The EM Poll

2007 Winter NAMM Report
The Show of Shows

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

           

SE Electronics debuted the Instrument Reflexion Filter ($199), which is about a third the size of the 2007 EM Editor's Choice award-winning Reflexion Filter and is made from a different configuration of materials.

From SM Pro Audio comes The Mic Thing ($249), a portable acoustic panel designed to reduce the effect of room acoustics on a microphone. The unit can be mounted on most mic stands (as well as drum and speaker stands) and can be stacked with another unit to create a larger baffle. Its side panels bend inward to allow you to configure its shape for the needs of your session. Look for it to ship in March.

The first new plug-in for Solid State Logic's Duende is Drumstrip ($299), a channel strip designed for use with percussive sounds. Drumstrip includes a transient shaper with an inversion button, high- and low-frequency enhancers, the SSL Listen Mic Compressor, and an interesting gate design that offers independent open and close threshold controls. Look for it in mid-February.

Sound Toys and Sony announced that their plug-ins will support the Audio Units format. SoundToys will be releasing its 2007 EM Editor's Choice award-winning Native Effects bundle ($495) in AU format when it releases version 3 of the bundle in late February. The release will also include Universal Binary support, as well as new features. Meanwhile, several of Sony's renowned Oxford plug-ins—EQ, Dynamics, and Limiter—have already started shipping in AU format, and the rest of the line should be available soon.

Keyboard maker Studiologic showed its new VMK-161Org, a 61-note, semiweighted, waterfall-action keyboard from Fatar, designed specifically for organ players. It has all the same functions as the VMK-161Plus, including Velocity and Aftertouch, a pitch-bend and modulation joystick, and 30 preset locations, as well as eight knobs, eight buttons, eight sliders, and three pedal inputs, all assignable. It also comes with templates for popular organ software. The VMK-161Org's price and ship date haven't been announced.

TC Electronic is reissuing three vintage effects stompboxes as part of the new Classic Pedal Series. The pedals, which originally were released in the 1970s, include the Booster+Distortion, the Sustain+Parametric Equalizer (a compressor and EQ), and the TC XII Phaser. All three will retail for $395 and should be shipping by the time you read this.

Terratec Producer demonstrated the Area 61, an expandable keyboard controller that accepts DSP expansion boards hosting different synthesis engines. The Area 61 was also designed as a controller for software instruments and functions as an USB 2.0 audio/MIDI interface that handles 24-bit, 96 kHz audio. Ten rotary encoders are surrounded by LEDs, and 61 Velocity-sensitive keys have separate Aftertouch zones for the right and left hands. Initially, two optional boards will be available for the Area 61: Komplexer DSP (price and availability tba), which is a hardware version of the Komplexer VST soft synth, and Wave Xtable (available now for $249 retail), a 128-note GM- and XG-compatible expansion board with more than 128 onboard sounds.

Also from Terratec Producer , the Axon 50 USB guitar-to-MIDI controller is a scaled-down sibling to the Axon 100 Mk II, with one important addition: a USB connection with four virtual MIDI ports. The Axon 50 doesn't have an internal sound generator, but it can control four software instruments at the same time. It includes Kontakt Player with a selection of 128 sounds, along with editing software for the Mac and PC. The Axon 50 is expected to ship by April for $549 MAP.

Ultimate Sound Bank shared its vision of the future with its Beat Inc. high-definition virtual beatbox. Featuring sound-shaping tools, an integrated waveform editor, an arsenal of effects, and a drag-and-drop step sequencer, Beat Inc. was designed to be an ideal companion for pad controllers. Its all-new content provides more than 16 GB of 16- and 24-bit sounds, with sampling rates as high as 192 kHz. Beat Inc. will be available for Windows and Mac OS X; exactly when and for how much was not announced. Ultimate Sound Bank also announced its IRCAM Solo Instruments (price and delivery tba), produced in collaboration with IRCAM's research department. It features traditional instruments such as strings, brass, and woodwinds played using unusual performance techniques. With expressive keyswitches, presets run the gamut from Multiphonic and Hit-on-Body to Buzz and Crushed.

Universal Audio announced the UAD-Xpander, an ExpressCard-based DSP system designed for laptops. You plug an ExpressCard into your laptop's card slot, and the card connects to an external unit that provides the processing for UAD-1 plug ins. Three UAD-Xpander bundles will be offered, each with the same hardware and initial set of 14 plug-ins, but with a differing amount of credit for purchasing additional plugs. The Xpander Xpress ($999) gives you a $500 voucher, the Xpander Xpert ($1,399) a $1,000 voucher, and the Xpander Xtreme ($2,199) entitles you to the complete UAD-1 plug-in collection.

Appasionata Strings, from Vienna Symphonic Library , just began shipping in Standard Library ($595)and Extended Library ($535) versions. Specializing in lush and fiery timbres performed by large string ensembles—20 violins, 14 violas, 12 cellos, and 10 double basses—this virtual instrument should be useful for diverse musical styles ranging from passionate ballads to cinematic soundtracks. The samples in Appasionata Strings offer a broad palette of expressive articulations and legato performances with different intensities of vibrato.

Big Fish Audio has spun off a software company called Vir2 Instruments , makers of Acoustic Legends HD. At NAMM, Vir2 demonstrated its next two products, VI.One and syntAX. VI.One (Mac/Win, $399.95) encompasses samples of more than 2,000 instruments, drum kits, and effects designed to be musically usable for a broad range of musical genres. Its nineteen major instrument categories range from basses, organs, and guitars to drum loops, synths, and ethnic instruments. SyntAX (Mac/Win, $199.95) is a virtual instrument dedicated to sampled synthesizers. At its core are more than 2,000 patches created by an international team of sound designers. SyntAX features the exclusive scatterFX engine, which gives you control over rhythmic stuttering, pattern-based arpeggiations, and more. VI.One and syntAX are both powered by Kontakt Player 2 and will be available by spring.

Waldorf Electronics , distributed by QTec, unveiled three new products, two of which were under glass. Stromberg is a keyboard synth that promises analog modeling, wavetable synthesis, and sample playback, with several filter types, effects, and USB connectivity. Blofeld is a tabletop modeling synth that is expected to load and play Micro Q sounds. The Zarenbourg, a keyboard that physically models five classic electric pianos, was working and sounded great. It offers onboard speakers, as well as tremolo and time-based effects.

In the M-Audio booth, Way Out Ware showed KikAxxe ($69.95), a software synth that adds a number of useful features to an emulation of the venerable ARP Axxe. The instrument includes a 16-step sequencer that can be used with the synth and with a set of drum samples (think TR-505). Five drum kits are available—acoustic and electronic—and each of the seven drum slots has its own beat-synched filter. A virtual tape echo with one second of delay is also provided. Perfect for drum and bass work, KikAxxe is due for release in mid-March.