NAMM Gear Report

Jands

Anyone who visited the Shure booth this year would have experienced their wonderful assemblage of vintage mics set out in cabinets, a veritable museum of sound recording gear. From the famous Beta and SM series to the much-lauded KSM series, seeing the classic ranges grouped together outlined just how important the Shure brand has been to the development of recording.

Shure microphones released two impressive wireless systems at NAMM this year. The GLX-D wireless systems feature intelligent technology and smart-power options that put reliability, consistency and professional-grade digital sound in the hands of artists playing in all kinds of performance settings. GLX-D Digital Wireless Systems apply LINKFREQ Automatic Frequency Management, making seamless, crystal-clear audio easy and worry-free. The GLX-D transmitters feature best-in-class lithium-ion batteries that quickly recharge using the charging port on the receiver, or a variety of optional USB connectors. Also launched at NAMM was Shure's precision-built BLX Wireless systems, combining professional quality sound with simple setup and an intuitive interface for dependable performance. The BLX system is available in a variety of handheld, lavalier, instrument and headset configurations. GLX-D and BLX Systems are expected to land in mid 2013.

Gator cases released a wide range of new products at the trade show, including the Evolution Drum Case Series, G-Tour Fixed Angle Mixer cases and G-Tour Pioneer DDJ-Sx controller case.

JBL Professional has introduced the M2 Master Reference Monitor, making world-class, large-format monitoring feasible in a wide range of rooms. The largest speaker in JBL's studio monitor line, the M2 integrates new JBL transducer technologies and patented innovations in a free-standing, two-way system that can be placed in any production environment and tuned to provide a superior level of accuracy and performance.

Casio

With the release of their XW Synth range last year, Casio signalled their intention to tackle the pro keyboard market head on. The assault continued at NAMM with the launch of their amazing new stage piano, the Privia Pro PX-5S. LA-based band Fallen Riviera used a prototype model in their demo performance at the Casio booth. Jazz legend Joe Sample also put the stage piano through its paces at an invitation-only event later that night. The PX-5S owes much of its realistic and expression-filled sound to the AiR sound source technology, which provides stunning fidelity and control over the tones and effects. A new arsenal of sounds has been included. With the PX-5S you get classic electric piano, harpsichord and clavinet sounds. Some of the tones are complete with release samples, amp and speaker simulations. The four-zone controller, with four knobs and six sliders, allows for easy control of the internal sounds and effects parameters. Each zone on the PX-5S can control an internal sound, external MIDI device or both simultaneously.

“The launch of Casio's Privia Pro series further exemplifies the company's commitment to the musical instrument category. We are no longer just producing musical instruments; we are going beyond sound by enabling professional musicians to express themselves and create music like never before,” said Stephen Schmidt, Vice President of Casio's Electronic Musical Instruments Division. Casio hopes to have the unit available within the next couple of months.

Galactic Music

The Behringer area of the trade show floor was bigger than most and needed to be to showcase the myriad of sensational new products. Released last year yet still attaining star attraction status was the brilliant X32, a 40-channel digital mixer. The X32 mixer is the flagship of the X32 family, which also includes the X32 Producer, X32 Core, X32 Compact and X32 Rack. Also taking pride of place was their Eurolive Active Bluetooth Loudpseakers and NEKKST K8/K5 Studio Monitors. Muso reviewed the B112 W loudspeakers in December and found them to be powerful, versatile and exceptionally great value for your money.

If you're seeking a fine quality audio interface for your studio, look no further than Behringer's new U-Phoria USB Audio Interfaces. The MIDAS company, which Behringer recently acquired, developed the preamps for the UMC204, UMC202 and UMC22 interfaces that include +48v phantom power.

On the DJ front, Behringer has released the visually stunning CMD DJ controllers. The CMD Studio 4A in particular is a beauty and provides all the tools required to learn the basics of DJing. The 4A features eight hotcues and can control up to four virtual decks.

