- By David Stewart
--- See complete coverage
Los Angeles. City of Angels. The Sweetwater Sound NAMM crew descended on it Wednesday morning to find crystal clear skies and cool temperatures. Coming from Fort Wayne in January, we were quite content with the day’s high of 62 degrees. Heck, for us it was balmy. Given our track record, this trip was relatively uneventful. The fun began as soon as we touched down in LAX. We were swept away in a limo to the big JBL open house at their factory. From there it was one open house or party after another. The entire long weekend was jammed with events we needed to attend. Just coming up for air long enough to grab a hotdog for lunch was often a challenge.
Trade shows are a good excuse to party for some people. For us, it’s more like rigorous work. We want to be sure we are on top of our game and bringing the latest and greatest tools to our customers at the best possible prices. As is always the case it must be pointed out that this NAMM Show report is by no means a complete reference of everything going on at the show. It is way too big to cover in its entirety. A more complete report is available on our Web site (www.sweetwater.com). We must also remind you that because these products are new, details are still changing. Specifications, pricing, features, and availability dates will no doubt be updated in the next few weeks or months as some of these new products get closer to being released. All prices given are retail — Sweetwater prices (of course) will be lower.
ALESIS. They look about ready to ship their DG-8 ($2,499). Basically it is a QS-8 with active bi-amped speakers in a home cabinet. There are some new features, such as stretch and concert tuning modes. The TCR card has now become ADAT Edit with the price reduced to $399. They are billing it as a simple solution to people who want to edit ADAT tracks without a lot of fuss. The package comes with software (Emagic’s Micrologic AV) and drivers for Mac and PC. They have a very nice looking powered subwoofer, the S-1, with 250 watts into an 8" woofer for $499. They also introduced the ADAT StudioPack ($1,999 — see page 10 for full details). Their new AI3 ($499), 8-channel A/D converter with optical out, is supposed to ship in May. While Alesis hasn’t said it, the writing is on the wall that this will become a front end for ADAT Edit, which will turn it into a stand-alone hard disk recording platform.
ARBORETUM SYSTEMS showed a new pitch processor and harmonizer called, oddly enough, Harmony. It uses a graphical interface to fix errant pitches and add harmony parts to audio tracks. The software is in public beta and will be priced at $349 when it ships later this spring.
BITHEADZ. Riding on the tail of their tremendously successful AS-1 and DS-1 software synth and sampler, they announced Voodoo, a software drum machine for the Mac that plays samples and MIDI files triggered from the keyboard, MIDI controller or MIDI application running on the same CPU.
CAKEWALK. Studio Mix ($899) is a new bundle from them that includes Cakewalk Pro, and a very cool new motorized control surface made by Peavey. The Peavey surface has audio inputs and outputs for handling basic studio routing and recording needs (you supply your own sound card). They also showed AFX-3, a new plug-in for designing room ambience based on actual models of rooms. You design the room shape, surfaces and location of your sound source on screen, and it does the rest.
DBX showed their new Quantum ($1,999), a single rack space, digital 24-bit / 96k mastering processor. It includes programmable multi-band compressors and dithering with noise shaping along with 48-bit internal processing.
DIGITECH will be adding a digital output to the GSP 2120 guitar processor and will also make the foot controller an option, since studio users don’t always need it. The new price will be $899. A non-digital out floor version called the RP-21 ($849) will ship soon.
EARTHWORKS showed their SR77 ($599), which is basically a Z-30X in a new, more durable, black casing.
EMAGIC. They introduced Waveburner, CD Mastering software for Macintosh, and Audiowerk 2 ($299), which is a two-channel version of the Audiowerk8. It will come with Waveburner and Micrologic AV. Their first USB MIDI interface, the AMT8 ($499) will be an 8 x 8 configuration with no time code capabilities.
