Winter NAMM 2008 launches Thursday, January 17 in sunny Anaheim, California, and runs through Sunday, January 20.
The Sweetwater Show Report Team, led by Editorial Director Mitch Gallagher, will be hitting the exhibits to bring you the news on all the new and cool product releases. Be sure to check this site daily for Mitch's video and text blogs, and to learn more about the hottest new gear announced at the show!

Day 1:
Welcome to Winter NAMM 2008! NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) is the largest U.S.-based music industry tradeshow of the year. This is where the industry's manufacturers gather to show their latest and greatest gear to retailers and the press.So far, this year's show has had good traffic, and has seen a ton of new product announcements.

Fender starts the year off with a bang with the new American Standard series guitars and basses. These feature rolled fingerboard edges, new bridge saddles (and a new high-mass copper-infused tremolo block on the Strats), a new thin undercoat for more body resonance, and more. A complete line of Strats, Teles, P-Basses, and Jazz Basses was introduced. Fender also showed a new closed-back 1x12 cabinet that matches the Hot Rod Deluxe series, including colored models to match the various limited edition Hot Rods. The cab sounded great, with a ton a punch and tight bottom end.

In other guitar news, TC was showing their new NOVA pedals. The line has been expanded with the amazing versatile Modulation pedal, and a dual compressor pedal. There's also the NOVA System, which is sort of like a scaled-down G-System. It has a complete array of effects, and is very compact. New vocal harmony processors from TC include the Harmony G, M and Doubler.

Digidesign unveiled Hybrid 1.5 and the 300MB Strike Content Expansion. Both are free updates that will be available on January 22.

Speaking of updates, Propellerheads were showing Reason 4.01.Access showed the cute and compact Virus TI Snow, a desktop version of the popular Virus digital synth. It has from 10-50 notes of polyphony (depending on the patch) and can be controlled by a software plug-in.

The M-Audio booth was buzzing. The MicroTrack II handheld recorder has a new analog limiter and is much easier to use. M-Audio also updated the BX5 and BX8 monitors for better sound quality, and a new all-black "stealthy" look. A new audio interface was also announced, the 26-channel ProFire 26 FireWire unit. It's compatible with just about any DAW (including Pro Tools M-Powered) and features built-in Octane preamps.

There were a number of new handheld digital recorders at the show. Yamaha's PocketTrak looks amazing, very compact, built-in flip-out USB connector, and tons of features. Yamaha also has a new line of KX-series MIDI controller keyboards, 88-, 61-, and 25-key models, that come with a huge array of software.

Universal Audio was showing a special signature edition of the LA-610, featuring hand-pikced components, NOS tubes, and more. Only 500 of these will be madeBe sure to tune in for our exclusive video coverage of Winter NAMM, and check out our complete online NAMM report as well! There will be lots more new products announcements coming our way over the next few days! -Mitch Gallagher

Day 2:
Day Two here at the Winter NAMM show here in Anaheim! The floor is even busier today than it was yesterday, and I expect that Day Three (Saturday) will be even more packed, and even louder.

I explored a number of booths today. One of the most interesting things I saw was Peavey's new (and completely unexpected) Revalver software. Compatible with Mac and PC, and supporting VST and Audio Units formats and standalone, Revalver is the deepest amp modeling package I've ever seen. It allows you to go as far into the amp design as you want. You can choose the tubes in the preamp, power amp, and rectifier stages, the bias for the tubes, the type of power supply and how much sag, the size of transformer, the speakers...it's really amazing.

Peavey also has a new line of modeling combo amplifiers, the Vypyr series. There are eight models, four with solid-state power amps, four with tube power amps. A high-powered SHARC chip drives the preamp and effects models.

Euphonix had one of the biggest announcements at the show, the MC series. There are two models, the MC Mix and the MC Control. These control surfaces connect to the computer by ethernet, and use Euphonix's EuCon protocol, which makes them compatible with just about anything. I'll be doing a Hands On profile article on these for the February SweetNotes issue.

The Roland booth was packed and stompin', with tons of new introductions. Major unveilings included the TD9S and TD9SX midline electronic drum kits - great sound, with COSM effects, The new RD700 and RD300 pianos, with Roland's new Super Natural technology for behavior modeling, and the Fantom 6G, 7G, and 8G, with 24 track recording, new sequencers, and new synth architecture. Boss had the GT10 and GT10B floor processors - great tones! The new Micro Cube models - one for bass and one for guitar - have four 5" speakers. They crank out an amazing quantity of sound. The tiny bass model even sounded clean and clear with the low B on a 5-string bass.

