Stiff upper lip 21/1-08: NAMM-nam
NAMM is over! Thank goodness! These times are crazy, it’s like Musikmesse ‘07 all over again. You better have appreciated the news feed coming from ProTooler during NAMM because I posted like a white punk on dope! I think there were something along the lines of 35 updates on day one alone. Crazy, crazy I tell you. But what was the quality on the new products announced there?
I got to say that after day one I was a little disappointed, and the two other days mostly collected what I had missed and had much less new announcements. Actually, a lot of the cool things were reported about pre-NAMM. Here’s the gear that made my left eyebrow raise.
Euphonix MC Control and MC Mix. What a way to kick off a new year! This is of course a huge deal. Watch the video, and read the previous post on them for more info.
On the software side of things, Native Instruments KORE PLAYER is a big deal. It will be free! I of course have no idea on how useable the free sounds are, but the KORE soundpacks collection is growing, and they are not exactly expensive. Being a control surface freak myself, I’d probably get the controller for KORE though.
The M-Audio ProFire 2626 could have been a big deal for Pro Tools users on a budget, but take note on spkguitars comment after the post. Digidesign and M-Audio really needs to start working together instead of against each other. And no, studio packs isn’t enough. A piece like the ProFire 2626 should be a reason to use Pro Tools M-Powered, instead it’s almost a reason to use anything but M-Powered.
Spectrasonics Omnisphere is a big deal for a lot of people. It didn’t leave the same marks on me, but you’ve got to understand that I’m not a synth freak. I bet it will be good though. The teaser videos and the very early announcement is a rare marketing strategy. Let’s see if it pays off. I thought about the URS Strip Pro, it was also known for a very long time before it was released and very hyped the entire time (not by URS, but by some very partial beta testers).
Finally I’d like to mention the Digidesign Mix Rack. This thing just seems to have passed a lot of people by. I don’t get why. This looks great doesn’t it? It looks like the perfectly logical thing for Digidesign to release. Something for mid-sized venues (no pun intended) to use. Alright, so it’s not really “the coffee shop” that I wanted to see, but it’s as close as we get at the moment.
These all look like interesting products, but overall this NAMM didn’t leave me drooling and really wanting anything. So how long until Musikmesse?
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