E-MU / ENSONIQ. A rack mounted version of the popular Fizmo keyboard was shown ($999), while the E-mu E4XT Ultra samplers up the ante again on sampling instruments. These 128-voice polyphonic units feature extremely fast new processors that provide accurate triggering of all 128 voices (most keyboards get pretty sloppy up there) and come with software to do SCSI transfers and control between your favorite PC or Mac. Depending upon configuration, prices range from about $2,800 to about $3,600. The new Avista 8800 home piano has a brand new 88-note keyboard that feels great. It is available in a cherry or rosewood cabinet, has Ensoniq’s normal complement of piano related sounds, and a disk drive. Paris 2.0 was shown in action. It will ship with new features such as interleaved file importing and exporting, a crossfade toolbar, and ASIO drivers. Interestingly, they swear they have tested it extensively on the newest blue G3 Macintosh computers with complete success. So if you need a good hard disk system now and can’t wait for everyone else to get it together on these new machines Paris may be just the ticket.
EVENT. The first thing they did was hand us a floppy with the final gold version of the Layla drivers for Mac. They are also up on their Web page.
FOCUSRITE added the Compounder ($899) to their platinum line. It is a full-featured compressor limiter with a bass expander that adds downward 2nd harmonic distortion. It really does wonders for restoring squashed bass tracks.
FOSTEX. Their new addition to the CD recorder market is the CDR-300 ($1,425). It reads and writes CDR and CD-RW, has a full-featured I/O, and has several erase modes for CD-RW discs. They also introduced the D-108 ($1,495) 8-track hard disk recorder. It comes with a 5.2 gig hard drive and ca write .WAV files, so it’s easy to interface with your PC.
GENERALMUSIC. The SK-880 and SK-760 are new keyboards based on the SK-88 and SK-76 respectively. These instruments offer 16Mb of ROM sounds, (over 1200 sounds) and 192 new accompaniment styles on board. There will also be “Power Station” versions of both instruments which will feature a hard disk drive pre-loaded with songs, styles and new sounds. New versions of the Equinox synthesizer were also shown; the Equinox 76 being an extended keyboard version of the Equinox 61, while the new Equinox 88 Pro offers all of the standard features, but also includes the Piano, Rhodes and Wurlitzer sounds and physical modeling technology from the PRO2 piano.
GIBSON showed a new 15-watt class-A tube amp with reverb, a blond ES-135 ($1,700), and a new hollow body Les Paul with F holes. They also had some 1959 40-year anniversary Les Pauls in various states of completion on display.
HHB had a new CDR up their sleeves. The CDR-850 ($1,299) has XLR analog and all the major digital I/O capabilities. The very sophisticated menu systems allows for all sorts of specific control over its operation, including the alleged ability to “unfinalize” CD-RW discs. The Circle 3 monitors will show up as the little brother to their Circle 5s. They have a 4.5" woofer and come in powered ($895) and unpowered ($449) versions. They also showed us a new line of tube gear they are distributing in the states. The Radius Line includes a four-channel tube mic preamp, two-channel tube EQ, two-channel tube compressor/limiter, and a tube mixer channel with EQ and compression. Prices start at $789. The Classic Line includes even higher end versions of the devices above with the addition of a stereo tube preamp that has transformer I/O and a pentode tube doing the gain control. Sounds sweet. It is $1,850. Both the Radius and Classic lines look and feel very sophisticated and expensive, yet are priced competitively.
KORG. Their slogan of “there is more than one way to groove” couldn’t have been more true. The EA-1 ($499) drum synth and ER-1 ($499) rhythm synth produce modeled analog sounds that are quite nostalgic and powerful. There’s nothing like that buff analog low end.
LINE 6. The new Boxer amp should be really popular. It appears to be based on a sound set similar to what is in their Pod module. A single 12" version is $399 and there will be a 2 x 10" version for $467.
