NAMM 2005 ShOW NEWS

[DJDM]

Thank you for the suggestion Duddits and Red Winger but my needs for this keyboard are pretty specific. I need it to be really portable (25 keys is about right to fit in a travel bag of some sort) and it needs to have a built in soundcard. Basically its only for travel composition work. Work that comes up in a pinch that I have to do it when I'm not near my studio and I have left the full sized gear at home.

 

To that end I'm down to the Edirol PCR1 and the upcoming Alesis Photon X25.

 

The Korg along with a lot of other gear (including the Edirol and the Alesis units in question) have entirely new hardware integration specs with Reason 3.0. There is a full list of the type of control you'll have and the serviced gear here: Reason Remote Page

Thanks!

[KenElevenShadows]

I think a lot of people are going to want to know about new plug-ins, interfaces, and music software. And since I didn't see much of that during my one day at NAMM, I can't report on that...

 

Earthworks Drum Kit system (mics): It uses 3 Earthworks mics. I listened to a Demo CD comparing theirthree mics on a drum set to seven mics (421s, AKG300B, SM57, and some others) using traditional micing techniques on a drum set. The Earthworks mics sounded very nice, with more of a sense of presence and more of the tone of the drums. Seems like it might be worth checking out.

http://www.earthworksaudio.com

 

DTS One-Touch Drum Tuning System: I was very impressed with this. This allows you to tune drums just by adjusting one screw. It appears to have equal tension all the way around, and has a small unobtrusive "cable" that goes around the perimeter of the drum - two if you put one on the lower drum head. You no longer have eto adjust individual tension rods. Just the time saved alone would seem to be worth it. You could also tune the drums quickly for each song or quickly replicate a drum tuning that you had on a previous recording.

http://www.drumtech.com

 

Mellotron MkVI: Wowweeee, a real Mellotron with real tapes. It was cool to watch this thing and play it. Lighter and supposedly with a much more reliable tape transport mechanism and a more stable motor. I have no idea how much this thing costs, but it was really cool!

http://www.mellotron.com

 

Roland V-Synth: I don't have any literature on this, but saw BT playing one in Roland's Showcase Theatre. It processes from PCM samples, analog, or from external sources, and has a touchpad that allows for easy manipulation of various parameters, including filter, and has a Hold Button. We heard BT playing his own remix of a Doors song, and it certainly seemed quite versatile, although the remix was not really my thing (I enjoy electronic music, but the remix didn't do it for me).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was downstairs because I looooove seeing new and sometimes bizarre sorts of stuff.

 

TogaMan GuitarViol: Wow! This sounds really good! It's a specially designed guitar, using standard tuning and a fretted fingerboard, but has special pick-ups and a raised bridge that allows you to play with a violin bow. It sounded a lot like an electric violin. They're not cheap, though, as some of the models were somewhere between $3000-3500. A white model hanging nearby apparently had already been purchased by Joe Satriani. Seems very cool.

http://www.bowedguitar.com

http://bowedguitar.tripod.com/jonathanpromo.jpg

 

Williams Keytar: Never seen anything like this before...this reminded me of a superduper autoharp. It is made of aluminum and only weighs 7 pounds, has 12 strings and has a 12-note full-size keyboard in the middle. You strum the 12 strings with one hand while pressing the notes of the keyboard with the other, and voila, instant sound. It was very easy to play. You can also press the keyboard notes by themselves and can play leads or do pitch bends or tremolos in this manner. I think they listed for $995, with a street price of about $795.

http://www.keytarinc.com

 

http://www.keytarinc.com/stock/r1-use2.gif

 

The Original Musser Ring from Peaceland Music: You wear rings on your fingers that allow you to play slide with individual fingers but are also able to switch back to playing the guitar with your fingers. The individual rings also allow you to play chords and slide them, or slide up and down simultaneously...I found it difficult to achieve a balance and make it work, but I'm assuming that it takes practice?

http://www.musserring.com

 

The Continuum Fingerboard: surface that allows you to play notes or glissandos, vibratos, and various other expressions and transmit this through MIDI or Firewire.

http://www.HakenAudio.com

 

Keyboard roll-up: I don't know who makes this because I didn't get any literature, but it looks like a keyboard placemat. It simply rolls up and that's it. The notes didn't fire very well, and the sound was extremely distorted, but then again, the box showed a picture of an Asian family laughing and smiling as they were playing their keyboard roll-up at a picnic, so I doubt they consider it a serious musical instrument.

