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Summer NAMM 2017


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I'd like to go to Summer NAMM again - haven't been in several years. But hotel cost has become shockingly expensive and I simply can't justify it. I've also found this year that hotel prices, at least at the cheap places where I stay, have nearly doubled since last year.

 

"Our show" has been discovered, I guess.

 

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Nashville hotel prices are out of control. It's much cheaper to rent a car and stay at a motel outside of town.

 

I'm not sure how big the show will be this year, but I'll be scoping it out and if there's anything exciting, HC will know about it.

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Nashville hotel prices are out of control. It's much cheaper to rent a car and stay at a motel outside of town.

 

I'm not sure how big the show will be this year, but I'll be scoping it out and if there's anything exciting, HC will know about it.

 

Hotel prices in Anaheim are out of control this year, too. This is about the time I make my reservations for the NAMM show, and the Dumpy Ramada and Dumpy Travelodge within walking distance of the convention center are within a few cents of double what they were last year. I ended up reserving an AirBnB at about 20% more than I spent on a hotel last year.

 

I stayed outside of town a couple of years for Summer NAMM, but now parking has become a hassle. Used to be that you could park in that church lot across from the old convention center for three bucks all day, but last time I was there, maybe 4 years ago, it was double that for half a day and then you had to put more money in the collection plate. If you got there at the crack of dawn you could park free in the library garage, but I don't know what that's like now.

 

In Anaheim, I want to stay within walking distance because of the hour and a half traffic jam before and after the show. 25 years ago, you could park in the convention center garage for $3, now it's only open to bigger VIPs than me and it's at least $20. And there's still the traffic jam.

 

And shows are really clumped up this year. AES and the New York NAB shows are concurrent in October, then NAMM, on the heels of CES, comes just three months later, and AES has a chunk of NAMM this year. Good thing I don't have much interest in attending InfoComm.

 

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There going to be a panel on vinyl mastering that should be interesting. Being NAMM, it'll probably focus more on the business side than on chips and styli, but it sounds like a good crew. From a press release:

 

Vinyl records are projected to sell 40 million units in 2017, with sales nearing the $1 billion benchmark for the first time this millennium, according to Forbes. In this session, three leading mastering engineers will fill attendees in on how to ride the vinyl wave with high-fidelity results. The session will be moderated by noted journalist Dan Daley, and alongside Boulanger will be fellow panelists Glenn Meadows (mastering engineer, Mayfield Mastering) and Cameron Henry (mastering engineer, Welcome to 1979).

 

Topics of discussion will include the differences, in both hardware and technique, between mastering for vinyl vs. digital formats; unique challenges faced in mastering for vinyl; the direction of the role of vinyl in the music industry; financial aspects of the vinyl mastering world; and more.

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Nashville hotel prices are out of control. It's much cheaper to rent a car and stay at a motel outside of town.

 

I'm not sure how big the show will be this year, but I'll be scoping it out and if there's anything exciting, HC will know about it.

 

 

YEP. 32$ FOR 6 HOURS OF PARKING ACROSS THE STREET..from NAMM , because , once again they aren't satisfied with ONE convention at a time. Last year it was basketball and NAMM. This year it is some other convention and NAMM....which fills up the parking lot and forces everyone to park somewhere else.

 

Dan

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Hotel prices in Anaheim are out of control this year, too.

 

In Anaheim, I want to stay within walking distance

 

because of the hour and a half traffic jam before and after the show. 25 years ago, you could park in the convention center garage for $3, now it's only open to bigger VIPs than me and it's at least $20. And there's still the traffic jam.

 

And shows are really clumped up this year. AES and the New York NAB shows are concurrent in October, then NAMM, on the heels of CES, comes just three months later, and AES has a chunk of NAMM this year. Good thing I don't have much interest in attending InfoComm.

 

 

Well, for Anaheim, you're making things WAYYYYYYYY TOO HARD EVERY YEAR!!!! imo.

 

1. Stay somewhere nice, nowhere near Anaheim....pick somewhere south, for example. Any number of areas "south" of the convention area by 5-10 minutes drive time... massively less expensive too. "South" is also easily coupled with south+west.....south+east... bazillions of choices to stay.

 

2. Each morning, get in the car, drive north till you get at or before Orangewood. (gee, but I don't want to use a car.....hey.... we're talking about a five minute drive here and your peace of mind, savings of $ and overall lengthening of your lifespan by untold minutes)....At any point in that general Orangewood area, turn west one or so block and then south one or so block and park free in any of the z-i-l-i-o-n-s of free residential spots.... and I mean free, close, and ....free... and close. No Grandmas sitting in lawn chairs collecting money....nope. Free.