MACKIE showed 20 new products at the show. First there were new “Pro” versions of the CR1604, 1402, and 1202 mixers with newly redesigned mic preamps (see Page 8). They also introduced a killer new series of powered mixers, all with dual graphic equalizers and built-in digital effects. The 406M ($699) has six channels and 500 watts. The 408M ($799) has eight channels with 500 watts, and the 408S ($899) is the same, but with stereo 500 watt amplifiers. The 808M ($899) has 8 channels / 1000 watts, and the 808S ($999) has two 1000 watt amps. These are PA heads, but they also introduced desk style boards in 12, 16, and 20 channels with even more features. As amazing as all these mixers are, they were somewhat overshadowed by Mackie’s new PA speakers. The most notable was the SRM450 ($799), a 2-way bi-amped system with a 12" speaker and long throw horn. The C300 ($399) is the unpowered version. The MAS 1530 is a 3-way tri-amped system with super high fidelity. The SRS 1500a is a powered 600-watt 15" subwoofer designed to be used with the above systems. Then there’s the new Fussion Series line of speakers which includes the Fussion 3000 ($4,499), a tri-amped 3-way system with a total of almost 2000 watts of power. On the power amp front they have added the economical M800 ($599) to their line with 275 watts per channel at 4 ohms. Last but not least, they unveiled Version 2.0 software for the D8b digital mixer. We saw this version last Fall while it was still cooking. There are some amazing new features, as well as many improvements to existing features and yes, there are even some bug fixes. There is a new screen that shows the entire configuration of one channel at a glance with some very sexy looking graphics. This new version also makes the board and all of its interfacing fully 24-bit.
MARANTZ. Amidst the plethora of low priced CDR machines, they have taken the high road with the new CDR-640 ($1,800) mastering CDR. They claim greatly improved A/D converters and a 1MB buffer for true frame accurate recording. They claim this is potentially the only true “press and forget” machine on the market, meaning it is stable and robust enough to make perfect CDs every single time. Of course it can do CD-RW, as well.
MARK OF THE UNICORN gave attendees a sneak peek of a new feature called POLAR, which will be built into Digital Performer 2.6 when it ships (see more).
 Tube gear? It's still hot, as evidenced by this entry from Tube Tech |
NOVATION. On their own now as a separate entity from Music Industries, their SuperNova ASM (Analog Sound Module) can now be had in a tabletop version for $1,499. This version sports two audio inputs and the same audio engine as the rack version, but has 12 voices, 6 parts, and 6 outputs.
OPCODE showed several products to go with their DATPort. OpticalPort is an optical to USB converter that also has two 1/8" analog inputs for easy entry into the computer from analog sources. DATPort Plus is just like DATPort, but will have analog converters as well. MIDIPort 64 (4 x 4) and MIDIPort 128 (8 x 8) will add to their line of USB MIDI interfaces started by MIDIPort 32 (a 2 x 2 interface announced recently in inSync), but both will have SMPTE capability.
OVATION. The electronics in many of their new guitars now include a digital tuner with muting and balanced outputs. They have also introduced a round sound hole version of the famous Adamas guitar.
PARKER made some huge waves with their MIDI equipped NiteFly guitar. I don’t mean MIDI equipped like you have to have some interface to do MIDI. I mean there is a standard five pin MIDI DIN connector right on the guitar for you to plug into the module or keyboard of your choice. They also showed the new Spanish Fly (no jokes please) nylon string guitar.
 PRS Guitars always draw big crowds at NAMM. |
Paul Reed Smith Guitars showed off a beautiful new raspberry color that is just stunning. They also have a new piezo pickup system in many arch top models that allows the player to recreate even more realistic acoustic sounds. This is the best sounding system we’ve heard to date. Also, in the “take your breath away” department were the limited edition Dragon 2000 guitars ($20,000 — see Page 15).
ROLAND. Oh man. As usual, they had tons of new gear to show us. The most notable development, and one of the undisputed hits of the show, was the announcement of their digital mixer line. We’ve even whipped up a special Web page to cover them in detail (go to www.sweetwater.com/reports/winter-namm99/roland/). Bringing up the budget end of this amazing new product line is the VM-3100 ($995) with 12 channels, 8 buses and built-in stereo effects, and VM-3100Pro ($1,295) with 20 channels, 8 buses, and 2 stereo effects processors.The company also announced several enhancements to the VS Series software and hardware (covered on Page 7 of this issue).
Rounding out their VS and VM lines are new digital monitors. The DS-90s ($595 a pair) are bi-amped, self powered monitors with a 1" tweeter and a 6.5" woofer. They have analog and digital inputs. The really interesting part is that the new studio monitor emulation algorithms in the VS and VM products are designed with these in mind. The idea is that with these monitors and one of those machines it is possible to simulate just about any monitoring system available. They also debuted the SRV-3030 ($695) digital reverb with digital output option (add $300), and a new COSM modeling bass amp called the DB-500 ($999), the DJ-1000 ($895) DJ mixer, a new DR-770 ($495) drum machine, GT-3 ($495) guitar effects processor with “auto riff” feature (you have to hear this to believe it), a powerful new hardware sequencer, the MC-80 ($1,295).