 

Banjo-Tam - five string banjo tam for $129? Yes, it's a banjo AND a tambourine made of birch. Banjos always sounded to me like a snare with strings anyway, and now someone has combined the two.

http://www.banjo-tam.com

 

StudioPanels: Comes in 3 pre-calculated kits with differrent colors and a calibration and setup CD. Their SpringTrap (bass trap) absorbs frequencies from 100Hz down to 40Hz, according to their literature, and is meant to be placed in the corner. They have various other absorption panels that are either part of the kit or can be purchased individually. I have no idea how good this is, but certainly would seem to warrant a look.

http://www.studio-panel.com

 

ADAM Monitors: Damn, these things sound good!!! Even though the P11As were placed fairly close in proximity and I had to bend down to hear them and the floor was really noisy, I could very easily detect its imaging, being able to easily place where things were in a stereo mix. And it just sounds awesome.

http://www.adam-audio.de/studio/studio_start.htm

[Saint Johnny B]

Thanks Ken...that was cool stuff you saw an heard...

 

Thanks to everyone else who posted too.

[HiRoller]

Originally posted by zeronyne:

The funniest product is right by the escalator. It's a hand tooled leather holster and belt...for a mic.

Yeah, thats the new Phil Spector model. Sorry.

[OctaveDr]

this was the highlight for me...

http://www.banjo-tam.com/

[OctaveDr]

Mellotron MkVI: Wowweeee

where was that at???!

[Saint Johnny B]

Do we have more posts?

[KenElevenShadows]

Originally posted by OctaveDr:

Mellotron MkVI: Wowweeee

where was that at???!

It was on Hall A (possibly B, but I think Hall A) next to the Vermona effects processors.

 

And by the way, the Vermona RetroVerb is a wonderful treat. You can hear this at Big City in Universal City on Cahuenga (Los Angeles). I didn't play around with it at NAMM because my friend owns one, but it is insanely cool, especially for real-time manipulation.

[KenElevenShadows]

Originally posted by Johnny B:

Thanks Ken...that was cool stuff you saw an heard...

You're very welcome. I ended up wimping out today and went to the beach instead, or I probably would have dug up more fun stuff!

 

I never got to hear the Dave Smith PolyEvolver, but it's probably just as well because if I heard it, I'd probably want to buy it, and I really need to focus in on saving up for monitors.

[Gus Lozada]

My fave takes...

 

* SynFul

Craig pointed me to go and check that piece of software. Amazing technology for making great tracks. No programming for the end user, the program detects your MIDI performance and plays accordingly.

 

* Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs

Simply put, the best I have seen. Awesome, gorgeous, fully detailed sampling. I want it. Now.

 

* ALESIS Fusion

IMHO, the best WorkStation this year. Not that I was really into seeing yet another workstation... but this offers a lot for the right price.

 

* Polyevolver de Dave Smith Instruments

Simply put, a real musical instrument, for synth lovers. Dave Smith in person together with Dave Bryce were kind enough on letting me know about the synth and play it.

 

* Hartmann NEURON y NEURON VST

My fave for three consecutive years now has a VST version. Awesome, so 2005 technology.

 

* Black Box de M-Audio

Well... it was fun to learn about this product and play with it. Cool FX in a little powerful box which happens to be an USB audio interface.

[Middle Man]

I concur on the blackbox. That is a really great way to peice together some tracks quickly. The downside, it does not port out the midi events so you can't dump your drums or bass to a sequencer. The guy at M-Audio I spoke with mentioned a workaround that could be done if you had a freeware editor and wrote your own dump procedures. Not exactly sure how that would be done.

[Saint Johnny B]

Thanks, do we have more?

[g8bassplayer]

I enjoyed playing with the Mackie dXb mixer. The touch-sensitive screen was pretty easy to figure out, and it made the software manipulation very easy. The touch screen interface had a lot more functionality than I thought it would have.

 

The BLUE Dodgeball mic was kinda cool.

 

Agree that the Lynx Studios Aurora's are very interesting. There was an asia company very close to them (across the row) with a very nice audio interface product similar to the Aurora's, but no idea how good or bad the converters are. I'm certain that the Lynx product will be excellent when released (3 more weeks).

