The gearslutz...I meant the NAMM show report! part 1

I usually don't show up at the NAMM show because it is a showcase for the buyers and owners of music retail stores or chain to do their yearly purchase and looking at what's new. There are more musical gears than recording gears at the NAMM show. This year, I have to attend the meeting with Meyer Sound in LA so I decided to stop by and see what is new this year.
I will attempt to write a crude report of what I saw at the so, again this is all personal taste and reference, read at your own risk.

Softwares

There was not much new in my opinion. The majority of DAW manufactures did not have many changes...because they are too busy trying to get their apps to work in the new WINDOW VISTA! Propellerhead did not comes right out to say that they are releasing the new Reason 4 but their sale guys kept hinting it at the booth, then finally show the new version 4 with the new slick synth Thor. What do I think? Reason is still Reason.

With the project studios growing like mushrooms, the market is constantly trying to take money out of wannabe engineer. There is nothing wrong with that, don't misunderstand me, I do it too. This year and like every other years, the manufactures of software focus on how you can get good drum sound out of your project studio. Sonic Reality, Joytown Productions and Qup Arts have combined efforts to make top name studio drummers’ grooves available in stereo Rex2, Apple Loops and Acidized Wave formats for compatibility with every popular DAW and sampler on the market, including special attention to drag and drop compatibility with Stylus RMX similar to Sonic Reality’s R.A.W. series.
SSL Duente even comes out with a set of plug just for drum. Digidesign brought out all the whistle for its RTAS instrument plug STRIKE. According to Digi, with Strike, getting the groove you want is as simple as choosing one of the high-definition kits and telling the “virtual” drummer how to play, who need drummer anymore eh?

Oh yeah, I even saw samples for drum set recorded at Ocean Way studio. There were ton of other apps and plug but they are, to me, all the same with different looks. The biggest disappoint for me was Logic. I am not a Logic user but I always like the way Logic handles its MIDI. Apple did not have a booth at the AES show which got everyone wonder what is wrong, usually they are the biggest dam booth. This year with the iPhone, we all reallize that Apple is making phone not music. Logic 8 was anticipated by everyone but there was a NO SHOW! There were Logic people walking around whispering, yes when it comes, it will knock the socks off you...yeah right!

Digidesign,

I have to give a few lines shouting out for Digidesign cause I am now officially a Digislut (Certified). On the software side of thing, I was really impressed with what A.I.R (Advance Instrument Research) had done with Hybrid, Velvet, Strike, and Xpand. To me, these are in the top 10 sounding soft instruments couple with the ease of uses. Velvet blew me away with the way the interface and GUI set up plus the sound of the damm thing is amazing. Hybrid not only sound good, it make programming a substractive synthesizer like a walk in the park...EASY!

Digidesign also show off its new plug, Analog Reel Tape Suite bundle, which features three powerful plug-ins — Reel Tape Saturation, Reel Tape Delay, and Reel Tape Flanger — to warm up your digital sounds with unbelievable realism. Oh wait! Do you know what analog tape sound like? I won't take 'warm' and 'harmonic' for answers, you spent way too much time on those audio forum...get a life!

On the hard ware side, no there is no Digi 003. Why? because Digidesign still have way too many 002 instock, it will kill the MBox2 Pro Firewire version. You got another year for that. The Icon controllers and D-Command was initially designed for big post house but Digidesign is attempting to replace those big SSL in the music production area. So the word on the street is that something is lurking in the place of the 192's, let's wait and see. Hence the Icon Beta Certify Program at Digidesign head quarter in S. San Francisco, $1000 a pop.
So my advice to you is, if you have less than $1000 to spend on a pretty decent set up. Get yourself a MBox2 either Firewire or USB, add a Digi Music Production option pack ($400) and you will good to go at 48 tracks of music.

NEXT...Part 2 of the NAMM show, Guitar and more Guitar!