What is Magic Fiddle, you might ask? It’s pure, unadulterated musical awesome. It turns your iPad into a string instrument — with a twist. The $2.99 app was just released in the App Store (), but we got to spend some time speaking with Smule co-founder, CTO and Chief Creative Officer Ge Wang earlier this week about the app and how it works.

Describing Magic Fiddle doesn’t make a lot of sense until you see it in action. Smule created some demonstration videos showing off the app, and the fiddle, in action. Check out this example, which comes just in time for a certain plumber’s birthday:

You play Magic Fiddle the same way you would play a stringed instrument like a violin or a fiddle. You place the device on your shoulder and then use your fingers to pluck the strings and your other hand acts as the bow. If you have ever played a string instrument before, catching on to the process is very easy. My fiancé was able to pick up Magic Fiddle in just a few minutes.

I don’t have any previous experience with string instruments (I took piano lessons and never got that violin I always wanted), but thanks to the “Storybook” guiding mode, I too was able to pick up on the instrument’s nuances and learned proper finger position.

The app really goes out of its way to anthropomorphize itself. When you first pick it up, this is how the app greets you:

You tell the app your name and you can even name your fiddle. I named mine HAL.

When we spoke to Wang about the app, he pointed these features out, emphasizing the importance of making the app easy to pick up and making it feel whimsical and fun. The idea is also for the app to be easy to get a feel for — whether you are already an expert at games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, you have previous experience with a stringed instrument, or you just love music and want to play.

In addition to his work at Smule, Wang is also an assistant professor at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford. This is important, because just like the backends of apps like Ocarina, Glee Karaoke and I Am T-Pain were developed using some of the technology research pioneered at CCRMA, Magic Fiddle also gets some of its technological footing from the university.

In particular, Wang pointed out to us that Magic Fiddle isn’t just playing pre-recorded notes. The device itself is actually creating music. Using physical modelings developed at Stanford, the iPad itself has been programmed, by way of the app, to be able to generate and create unique sounds. These sounds aren’t 100% accurate to a real fiddle or violin, but they follow the same models. The results are that you are able to do freestyles and solos that have a lot more personality and zing, rather than merely just trying to match certain notes.

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Making Music Fun

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Ultimately, what comes through with Magic Fiddle, as with all of Smule’s other apps, is just how much fun it can be to create music. Beyond that, however, Magic Fiddle is a testament to just how much can be accomplished on electronic devices like the iPhone or iPad.

Two years ago — almost to the day — Ocarina was released for the iPhone. It was one of the first true “breakthrough” iPhone apps in that it showed that you could do something with an iPhone that most people probably never even expected to see: Play music based on blowing into the microphone. It helped kickstart a flurry of innovation in music-based apps and games that continues today.

With Magic Fiddle, we think Smule is doing the same thing for the iPad. Magic Piano remains one of the iPad’s most fun games, but Magic Fiddle, like Ocarina, really breaks the mold of what is possible and what is expected from the tablet device. Using multitouch for the strings and the bow — plus using Smule’s Global feature of connecting players with one another around the world, the game and app have tons of replay value and really makes the idea of making music on an electronic device feel natural. It’s also a ton of fun.

Magic Fiddle comes with a Songbook bundled with 20 songs that you can play along with and learn. Smule will also sell song add-on packs, with more songs added as time goes on, to even further enhance the app.

The new game Def Jam Rapstar from Konami and 4mm Games isn’t just a hip hop karaoke game or a challenging performance simulator like Rock Band 3. It’s a social media platform for building connections, promoting yourself, speaking your mind and maybe (just maybe) becoming an actual rap star.

We were given a behind-close-doors tour of the game by representatives from Konami, 4mm Games and Def Jam Enterprises, and we learned most of the details about the core music game play and the social media “metagame” that’s attached.

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The Music Game

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The game itself is similar to other karaoke games; you pick up a microphone and rap along with the track you’ve selected, and the game grades you on lyrical accuracy, timing and other musical factors.

Songs are presented with their music videos, profanity-free, though you’re free to use the harsh language from the original recordings if you want — it won’t affect your score.

You can even play in Duet mode, bringing your friends in to perform different parts in a song with multiple performers. Konami will offer new songs for download weekly, starting on day one.

There are several other modes, but the most unique and exciting is the Freestyle mode. We’ll talk about that alongside the game’s social media features.

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The Ambitious Social Features

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The social features of the game are tied primarily to the Freestyle mode, which you can use to rap on top of original beats and samples provided by Konami. As you lay down your audio track, the game uses your game console’s camera (the PlayStation Eye, the Xbox Live Vision Camera, and probably Microsoft Kinect) to record your performance on video.

You can edit the video afterwards, throwing in special effects and graphics, then post it to Def Jam Rapstar’s online community.

Links to videos and other updates are sharable on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, but it’s not just about socializing. A whole game is built around a system of rap “battles” between users who upload video challenges to one another. Winners of battles (and MCs who accomplish other objectives) gain badges similar to the Xbox 360’s achievements.

All the profiles, news feeds and videos from Rapstar’s community are viewable by anyone on the web whether they have a game console or a copy of the game or not.

You can join crews, find followers and fans, or even strike up rivalries — either by challenging someone to battles frequently, or by getting kicked out of your crew. That last one will make you a rival to everyone in the old crew.

There are even roles for people who don’t rap. Promoters have their own metagame; they gain badges for using social media to spread the word about their favorite artists.

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Becoming a Real Rap Star

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Konami, 4mm and Def Jam Enterprises see the game as a breeding ground for new talent, and they’ve designed the Freestyle mode and the online tools with artists’ self-promotion and expression in mind.

They’ll cherry pick the finest talent — rappers who stir up vast armies of fans with superior lyricism, timing and pitch — and put them in professional production studios to create featured content for the network.

That would seem to fit with the hip hop ethos of coming from nowhere to conquer the whole world.

The game will launch on the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 with at least 40 songs and videos from artists like Dr. Dre, 2 Pac, 50 Cent, Ice Cube and more this October 5 in North America and November 2 in Europe.