Saturday, January 26, 2013

NAMM 2013 Roundup


So NAMM (http://www.namm.org/) is where a lot of new music gear is announced. There is a summer and winter show, usually the winter show is the bigger one, but in recent years some big announcements have hit the summer show too. I think Music Radar has the best breakdown of NAMM stuff I could find. Obviously if you find a piece of gear and want to know more about it, YouTube is the place to go. Most manufacturers have a launch website detailing the new gear. 

DJ Tech Tools highlights the DJ specific tools.

DJ Tech Tools also review some of the updated Numark controllers (http://www.djtechtools.com/2013/01/25/namm-2013-numark-mixtrack-pro-ii-and-ns7-ii/). Specifically the NS7 II, no price or release date announced. I was initially very excited about the NS7, but the price point never allowed me to travel down that path. We will see if they attempt to soften this with the NS7 II.

DJ Tech Tools also has a page discussing the new Behringer line:

I have to say, as an entry level line, these look pretty great. Behringer has a reputation for producing crap gear. They have answered this reputation with a 3 year warranty, which is pretty amazing. If anything these can make for great quick and cheap addons to an already existing digital DJ setup. I really like the modular concept.

http://www.djtechtools.com/2012/01/20/behringers-cmd-line-modular-dj-controllers-on-a-budget/

Music Radar has a nice slideshow highlighting some gear:

Here are a few of the gems I ran across:

Wow...analog MS-20. I will absolutely own one of these (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/keyboards-midi/korg-ms20-mini-analog-monophonic-synth). $599 available in April.
http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/namm-2013-korg-ms-20-mini-analogue-synth-announced-570028

Arturia has launched a mini version of their Spark controller. I will probably buy this because the price is awesome ($299). Would probably be a decent controller. I like the 8 pads across because it emulates the 808/909 style of drumming and 303 style of synth programming. They just released a dubstep addon, so I expect to see all of the kiddies with one of these soon. Note: Arturia makes the worst promotional videos EVER. However, the second walkthrough video is awesome (but long).

-Some highlights:
-- The first minute is a quick tour, from that point until about 15 minutes in he covers the core features, for the remainder of the video he is just playing with the gear
-- Fits flush against a macbook pro
-- Comes with a little bag (this seems trivial, but if you are going to make a piece of laptop gear, it just makes sense and no one else does it)
-- subtractive, physical modeling, and sampling
-- "if you are on stage and have your laptop visible, you won't be using it" - YES! This hardware only mentality that NI Maschine started is fantastic. 
-- Really fluid jumping between traditional sequencing and 808 style sequencing
-- Pressure/Velocity sensitive pads

I must say, after watching the walkthrough video, I'm much more sold on this piece of gear. It is the first video I've seen of the Spark line that really impressed me (what he does at about 21 minutes in is right up my alley style-wise). 

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/namm-2013-arturia-offers-sparkle-hardware-software-drum-machine-570127

Moog Sub Phatty: 

The Pro Audio Star video is cool, but will be misleading for some. This is a synth only, no sequencing here. The Future Music video above is a much more honest look at the synth. Most Moog Synths are in the 3-5k range. This one sits at $1000, which is incredible (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/keyboards-midi/moog-sub-phatty-25-key-analog-synthesizer). The Little Fatty Stage II is $1375 and it doesn't look half as fun as the Sub Phatty. This may very well be my first Moog. It wil be a hard fight between this and the MS-20 (only which one I buy first, they are both must haves)

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/namm-2013-moog-sub-phatty-revealed-569856

The Novation Launchkey has some iPad integration that looks pretty amazing. Otherwise it would just be another keyboard controller entry. The prices listed on the article are obviously a little confused (they give the same price for the 49 and 61 key versions, I'm sure this will be updated later)

From Musician's Friend:
Launchkey 25 (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/keyboards-midi/novation-launchkey-25-keyboard-control): MSRP - $200/Retail - $150
Launchkey 49 (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/keyboards-midi/novation-launchkey-49-keyboard-control): MSRP - $250/Retail - $200
Launchkey 61 (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/keyboards-midi/novation-launchkey-61-keyboard-control): MSRP - $300/Retail - $250

Even as just "another" controller keyboard, the price beats a lot of less feature full keyboards out there. 

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/namm-2013-novation-unveils-the-launchkey-range-of-midi-controllers-569708

The Numark Orbit, with no price or release date info, looks like a nice little gimicky performance controller. Looks very versatile and I'm sure some exciting things will be done with it. I imagine this thing being "hacked" to do things beyond music.

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/namm-2013-numark-launches-orbit-wireless-handheld-dj-controller-569957

Here are few other things that I didn't go into much more, but may be of interest to many:
Posted by Unknown at 10:54 AM

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