Bitflipper's Annual NAMM Report

This year's theme: "Take it to 11". Get it? It's a play on 2011, which has both a "2" and an eleven in it. Ha ha.

Never mind that it's also a reference to a comic movie character who's so stupid he thinks the numbers on a plastic knob mean something. When I saw that greeting on the marquee, my first thought was "why not just say 'Welcome, gullible morons!'". I suppose "Take it to 11" was shorter.

Day Two

Awakening to sunshine and mild temperatures, we had breakfast and showed up at the convention center an hour before the show opened. I headed straight to the Hall E lobby where all the free magazines are. Sure, I'd have to carry them around all day, but I've found if you go there in the evening they'll already be out of Sound on Sound. So I start the day with a bag of magazines, happily reading them in the sunshine while sipping overpriced "eco" coffee. It's 9 AM and I already have a good NAMM-buzz on and life is good.

When the doors open, I decide to start at the north end where Roland is and work my way south. I've learned that day one is best spent in Wander Mode, systematically scoping out which booths I'll want to revisit on subsequent days. My goal was to cover the entire building, or at least the first floor. Start wide, then drill down. I managed to only cover halls C and D.

There may in fact be no systematic method whereby a visitor can actually see it all in three days. But every year I try.



The arena, taken up exclusively by Roland ^^^

This was the first year that Cakewalk got rolled in with all the other Roland products and exhibited as a Roland product. Roland has not done them any favors in doing this.

Cakewalk's booth is smaller than before, and there are fewer Cakewalk staff on site. It is difficult to hear their presentations, as they must compete with at least 5 other demonstration stations doing live demos. The main Roland stage, which in previous years had been in a separate room, was now 20 feet from Cakewalk's area, featuring near-continuous live music. Even with the addition of headphones, it was hard to hear the message, and the lights were too bright so you couldn't see the projected screen well either.



My favorite things in the Roland area were the same things I dug most last year: pianos, synths and stompboxes. This is because Roland featured almost nothing new this year.

I'd love to have a VP-7, but it's too expensive ($550). This little box is like a harmonizer, except it's a synth/controller. You sing into it, but it does not use your voice for anything other than to pull out the formants and apply them to another sound source. It has human voice samples built in, so you can make passably-believable choirs that sing whatever you tell them to.



This same fellow demonstrates for Roland every year, and he's such a great entertainer you want to watch his demos over and over. His name is Don Lewis and he's also a synth pioneer, TV/film composer as well as a shill for Roland. Wish I had taken a video to share. That synth has a nifty volume modulator you work with your hand like a Theremin that really makes the fake choir sound dynamic and real.

Here's a YouTube video with Roland's Ed Diaz demonstrating the VP-7 at last year's show. As you're watching, keep in mind this is NOT a harmonizer. The backing vox you hear is synthesized. You don't actually need to be a good singer, which is why I want one.

One thing I like about Roland is they put up lots of demo stations to try out stuff for yourself, including drum kits, percussion controllers, synthesizers, pianos, and gobs of stompboxes.






The GR-55, Roland's concept of the ultimate guitar stompbox.


Here's the eBand product. I didn't try it myself, as it was very popular and I never got a turn. But it looks fun, and perhaps even useful for the gigging musician who has to work out cover tunes. It's basically an MP3 player with a guitar/mic input that also records. It also has pitch adjust, and a boatload of guitar effects. It also has 300 jam loops built in.

Thursday night was a highlight of the week, because that's when some of the forum regulars got together to shoot the breeze. In attendance was bapu, old55, middleman, julibee, lanceindastudio, Brandon, Seth, Mike Trujillo, me, and my friend Lee who, as a multi-product endorsee, has been my entree into NAMM for the past four years.



Left to right: bapu, Lee, Julibee, middleman, Brandon, Seth and Mike Trujillo. Here's another picture where Seth isn't hiding behind Mike's hair:



Left to right: bapu, Lee, me, middleman, Brandon, Seth, Mike

Here's the sign bapu was holding:




Phil (middleman) and Lance (lanceindastudio) ^^^


Jan (old55), Julianna, me, and Ed ^^^


Old55 and bapu ^^^

We all agreed to do it again next year, but rather than hang out in a noisy bar we'd like to meet at a studio and make a record, or at least have a jam. Lance offered to host, so we'll see if he remembers that invitation come next January. Julianna offered to bring cookies. I'm hoping for brownies.

