Manufacturers N thru Z
OPCODE announced OMS 2.0 for the Mac and Vision 2.5 for Windows. Opcode's product's are already great, it always amazes me that they continue to find way's to make them even better...and they had great demos by Gerry Basserman...WOW!



RACKACCESSORIES / MIDDLE ATLANTIC was showing off their very cool home studio furniture including their Multi-Desk System ($322.50) comprised of modular units which can be configured to your needs. They also had the Ratchet-10 Mixer Rack ($333.50), a 10 space rackmount road case that holds a 10 space mixer on the top which can be angled.



Last year CLAVIA DMI made a big splash with the Nord Lead Virtual Analog Synthesizer. Now, with Software ROM Update 2.0 , your Nord Lead can have from 10-30 Analog Drum Kits with as many as 8 zones each, plus 100 more Factory Performances, a new Notch Filter and many additional MIDI Features. The retail price of the Nordlead was also lowered - call for details.
If you've already got 12 voices and still want 12 more, get ready for the Nord 12-Voice Expander . It's a single rack space expander that also gives you a total of 4 separate Outputs. (Price to be announced)



PANASONIC showed us their new SV-3800 Professional DAT Recorder. Based on the popular SV-3700, the SV-3800 incorporates technological refinements for enhanced sound quality and functionality. It features new 20-bit resolution DACs, together with the same type of 1-bit, 64 times oversampling A-D converter employed in the SV-3700. The result is wider dynamic range, lower noise, and greater linearity. In audible terms this means natural sound, true to the original, with minimum coloration. Retail price of $1,695.00.



RODE has brought back a "classic" sound to recordings with the Classic Valve Mic. It uses the rare and costly 6072 tube which helps define the warmth and richness that the Classic provides. The Classic comes with a Custom Flight Case to keep it safe between sessions. It includes a high quality external power supply that allows you to remotely select any one of nine polar patterns. Very cool! The body is hand-crafted from solid brass, textured with fine glass bead blasting, and then a nickel finish is applied to provide lifelong durability. A tremendous value at only $1,799.00. Available in the Spring.

Also offered by RODE is a Large Diaphragm True Condenser Mic named the NT2. Featuring Dual Gradient Tranducers with Large Diaphragm and Gold Plated Membrane to warmly receive and translate the full body of the performance. It also comes with a Shock Mount, Flight Case, and Pop Filter. All this for a breakthrough price of $749.00. We have it in stock now and it has been a very popular choice.



The huge ROLAND booth showed alot of new products. Their breakthrough VS-880 Digital Studio Workstation (VS880HD, VS880J), a completely self-contained digital recorder/editor with a digital mixer, optional VS8F-1 onboard effects ($395), and removable or fixed storage media, stole the show with a list price of only $2,495 including an internal 540MB hard drive! ($2,895 with a Jazz Drive). This surely was the hit of the show!

On a smaller scale, the PMA-5 Personal Music Assistant , a palm-held workstation, offers a 306 tone GM/GS sound source, an 8-track sequencer, the Intelligent Arranger with 600 Patterns, a serial port, and is operated with a custom LCD touch-panel. It's very, very cool at only $595.00! I want one!

Their newest 88-note weighted controller, the A-90 Expandable MIDI Controller, has 23 assignable controllers and 4 MIDI Outs for 64 MIDI Channels and 8 Zones. It can be easily expanded to become a true Stereo Digital Piano and Synthesizer with their VE-RD1 Voice Expansion Board ($545). It can also take the VE-JV1 or VE-GS1 Voice Expansion Boards as well. All of this power comes with a price tag of only $2,495 for the A-90 or $2,995 for the expanded A-90EX .

There was also the XP-80 Music Workstation ($2,595), with 76 weighted keys driving the same engine as found in their successful XP-50 and JV-1080 Synths.

The A-33 MIDI Controller , a very low cost 76-note weighted master keyboard was listed at $695.00.

The new SR-JV80-09 "Session" Expansion Board ($475) adds 8 MB of top quality vintage keyboards including a "true stereo" grand piano and brass, strings and pop-oriented sounds.

Roland introduced quite a few new amps starting with the KC-500 Keyboard Amplifier ($799), a 4 Stereo Input (8 Mono) 150 watt amp feeding a 15" full range speaker and a 2" bullet driver. You can link two KC-500s for true stereo. There is also XLR and 1/4" stereo outputs.

