I always enjoy these videos.

“Did it smell forever? Oh I kept taking the refrigerator apart…”

For more info: trashaudio.com

Minitaur Quick Demo from Moog Music on Vimeo.

Could it be a $600 100% analog Moog with MIDI based on the Taurus pedals will be announced at Namm? It seems so!

“The MINITAUR is a compact table-top monophonic MIDI-and-CV-controllable analog bass synthesizer module with a 100% analog audio signal path, based on the design of the Taurus 3 bass synthesizer.” – proaudiostar.com

For more info: moogmusic.com

via Matrixsynth

Check out this fantastic case for modular synthesizer modules from Tiptop Audio. It’s all aluminum, comes in black or silver and fits in the overhead luggage compartment in any airplane. $1100 with power supply.

Is there a better/cooler case than this one?

photo credit: gur_x

Dave Smith Instruments Tempest. An all new analog drum machine. Awesome. If you listen carefully the demo goes from all the way from 606 to 909ish with some nice Simmons tom emulation and synth stabs. There are a lot of specs but does it matter? A lot of buttons and analog stuff. $2000. link

Avid Torq 2. I secretly always liked Torq better than Traktor. I don’t know why I’ve keep it a secret. It’s just more fun to use and I like the flat interface a lot. I’m not sure 4 decks is better than two. Can you say tiny things to see in a big display? The new Traq Morph feature “blends music tracks in exciting new ways by intelligently applying audio effects during crossfade.”. That could be cool right? Lastly, the software is decoupled from any hardware so you can use it stand alone or with any controller. $250 link

Akai Synthstation 49. I want my car dash to be an iPad. Just the same let’s make my keyboard interface and sound source and iPad too! It’s from Akai so a few MPC pads are included. This will win or loose depending on quality. link

Alesis Studiodock. Professional audio and MIDI I/O for your iPad. Oh… and composite video out. I’m getting very close to being able to play an entire live show off my iPad! link

Izotope Stutter Edit. I love plug-ins like this. Stutter, a Stutter Matrix, Buffer Tricks, Bit Reduction, Pan, Gate, Delay, Filters and more take normal audio and mess it up. $149 link

Arturia Spark. I’m going to tell you right now that this new drum machine from Arturia won’t sound as good as the DSI Tempest. Your going to pay a lot less though and it does have a super fun TR style roll by sequencer. All drum machines are awesome. All of them. $600. link

Rob Papen Punch. I sense a theme at this year’s Namm. I remember it used to be work making killer electronic drum sounds, loops and patterns. Boy to kids have the toys today! If your not an analog purist Dutch Papen’s new VST punch could be of use to you. Will it compete with products like uToniq? Time will tell. link

Introducing Venom from Avid on Vimeo.

M-Audio Venom. I wasn’t excited about a new VA synth. Then I learned the price would be $499. I also learned it came with a VST editor. The marketing hype is pretty good for the new Avid synth too. link

MORE UPDATES TO COME. I will be adding things I find worthy to this post as the weekend continues.

Soundcloud Integration With Audio Software. I’m a full on web junkie and I like my stuff in the cloud. I think redundant servers spread out around the world are far better places to store my precious files than my own home and Lacie hard discs. I also love to share. That’s the point of being a musician no? Soon you will be able to render and send a file from Ableton direct to SoundCloud. My music from me to you faster than ever. I like it! link

Mungo Enterprises State Zero. A giant hardware interface full of knobs. 8 voice polyphony. Anything to anything patching. Patches store in memory. If this is real analog and less than a price of a car I’m sold. If it’s digital or crazy expensive I’ll play with the one you buy. link

Jomox M.Brane 1_1. Wicked snappy sharp analog snares and percussion. I have the Jomox Mbase 01 kick module and it’s wonderful so as soon as the M.Brain is available it’s mine. I’ll trade gigabytes of snare samples for one real analog snap. link