Dynamic Music

The creative people at ZOOM were recognised for their fine work at the TEC Awards, where they won an award for outstanding technical achievement for their H2n handy recorder. On the new product front, ZOOM released their iQ5 professional stereo microphone. The iQ5 is a high-quality mic that connects to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touches. Also released was the MultiStomp MS-60B, offering over 50 types of bass effects includes six bass amp models and MultiStomp MS-70CDR, which gives you over 70 types of chorus, delay, reverb and modulation effects. Celebrating 40 years of producing high-quality guitars, the Godin company presented two anniversary models: the Norman B20 acoustic, which features a new tobacco-burst high-gloss finish, and they also released the Limited Edition Anniversary Godin Acousticaster. Other models released included the Montreal Premier, MultiUke, 5th Avenue Composer and Inuk Encore and Ambience Steel models. Already adopted by world-renowned guitarist and composer John McLaughlin, the new Fishman Triple Play™ Wireless Guitar Controller makes composing, performance and recording much easier. McLaughlin has been recording and performing with test versions of the device for almost a year, providing Fishman with valuable insight throughout the development process.

Yamaha Music Australia

Fender Australia

The 2013 Fender Pawn Shop Bass VI marks the return of the historic, seldom-seen Fender Bass VI, a six-string bass originally produced between 1961 and 1975, now updated for a new generation. Featuring the traditional short scale of the original, today's Pawn Shop Bass VI boasts Special Design Hot Jaguar single-coil neck and middle pickups, as well as a powerful JZHB humbucking bridge pickup.

From the Hot Rod Design Acoustics series comes the Fender T-Bucket 100CE Acoustic-Electric Guitar. Featuring a three-colour Sunburst spruce top, mahogany back and sides, and inlaid pearloid pinstriping motif by Vince Ray on the headstock and 12th fret, the T-Bucket 100CE shares many of the cool features of the hot-rodded T-Bucket 300CE. The Select Series offers carved maple top Jazzmaster, Strat HSS, Tele HH, Tele SH, Tele Thinline and Jazz bass. From the Custom Shop there was the limited edition Ritchie Blackmore Strat featuring two-piece alder body, lightly worn urethane finish and '69 U-shaped neck.

Innovative Music

Kemper shook the amp world with the release of their amp profiler last year. The company took the next step forward at NAMM by presenting two rack-mount versions, the Profiler Rack and 600w Profiler PowerRack. This amazing technology allows you to capture (or profile) the sound of any amp you can get your hands on.

Novation presented a couple of pearlers at NAMM including the Launchkey, a fully-featured DAW control surface, capable of launching loops/clips in Ableton Live and FL Studio. Based around a 25-, 49- or 61-note keyboard controller with a great-feeling synth-style keyboard and 16 velocity-sensitive multi-colour 'launch pads', Launchkey integrates seamlessly with two new Novation iPad apps; a performance synth and a Launchpad App. Also from the folks at Novation came the UltraNova, a 'Nova' series analogue-modelling synthesiser with a powerful effects processor. It's a single-part synth taking the legendary Supernova II synth engine as a starting point and packing it with the latest technology. It now has brand new features including wavetable synthesis, even more powerful filters, a software editor and a revolutionary new touch-sense performance mode.

ALVA introduced the Nanoface, a 12-channel USB Audio + MIDI Interface. The Nanoface is designed to partner modern digital audio workstations. There are no software option dialogs or an integrated mixer, just a high-speed driver The analogue gains for the four inputs, all output levels and special features, like phantom power and hardware monitoring, are controlled with the big silver rotary encoder directly on the Nanoface. All mixing, channel routing and digital levels will be controlled by your individual audio software.

From Two Notes Audio Engineering comes the Torpedo VB-101, a DI for your head amplifier composed of three main parts: a 150W RMS Loadbox to play silently with your amp or preamp, a speaker and mic'ing simulator powered by the acclaimed Torpedo technology with all your favorite cabs inside, and a Post-FX section. This section carries all the processing effects you usually need when mic'ing a guitar cab (low-cut filter, five-band EQ, exciter, compressor). NAMM 2013 also saw the launch of RME's new Premium Line digital MADI converters; five new wonderfully designed products: the new MADI Router, the ADAT Router and ADAT Converter, and the AES3 Router and AES3 Converter.