Brandon announced that the SONAR forum would be closing down. I dutifully reported that in the CH forum but no one seemed to care, not even bapu. I made up the part about stealing Brandon's credit card and ordering a round while he was in the bathroom. I would not really do that. It was actually bapu's card.

On Friday I again began the NAMM tour at the north end, stopping to listen to some great demos at the Roland exhibit. The new GR-55 guitar processor was a popular item, but I can only listen to so much shredding before zoning out.

After stops at the Presonus, Spectronics and iZotope booths, I went over to the Yamaha exhibit. Yamaha is so big it doesn't even exhibit at the convention center with everybody else. Instead, it takes over a large ballroom in the Marriott next door. Smart, I think. It's much quieter there and just classier.

A very listenable jazz combo was showing off Yamaha products. What caught my eye were these cymbals (made by Ziljian). They are electronic trigger devices, but they're also made of real metal so they give you real stick bounce. A gazillion little perforations make them translucent, which is a cool effect, but also cause them to generate very little sound on their own.


Here I am trying out a marimba.



Also checked out the new Motif. What a beast! The older I get the more weight I give to, well, weight. This sucker must weigh 100 pounds. Add a 50 lb road case and your gig better pay enough to cover the chiropractor visit the next day. Anyhow, at 5 grand, so it's not exactly high on my shopping list.

This may be the ultimate MIDI keyboard controller. It's called a VAX77 and it's out of Texas by a company called Infinite Response.



This answers most of any keyboard player's wishlist items. It's got polyphonic aftertouch and folds up into a small suitcase.



But what really sells it is the action. It feels resistive like a piano on the downstroke but pops right back up like an organ keyboard when you release the note. This lets you a) play piano really fast, and b) play organ like an organ and not a piano. The only weird thing I questioned was the location of the pitch and mod wheels, but given how well the ergonomics were thought out, I wouldn't be surprised if those work quite well where they are.

OK, so this is a very cool product - but would I buy one? Only if I won the lottery. Three grand a pop, folks.

Ukuleles are big this year. I counted at least 40 vendors selling ukes. Cheap plastic day-glo ukes, exotic wood ukes, electric ukes, bass ukes, five-string ukes, even a uke-banjo hybrid. An enormous Hawaiian guy with fingers like Lincoln Logs showed me why ukes are easy to play: the distance between the strings is wider than a guitar, so even fat fingers like mine have no trouble finding their way.

Unfortunately, I am old enough to remember Tiny Tim. That image is enough to suppress any desire I might have to buy a ukulele. You younger guys can google him, but it's enough to say that he single-handedly made the ukulele an object of ridicule for the next 30 years. Only now, as his memory fades from the collective consciousness, can we reconsider this humble instrument.

Keyboard heaven! Modern versions of my three favorite keyboard instruments: the B3, the Wurly and the Rhodes. These are all new products, but all are faithful reproductions of the originals. No mechanical tonewheel in the B3, but both the Wurly and Rhodes are built just like they always were, with real metal tines.


BTW, that Leslie is built in the classic style, real solid wood, but has a 300W tube amp and 450W speakers, the loudness equivalent of a half-dozen 122's. Show special: only $13,500 for the organ and Leslie!

Across the aisle, my second-favorite jam instrument ever, the gool ol' Wurlitzer. Why can't synthesizers have that kind of expressive action?



And talk about a classic setup, how about a real Rhodes with one of the new Minimoogs atop:

On both Friday and Saturday I spent some time at the Presonus booth, in hopes of picking up some tips since I'd just loaded the demo onto my laptop before going down to Anaheim. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to be learned, as the sales pitch was mostly hype ("I don't know what it is, but S1 just sounds better!!!"). Got to give Rodney credit for enthusiasm, though. He's like a revival tent barker.

They did, however, feature some good entertainment in their booth. I didn't catch this guy's name, but he did an outstanding job singing and picking, and showing off S1's bundled amp sim, "Ampire". The other two guys were no slouches, either, especially the "drummer" playing (I think) the EZDrummer Lite version that comes bundled with S1. The controller is not a Presonus product, though; it's a Korg padkontrol.



As a gimmick to get people to sit through the entire spiel, Presonus was giving away prizes at the end of each presentation. Yay! I won a copy of Studio One Artist. Woo hoo! A twenty-dollar value!