3. Park car and get a nice little 4 minute exercise jaunt up Harbor or West to your particular favorite Namm entrance.

 

You park free... you're within a few minute walk in/out of the center ...and....when you leave at 5pm or whatever, you have ZERO traffic jam because you simply go back south on Harbor or whatever to your chosen nicely-priced Hotel (don't stay on Harbor hotels though....imo). There's no traffic because the jam (when will they ever learn) is all at Katella/Harbor and points left/right of that. Unbelievable humans!!!!

 

But there you'll be, zipping out of your free park spot and on southward away from all the commotion. Very relaxing!!

 

I do this every year and always have. Although my house is in Irvine or LA, depending on where I am. Even when I exhibited, I never parked any way other than free, using this same procedure every year. Including now.

 

Winter Namm....always come in to the area from the south ..... never venture further north than Orangewood to park.....and life is much easier.

 

PS... I could tell you exact streets to park on, but for that info, you'll first have to buy a new Studer 827 from me (taking reservations and deposits soon... in my mind...no way is it really happening.... yes it is.... no it isn't... yes it is)

 

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I have tried that approach with exception to looking for parking on neighborhood streets. I think that as a relatively local resident, you probably have a better idea of where to go and what you can get away with. As one who comes there once a year, I can't depend on finding a nearby legal parking space. Where I live, more and more residential streets are becoming "parking for zone # only." I'm sure that will eventually catch on in neighborhoods within walking distance of the convention center and disneyland.

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I have tried that approach with exception to looking for parking on neighborhood streets. I think that as a relatively local resident, you probably have a better idea of where to go and what you can get away with. As one who comes there once a year, I can't depend on finding a nearby legal parking space. Where I live, more and more residential streets are becoming "parking for zone # only." I'm sure that will eventually catch on in neighborhoods within walking distance of the convention center and disneyland.

 

Yes, the neighborhood sidestreets off any of the major east/west streets..ie.. Orangewood spinoffs and south. It's not a matter of getting away with anything as these streets are all legal and marked by the city as a-okay parking. Spots are plentiful day after day. It may be that Saturdays are a bit more crowded for spots.... I don't go to Namm on Saturdays...but I know how many neighborhood streets are clumped back in there beyond the main drag and parking is definitely do-able.

 

You'll easily see anything that resembles streetsweeping day limitations. I personally don't think some of the inner streets have been swept since 1958. Tract-only parking limitation signage is not a feature of the offshoot neighborhoods, but you do see those on West, Orangewood, etc..

 

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Please check out the final Summer NAMM 2017 Report:

 

http://www.harmonycentral.com/articles/summer-namm-2017---show-report

 

Yeah!!!!! A TUBE TESTER was there!!!! I remember those. In fact, now that Craig posted a reminder photo, I'm sorta in the mood for a big fat VST meter with a green/red area like on old tube testers where the needle only points to Good or Bad. Can someone whip one up?

 

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Yeah!!!!! A TUBE TESTER was there!!!! I remember those. In fact, now that Craig posted a reminder photo, I'm sorta in the mood for a big fat VST meter with a green/red area like on old tube testers where the needle only points to Good or Bad. Can someone whip one up?

 

I must have missed that photo. Is this a new product, or just part of someone's exhibit? Last time I remember a tube tester at a NAMM show was when Aspen Pittman had bought the dregs of a Sylvania tube factory and planned to start making tubes again in the US. He had their hand built research lab tube tester on display in his booth that year. It (the tube tester) was bigger than many of the booths at this year's Summer NAMM. He eventually gave up on the project because it was too expensive to deal with all of the environmental protection requirements.

 

I remember seeing, not a full-out tube tester, but a gadget specifically for matching power tubes commonly used in guitar amplifiers. And then there was the custom built tube tester to match up pairs of tubes for a modern version variable-mu compressor (Tube Equipment Corporation, of course). It had 24 or 32 sockets, you filled it up with tubes, and it gave you a listing of the socket numbers with the most closely matched pairs of the lot.

 

As far as a tube-tester-like VST meter, that would make a good gag "mastering" plug-in. ;)

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I think they should change their name to IAMM.

 

As in "International" rather than "National?" They tried something like that a few years back, telling the press to call it "The International Music Marketplace" or something like that rather than "NAMM" but it didn't work. Nobody ever called it anything but "NAMM" so that's what it remains.

 

Same thing happened with CES only the other way around. Media often expanded the acronym at least once in their articles, and last year the organization tried to make it clear that it wasn't "The Consumer Electronics Show," they wanted it to be known as just plain "CES."

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As in "International" rather than "National?" They tried something like that a few years back, telling the press to call it "The International Music Marketplace" or something like that rather than "NAMM" but it didn't work. Nobody ever called it anything but "NAMM" so that's what it remains.

 

Same thing happened with CES only the other way around. Media often expanded the acronym at least once in their articles, and last year the organization tried to make it clear that it wasn't "The Consumer Electronics Show," they wanted it to be known as just plain "CES."

 

Sounds too much like that other association that starts with NAM. And they can call it NAMM if they want. It should be re-registered as IAMM for every non US member. Must be tons of them.

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