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NAMM 2024


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Blue Cat Audio is one of my favorite underrated companies that makes all kinds of cool plugins and programs. Among other offerings, they showed the Spinal Vibe rotating speaker plugin. This is not just another Leslie* ho-hum imitation (yawn). It deconstructs the elements that make up a rotating speaker system, so you can basically put your own - uh - spin on what a rotating speaker should sound like. Too bad this isn't a video, the rotating driver is way cool.

 

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Blue Cat also introduced Fader Hub, which allows for interaction between players using different systems. It even works over the internet, with a delay between 10 - 20 ms up to about 1,000 kilometers/620 miles. 

 

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Okay, that's enough for a Saturday afternoon...but I'll be back with more synthesizers, keyboards, MIDI guitar, cool people, pictures of the TEC Awards...and a really cool new keyboard action. Stay tuned!

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Thanks for the virtual tour through NAMM, Craig! :thu: 

 

I'm a fan of Blue Cat Audio too. PatchWork is the most the most useful of their products for me. I use it regularly to host AU/VST plugins in Pro Tools, and I fire it up when I want to quickly authorize plugins. It's also a great way to save effects chains or patches that use a combo of virtual instruments.

 

Blue Cat's free plugins are very good as well.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

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My Blue Someday appears on Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon

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1 hour ago, Geoff Grace said:

Thanks for the virtual tour through NAMM, Craig! :thu: 

 

More to come! I like Patchwork a lot, but my favorite is Acoufiend. For hosting/wrapping plugins, Waves' StudioRack is another program along the lines of Patchwork. However, each one does things the other doesn't, so it's worth checking out both. 

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2 hours ago, Anderton said:

 

More to come! I like Patchwork a lot, but my favorite is Acoufiend. For hosting/wrapping plugins, Waves' StudioRack is another program along the lines of Patchwork. However, each one does things the other doesn't, so it's worth checking out both. 

 

If I were a guitar player, I imagine I'd get a lot of use out of Acoufiend. It looks like a lot of fun!

 

Thanks for the StudioRack recommendation, Craig. I have both PatchWork and StudioRack. While I'm more in the habit of using PatchWork, I agree that StudioRack has a lot to offer, especially since Waves added support for third-party plugins, and also because it's free. StudioRack's StudioVerse plugin chains can come in handy as well.

 

Best,

 

Geoff 

My Blue Someday appears on Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon

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Here's one of the more unusual sound generators: Folrtek's Resonant Garden. Touching buttons, sliding along the "antenna, and playing with the patchable options creates tactile-triggered, environmental sounds. I played it and would have stayed longer, but it was putting me into a trance and I didn't want to miss the show :)

 

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When you hear people talking about different circuits coloring the sound differently, I don't think they had Polinata's speakers with animated color designs (sorry this isn't a video). Or, maybe they did...

 

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AI vocal synthesis was represented by a couple of booths. Did they sound like real people? No. Were they good enough for demos if you can't sing? Yes. Are they good enough for sending a vocal line to somebody who actually can sing? Yes. Am I going to pay a monthly subscription for something I might use a couple times a year? No.

 

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Okay, I have to run off and do my weekly video. I'll be back with more pix, including some fun guitars and a sneak preview of the best keyboard action I've seen yet. 

 

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Sometimes I appreciate the little things, like sprays to keep your voice going on long gigs or when you have a cold...good for people who do presentations and demos, too. Another stand had everything you'd want to keep your guitar in good shape.

 

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If there had been a Hall E, Wizzax.com would have been there: niche product, new company, put a lot of work into their offering, and wanted the world to see it. It's designed for singing guitarists to replace using headset mics, so you can use real mics and real mic technique (like getting closer in softer parts, or further away when you're screaming). Will it succeed? Stay tuned.

 

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MIDI 2.0 finally made a splash, and it was a good one. The booth was pretty much always packed. One of the sections getting the most interest was this wall describing MIDI 2.0 products available today, but even that was a partial listing because other companies like Waldorf and Korg announced MDI 2.0 products at the show.

 

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Torrey Walker from Apple presented an overview of Core MIDI. There was Windows news, too: Windows MIDI Service are underway and almost complete, companies are already developing Windows software, and Windows now does multi-client operation.

 

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One of the technologies that impressed me the most was in the "small but mighty" fold. Mike Kent showed a keyboard action that basically makes all other velocity-sensing options look soooo 20th century. Instead of just two or three places that measure velocity and the time it takes to go between them, this keyboard action responds to the full range of key travel and velocity. For example, you can hit a key really hard to trigger an initial transient without having to slam it from full on to full off. A really good example is Hammond organs. You don't have to hit them hard to get full volume, so you can slide your hand across the keyboard easily. Conventional velocity sensing can't do that. Of course, the expressive possibilities are way beyond what we've had so far.

 

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Mike Kent of Amenote doesn't just make keyboard actions, he's a driving force behind many aspects of MIDI 2.0 and frequents these forums as Synmike.

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The Jamstik has come a long way from when it was a shrunk-down guitar for educational purposes where people said "Hey, did you know this works as a MIDI guitar?" Their latest MIDI guitars have moved up another notch in terms of guitar feel and action, as well as choices of finishes. The reason why I'm using their Studio MIDI Guitar these days is because it's a guitar with MIDI, not a MIDI device that does guitar.

 

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The software is cool too, and the guitar speaks MPE.

 

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They also showed a controller that's not out yet. Although it's designed for foot control of their guitars and software, it's also a general purpose MIDI controller. It seems like something people might want to add to something like an HX Stomp.

 

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Skunk Baxter and Public Enemy's Brian Hardgroove (also my bandmate in EV2) gave a presentation on the state of the music industry. There were a lot of presentations, workshops, and seminars at NAMM - it seemed like more than usual.

 

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The North Hall had all things pro audio, as well as some of my favorite software companies.

 

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Had a very impressive demo on Auto Align from Sound Radix. It nukes phase problems automatically.

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You can never have enough TR-808s, especially if they've been updated for the 21st century.

 

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Ray Williams from IMSTA, film composer Alan Howarth, and Stefan Lindlahr from Melodyne.

 

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Da Vinci Resolve was well-represented at the show. I spent enough time getting a demo that I'm seriously thinking about switching from Vegas...I'll at least download the free version and try it out.

 

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