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Winter NAMM 2018: rumours, guesses and hopes


Mats Nermark

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So it's less then 7 week til NAMM. And NAMM 2018 will be bigger than ever with two new big floors. So everyone who knew where everybody used to be have to relearn. I see this as an excellent opportunity to keep my eyes wide open to see old things in new ways.

 

As to rumours, guesses and hopes, here are mine in a mix in no particular order:

Kemper. There's been talk of revamping the reverb section and elevate to the same quality as the new delay section. I was happy enough with the old delays but when the new algorithms were released I was very impressed and would very much life to see a reverb section at the same level.

I would like to see more OD models and a Dimension D (or C).

Hope, as in more of a dream, would be if they could refine their pitch detection (which BTW works very well for pitch effects) and have a synthesiser algorithm. Polyphonic would be great but I would happily settle for a monophonic version. Just thinking of a Virus synth (which Mr Kemper designed and programmed) playable with my guitar makes me drool.

 

I sincerely hoping Roland/Boss will release a follow-up to the mighty VG-99 and it would ideally include the Harmonic Restructuring technology that was found in the VG-88. Hopefully it would work with just an ordinary guitar input like their SY-300.

 

I love the Atomic Amps AmpliFire and the Firebox but I would like to see a more stomp box like compressor.

 

As more and more people record in their homes and have more and more sound sources that are not used at the same time, I think a good line mixer with an integrated audio I/F could see a big customer base. I have many guitar processors that I want to keep hooked up at all time because I want to move fast when the creative mood hits me. Just select what I want to record and hit the red button. I know there are many sound card with multiple inputs but very few of them works as a mixer. Sometimes I want to play a backing track on my smartphone hooked up to the mixer and play along with the tune without having to turn on my recording PC. Sort of like the Samson SM10 with USB recording capacity.

 

I'm hoping to finally find a pair of headphones I can do my final mixes on and that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

 

I'd like to find a really compact recording desk (= piece of furniture) that allows me a better work environment.

 

I'd like the CITES problem to go away!

 

I'm hoping for good weather!

 

Above all, I hope to bump into all the people I've had the privilege to get to know through the years and that they tell me that they are happy, healthy and successful!

 

 

What do you have to say?

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mats N

 

 

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As more and more people record in their homes and have more and more sound sources that are not used at the same time, I think a good line mixer with an integrated audio I/F could see a big customer base. I have many guitar processors that I want to keep hooked up at all time because I want to move fast when the creative mood hits me. Just select what I want to record and hit the red button. I know there are many sound card with multiple inputs but very few of them works as a mixer. Sometimes I want to play a backing track on my smartphone hooked up to the mixer and play along with the tune without having to turn on my recording PC. Sort of like the Samson SM10 with USB recording capacity.

 

I think PreSonus (the latest StudioLive generation) and QSC (TouchMix) already do pretty much what you want for a mixer with interfacing.

 

I'm hoping to finally find a pair of headphones I can do my final mixes on and that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

 

Well now that I don't work with Gibson, I can recommend the KRK KNS 8400 without looking like a shill. They're great and around $150 or less on sale.

 

What do you have to say?

 

Hall E, baby! Or is there still a Hall E?

 

 

 

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There BETTER be a Hall E!!! :D

 

There's a Hall E. The generic map describes it as "unamplified instruments." Go to the map here: http://floorplan.namm.org/WN18/ and if you have a computer with powerful graphics processing or a lot of patience, you can zoom in and see who's where.

 

Don't worry, Ken, Strymon will be in their usual place.

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Tascam is dipping back into the water with a quarter-inch 4trk reel to reel tape recorder... because it has to. Theme is something to the effect of "4" "40 years etc, tying in to 1978 and 2018 being forty years apart. The ad campaign is kinda cute as it resembles the 1978 bundle ad giveaway campaign Teac/Tascam did... which will be shown at a nice red-roped off section of the Tascam booth. Operating tape machines will be in another part of the booth where, though you can't listen/record stuff, you can see the reels of tape swirl back and forth in ff and rew.... which will mesmerize and hypnotize enough visitors and clog some aisles for sure.

