Winter NAMM 2014

[64Guitars]

Winter NAMM starts tomorrow in Anaheim, California. Pre-show product announcements have been popping up all week. There hasn't been anything so far that particularly turns my crank, but I thought I'd post some of the more interesting products here and continue to post more new products as they're announced throughout the show.

Roland announced most of their new products a week ago on their Roland Connect site.

Though it's not something that I'd be in the market for, the new FA-06 keyboard looks interesting.

FA-06 Music Workstation  (click to view full size)


There's a new Boss overdrive pedal (OD-1X) and distortion pedal (DS-1X). And a new multi-effects unit (ME-80).

And, though not officially announced yet, the following two products were leaked. Expect more details tomorrow.

TR-8 drum machine  (click to view full size)


VT-3 Voice Transformer  (click to view full size)

[64Guitars]

Bitwig has finally announced a release date for their Bitwig Studio DAW. It will be available March 26, 2014. What sets this apart from other DAWs is that, in addition to Windows and Mac versions, there is a native Linux version. I'd love to try it. But at $399 (€299), I'll pass.

http://www.bitwig.com/en/bitwig-studio

[64Guitars]

Nord Lead A1 analog modeling synthesizer  (click image to view full size)


http://www.nordkeyboards.com/main.asp?tm=Products&clpm=Nord_Lead_A1

[64Guitars]

Focusrite iTrack Dock ($249.99).

http://global.focusrite.com/ipad-audio-interfaces/itrack-dock#overview

and see this post:

https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=17202.msg249102#msg249102




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XChkGlKV-V8

[64Guitars]

This looks really cool! Unfortunately, it's not available yet. The company is trying to raise money through Kickstarter. The expected final retail price is $199 US.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/livid/guitar-wing-wireless-control-surface-for-guitar-an

[64Guitars]

The new Trigger Finger Pro from M-Audio looks pretty good. But I'd have to try out the pads before I'd know if I want to buy it. My AKAI MPK25 has similar pads but they aren't sensitive enough to be useful. You have to pound them really hard to get a sound. If the Trigger Finger Pro is like that too, then I wouldn't buy it. But if the pads are sensitive enough to respond to normal finger tapping, then I might be interested. It would be great for drum tracks.

Available Spring 2014 at a street price of $399 US.

Press release: http://www.m-audio.com/wnamm2014/pdf/M-Audio_TriggerFingerPro_NAMM2014.pdf

(click image to view full size)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMT27UCemvY

[64Guitars]

Speaking of my MPK25, AKAI has just announced new versions of that line.

http://www.akaipro.com/wnamm2014

The new MPK225 is $250 US. They've reduced the number of continuous controllers from 12 to 8 and the number of pads have also been reduced from 12 to 8. Seems like a step backward rather than forward.



The 49-key MPK249 looks more interesting. It's $400 US.



Press release: http://www.akaipro.com/tradeshow/wnamm2014/press-releases/AkaiPro_MPKmkII_NAMM2014.pdf

[64Guitars]

Alesis iO Dock II. This one's designed to work with newer iPads with the Lightning connector or older iPads with the 30-pin connector. Pricing and availability to be announced.

http://www.alesis.com/io-dock-ii

[64Guitars]

Alesis Samplepad Pro percussion pad with onboard sound storage.

• Play onboard sounds or load your own via the SD card slot
• 10 ready-to-play kits with over 200 drum and cymbal sounds
• 8 two-shot, isolated rubber pads with active blue LED illumination
• Two additional pad inputs, plus kick and hi-hat trigger/switch inputs
• Save sounds on SD card (up to 20 Kits), accessible via USB
• LCD display and software utility for complete control
• 1/4" stereo outputs (L, R); 1/4" headphone output
• 1/8" stereo aux input with level control; MIDI In & Out

$299 US. Includes a 32 GB SD card loaded with drum and cymbal samples from AIR and SONiVOX.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqWdnO7cnYg

[64Guitars]

Not much of a product announcement but I thought this guy was kinda funny. He reminds me of Garth Algar (Dana Carvey) from Wayne's World a bit, especially at the end.  


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9TFmULSbSc