The EM Poll

Indy Summertime: Summer NAMM 2005

Aug 11, 2005 6:34 PM, by Geary Yelton

           

HOT FLASHES

One of the most exciting products at NAMM combines hardware and software components. Waves demonstrated GTR (Guitar Tool Rack, Mac/Win, $600 native, $1,200 TDM), one of the most realistic guitar-amp emulations I've heard. The software comprises Amp, which models amps, cabinets, and mics; Stomp, which simulates an assortment of stompboxes; and Tuner, which provides alternate tunings instantly. GTR also includes a single-input guitar interface with a unbalanced TS output and an balanced XLR output. Designed in collaboration with guitar maker Paul Reed Smith, the interface is a DI box with impedance-matching circuitry that responds to your playing much like a real guitar amp.

Just like last summer, Ableton stirred things up with a new version of its flagship software. Live 5 (Mac/Win, $499) has lots of new MIDI features, new effects, automatic tempo-matching, plug-in delay compensation, and best of all, Live Clips. Live Clips let you save and retrieve sequences, instruments, effects, and other data in portable chunks that work a lot like Apple Loops. Live 5 is a $119 upgrade for most Live 4 users, and it's shipping now.

Three diminutive stereo field recorders from M-Audio and Sony made big impressions on anyone who saw them. The MicroTrack 24/96 ($499, shipping soon), from M-Audio, is a sleek handheld device smaller than an iPod, yet it has a multitude of audio ins and outs, USB 2.0, and stereo mic preamps with 48V phantom power. The MicroTrack records linear 24-bit, 96 kHz WAV files as well as MP3s to a CompactFlash card or microdrive.

Sony surprised everyone with the new Hi-MD format, which records 94 minutes of uncompressed 16-bit, 44.1 kHz audio (or as much as 34 hours with ATRAC compression) on a single 1 GB high-density MiniDisc. The MZ-M10 ($329) and MZ-M100 ($439) Hi-MD stereo recorders each include audio-editing software, a long-life rechargeable battery, and an ECM-DS70P stereo electret condenser mic.

More big news: Tascam has unbundled its premium convolution reverb from GigaStudio 3. GigaPulse VST (Win, $299) is a plug-in that works with any VST host on the PC. It supplies dozens of sampled acoustic spaces and allows you to create your own impulse responses. GigaPulse lets you model microphones and move your sound source to any of 18 locations within a sampled room.

One of the coolest multimedia tools on display was from Edirol. The Motion Dive .Tokyo Performance Package (Mac/Win, available by year's end for $575) incorporates a V-Link-compatible video controller and video-mixing software. The combination lets you import video clips and digital images and then switch and fade between them, adding visual effects in real time to create video remix performances.

Another eye-catching device was the Boss RT-20 ($299, shipping in October), from Roland. This COSM-based stompbox is a rotary sound processor with twin footpedals and a spinning visual display that I can only describe as a tiny psychedelic light show. The RT-20 gives you a simulated Leslie cabinet with independent control over acceleration and deceleration of the horn and bass rotors.

Although it isn't aimed directly at musicians, everyone was talking about the iDJ ($399), an Apple iPod mixer from Numark. It has docking stations and large transport buttons for two iPods alongside controls to mix and fade between them. Designed for mobile DJs, it has 3-band EQ as well as mic, line, and phono inputs.