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(Due to space constraints in the latest issue of PLAYed, half of my CES blurb didn’t make the cut, so I’m posting it here with bonus multimedia content.)

Staring in awe at 105″ HDTV screens usually makes up a large part of my CES experience. And with new sets touting a billion-to-one contrast ratios and really absurd 3D goggles, I thought for sure I’d be bloodshot and over-stimulated once again at the Samsung, Pioneer, and Panasonic booths; but instead, this year brought a couple of aural surprises that let my ears enjoy the CES festivities as well. Hit the jump for the audio goodness.

Way off in the convention’s South Hall, away from the traditional CES behemoths, I found Turtle Beach. Known for years for their PC audio hardware, TB has recently gotten into the gaming headsets market, letting gamers enjoy every rocket explosion and zombie wail while chatting up teammates without disrupting their loved ones in the next room. While not a primary concern for me (yet), the fact that you can hear approaching attack helicopters and Locust hoards in 5.1 Dolby Surround sound WIRELESSLY is what had me adding the Ear Force X4′s to my cart at Amazon.com that night after the show. Instead of incorporating separate speaker drivers into the earphones, Turtle Beach uses software to decode the 5.1 signal and accurately represent it through the headphone speakers, keeping them lightweight, comfortable, and wireless. At $170, they’re not necessarily an impulse buy (I did wait a full 6 hours to get back to my room to order them online), but the depth they add to your gaming and movie experiences made them a must-have.

Typically the Nintendo DS acts as a casual gateway to other gaming experiences, however, mine has served to pull me deeper into the create your own music scene. I wrote about the KORG DS-10 launch for our holiday gaming guide back in November, and I’ve since been mixing tracks on planes, trains, and automobiles across the US. I found another gem in the CES South Hall this year, as KORG set up shop to demo their Kaossillator, an ultra-portable battery-powered dynamic phrase synthesizer you can take anywhere. Slightly larger in size than a first-gen iPod, this little device packs 100 synth, sound effects, and drum beats against 31 scale patterns and 50 types of gate arpeggiation so your creations sound professional even when dealing with intense rhythmic patterns. Throw 8 track loop recording into the mix and you can walk off the bus with the next dance floor single sitting in your pocket.

While not brand new to DJ’s and the like, the Kaossilator is beginning to make some in-roads into the general marketplace where music fanatics are creating some very unique sounds:

Artist Gary Kibler created an entire album of electronic music using Korg’s little yellow device.

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NYC DJ uses the Kaossilator to create simple, quick sketches to spark bigger beats for the club kids. Splurt is definitely one of the device’s bigger fans – just check out the mass of content he’s flooded YouTube with.

And while nowhere near the level of Gary or Splurt’s creations, this quick sketch goes to prove that (in less than 10 minutes) ANYONE can use this thing to create more than just your traditional electronica fare.

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