The SynthStation49 keyboard controller by Akai is using Apple’s iPad in a creative way, by installing a built-in iPad dock. It will work with Akai’s SynthStation software offering direct in-app MIDI recording, as well as the iOS CoreMIDI allowing it to be used with a wide variety of other iOS music apps.

The new keyboard features 49 full-size velocity-sensitive keys, nine MPC-style drum pads and a variety of controls. There’s an adjustable-angle charging iPad dock, a USB port for connecting to a Mac or PC and professional 0.25-inch outputs. You also use the SynthStation49 as a traditional USB MIDI controller with your computer.

The Misa Kitara Digital Stringless Guitar is now available for pre-order if you want to be all “Look ma, no strings!”. This futuristic instrument includes a multifunction touchscreen, MIDI controls and an on-board polyphonic synthesizer with effects, allowing guitarists to fully express their musical vision without a single string.

You control sound through your fingers, using the touchscreen and fret board to play and alter sounds in real-time. It’s powered by a Linux OS and also has a 1.25-inch audio output, a 3.5-mm headphone out and comes with 100+ digital sounds, 6 pre-loaded effects, 24 frets and 144 notes.

Rocking the guitar is cool. I mean, if you play a mean guitar, you get the gigs, the babes and the money. You can be a rock god. And with millions of hopeful rockers, come millions of picks, which are easy to lose. Well, the Pick Punch can punch picks out of all sorts of plastic items like credit cards, gift cards, and more. You can buy sheets of material from the company and make your own custom picks.

The Pick Punch sells for $24.95 and makes picks in the 351 style that are roughly triangular. They measure 30mm tall x 25.5mm wide. Each sheet of pick material is $3.00 and can make 56 to 85 picks.

Guitar theft is apparently an epidemic and the Rock Lock Company wants to put an end to it and protect guitars everywhere. The lock is basically a buckle that snaps around your guitar neck, then you loop it around something immobile and lock it into place. Just like how you protect your bike.

It will cost you $49.99 and you can pre-order it now with free shipping. It’s a small price to pay to protect an expensive instrument.

Tascam has introduced a new way to tune your guitar. It’s compact at just just 3.77- x 0.71- x 1.57-inches and the TC-1S claims to be the world’s first solar-powered tuner. It sports a rugged silicon shell, a USB port for those cloudy days and a carrying clip.

There’s also an integrated microphone and an input for guitar and bass tuning. It can also be calibrated to an external source. The device will be available in si colors (black, pink, orange, green, blue, white) this month.

Anyone in a band knows that lugging around huge equipment like synths is a real hassle. There has to be an easier way, right? The Korg Monotron analog synthesizer may be the solution you’ve been looking for. It’s a fully-functioning synth that is also pocket-sized, making it all a breeze.

It doesn’t have many keys though, but you can figure it out I’m sure, being more musically inclined than myself. It should arrive in May for about $67.

Seven45 Studios has unveiled this awesome looking SixString guitar controller for the Power Gig: Rise of the SixString title. It’s a real electric guitar that plugs into an amp and everything. Golly gee, you faux rockers sure have come a long way from rocking that plastic guitar hero guitar.

The game and guitar will be sold together. More experienced players will be able to benefit from chording, since this is much more challenging and requires specific finger placement on the strings. The game will be available on the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms.

Musicians will love this. The i-tab comes with a 5″ touchscreen display that will display and scroll through chords and lyrics in perfect synchronization as you are playing. Think of it as a music teleprompter for the guitar.

The device has 4GB of internal storage space, which should hold thousands of tabs that you can purchase and downloaded from the i-tab online Tab Store. There are 5,000 tabs available right now, with around 500 being added weekly.

Sure, there are some mods for using a real drum set with Rock Band or Guitar Hero, but Omega Music Technology’s new GM-1 system is the first off-the-shelf option, which is great if you are DIY challenged. The kit is available on its own or bundled with a Pearl drum set. The system is equipped with individual sensors that detect each and every drum hit with “speed and accuracy”, so it should be pretty reliable.

You won’t have to worry about the neighbors or other members of your family getting annoyed either as there is support for mesh heads and a dampening system for the cymbals. If you go for the actual drum set package, you’ll also get some authentic drum heads. Omega even says that the system is a great way to learn to play the drums.

When you get rid of the strings, is it really still a guitar? We’ll leave that to the philosophers. In the meantime, take a look at just such a specimen. The Misa Digital Guitar is great looking, but somehow we don’t think it will catch on.

Then again I’m no musician. Maybe it will revolutionize music. The Misa is really just a MIDI controller that you can interface with software on your PC and you can use said software on your PC and use a normal guitar. Whatever you like.

I am not a musician, as close as I get to making music is Rock Band. I can only imagine how much time it would take to learn an instrument like the piano or guitar that have been around for ages, much less learning to play a brand new type of instrument like the Eigenharp.

The Eigenharp is a strange cross between a wind instrument, a keyboard, and a string instrument. Two versions are offered including the Pico and the Alpha. The Alpha versions is a full-size concert version of the device and the Pico is a small handheld version.

The Stylophone Beatbox was recently released, some 40 years after the original Stylophone. They sent us one for review purposes. Now I’m not musically inclined myself, but I did find the device to be fun and pretty easy to use. And despite my lack of hip musical skills, it was pretty easy to figure out and start making beats.

Vestax has introduced the Spin, a DJ music mixer for the Mac. It measures in at 14 inches x 9.5 inches x 1.5 inches and weighs just 3.2 lbs, so you won’t throw your back out lugging it from gig to gig. It’s a combination of a DJ control surface, an audio interface and DJ software.

The device connects to your MacBook or MacBook Pro via the USB port and lets you select songs from your iTunes library. The Spin will be available in Japan this December for 30,000 Yen or about $330.

The typical violin is based on designs created over 300 years ago. It’s worked well and has given us some beautiful music, but it’s time for an upgrade. Modern design techniques and 21st century materials can surely improve it.

That’s the idea behind the Gavari Semiacoustic Violin from Austrian designer Gerda Hopfgartner. Hopfgartner was inspired by modern yachts and “feminine curves and sundry corset outlines of the Baroque, Rococo, and Biedermeier ages”. We have no idea what she’s talking about, but we love the results.

OpenChord has designed a system that allows an actual real guitar to sync up with your Nintendo Wii to play Guitar Hero. Just plug the Wiimote into the guitar and use real strings and frets instead of plastic buttons. There is one hitch and it’s a big one.

Guitar Hero wasn’t designed for use with six strings and 22 to 24 frets. Which kinda blows the whole thing out of the water. Too bad. Playing GH with a real guitar sounds like a nightmare. Who would have thought? Check out a video below.