New gear at 2002 Summer NAMM
Line 6 had several cool new things to show us, like their Duoverb amps. If there’s such a thing as a “back-to-basics” modeling amp, the Duoverb is it. It’s basically their award-winning and much-loved Vetta modeling technology in a vintage amp package. Plus, the Duoverbs have the ability to play two amps at once. They look awesome, sound unbelievable, and give you the ability to mix and match 16 different amp models!
They had a couple other thins to show us, but by far the coolest was their Variax modeling guitar. No, that’s not a typo. Variax is the world’s first digital modeling guitar. It combines Line 6’s patent-pending digital modeling technology with a custom-crafted solid-body guitar to reproduce the sounds of a variety of well-known vintage electric and acoustic guitars of all body styles (hollowbody, semi-hollowbody, 12-string, etc). You can even model a selection of other guitar-related instruments, such as a resonator, banjo, and electric sitar. Sound amazing? Trust us, you don’t know the half of it…
Over at Clavia we got a sneak peak at their Nord Electro II virtual electromechanical stage keyboard. Available in both 61 and 73 key versions, the Electro II offers all new samples (including the Mega Clavia) with even better detail than the first Nord Electro keyboard – and we thought that were pretty awesome to begin with.
And then there was Roland, with a ton of new stuff, including the latest addition to their powerful KC line of keyboard amps. A low-priced, 3-channel mixer/amplifier, the KC-60 features a 40-watt amp and a subwoofer output for a big low end.
Roland added another module to their highly-acclaimed line of XV synthesizers. You may have heard people raving about the quality of the sounds in the XV synths. It’s all true. The brand new addition to the series, the XV-2020, offers 64MB of awesome XV sounds in a half-rack module. It’s also expandable with two SRX-Series Wave Expansion Boards. It also features a USB port, and
The new MC-09 Phrase Lab is pretty much an essential tool kit for DJs, electronica artists, and the generally groove-addicted. It’s an all-in-one combination of sampler/looper, monosynth and effects processor, with a tasty analog sound that can’t be beat.
Tascam announced version 2.0 operating system update for their very popular DM-24 Digital Mixer. Version 2.0 software is no minor tweak of existing features; it adds 20 new features and functions to the DM-24, including HUI emulation, improved internal signal routing and direct surround panning capabilities, new footswitch control capabilities and much more. You can get it as a free download from the TASCAM web site.