For guitarists, there are four Blues Cube Amps featuring the RECTIFEX circuit which delivers the warm tones and creamy overdriven sounds of famous British amps.
The BC-30 is 30W with a 12" speaker ($379.00), the BC-60 is 60W with a 12" ($599.00), the new BC-30/210 has 30W going to two 10" speakers ($479), and the BC-60/310 has 60W firing into three 10" speakers ($779).

The amazing VG-8 can now go even further with the new user installable VG8S-1 System Expansion Board ($195), which adds four new instrument models including the long awaited "hollow-body" for acoustic and electro-acoustic sounds. There are also seven new pickup models, three new amp models, and even new effects including "intelligent" pitch Shifting and wah-wah.

There were also many other guitar and studio processors like the GX-700 Guitar Preamp/ Effects Processor with 21 pro effects ($695), the SX-700 Studio Effects Processor with 27 effects and 3D Panning and Spacial Processing ($645), the ME-8B Bass Multiple Effects floor unit with 23 effects including a "Defretter" for a fretless sound ($499), the VT-1 Voice Transformer ($395) which can pitch shift from a slight detuning to a full +/- one octave. It can also produce robot and vocoder like effects. And finally there is the handy SN-700 Noise/Hum Eliminator ($1,295), which allows you to easily dial out annoying noises and hums either manually or automatically.



SONIC ARTS presented the "Sounds Of The 70's" CD-ROM Sets for the Kurzweil K2000 / K2500 and E-mu Samplers. This two CD-ROM set ($250.00 Krz & $250.00 E-mu) contains over 800 megabytes of rare vintage instruments on CD-ROM including the actual Pianos used by the Temptations and the Spinners. Plus Stevie's "superstitious" D6 Clavinet, Ray Charles' Wurlitzer and the classic Rhodes blasted through real amps. There's fantastic B3 Organs with true Stereo Sampled Leslie crossfades with tones from mellow to full rock distortion. These are backed up with a full set of real Basses and ambient Acoustic Drum Kits and Percussion. You've never heard anything this fat in sample form before.



SOUNDCRAFT unveiled a new professional recording console, called the Ghost. It offers 4-band equalization with two fully parametric mids, 10 aux busses, a MIDI muting system, time code sync, machine transport control and 4 MIDI data faders. Ghost allows control of digital multi-track tape machines via MIDI machine control and even video machines via the Sony 9-pin professional standard. Ghost can also record enable tape from its computerized master section.It looks very good! Perfect for your ADAT's or DA88's.
Prices start at $3,950 for 16ch, $4950 for 24ch and $5950 for 32ch.



SPIRIT showed off the Spirit 8 Live Console. Available in four frame sizes- 16,24,32, and 40 mic channels- with up to 64 inputs available on the 40-channel version. Spirit Live 8 mixes 8 buses affordably with suggested retail prices: 16-channel ($4299.00), 24-channel ($5299.00), 32-channel ($6399.00), 40-channel ($8299.00).



TASCAM introduces the 424 MKII Portastudio for the musician looking to take the next step up in multitrack recording. Superior audio quality, balanced XLR inputs, enhanced equalization and big-studio style AUX section make this the ultimate compact 4-track Portastudio. Plus tape Direct Outs, for integration with external mixers. It has to be the best Portastudio ever made! Retails at $599.00.


Look at the M 08 as a good choice for live recording, public address, multimedia production and other applications where rugged and compact, full featured, high-caliber and versatile mixer is required. Retails at ($349.00).


A new Power Amplifier, the PA-150 rated at 150W sounds great and delivers the power you need. Suggested retail price $400.00.


Tascam also showed two new products, the DA38 8 Track Recorder, designed specifically for musicians and a MiniDisk based 564 4 Track Portastudio, due late summer...both are extremely hot...watch for more details later!



T.C. ELECTRONIC introduced their new Wizard M2000 digital studio signal processor. With the heritage of the incredibly popular M5000 behind it, the M2000 is bound to be a big hit. It has incredible quality effects and a brilliant user interface. It includes their new C.O.R.E. (Co-efficient Optimized Room Emulator) Reverb as well as seamless Morphing during preset changes and dynamic real-time control. It's generous 250 factory presets, 250 user presets, and Dithered Digital I/O connectors are even more astounding at it's retail cost of under $2000.00! Available in late Febuary, we can't wait for ours...!



Well, that's all we could fit into this 1996 Winter NAMM Show report without making it ridiculous to download. I hope that we were able to convey the excitement and furious activity that makes the NAMM Show one of my favorite perks of owning a music retail business. If you have any questions about anything you've read here, please feel free to contact your Sweetwater Sales Engineer for more details and your special Sweetwater price.

Sincerely,

Chuck Surack

Sweetwater Sound, LLC


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