CMC Music

Riccardo at the Mark Bass booth was equal parts amiable and enthusiastic in his demonstration of the great new Italian-designed releases. In particular, the Bass Multiamp had winner stamped all over it. This sturdily-constructed unit offers a wide range of virtual bass amps, speaker cabs, mics and effects. Australian guitar legend Frank Gambale was also on stand promoting his new signature model DV Mark Ampli-tude amplifier, which offers various finely-crafted channel presets, a number of essential studio-quality effects and easy programmability.

The Lakewood booth presented some beautiful Martin Seeliger-designed acoustic guitars from their new Natural, Deluxe and Premium series. In each case, quality timbers are combined with exceptional craftsmanship to produce outstanding instrument tone. Martin was on hand to greet anyone wishing to learn about his exquisitely-built guitars.

Over on the Ernie Ball stand American Idol judge, Randy Jackson could be seen fraternising with the indians. Making an impression were the eye-catching flouro Ernie Ball cobalt string packets. Also impressive was the Armada and Classic Sabre guitar display. Dream Theater's John Petrucci made himself available to present his sleek new signature JP13 Music Man model too.

Roland

BOSS debuted three next-generation compact pedals featuring innovative Multi-Dimensional Processing (MDP). Powered by this impressive new technology, the TE-2 Tera Echo, DA-2 Adaptive Distortion and MO-2 Multi Overtone pedals deliver an amazing range of dynamic and expressive sonic textures. Muso was particularly charmed by the TE-2's expressive freeze function. Roland added another digital piano to their popular HPi series, the HPi-50. Further enhancing the SuperNATURAL Piano experience we know and love is the flagship PHA III Ivory Feel keyboard with Escapement. With fast key repetition and sensitivity, the PHA III faithfully translates the subtle tonal differences of different playing styles and the force at which the keys are played.

On the percussion front, Roland introduced the BT-1 Bar Trigger Pad, a versatile add-on trigger pad for V-Drums and acoustic drums. The BT-1 is a simple, single-trigger pad with a compact, curved shape. It directly attaches to the hoop of most drums using a tension rod or a standard rod-type mount with the included attachment parts. The internal design eliminates false triggering due to crosstalk while playing surrounding drums and/or pads.

In response to Yamaha's THR amps, Roland launched their Cube Lite amplifier with i-Cube link and the Cube Lite Monitor, two new compact amplifiers with built-in audio interfaces for Apple's iOS devices. Visually appealing and featuring impressive 2.1-channel sound, the Cube Lite amps allow musicians to enjoy playing and recording music comfortably at home with their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. The Cube Lite Guitar Amplifier is equipped with three killer COSM tones - JC CLEAN, CRUNCH and EXTREME - giving guitarists a wide range of sounds for playing any style of music. Reverb and chorus effects are onboard as well, with true stereo performance for a wide, expansive sound Roland were also pleased to announce the G-5A-CAR VG Stratocaster, a new addition to the acclaimed lineup of V-Guitar instruments. Manufactured in the Fender factory in California, the G-5A-CAR is an authentic American Standard Stratocaster guitar with Roland's amazing COSM technology built in, providing players revolutionary tonal versatility in a top-level instrument. The G-5A-CAR is a genuine American Standard Strat in every way, from pickups to tone woods to hardware, and features a gorgeous Candy Apple Red finish, plus a 22-fret maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. Its integrated COSM electronics gives guitarists an entire collection of world-class tones to pick and choose from, all in the one instrument.

Australian Musical Imports

The Gibson booth is always abuzz with incredible guitars and top-line recording artists. Muso was fortunate to be present when Brian Wilson and band took to the small stage to sing a couple of Beach Boys classics. Product-wise, it was all about revisiting classics with the new lineup of Les Paul and SG models revealed. Also of interest was the introduction of the new Min-Etune tuning system, an auto-tune system akin to that found on Gibson's Robot guitars, but now available on a wide range of their instruments. The Min-Etune is hidden away on the back of the headstock and can be installed as an optional extra on a range of more affordable models. One of the most imposing Gibson releases was the Gothic Morte Les Paul Studio and SG guitars in “extreme black styling”. Both models feature a solid mahogany body in black satin ebony finish, a pair of black Gibson USA GEM active humbuckers, Exotic African Obeche fingerboard in black, and black Grover tuners.