 

After looking at everything at the show, I think I'm gonna go entirely mixerless (getting rid of my DA7) replacing it with an RME Fireface800 audio interface, Tascam US2400 control surface, and Mackie Big Knob for monitor management (going into PC Nuendo 3 -- 24bit/96kHz). The more I think about it, the better I like components instead of the typical mixer-has-everything approach.

[g8bassplayer]

Just one other thing, the new keyboard stands that are kinda "V" shaped -- I saw them at the Roland booth and at other booths with Roland products on 'em -- were a lot stronger than I thought they might be (just wish I remembered the manufacturers name). They had a Mackie mixer on one, and even though in pictures they look like a 'walker' for an aging rock star, in person, I thought they were kinda cool -- would like one in my studio for my 24 track analogue mixer, or maybe a Tascam US2400.

[zeronyne]

Those stands are manufactured by Ultimate.

 

Electrix is back with a full product line, but it was almost impossible to find them. There were in a dressing room off of the stadium. And they had absolutely no ornamentation in their "room".

 

But their products look and sound very cool yet again.

 

I was also really impressed by the summing mixer by Dangerous. In fact their whole system solution was very slick. They had a decoupling matrix thing that was like magic.

[Dan South]

Originally posted by Gus Lozada:

My fave takes...

 

* SynFul

Craig pointed me to go and check that piece of software. Amazing technology for making great tracks. No programming for the end user, the program detects your MIDI performance and plays accordingly.

 

* Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs

Simply put, the best I have seen. Awesome, gorgeous, fully detailed sampling. I want it. Now.

 

* ALESIS Fusion

IMHO, the best WorkStation this year. Not that I was really into seeing yet another workstation... but this offers a lot for the right price.

 

* Polyevolver de Dave Smith Instruments

Simply put, a real musical instrument, for synth lovers. Dave Smith in person together with Dave Bryce were kind enough on letting me know about the synth and play it.

 

* Hartmann NEURON y NEURON VST

My fave for three consecutive years now has a VST version. Awesome, so 2005 technology.

 

* Black Box de M-Audio

Well... it was fun to learn about this product and play with it. Cool FX in a little powerful box which happens to be an USB audio interface.

Gus,

 

Thanks much! SynFul and the Hartmann VS are groundbreaking products!

[Saint Johnny B]

Is there more?...there's always more...

[Alndln]

Originally posted by Gus Lozada:

* Hartmann NEURON y NEURON VST

My fave for three consecutive years now has a VST version. Awesome, so 2005 technology.

 

Although I haven't heard the hardware or VSTi in person,from the audio examples posted by users Iv'e heard I have to say I'm dissapointed in regards to what I'm hearing sonically which is nothing new to my ears.Of coarse the price makes this thing a target,wer'e expecting this thing to posses unheard of sounds which I'm not hearing from examples yet.I know from reading from users that no other synth can mangle/combine sounds like the Hartmann/Neuron,but so far the end results that I'm hearing kind of nullify those features(I can easily combine VSTi's in Sonar and mangle things in Kontakt as well easily enough).Don't get me wrong,I want something new to come out and floor me "sonically" with revolutionary featurs,but at this price I'm expecting to hear something and I'm not yet,in fact to my ears,Virsyn Cube and Terra and even Rhino sound sonically superior or at least "newer".This is one time I want to be proven wrong.

[Gulliver]

Originally posted by Johnny B:

Anyone got links or stories from the NAMM show floor?

Check 'em out:

 

http://www.sonicstate.com/news/videos.cfm#

[Alndln]

I'm surprised Waves new Q-Clone EQ wasn't mentioned www.waves.com/content.asp?id=1583 Which appears to be somewhat of a convolution type plug for capturing your hardware EQ settings,then allowing you to use that as a plugin.What sets this apart from a mere excersise in convolution is the fact that it also captures the phase as well,not just the static curve and the included presets(GM/Pultec/Neve)are quite impressive sounding(the demo is availible now).Downside? Price for one(around $800.00),copy protection(PACE)(I'm testing it on my net/whore PC )and although you can combine multiple prestets(curves),it seems a long way to go to tweak something.If only the GUI let you tweak the curve from there.Hopefully,my hold out for a Voxengo version won't be in vain(Curve EQ/Pristene Space ain't the same).

[Saint Johnny B]

More posts?

[deanmass]

The Fusion looks cool as long as it is not 8K and runs on Linux.