[pic:
Unfortunately, I threw away the box because my backpack was stuffed to the brim with show swag and sweaty socks. I say "unfortunate" because the product key was on that box. Fortunately, the Presonus guys came through and two days later I had a new product key. My intention is to get to know S1 over my coming holiday. I'll be filing a report.

Unfortunately  I had a "Sunday only" pass, the lowest on the totem pole.  Would have loved to connect with all of you.

J

the "uke" increase might be because of folks like Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I

that song has been SERIOUSLY battered / used by the TV incidental music (Life on Mars being one thing)

I don't think companies can justify the outlay for such shows more and more , pity really

Bitflipper, It was nice meeting you at NAMM. I have to agree, there wasn't much new stuff this year. The last 2 years have just been different with some major companies such as Native Instruments, East West and other not exhibiting at all. The only thing I'm excited about is LA Scoring Strings update to their main library and the legato sordino strings add-on. The other things I wish I could afford is the Moog Little Phatty rack version and the Dave Smith Instrument's Tetra. Still love those real analog synths. I went thru almost every hall this year except Hall E and the upstairs levels. So this shows how little new stuff there was. Jim Ortner Garritan Libraries

Likewise, Jim. Thanks for letting me play with the Steinway library, which is very nice indeed. And thanks to Gary Garritan for being a good sport and posing like his logo:

Friday night, we stuck around for the after-show concert in the convention center lobby. Acoustically, this space has got to be the worst I have ever experienced, and often the sound is indescribably bad. So bad that we normally only catch a few minutes each night before heading over to the vastly superior Marriott lobby.

But on Friday night we decided to catch the Icon Jam, an annual event where a bunch of old-timers get together and play mostly unrehearsed classic rock tunes. At this show, some of the participants included Spencer Davis, Peter Tork (yes, that Peter Tork), Geezer Butler (ex-Black Sabbath bass player), Phil Collen (guitarist from Def Leppard), Liberty Devitto (was Billy Joel's drummer), Chris Slade (ex-AC/DC drummer). I don't remember all the names, but they were all authentic rockers. Chris Slade was especially entertaining.

I've been wracking my brain trying to remember the front man's name - some well-known (though not by me!) metal guy who did a great job on the Deep Purple tunes. Maybe somebody who was there can clue me in.

And in the gosh-am-I-breathing-the-same-air-as-a-living-legend category, there was none other than Alan White on drums. The first guy to replace Ringo in the recording studio. Drummer for Yes. Drummer for the Plastic Ono Band. The highlight of the evening was a rousing rendition of "Instant Karma" with the entire audience enthusiastically singing along on the chorus ("and we all shine on..."). Very groovy.

Unfortunately, Mr. White seemed to be in pain the whole time. He kept rubbing his back and doing that back-arch thing that people do who have back problems and have had to sit for too long. Poor guy, he's not much older than me but he looked miserable. Still, the crowd appreciated the appearance, even if a sizable percentage had no clue who he was. Me, I had no clue who the guy playing the role of John Lennon was, but the younger folk seemed to know him. A truly cross-generational experience, although weighted toward the over-40 crowd.

You probably don't want to know where your expensive sneakers came from, or your bluejeans or your kids' toys. Well, now you can add guitars to the list of products you can feel guilty about buying.


Outside the hall, a group of Koreans was telling the world what a creep this Yung-ho Park guy is, and his equally creepy son.

Park is the CEO of Cort Guitars, manufacturer for Fender, Ibanez, Schecter and their own Cort brand. Apparently, he took a page from Monster Cable's Noel Lee's playbook and fired the entire workforce so they could bring in cheaper labor. One speaker I heard (through a translator) was a guy who'd been building Fender and Ibanez guitars for 20 years and got canned with zero notice. I'd be pissed, too.

They actually got a meeting with Fender an hour after I took this photo, but I don't know what happened there. Here's the story. Also check out the Wikipedia link above, which details some of the controversy.

THANK YOU BIT!

I'm stuck in my basement studio working and raising kids,  i never get out. This is fun to read.  Some day I'll be there toooo!!

What is that Moog picture there with the Voyager and the patch cables?

Did I confuse you by cavalierly sticking Dave Smith's Morpho in under the Moog photos? Or are you referring to the new Voyager with the patch bay?