Editors' Blogs

One question I get asked a lot at NAMM shows by the folks with whom I meet is, "How is the show for you?" I always find this a very silly question, because no matter what the circumstances in the world outside, the NAMM show is never any different for me... nor, I think, for any other member of the press. It doesn't matter if we're in the midst of a truly prosperous decade or at the bottom end of a really nasty economic slump; there are always hundreds of manufacturers who want me to stop by and learn about their products to get the word out, and I always spend the weekend running like hell to see as many of them as I possibly can before my time runs out.

This year has been no different; while I have a few appointments tomorrow, the traditionally slow day of the show, I have hit up most of the people I knew I had to and am feeling good about having covered the show. I had a lot of help, and want to publicly acknowledge the many RECORDING staffers who heroically ran from place to place throughout the show helping to make sure I didn't miss anyone: Paul Vnuk Jr., Greg Hurley, John Rossi III, Eric Ferguson, Michael C. Ross, Rick Barrio Dill, Mike Rivers, and Bob Emmet. I hope I didn't forget anyone; you were all a huge help, with a special nod to Paul, who covered a huge amount of territory and made a lot of great contacts despite a herniated disc.

There were more cool products to see and more things to learn on this third day of the NAMM show, and no sign of the torrent of new and improved products letting up.

MXL Microphones is well known for its many inexpensive mics, but is going all out with the Revelation, a tube condenser mic that it hopes will compete with the best out there.

Lexicon has followed up its Native Reverb Bundle with a new, more affordable software package called the LXP Bundle; for those of us whose studios relied on the original LXP hardware reverbs, these programs sound like a lot of fun, and they'll be far easier to get into than the top-end Native reverbs.

IK Multimedia has updated its AmpliTube guitar amp/effect modeling plug-in to version 3, with a clearer user interface, added utilities, and many more models and emulations as part of the base package. Also new: the Stealth Board, a USB/MIDI pedalboard for control not only of AmpliTube 3 but of any MIDI or DAW-based device.

MOTU was showing the ZBOX, a very inexpensive adapter for guitars being run into audio interfaces; it's designed to match the impedance of your guitar to your interface properly, and the overall improvement to your tone is immediately obvious. Also new: updates to BPM and Ethno Instrument (the latter including importable microtonal scales using the Scala format), and a new version of the UltraLite Mk3 that talks to both FireWire and USB 2.0.

TASCAM is scaring us a little -- after its huge number of new products debuted at AES in September, there are a bunch more that have rolled out at NAMM. Two new field recorders, a full-featured rack headphone distribution amp, and a portable multichannel USB 2.0 audio interface top the list.

Radial Engineering's sister firm Primacoustic had a ton of new products, all affordable studio helpers in the "why didn't I think of that?" category, from foam isolation pads for mic stands to inexpensive, effective vocal mic isolation systems to metal trays that can hold anything from an iPod to a laptop computer.

FDW Worldwide is poised to reintroduce a variety of relatively unknown imported mics to the US audience, from the rectangular-diaphragm offerings of Milab to the elegantly designed, rugged Nevaton mics and the weird and wonderful Violet Design mics.

macprovideo.com has introduced a new service that is as potentially industry-changing as it is simple: a system for designing your own iPhone App, then having it uploaded and easily added to Apple's App Store for a small monthly fee plus a percentage of any sales revenues. Simple apps no longer require their creators to set up special accounts with Apple, and the sky's the limit.

Lynx Studio Technology has a new card for its Aurora interfaces: the LT-MADI, which moves large quantities of audio data via the venerable MADI standard. We were asked why MADI suddenly seems to be back in style after 20 years of relative ignorance; I just shrugged and said, "Maybe because the word MADI sounds like MIDI?"

RealiTone is a plug-in manufacturer specializing in vocalization virtual instruments; the demo was pretty cool, but I would imagine that all the operatic solos and doowop choruses would get tiring to neighbors after three straight days.

SONiVOX is always coming up with new software for new applications; their latest is Sampla, a hiphop sampler app that lets you pull data from almost any source and quickly map it to keys or pads for playback.

We got a sneak peek at a new microphone from ADK: the T-7, which has not only a pad and highpass filter, but also a lowpass filter/bump that lets you tailor its response to brass, guitar cabs, vocals, or many other sources

Electro-Harmonix has a new single sideband modulation pedal called the Ring Thing. If you don't know what that is, go listen to it and be educated; if you DO know what that is, you're going to want to check it out.

In its ongoing attempts to eradicate sloppy instrument tuning from a world that can ill afford it, Peterson Electro-Musical Products has released the StroboClip, a clip-on instrument tuner with all the cool Peterson extras, like ultra-accurate tuning, sweetened tuning references, and more.

Audiobro was getting a fair bit of attention from LA Scoring Strings, a powerful new library that offers pretty much what you think it'd offer, and does so with class.

In the spring, sE Electronics will begin to celebrate its tenth anniversary in the mic business with a slew of cool new designs at all price points: solid-state and tube condensers, ribbon mics with unusual designs, and an entire new line of Rupert Neve offerings. (See the photo for a sneak peek at some of them.) We'll bring you reviews of many of these cool mic designs and more as the year progresses.

And in the "Why didn't WE think of that?" department, there's Mic Check, a prepackaged and disposable moist towelette with ethanol and mint extract that's used to quickly wipe down and sterilize microphone grilles that have been abused by whoever was messing with them before you got to them... a great resource for studios with multiple clients.

With all this cool new gear came a sobering reminder of what is really important in life: as our day wound down, we learned to our chagrin that Mike Rivers, a frequent contributor who was helping cover the show for us, had collapsed while visiting a booth at NAMM and was rushed to the hospital. We're waiting for news and hoping for the best, as we get some rest and prepare for the fourth and final day of NAMM 2010.

(Addendum: I was reminded, after I posted my final day's blog, to mention that Mike is fine -- he was just suffering from dehydration, and was back on the show floor within a few hours. It was a huge relief to see him in the Press Room the following morning, looking amused but grateful that folks were so concerned about him.)