Auralex held a press conference debuting their new Eco Studio Foam. The new foam uses far less petroleum products - renewable soy-based product is used instead - but the performance is exactly the same as with the old petroleum-based foam. We're happy to see this eco-friendly move!

Tune in tomorrow for my Day Three report. There's sure to be a lot more great gear to discover! -Mitch Gallagher

Day 3:
Welcome to Day Three! As on the previous two days, there were tons of new products to check out at the NAMM show.

Korg really turned my head with the new Pandora PX5D guitar processor. This little unit is about the size of a pack of cards, yet it houses hundreds of great guitar sounds. It can do up to seven effects simultaneously, and you can use a footswitch change presets. There are hundreds of built-in drum and bass backing tracks, with multiple variations. You can chain these together to creat a song, then stream the results, along with your guitar playing, to a computer via USB.

Marshall was showing combo versions of the popular JVM amplifiers. Also new from Marshall is the Randy Rhoads tribute amp, a 1959 model that has all the same factory mods and specs as Randy's personal amp.

Gibson was showing 50th anniversary Korina Flying Vs and Explorers, as well as anniversary 1958 Les Pauls. New "Inspired By" models include six new Slash models, a Alex Lifeson ES355, and Lee Ritenour ES335, Steve Jones and Mick Jones model Les Pauls, and a Johnny Winter Firebird. Gibson also announced new moderately priced Gibson Canada acoustic guitars, which are all made from solid woods, no laminates allowed!

Mackie has new versions of the SRM450 powered PA speakers that are a full 25% lighter than the previous versions. Sweet for those who have to haul a PA around! Mackie also showed new MR-series studio monitors. These are moderately priced 8- and 5-inch models We heard them side-by-side with similarly priced models from other manufacturers. Very impressive!

Focusrite showed the ISA One - a single channel mic/instrument/line preamp that has all the quality of its larger siblings. There are Lundahl transformers, switchable input impedance, an optional analog-to-digital converter, an insert point, and stereo ins and a headphone out for monitoring the output from your DAW when tracking.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow, there will be lots more new gear and software to check out! -Mitch Gallagher

Day 4:
Today is Day Four - the final day of the 2008 Winter NAMM show here in Anaheim, California. The show is always quite a bit slower, less packed, and thankfully, quieter, on the last day as many of the attendees have already headed for home. But that doesn't mean there wasn't a ton of great new gear on display!

MOTU knocked my socks off not once, but twice. First there's Electric Keys, a sampled instrument featuring sounds from 50 rare, vintage, and obscure electric keyboards. There are electric pianos, organs, string machines, tape-playback keyboards (Mellotron, et al), and much more. The sounds I heard were very authentic and seemed highly playable.

The really big MOTU news is Digital Performer 6. The latest version of DP features a completely re-designed user interfaced, with much more stream-lined workflow. There are many new film-score features. There's new support for comping tracks - this worked incredibly well and seemed highly flexible. There are also two new plug-ins, a super-efficient convolution reverb, and a Masterworks Limiter based on four different vintages of the venerable LA-2A tube leveler. DP has an array of additional features; this will be a must-have update.

Taylor was showing a new solid-body model, with a blackwood body and koa top. Very sharp. There's a new 12-string GS acoustic, and eleven new GS acoustic/electrics with cutaways.

Digitech showed the new Hardwired line of pedals, which are designed to compete with "boutique" models. Heavy-duty construction, high headroom, and custom features make these special. There are seven pedals in the line: a tuner, three different analog distortions, and a digital chorus, a digital delay (with 20-second looper), and a digital reverb featuring Lexicon algorithms. Also new from Digitech is the Vocalist Pro, a rackmount unit that can provide up to four harmonies, pitch correction, and much more.

Moog announced the Voyager OS (Old School) - basically a recreation of Bob Moog's Minimoog, with no presets or other digital features. It's a pure analog synth with a big fat sound, for those who want the real thing.

To say we've barely scratched the surface of this year's NAMM show in these blog entries is to completely understate the obvious. Check out the complete listings below, read our daily inSync newsletter for updates, watch the accompanying videos, and tune in to the February/March issue of SweetNotes for a complete tradeshow event.

Thanks for joining us in Anaheim for the Winter 2008 NAMM show! For further information on these or any other products, don't hesitate to contact your Sweetwater Sales Engineer! -Mitch Gallagher