Awards

DJzone awards Beat Thang 2012 Crystal Disk Award at NAMM show (Jan 2012)

IVL’s customer, Beat Kangz Electronics (BKE) of Nashville TN received the 2012 Crystal Disk Award at the recent NAMM trade show. DJzone Magazine, the leader in online news and information for the DJ industry, announce the winners for the 11th Crystal Disc Awards, which honor outstanding engineering professionals and products. The 2012 Crystal Disc Awards presentations took place during the 2012 Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA. The Beat Thang earned the award for “Best DJ Innovation of 2011-2012” “DJzone continues its tradition of recognizing innovation and quality in the DJ, lighting and music industry,” said Sid Vanderpool, Publisher of DJzone Magazine.

To be eligible for the Crystal Disc Awards, products must related to the DJ industry and be reviewed at the Winter NAMM Show, DJ Times Expo, LDI Show or submitted directly to DJzone Magazine. Only two of these coveted awards are presented each year with exception of the Crystal Disc Lifetime Achievement Award that is presented periodically.

The 110 year old National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) show is the largest US music trade show held in January each year in Anaheim CA and occupies 1.6M square feet of exhibit space. The show is closed to the public and attendees are primarily music retailers and distributors. The 2012 event was attended by 95,709 registered attendees, a 6% increase over 2011. International attendance was 11,981, a 15% increase over 2011. The BKE booth was constantly busy and featured demonstrations by Dallas Austin and BKE personnel. BKE Co-Founder and CTO said “We were delighted with the level of interest shown by buyers at the show. We feel that the delays required to get the definition, design and performance of the product right before releasing were justified by the acceptance. We will now turn our attention to moving forward with the next product.”

Bomber Pedal Wins Electonic Musician Editor's Choice Award (January 2012)

XP Audio Inc., IVL’s customer for guitar pedal products, was awarded the 2012 Electronic Musician Editors’ Choice Award for the Bomber pedal developed by IVL Audio. For two decades, the Editors’ Choice Awards have recognized the best new production tools for musicians, and this year, a “star team” of magazine staff and contributors selected the Bomber as one of the 30 most groundbreaking products to emerge in the past twelve months (from AES 2010 to AES 2011). Electronic Musician changed their award approach this year by creating categories that encapsulate what the editors consider to be outstanding about a product, with an applications-oriented slant that makes the award more meaningful.

The Bomber won the award for the following category: "Digital Divebombing"

Electronic Magazine’s editorial staff includes Craig Anderton who is considered a guru of the music industry and publishes his views on music technology on his Harmony Central web site.

Stanton SCS4.DJ wins DJ Mag/BPM Tech Award (November 2011)

DJ Magazine/BPM, a respected and influential UK publication, each year invites readers to nominate innovative products for consideration for Tech Awards. Products receiving most nominations are presented to a panel of industry experts at BPM, Europe’s biggest DJ event. Shortlists of three products in each of eight categories are presented and the knowledgeable judges ask hard questions of the manufacturers as they score the products on build, sound quality, features, ease of use, and – all importantly – value for money. The SCS4.DJ, developed by IVL, won the award in the following category: DJ Controller under £600

IVL signs license agreements with Yamaha Corporation, Tokyo, Japan (June 2002)

IVL’s success in introducing vocal harmony technology to the music industry and Japanese commercial karaoke market was recognized by completion of several Yamaha license agreements. These agreements provide access to IVL’s vocal pitch shifting patents. Yamaha plans to incorporate IVL’s technology in several keyboards.

Karaoke TV Star wins Best Products 2002 Award (December 2002)

IVL’s consumer karaoke player, Karaoke TV Star, received the following award from Business Week and USA Today:

Best Products 2002 Award

Leveraging IVL’s experience in the Japanese commercial karaoke market, the TV Star is a handheld device that plugs into a television, uses the TV speakers to reproduce the instrumental accompaniment for the song and displays the lyrics on the TV screen. Sold under IVL’s ONKEY brand, purchase orders were received from all the major consumer electronics chains including Walmart, Radio Shack, Best Buy etc. IVL gained valuable experience in low cost offshore manufacturing through this project and succeeded in delivering over 750,000 units to consumer electronics retailers over a three year period. 50 songs came in the internal memory of the device and customers purchased additional songs from the IVL’s ONKEY web site for 99 cents each. IVL’s tradition of product innovation was reflected in offering the first web site to deliver songs to the customer’s home computer – these songs were then transferred to the karaoke player via a USB connection. It should be noted that this approach was pioneered by IVL many years in advance of Apple’s iTunes site.

IVL’s Vocalist recognized at 1992 Tech Awards (January 1992)

IVL’s Vocalist, sold under the Digitech brand received two prestigious awards at a recent NAMM awards ceremony. The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) trade show is held in January each year and draws attendance from both US and international markets. The Tech Awards are sponsored by the Music and Sound Retailer magazine. The awards received by IVL were:

“Most Innovative Product of the Year”

“Most Innovative Effects Device”

The Vocalist is a breakthrough in vocal processing which adds up to four parts of harmony to a singer’s melody. The effect is to replicate harmonies provided by a group of four backing singers. These harmonies are produced electronically with no perceptible delay. Pitch shifting the human voice presents substantial challenges as the shape of the vocal tract changes between high and low notes. Traditional pitch shifting techniques result in distortions which increase with the size of the pitch shift – the “Micky Mouse” effect when shifting up and the “Darth Vader” effect when shifting down. IVL developed a patented algorithm which achieved distortion-free pitch shifts through large intervals. Overcoming these technical challenges was recognized by the Music and Sound Retailer Tech Awards.

Whammy Pedal (September 1989)

One of the most successful guitar effects pedals, the Whammy, was designed and manufactured by IVL.

The original IVL Whammy continues to be much sought after and commands selling prices on eBay several times the original selling price. The device simulates the mechanical whammy bar on a guitar but achieves the effect electronically, permitting the player to perform radical pitch shifting effects. Some of the notable artists using the Whammy include Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Joe Perry, Dimebag Darrell, Tom Morello, The Edge and Nels Cline.

The Whammy Pedal has proven to be one of the most successful guitar pedals of all time and has sold hundreds of thousands of units worldwide.