 

The booth area will show the 2018 giveaway bundle stuff (now updated from 1978).... which is part of the national giveaway too.....two of the 4trk machines, blank tape, the new, fairly compact anniversary analog mixer they've come up with that goes beyond the model5b and is also a controller for integrating the tape machine to daw (cute little thing) .....a full-sized-keyed current Arp Odyssey courtesy of Korg (albeit the 1978 Tascam giveaway was with a 2600), several Gibson Guitars, electric piano, Hammond organ, a surprise Namm announcement of a limited edition 25-2 mixdown machine (the view being that those may or may not take off long term, but are perfect for the complete-tape-studio-system approach of the ad campaign)......a set of studio monitors (I forget which ones), power amp, nice set of 4 studio mics and stands... even those funky orange 1978 road cases that say "Tascam" on them....and some other cool secrets to be announced.

 

As an added bonus, that blonde chick from 1978 ads will be back and in that same Teac/Tascam T shirt that many of us gazed longingly at. And her 21-yr old daughter. Along with the entire set of booth employees wearing those T shirts and sporting 1978 hairdoos and other time-appropriate looks.

 

The best part of this? Depending on the response over the next 3 months or so at the dealer level, a lineup of half-inch, one-inch, and special-order 2-inch machines are waiting for the green light. To focus the impact, only five dealers are assigned for the first year. As it was in the beginning :)

 

Six regional electronics service centers have signed up and qualified to service the new machines. A national set of how-to seminars will be on the road.

 

There's so much more that I'm not allowed to reveal at the moment. I'll actually find out more when I walk through Namm on setup days.

 

But I can tell you one thing absolutely for sure............ I have no clue what I'm talking about and you can't believe a word I say.

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But I can tell you one thing absolutely for sure............ I have no clue what I'm talking about and you can't believe a word I say.

 

I was almost ready to believe TASCAM brining back an analog recorder until you got to the part about the 1978 hairdos. But I remember that they had an analog reel-to-reel recorder behind glass in their booth a couple of years back.

 

 

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rumor has it that Gibson for the first time in many years won't attend NAMM.

 

 

This is now confirmed.

 

According to the Gibson Brands "the company will focus on an expanded, global, multi-brand presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Jan. 9 – 12, 2018".

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mats N

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According to the Gibson Brands "the company will focus on an expanded, global, multi-brand presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Jan. 9 – 12, 2018".

 

They did that last year, too - had a big tent in the parking lot across from the convention center with bands playing loud. I was trying to have a chat with Skipper and Martins at the Blue Mics table and we had to shout at each other. Lots of guitars around for the playing. They also sponsored the media literature bags (I saved the Gibson hat). And in past years, they've had a small booth on the regular CES show floor, usually showing one or two recent developments. I think that's where I first saw them showing the automatic guitar tuners, and I think one year they showed a guitar with a USB output. I think Craig was demonstrating it there, long before he started working for Gibson as a real employee.

 

At NAMM, as far back as I remember, access to the Gibson room was restricted to dealers and there were only a few hours during the show when non-dealers could come in and browse.

 

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Notwithstanding Gibson (which probably did better at CES), Tascam is at NAMM 2018 in a fairly large booth just up the way from Presonus. So.. thank you Gibson for that.

 

I forgot in my previous rambling about Tascam's 2018 tape machines and the retro 1978 type giveaway.... they'll also maybe have as one of the giveaway mics, one of the reissue Neuman tube u-67s that are being announced at the show. Remember, I am consistently full of unreliable information.

 

I just received my badge confirmation this afternoon, so I'll for sure be angling among the crates/aisles/ on tues/wed of show week (as usual).

 

Maybe Korg will show a full size Arp Centaur.

 

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