The EM Poll

2007 Winter NAMM Report
The Show of Shows

Feb 20, 2007 2:18 PM, By the EM Staff

           

From January 18 to 21, 2007, the city of Anaheim opened its doors to the wild and crazy musicians, gear manufacturers, software developers, music-store buyers, media, and assorted flotsam and jetsam that make up the exhibitors and attendees of the Winter NAMM Show. NAMM is the largest trade show in Orange County, California, and it's the most important show EM attends each year. For us, this is the Show of Shows.

Although we discovered no major new trends or revolutionary developments, we saw plenty of continuing development in interesting directions. USB and FireWire ports are becoming ubiquitous; it seems like almost every new hardware product that could be used with a computer has one or the other. Not coincidentally, an ever-increasing number of hardware products can be controlled—in some cases must be controlled—using a software plug-in. The long-term trend toward native processing for plug-ins continues, as does the move toward sound libraries becoming soft instruments with the addition of a sample player.

Trends aside, we saw a whole lot of very cool stuff. We covered this year's NAMM show in greater depth than ever before, producing daily Podcasts and working cooperatively with our colleagues at Mix and Remix magazine to produce videos and a show blog . But even with all that on-the-spot coverage, we saw so many cool products that we're still overflowing with information, and we just gotta share it with you because we're that kind of folks. So here goes....

The Gear

ADK launched two new microphones. The A-6 ($250) is a handmade Class A condenser mic with upgraded electronics from ADK's Vienna and Hamburg models. It has a transformer output and is recommended for recording vocals or any acoustic instrument. Based on the same electronics, the S-7 ($300) is a transformerless model with a balanced output stage. It has abundant headroom and is suitable for high-SPL applications. A 2-way pad lets you tailor its dynamic response, and a 2-way highpass filter lets you tailor its bass response. Pricing and availability haven't been announced.

At the Alesis booth, there was plenty of buzz about Master Control ($799 MAP), a combination FireWire control surface/audio interface/digital mixer that offers motorized faders, assignable knobs and buttons, transport controls, MIDI I/O, support for 192 kHz sampling rates, S/PDIF and Lightpipe digital inputs; talkback and cue features, and more. Alesis expects the Master Control to ship in June.

The big news at A.R.T. was the TubeFire 8 ($649), an 8-channel FireWire interface that will sport eight XLR-1/4-inch combo inputs, balanced 1/4-inch TRS outputs, and the same Class A tube preamps that are in A.R.T.'s MPA Gold preamp. A headphone/speaker output will also be included. The TubeFire 8 is due to ship in May.

Arturia announced its first foray into hardware with Origin ($2,999), slated for release next September. Origin is modular in design, featuring hardware versions of modules from Arturia's popular line of software emulations of classic synths such as the Moog Modular, ARP 2600, Prophet 5 and VS, and CS 80V. Two TigerSHARC DSP processors from Analog Devices give Origin sufficient computing power to handle Arturia's True Analog Emulation (TAE) modeling technology while layering as many as four discrete patches with 32-note polyphony each. With accompanying software, you can even use Origin as an AU or VST (Mac/Win) plug-in. Arturia also announced the next software synth in its line of classic emulations. The Jupiter-8V ($249), due for release in June, re-creates the Roland Jupiter-8 of the early 1980s. Loaded with more than 400 presets, the Jupiter-8V incorporates a bevy of effects along with beefed up modulation options not found on the original. Like all Arturia soft synths, the Jupiter-8V runs standalone or as a plug-in under Mac OS X and Windows.

Avant Electronics showed the Powered MixCubes ($349/pr), an active version of the company's miniature reference monitors. Single units of the Powered MixCube ($199 each) are available for surround-monitoring systems. The Avantone CK-40 is a transformerless stereo FET mic ($499) with 1.25-inch diaphragms, Class A electronics, three patterns for each capsule (cardioid, figure-8, and omni), a -10 dB pad, and an 80 Hz rolloff switch. The Avantone CU-2 USB mic ($199) is cardioid only and has a 1.25-inch diaphragm, a -10 dB pad, and an 80 Hz rolloff. The mics are due in June and will ship with a shockmount and a wooden case.

Blue Microphones unveiled the Woodpecker ($1,299), an active ribbon mic with Class A discrete electronics and an aluminum, pressure-gradient ribbon transducer. The mic requires +48V phantom power, has a frequency response of 20 Hz to 20 kHz and a dynamic range of 114 dB, and can handle up to 136 dB SPL. In addition, Blue announced that all of its Ball microphones are now available at a minimum advertised price (MAP) of $99.

Boss presented the fruits of its new collaboration with Fender: two new stompboxes that emulate vintage Fender amplifiers. The FDR-1 packs the punch of a '65 Deluxe Reverb into an effects pedal that has the same controls as the legendary guitar amp. The FBM-1 delivers the tone and controls of a '59 Fender Bassman amp, a classic as popular with guitarists as with bass players. Both pedals furnish an additional gain control for use onstage or in the studio. They're the first of the new Legend Series pedals, a line of products based on acclaimed gear of the past. Each is expected to ship in March and retail for $235.50 ($149 street).

Clavia DMI introduced the Nord C3, a bright-red dual-manual combo organ that models three of the most influential keyboards ever played: the Hammond B-3, Vox Continental, and Farfisa Compact Deluxe. By modeling the dynamic characteristics of tonewheels and transistors, the 33-pound Nord C3 faithfully re-creates the experience of playing the original vintage instruments, while improving on their ease of use and ability to precisely recall sounds. Features include 122 waterfall keys, rotary-speaker simulation, an 11-pin Leslie connector, separate tonewheel and transistor organ outputs, and 20 digital drawbars with LED segments to indicate position. The C3 is slated to ship to the U.S. in April and retail for $3,600.

Digidesign unveiled a new RTAS sampler called Structure. Developed by Digi's Advanced Instrument Research Group (the folks who brought you Hybrid, Xpand, and Strike), Structure features include playback from RAM or through disk streaming; up to 24-bit, 192 kHz audio; and support for SampleCell, Kontakt 2, and EXS24 samples. Digidesign also announced a collaboration with EastWest to provide content for Structure. No specific date was given for Structure's release, but it will go into a public-beta phase soon. Digi also announced Reel Tape Suite ($495), a group of analog-tape emulation plug-ins for RTAS, TDM, and AudioSuite. Reel Tape Saturation, one of the plug-ins in the suite, will be offered separately for $295.

Two standout products from Edirol were the portable, affordable M-10DX ($449) and M-16DX ($799) digital mixers, which are expected to ship in April. They feature built-in DSP effects, scene recall, a backlit LCD with graphic spectrum analysis, and dedicated knobs on each channel for level, pan, and 3-band EQ. They support 24-bit, 96 kHz audio and can automatically compensate for room acoustics. The M-10DX gives you two mic preamps with phantom power, a switchable high-impedance input, and a dedicated suite of mastering tools. Battery power enhances its portability. The M-16DX comprises two units—a mix controller and a separate rack-mountable I/O module—and gives you more effects, 16-band graphic EQ, stereo S/PDIF I/O, and twice as many mic preamps and high-impedance inputs. Additionally, its USB 2.0 port lets you use the M-16DX as an 18-in, 2-out audio interface.