My husband snagged a great deal on a set of Amazon Alexa Echo products, so I eagerly unpacked the box and started setting them up for use in the studio. The idea was to stream mp3 accompaniments from my laptop or phone to multiple devices around the room to create a surround sound effect, especially for my new Trio Class (that highlight coming soon!), so they could clearly hear the accompaniments and play along on their pianos. After 6+ hours of attempting to set up the devices and connect them to my other studio devices, signing up for trial versions of music streaming services that assured me I could play my mp3 files through them, scouring forums for troubleshooting help, and chatting with multiple tech support agents, I finally gave up. Turns out it’s either impossible or at least way too complicated to just play mp3s from one of my current devices to multiple Amazon echo speakers around the room. The devices got packed back up and are enjoying new scenery in the home of the nice man from Facebook marketplace.
And I am the happy owner of two new HomePod minis instead.
I don’t intend to be an Apple groupie, but the fiasco that cost me a day of frustration and head-banging with the Echo devices was resolved in less than an hour with these fabulous little HomePod minis.
I have them strategically placed around the studio (see the little arrows pointing to the devices in the photo?) and can effortlessly play any audio file via AirPlay from my laptop or my phone. And it’s super simple to toggle back and forth between my device speaker or one or both of the HomePods. Very excited to have this great technological addition to the studio!
Stay tuned for the next edition of New-in-the-Studio-this-Fall later this week!
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