Best NAMM in years?

Seems so to me! Between Roland, Access, DSI, and the rest, I don't even care if Yamaha sleeps through this one . . .

I care. I'd like to see a Motif XS rack, please.

I hope Yamaha kicks some ass myself.

Well, I care, and I hope, but I don't get my hopes up anymore.

At my age it takes a lot to get me worked up. I haven't left the computer all day. Got a Thurs. night gig though... gotta get outa here. Peace-

Well it looks like Korg and Novation are also taking a nap.

As a whole this NAMM is boring, Roland must be laughing hard this year thought, they have a great line-up.

Had Waldorf launched the Stromberg, it certainly would have been...

check here...www.yamaha.com/namm

Unless Korg pulls something out of a hat tomorrow, they pretty much passed on this NAMM. Novation did announce the Automap Universal 2.0 which is great for soft synth players.

In 1984, Roland had just about every classic synth they ever made in their catalog. That would have been one incredible NAMM if they presented them all there. http://brochures.yokochou.com/keyboard-and-effector/roland/1984/index.html

I did . . . P-85 digital piano w/64 note polyphony, that's as thrilling as it gets, so far . . . I'll check back later.

I used to be heavily emotionally invested in Yamaha, with my DX7IID. But that was so long ago. First they dropped user-defined microtonal scale capability, then gradually they dropped all their methods of synthesis other than sampling, although they still have their plug in boards. But that's the point, I'm thrilled Roland is adding their own full synthesis plug in boards, at least they are moving ahead. All in all, between them and Waldorf, Access, DSI, etc. it's a pretty damn good NAMM. At least I think so. Hey, and Automap Universal 2.0 is going to kick ass on my Novation SL.

I thought last years Namm was pretty impressive. We had the DSI BoomChik rumor and the V-Synth GT. The origin was also pretty impressive (if expensive). I think the M3 and Motif XS were also released then. and lets not forget the re-emergent waldorf.

It wasnt the best though. Best Namm I remember was probably in the later 90s when you had Novation, Access, Waldorf, Yamaha, Roland and Korg all showing off the new implementations of VA that they were working on. Software synthesis was *new* and companies daring to get into it were doing some pretty wild things. There were a lot of possiblities...and the OASYS was just a rumor..

..Im getting all misty just thinking about it.

It's only day 1.

I agree there was more to get excited about last year, with Waldorf's stuff and J.B.'s Solaris.

DSI's new module looks good, and Moog's stuff too. Access - I'm not excited about the Snow, but I'm sure some are. Fantom's of no real interest to me.

Look at 5 years ago:

http://www.sonicstate.com/news/5_years_index.cfm

DSI Evolver

Alesis Ion

Clavia Nord Lead 2X

Roland V-synth

Novation KS rack

MOTU MachFive

Yamaha 01V96

Akai VZ8 (was that vaporware?)

Native Instruments Kompact

VirSyn Tera for OSX

and so on.

Not near as much good stuff this year (so far).

Everything this year is a rehash of something that's already been released with some minor changes, a real yawner.

http://www.harmony-central.com/Events/WNAMM00/Alesis/Andromeda.html

MPC5000.

I mean, I don't want to sound like a cheerleader, but that's pretty cool!

Well, they had actually developed it, but decided to kill it off before it was released..

The new Fantom is really very cool, but other than that...I guess this NAMM isn't really doing much for me yet. And even the Fantom is falling off my list already due to a few small draw backs (other than my lack of money) that won't allow it to do what I need (it can record audio, 24 tracks, but only one at a time...I NEEDED at least 2 at time...I won't bother you with any more details...but that killed it for me).

So I'm still back to looking for the new center piece for my little home studio. My next big purchase will most likely be a new MAC, and most likely nothing from this NAMM.

After all these years, Alesis finally updated the SR-16 to the SR-18.

http://www.alesis.com/product.php?id=120

Should be good for another 10 or 15 years now.

It's only day 1. I agree there was more to get excited about last year, with Waldorf's stuff and J.B.'s Solaris.

That was MusikMesse. The Solaris' first appearance at NAMM is this year. I believe it was announced only last March:

http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp/2007/John-Bowen-Synth-Design-Solaris.html

BTW - come by and say "hi" if you're at NAMM! Room 210D

Those new sleek Yamaha Modus F-series digital pianos look cool as hell! Will have to check them out tomorrow.

Highlights so far:

Euphonix MC Control and MC Mix

They were hidden above one of the cafeterias, but the room was constantly packed. These controllers are RIDICULOUS. And ridiculously cheap for what you get. Easily my top pick for NAMM '08.

Spectrasonics Omnisphere

The good? It's absolutely incredible-sounding. The bad? We have to wait until September!

Moog MP201 CV/MIDI control pedal

Implemented VERY well. Lots of great features, and it seems really easy to use. Tap tempo and MIDI clock to CV conversion?!! Yeah!

Roland Fantom-G

Definitely a major step up from the X, and the live performance features, sequencer, and computer integration beats the OASYS in nearly every way.

Waldorf BLOFELD!

Sounds kick-ass. Sounds so kick-ass, in fact, that I end up typing antiquated, fratboy-esque terms like "kick-ass".

EDIT: There's a Prophet 08 Rack? Where was I today?

Now I know where I'll be tomorrow.

That was me and then some. Micro-tuning was cool! I used to have nothing but Yamaha gear, including:

DX7

BC2/3

RX21

RX5

CX5M

QX7

TX816

TX16W (2)

SPX900

SY77

SY99

A5000

My first non-Yamaha synth was the Roland SH-101. Once Yamaha came out with the SY85 and WX series, I got discouraged by the mainly ROM based direction they were heading. At least the Roland workstations had Structures, E-MU had Morphing filters and Korg had MOSS. Those features motivated me to branch out.

As for this year's NAMM, it's still early. I really like the Fantom G, but am not impressed that it uses old SRX faves. Those sounds, especially the orchestral sets, sound a bit tired to me. I was kind of hoping that there would be some new wavesets, like the new string set the Kurzweil PC3 is tauting. The guitars were always pretty strong, though.

What is cool (aside from that killer sequencer and screen) is that you can import a version of the V-Drum engine and it has its own poly and architecture. The effect count is killer! If I was looking to buy my next workstation (I'm not), this would be it.

The Virus Snow seems interesting, for a less expensive version.

MPC5000 has a VA synth on board? Interesting. Would like to hear if it sounds different from others.

I don't have a real analogue, so that Prophet 8 rack looks like something I could actually sneak by the wife, and stick in my setup somewhere.

Not a bad NAMM, so far.

Novation taking a nap???

FFS - they have been in a coma for the few few years...

OK, so their controllers are among the best (which aint saying much considering all/most of the others are cheap nasty plastic things), but their synths? When the hell happened to their synth dev team of a few years back??

Strangely, having Logic Studio 8 and Zebra 2, most things are quite meh to me now.