Being in Anaheim, California in January if you're a musician, audio engineer or gear enthusiast frequently means finding yourself at the Winter NAMM Show. More than a few MPN members - myself included - attend the show on a regular basis, others do so whenever they can.
The week of NAMM is currently upon us...so we've opened up a temporary forum (which we'll archive after the show) for those who are at the show to share their experiences.
So...if you're there, tell us - what did you see? What did you think? How did it sound? Who did you run into?
Ok, just got back to my hotel from the hang and it's early in the morning but here are a few rememberings.Got to meet Dr. Mike at the Moog Foundation booth. What a pleasure that was. Talked to brother Matt from Rosewell Pro Audio at legnth. Wasn't able to do that at AES a few months ago. Always great hanging out with the Cloud Microphone people. The Casio booth was very large and well staffed. Lots of modular synth stuff from companies I am not familiar with. Rooms full of acoustic pianos. Who is buying them? Roland booth seemed focused on V Drums. Talked at length with Elvio Privatti. He seems very excited about the future of the Viscount product line. Played the Arp 2600 at the Korg booth. I won't be buying one, not something I need or want. YMMV. I played the Korg SV2 with speakers, impossible to tell at a NAMM show if it could work for you on stage, but I liked it overall.
"Fuck your mics, fuck your outboard gear, fuck your DAW, fuck your interface, fuck your software, and absolutely and completely fuck every single one of your instruments including that vintage keyboard you saved for a year to get -- they are all worse than useless if you can't accurately hear what they're doing. Your ears will lie to you without mercy if they are fed bad information. Spend the damn money!" Dr. Mike Metlay on Studio Reference Monitors
Day 2. Spent the morning with Mark and the afternoon with Joe. Joey D killing it at the Viscount booth. I am not feelng what JA feels about the new Wavestation from Korg. Wont be buying it. Spent some time with the DSI Pro 3. IMO very good bang for the buck, were I in need of a new synth this would be my #1 choice. The Casio Celvanio Grand Hybrid 2nd generation is dope. Stood next to Mike Martin yesterday watching Rachael Flowers playing it and was blown away by how good it sounded, Got to play one today and really liked it, despite my poor playing.
"Fuck your mics, fuck your outboard gear, fuck your DAW, fuck your interface, fuck your software, and absolutely and completely fuck every single one of your instruments including that vintage keyboard you saved for a year to get -- they are all worse than useless if you can't accurately hear what they're doing. Your ears will lie to you without mercy if they are fed bad information. Spend the damn money!" Dr. Mike Metlay on Studio Reference Monitors
I had such a great time I'm only today getting back to posting on MPN. No, really, it had NOTHING to do with NAMMthrax, I swear.
I got out of the show exactly what I had set out to do, which was too meet and hang out with as many of you guys as I could. I'm still smiling about the great time I had.
Gear? Yeah, I saw a few things, I guess.
The great thing about music is that there's always something to learn. The frustrating thing about music is that there's always something to learn!
A few pics (courtesy of brother davedoerfler) from the Keyboard Corner NAMM dinner.
dB
Yup, I got everyone in those photos except for me.
"Fuck your mics, fuck your outboard gear, fuck your DAW, fuck your interface, fuck your software, and absolutely and completely fuck every single one of your instruments including that vintage keyboard you saved for a year to get -- they are all worse than useless if you can't accurately hear what they're doing. Your ears will lie to you without mercy if they are fed bad information. Spend the damn money!" Dr. Mike Metlay on Studio Reference Monitors
right to left, Dr. Mike, Craig Anderton (listening intently to dB sitting across the table from him), Tom Brislin, Mike Martin
team Casio enjoying cocktails after a successfull first day at NAMM
lastly, courtesy of Ken Lee, the three Daves nursers (Dave Hollowell), davedoerfler, and OB Dave
"Fuck your mics, fuck your outboard gear, fuck your DAW, fuck your interface, fuck your software, and absolutely and completely fuck every single one of your instruments including that vintage keyboard you saved for a year to get -- they are all worse than useless if you can't accurately hear what they're doing. Your ears will lie to you without mercy if they are fed bad information. Spend the damn money!" Dr. Mike Metlay on Studio Reference Monitors