unique in-vehicle music experience.
To easily and quickly enjoy nonstop mix of music, a simpler version of the technology called MIXTRAX EZ is built-in to several Pioneer in-dash products for both in-car CD receivers and in-car Audio Video receivers. Featured in new in-car CD receivers (see model chart below), three types of DJ-style transitions (Flanger, Echo and Crossfade) and six sound effects (Backspin 1 and 2, Echo, Trans, Roll and Scratch) are automatically added between songs for a nonstop, continuous listening experience.
To further enhance the “dance club in your car” atmosphere, the illumination buttons and display of the in-car CD receivers pulsates and changes color. Two modes of illumination (defeatable), each with six color patterns, create different light effects to give users a cool and fun experience.
The third in-vehicle implementation of MIXTRAX is in an iPhone App that can be used with Pioneer’s revolutionary AppRadio™, the first in-vehicle product designed to utilize the smartphone’s processing power, storage capacity, network connectivity and apps as the primary source for its information and entertainment capabilities. Similar to the MIXTRAX software, the MIXTRAX iPhone App compares the tracks stored in the iPhone’s music library with Pioneer’s list of analyzed music stored in its Internet servers to identify musical characteristics and create custom playlists with DJ style effects and transitions for a nonstop mix of songs that can be played back and controlled through the Pioneer AppRadio.
Well, Nintendo finally had their conference last week and we got to see what they were working on along with West Coast Customs: life-sized real working “Mario Karts” to promote the new “Mario Kart 7″ game coming to the Nintendo 3DS next month. We were pleasantly surprised with what West Coast Customs created. Honestly we were fearing some type of gaudy Nintendo Cadillac Escalade.
After the reveal we spoke with Don James, Executive VP of Operations for Nintendo America to ask him about what brought about the collaboration with West Coast Customs, his thoughts on Nintendo getting into OEM automotive in-car-entertainment, and more. You can watch the interview and the full Nintendo press conference below.
By the way pay close attention to the audio at the end of the conference video for some “interesting” dialoge!
You may remember a short while ago we discovered that Nintendo would be holding a press conference during the LA Auto Show. The news caught the attention of Autoblog, G4tv, and various other automotive and video game enthusiast outlets all of which were scratching their heads. We got the speculation train rolling by guessing that perhaps Nintendo was going to announce some kind of in car entertainment collaboration with an OEM at the show. Well this morning Nintendo put out a press release which confirms their reason for attending the Los Angeles Auto Show…kind of..
As you may have guessed from the image above Nintendo has teamed up with famously polarizing custom car builders West Coast Customs on a promotional project. Nintendo has not said what the project car is or what it will be promoting but a few video game sites that linked to our original story suspected that Nintendo’s LA Auto Show appearance may have something to do with the new Mario Kart 7 game that is slated to be released for the 3DS handheld system in early December. Even if that part may prove to be correct, what car could West Cost Customs have built to match a game like that? Did they turn a Cadillac Escalade into a giant go-kart? Who knows!
What we do know is that the Nintendo CEO himself Reggie Fils-Aime will be on hand for the big reveal along with West Coast Customs helmer Ryan Friedlinghaus. Something else to note is that despite not being on the official LA Auto Show map Nintendo WILL have a booth in the West Hall lobby and the Nintendo/West Coast Customs creation will be there for the entirety of the show, not just the media days. So, if you are not a member of the media you still get to see this mystery creation if you plan on attending the LA Auto Show this year.
We have to admit despite Nintendo providing more information on their appearance at the show, this news only makes us more curious about what we are going to see. It is no secret that the builds at West Coast Customs are not everyone’s “cup of tea” so to speak. We anticipate that the reaction from both the automotive and video game industries will be, “interesting” to say the least! Stay tuned to MotorworldHype.com as we will be attending the big reveal!
Nintendo will be making an unlikely pit stop at the 2011 LA Auto Show, marking the video game company’s first-ever appearance at an automotive trade show. Members of the media are invited to an exclusive presentation by Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime and special guest Ryan Friedlinghaus, founder and CEO of West Coast Customs, to unveil an exclusive collaboration between the iconic gaming brand and one of the most recognized names in the custom automotive industry.
The presentation will take place during the LA Auto Show’s Nov. 17 Press Day at 12:10 p.m. Consumers will also be able to visit the Nintendo booth from Nov. 18-27, when the show is open to the public.
WHO:
Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime and founder and CEO of West Coast Customs, Ryan Friedlinghaus
Last week we got the officiall email that the press conference schedule for the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show was released. Upon looking over the schedule we saw something that immediately grabbed our attention. Published plain as day was a press conference slot for Nintendo of America. Nintendo at the LA Auto Show?! If you think we are joking you can see it for yourself HERE. Baffeled, we reached out to Nintendo to see if we can get an official comment or statement regarding their presence at one of the biggest auto shows on the west coast.
This is the response we got from Nintendo of America:
We’ll have more info coming soon, but nothing more to announce at this time.
With no answers yet we are still scratching our heads trying to figure this out with the few clues we have. The biggest clue as you can see below is that Nintendo’s conference is supposed to take place in the West Hall Lobby of the Los Angeles Convention Center. If you look at the map of the show’s layout you will see that Nintendo does not have its own designated area on the show floor which leads us to believe that Nintendo’s conference will likely be an announcement of a collaboration with one of the OEM’s showing in the West Hall. Although this is purely situational-based speculation on our part. As you saw above there is still no answer from Nintendo or their reps as to their actual reason for attending.
As of now the manufacturers slated to exhibit in that hall are the following: Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Ford, Honda, Jeep, Kia, Lincolin, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Ram. Since Nintendo’s area of business is gaming and entertainment we can only conclude that they will be announcing some type of in-car-entertainment partnership with one of the aforementioned OEM’s. Although, we could not begin to tell you which one of those it could be. We could possibly eliminate Nissan from the list since they have relationship with Sony Playstation mainstay Gran Turismo but beyond that, it could be any of the OEMs in that hall.
Could Nintendo be announcing the integration of their up coming Wii-U tablet controlled console into a family sedan or SUV? Will Mario be the next spokesperson for Lotus? Will each new Ford truck come with a Yoshi? Has Nintendo invented a way for us to finally shoot red turtle shells at people who annoy us on the freeway?
I guess we will have to wait a while to find out the real reason why Nintendo will be attending the LA Auto Show but, so far it has been pretty fun to guess! As soon as we know more we will fill you in.
These days smartphones are getting smarter. There are so many things we can do on our iPhones and Android phones that it is hard for most people to keep their hands off their mobile devices, especially while driving, which tends to have dangerous results. Enter Pioneer’s “AppRadio“. Essentially AppRadio is an in-dash device that ports compatible apps from the users smart phone onto its touchscreen in a more driver friendly format. This way when a user wants to navigate their Pandora account they don’t need to pick up their phone to do it, they can just use the large touch screen on the AppRadio unit. We think this is pretty awesome and could potentially save lives or at the very least save someone from a ticket. The only downside is that it is only available for iPhone 4 users. Hopefully Pioneer will develop this for Android and Blackberry users in the near future. Check out the video below for Pioneer’s explanation of exactly how AppRadio works.
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