So did they have any new keyboards, you ask? Of course! A new stage piano, the RD-100 ($1,495), and new FP-9 ($2,795) digital home piano were nice additions. The new EM-2000 ($3,195) is their most sophisticated auto-arranging keyboard to date. It includes their patented D-Beam and a Zip drive. The EG-101 ($995) Groove Keyboard looks like a lot of fun and sports a very cool retro look. The new half-rack space, 64-voice JV-1010 module has the complete JV-1080 and 2080 sound set on board (1023 patches before expansion), plus it has one additional expansion slot for the SRJV board of your choice. Is that all? No, but this is all the room we have.
SONIC FOUNDRY. They have a new bundle for mastering called Mastering House. It comes with Sound Forge 4.5, CD Architect, XFX-1 and XFX-2 plug-ins.
SONY. They have a new portable MD recorder, the MZR-55, which replaces the MSR-50. Miniaturization at work: This unit is hardly any bigger than a Mini-Disc. They also showed a dual Mini-Disc recorder and a Mini-Disc with CD player. Topping off the line was the new MDSE-11 ($825) pro Mini-Disc recorder in a single rack space with AES/EBU, S/PDIF, and balanced analog I/O. A “prosumer” version in two rack spaces, the MDSE-58 ($520) has RCA analog, optical, and S/PDIF coax connections. They also showed a new frequency agile, snap on wireless microphone transmitter. It will operate for four hours on two AA batteries and allegedly has the highest radiating output of any device in its class.
SOUNDTECH added a new portable PA to their line. The AL-1W ($849) looks just like the AL-1 system, but adds a built-in wireless system for your convenience.
STEINBERG showed new versions of most of their products. Most interesting was their new “rocket powered” Cubase. It supposedly allows for real time interactive sequencing and performing over the Internet.
TASCAM. The new DA-40 ($1,399), a replacement for the DA-30MKII, looks great and should be shipping by the time you read this. Bringing up the PortaStudio end was the new 424MKIII ($599), which is basically similar to the MKII with a more flexible mixer. They also introduced the IFPCI-16 ($599), a PCI Mac or PC card that supports 16 tracks of TDIF to and from DA-series multitrack machines. It is ASIO compliant and has DA sync ports for control over machines and sample accurate transfers. Finally, the TM-D4000 ($4,299) digital mixer was a huge hit. With moving faders, 8 aux buses, built in multieffects, dynamics and EQ on every channel, as well as plug-in cards for more I/O, this looks to be a very competitive digital mixer. Only five buttons on the entire surface of the console have more than one function, so it is very intuitive to use. There are even dedicated ports allowing up to four units to be cascaded together. Look for a full report in our next issue.
TAKAMINE. Their new electronics include a programmable preamp with a built- in effects processor. You can program effects setting, level, EQ, and overall volume.
TANNOY. The PS110 ($495) and PS115B ($1,299) active subs were shown. These are meant to be used with their powered Reveal monitors.
TC ELECTRONIC. The Finalizer96K looked ready to go. This is the 24-bit / 96k version of their popular mastering processor. Old units can be upgraded for just $100, which is the difference in retail price. They have also introduced a 24 / 96 card for their M5000 processor. Their Megaverb plug-in is now bundled with their TC Tools package for $995.
TUBE TECH introduced the CL2A ($3,495), which is essentially a two-channel version of their successful CL1V tube compressor.
WALDORF. If you like the "swooshy, mooshy" sounds of their past Microwave synths then you will like the new Microwave II keyboard.
WAVES. In addition to their L2 hardware maximizer, they showed a whole slew of new plug-in bundles for Mac and PC. They have new processors like Metaflanger and Mondo Mod, as well as Super Tap that are included in some of them. I'm sure you can figure out what these do. They claim 56-bit audio match on TDM systems.
Watch for updates and full coverage of these products here in Sweet Notes and in our inSync Web daily.