Europe’s version of the NAMM Show is MusikMesse, which opened its doors on Wednesday, March 28th in Frankfurt, Germany. Here’s our fourth and final report from the show.
Vienna Symphonic Library: It’s not often that Mac owners have to play “catch up,” but for quite some time, the critically acclaimed Vienna Sound Library was available in PC format only. So it’s big news that the company is adding RTAS and VST plug-in support for the Mac of its first five Vienna Instruments Symphonic Cube releases: Solo Strings, Chamber Strings, Orchestral Strings I and II and Woodwinds I, with an additional five collections to be released in the next four weeks or so. An Intel-Mac public beta version of the software is also available on Vienna’s User Support site. The Vienna Symphonic Library also walked off with its third prestigious MusikMesse International Press Award (MIPA) for outstanding products in various categories (see list below).
Nord: The company showed a new addition to the Nord Stage family, the 73-note Nord Stage Compact. It has all the features (except it has semi-weighted keyboard action, rather than fully weighted) and the same high quality sounds as the Nord Stage 76– and 88-note models, but with a lighter, more compact, design. For musicians that already own a Nord Stage keyboard, there’s a new OS v2.00 update available that adds new features and improvements along with two new Grand Pianos, a close-miked Steinway D and a “luxury version” of the Yamaha C7 with includes more velocity layers. Nord Electro owners can get the same two pianos, along with additional features and enhancements with the release of OS v3.00. Finally, there’s OS v1.40 for the Nord Modular G2 with a specially designed Patch Mutator toolbox.
Roland: The world’s best-selling compact guitar amp just got red-hot at MusikMesse! By that we mean there’s a special red-colored, limited-edition version of Roland’s top-selling Micro-CUBE guitar amplifier coming your way. All of the original amp’s features are onboard, including seven ultra-accurate COSM amp models, six DSP effects (chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo, and separate delay/reverb), a built-in digital tuner, recording/headphone output, and a stereo aux input for MP3/CD players. It can be powered on batteries (six AAs) or using the supplied AC adapter. It also includes a carrying strap, so you can jam anywhere.
Dynaudio Acoustics: The new 300-watt BM 14S Active Subwoofer is designed to complement the BM and M Series monitors, but Dynaudio says it works great with any stereo or multi-channel set-up. It’s equipped with an LFE output for daisy-chaining several subwoofers, but what’s really impressive is the fact that the onboard 12-inch driver delivers clean, precise low frequencies down to a room-shaking 18Hz! How low is that? A bass guitar’s lowest note (an open E string) is 42Hz, which puts this sub into 32-foot pipe organ pedal tone territory.