THANK YE, NAMM
Mar 1, 2006 12:00 PM
The West was won long ago, but every year musical manufacturers come out with their big guns ablazin' to Orange County, Calif., for the Winter NAMM convention. And while the OC now raises more delusional teens than citrus crops, this year's NAMM proved that there are still new frontiers to explore in audio technology. Much obliged.
Hardware/software synergy ruled the roost this year, and perhaps more than anyone else, Open Labs bestilled our hearts with its Miko Portable Media Workcenter. It's a full Windows XP computer with preloaded software and 15-inch touch-screen display built into a keyboard workstation with audio and MIDI I/O, FireWire and USB ports, video outputs and more, all in a 37lb. portable package. Korg blew a few minds with the Radias, a 24-note synth based on Korg's Multi Modeling Technology. M-Audio packed its booth to the gills with gear. The Oxygen 8 v2, an update to the wildly popular 25-key USB MIDI controller, added 10 user memories and transport controls, and it also comes in 49-key and 61-key versions with sliders. M-Audio's all-new Axiom series of USB MIDI controllers, in 25-, 49- and 61-key versions, includes backlit LCDs, semiweighted action, 20 memory locations, transport controls, eight MIDI drum pads and eight knobs. Finally, M-Audio introduced the Sputnik large-diaphragm vacuum-tube condenser mic and the EX-66 high-definition reference monitors. Roland gave shout-outs to its own past with a ton of new hardware, including the MC-808 sampling groovebox, the SH-201 analog modeling synth and the Juno-G expandable synth with onboard audio/MIDI recording. The Yamaha-distributed CME exploded with four new VX flagship MIDI controllers, including motorized faders, MIDI drum pads, transport controls and many knobs and sliders. Yamaha also debuted its MW10 and MW12 affordable USB mixers.
No hard drive shall go unfilled in 2006. Software poured down from the heavens, first with the announcement that Sony Acid Pro 6 is now finally a full-featured DAW with multitrack audio and MIDI recording in addition to its already-established feature set. MOTU updated its flagship DAW to Digital Performer 5, with many advanced scoring features to satisfy composers, as well as clip-based automation and five new instruments. MOTU also unleashed the powerful Ethno Instrument, a comprehensive world-music synth for all major Mac and PC plug-in formats. Every remixer will want to grab Celemony's Melodyne 3, which expands its extreme audio editing and pitch-shifting abilities to polyphonic textures. Arturia combined two synth classics, the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 and Prophet-VS, into one hybrid modeling plug-in, the Prophet V. It redefines fat for the already bloated software market. E-mu's updated Emulator X2 software sampler broke new ground with its automated sampling, audio manipulation and more.
Two plug-in powerhouses scored huge hardware partnerships. Waves licensed from Solid State Logic the SSL 4000 Collection, comprising the SSL G-Master Buss Compressor, the SSL E-Channel and the SSL G-Equalizer plug-ins modeled from the immortal mixing hardware. Universal Audio also inked an agreement with AMS Neve to produce software emulations of Neve products for its UAD-1 DSP system. The first fruit of that union will be the Neve 1073 Equalizer plug-in.
More hardware/software synergy came with Native Instruments' Kore, which combines a software host with a hardware interface to bring software instruments of any format into one standardized interface for any DAW, and the system is also optimized for live performance. Cakewalk also entered the hardware mix with its Sonar Power Studio 250 and Power Studio 660 bundles that combine a full version of Sonar 5 Studio with a 2-channel USB audio/MIDI interface (250) or a 6-channel FireWire audio/MIDI interface (660). Cakewalk also previewed its powerful new Rapture soft synth for Mac/PC.
The DJ market would not be silenced, either. Particularly innovative was Numark, unveiling the TTUSB turntable with USB, the X2 turntable with an MP3 CD player and two hot VJ products, the VJ01 DVD/MP3/CD media player and the AVM02 audio/video mixer with effects. A new high-end DJ gear company, Cortex, announced rackmount and tabletop devices called HDC and HDTT that will include hard drives and compatibility with any USB-compatible device — including iPods — to mix digital music with full pitch and scratch capabilities. Scratch battle DJs were shown love from Vestax's new PMC-08 Pro mixer and the Audio Innovate AEM100 mixer with insane control over unique effects. Rane/Serato stole the hardware/software hybrid honors, however, with the Scratch Live 1.5 software combined with the new TTM 57SL mixer, which mixes vinyl, CD and digital files with hands-on hardware control over the software.
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