 

 

I kind of expected a FLOOD of cheaper usb/MIDI controllers. I have been looking around for an Akai MPD-16, and they are rare as heck, adn NO ONE seems to make a similar thing. Did I miss something? The new little Korg controller was very nice looking, but other than that, I have not noticed anything else in that realm.

[deanmass]

Answered my own Q on Fusion...$1699 and $1999 respectively.

[Anderton]

Wizoo was showing a convolution reverb in the Hilton as a preview...it sounded really, really, really good (and this from someone who's not that much into digital reverbs). Apparently it's a mixture of technologies, not straight convolution although that's a big element.

 

Creamware had a complete restoration package including soundcard for a lot less than the usual options.

 

Arturia gave me a preview of "Something I Can't Talk About But I Will Be Able toAfter Frankfurt." Wish I could talk about it...

 

Ableton's "Operator" instrument for Live. Fun FM stuff and more. Easy to use.

 

Native Instruments Kontakt 2 really rocks, it's a lot more deep than K1.

 

String libraries from Garritan and MOTU, but yeah, Synful appears to be the one to beat.

 

Second the motion on East West RA. Great stuff!!

 

Networking update to Muse Receptor...not spectacular, but useful.

 

64-bit Sonar!!! May not seem important now, but it will be. The new version of Project5 is a big step forward; seems like Live won't be so lonely with respect to being designed for live performance.

 

MOTU showed something privately I can't talk about. But I will when I can.

 

Samplitude 8 has a Melodyne-type function built in. They've also cleaned up the interface, made it more obvious instead of German Rocket Scientist.

 

Alto Orient Express is very economical solution for small groups doing live performance: Speakers, amp, subwoofer, stands, etc. all go into a package that looks like an oversize Miele vacuum cleaner.

 

I'll post more as I continue to debrief...the picks so far are spot on, there was some good stuff at the show.

 

One other thing: It was PACKED. Don't know the final attendance figures but it seemed like the busiest show ever.

[Philip OKeefe]

Craig, when I was getting my badge, they told me they had 70K pre-registered, and were expecting tens of thousands more.

[BOOKUMDANO]

I picked my badge up at 8AM Thursday. I think there were about four of us in line. Walked in to hall A at 10 and when I left about one or two o'clock, the line of people was stretching all the way west to the back of the convention center. I figure most of those folks didn't even get in until close to closing.

 

I happened across the wayout Arp2600 guys..wayout...at the end of the arena. I felt bad they were stuck out there in nowheresville, but it was cool that they had a real 2600 next to their virtual Arp.

[Robman2]

Way too busy to go and get online.

 

Took this much time to start a review process.

 

Did not walk floor for the first time ever.

 

Bragging here...Hosa has Three Polar Pattern, switchable intermediate satge, tube mic, case, sock, holder, power etc for $540 and $520 depending on color. Plus, it sounds great.

 

Ibanez has a coffee table book on the history, Ibanez Guitars, The Untold Stroy...

 

I ordered one from West L. A. Music yesterday because I couldn't get away from the booth to buy one from the Ibanez guys.

 

Tons of boutique Guitar amps...yikes.

 

Did anyone see Ted Rackley at Pinn-berg-aha, or is that Yamahicle, Yamberg...what ever it shall be or is

 

I saw Greg Ono but not Ted.

 

R

[Anderton]

This just in:

 

78,091 registrants (5% increase over last year)

Of that, 8,416 international registrants from 91 countries -- up 10% (hey, the weak dollar is good for something!)

1,428 exhibitors

 

Records broken in all categories.

[BP3]

Originally posted by Anderton:

Records broken in all categories.

Must have been due to Amber. Thanks Jeff.

[Philter]

Synful has a fully functional demo on their site.

 

I tried it about 2 weeks ago. The user demo MP3's on their site were so good that I had to fool with it myself.

 

My experience with the demo was a let-down. I will let other people make up their own minds about it. In my experience it was fidelity-challenged and it would take a great deal of programming work to achieve the kind of expression featured in the demos, which was the whole thing that it was advertised to avoid.

 

Again, please try the demo for yourself. It's a free download and maybe other users could tell me that I'm nuts. The demo MP3's sounded awesome and I really wanted it to work. To my ears it really did not sound that good and seemed like it would take a huge amount of tweaking to make useable.