Beatportal NAMM 2008 Coverage

Beatportal NAMM 2008 Coverage

25 January, 2008 | 5.04PM

• Written by: francispreve
• Filed under: Music News: namm 2008

Last week, we traveled to Anaheim, California to bring you the inside scoop at this year’s Winter NAMM Show.

Over the course of four days, we raced around the Anaheim Convention Center, interviewing artists and developers, as well as personally demoing the hottest new production and DJ tools.

Since the coverage was so extensive, we’re taking the liberty of organizing everything into a neat little summary for your convenience.

Enjoy!

NAMM 2008

Every NAMM show has an unspoken theme that seems to arise from the collective zeitgeist of the manufacturers and attendees.

While there were numerous new synths and software products (as always), the underlying message at this year’s show seemed to be miniature hardware.

Korg’s remarkable new Kaossilator, Waldorf’s Blofeld, and the paperback-sized Virus TI Snow are just a few obvious examples of how manufacturers can now combine power and flexibility into truly portable packages.

The biggest disappointment is actually related to this.

Yamaha did not show the Tenori-On. Anywhere.

This mind-boggling omission was further highlighted by the fact that countless visitors to the Yamaha pavilion arrived specifically for a demo and upon discovering that the Tenori-on was absent, opted to move on to the next booth.

That’s the consumer sending a powerful message if you ask me.

Here’s hoping Yamaha wakes up to the fact that US users want this product - provided they can get the price in line with the instrument’s worth.

Enough griping! Here are links to the coverage, organized by topic.

Product Coverage

Hot New Products, Pt. 1

Hot New Products, Pt. 2

Product Spotlight: John Bowen Design’s Solaris

Product Spotlight: Korg Kaossilator

Product Spotlight: Mark Of The Unicorn

Product Spotlight: Native Instruments’ Kore

Product Announcement: Pioneer

Product Announcement: Stanton

Artist Interviews

Five Minutes With… Dave Aude

Five Minutes With… Albert Castillo

Five Minutes With… Chris Cox

Five Minutes With… DJ Rap

Five Minutes With… Rabbit In The Moon

Five Minutes With… Paul Van Dyk

Five Minutes With… Richard Vission

Developer Interviews

Meet The Developer… Ableton’s Gerhard Behles

Meet The Developer… Sample Magic’s Sharooz Raoofi

Meet The Developer… The Legendary Dave Smith

Other noteworthy coverage

In addition to Beatportal’s coverage, Create Digital Music did a terrific job of sniffing out the latest toys and technologies as well.

Other sites with NAMM coverage include: Sonic State, Harmony Central, and the ever insightful Music Thing.

Finally, we’ll let you know when Keyboard Magazine posts their video coverage of the show.

One thing is certain: It’s gonna be another great year for producers.

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