Dave Smith Instruments Mopho Keyboard. (photo credit: Synthesizers) The spiritual descendant of the Sequential Circuits Pro-One has arrived. The Pro-One was the main keyboard used by Vince Clarke on the amazing Yaz albums so you know the Mopho’s got mojo! Why waste desktop space with a empty Oxygen 8 or like controller when you can slap one of these new Mopho’s in its place? Thanks to internet nagging the price will be right on this new guy too. link

Akai iPK25. A real hardware piano keyboard for the iPhone. If other Apps can access the keys then this is nice. If not it’s a full on dud. link

Teenage Engineering OP-1. Here’s a product that looks like special care has been baked into it’s DNA. A small super stylish hardware TAPE sampler with a FM receiver, G-Force Sensor (Wii), OLED display, speaker and USB connectivity. TAPE mode is awesome. The graphics on the display are awesome. If you’re a musician with a sole you have to want one. If you want to show up your hipster friends with microKorgs this is the guy to do it with. The bad? It’s still away off and who know’s what the price will be. link

So how are you going to spend your money in 2010? Do any of these or other NAMM new releases tempt you?

The 2010 NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) starts today at the very large Anaheim Convention Center. It’s one of the largest shows of it’s kind only rivaled by Musikmesse. Noise nerd and gear junkies are going to hear about a lot of new tasty music equipment over the next few days.

“Despite severe regulations on the permissible noise level, sound level meters carried by NAMM personnel routinely exceed the 85 dBA maximum throughout most of the main exhibit hall, simply from the constant background noise.” – Wikipedia

Here’s some links to help you keep up with everything that’s going on:

The official NAMM homepage and Twitter feed:
http://www.namm.org/
http://twitter.com/namm

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAMM

Coverage…

CreateDigitalMusic:
http://namm.noisepages.com/

SonicState:
http://www.sonicstate.com/news/shows.cfm?show=wnamm10

Harmony-Central:
http://namm.harmony-central.com/WNAMM10

When the smoke clears I will post my 2010 Wire to the Ear NAMM picks! Enjoy the show and let me know what you think is hot.

photo credit: annethelibrarian

Ableton Live 8. My passion Ableton Live has reached number 8. Once again the Berlin coding masters give us new features that fit nicely into the Live interface and workflow. So what’s new? Add grooves to clips using the new Groove Engine. Adjust grooves in the new Groove pool. Extract grooves from existing clips with simple drag & drop. Enhanced warp modes and a new warp engine that auto-assignes handles to transients. A new plug-in called Looper: Create endless layers of loops in a live performance jam with auto tempo recognition. Five new effects: Vocoder, Multiband Dynamics, Overdrive, Frequency Shifter, Limiter. Workflow enhancements: Crossfades, Enhanced Midi Editor, Collapsable and easy to create Group Tracks, Multi Parameter Manipulation (adjust several volume faders at once, etc.. (yay!)), Screen Magnifier, Audio & Midi Browser Previews now have a waveform display and scrubbing. Share: Built into Live 8 is a new way to share and collaborate over the internet. A new option in Live’s file menu called Share Live Set will send your song to Ableton’s servers. The song gets it’s own webpage and link. You can set the privacy settings. Songs files can be shared anywhere such as MySpace or Facebook. Suite 8 also got an upgrade: All new Library, new version of Ableton’s FM Synth Operator, Collision a creative percusion synth that uses physical modeling. link

Max for Live. Full integration with Cycling 74′s Max. Create your own audio and midi effects inside the LIve interface. Building and editing of new effects and instruments takes place in real time. Check out the video on the Ableton website of the step sequencer created with Max for Live. I can’t wait to see what people come up with! Luckily there are built in tutorials. link

Akai APC40 Ableton Live Controller. An official hardware controller for Ableton Live from Akai. Clip launch section with buttons that change color to show if a clip is playing or not. Dedicated clip stop and stop all buttons. Dedicated scene launch buttons. Multiple banks and bank selection methods help you quickly and intuitively jump around a large session view. Mixer section with faders, mute, solo buttons, cue and arm track buttons. A track control section of 8 knobs for pans and sends. Tap tempo and sync buttons to match external turntables or devices. Assignable Crossfader. Transport and record controls for studio work. Make this an extension of your arm and your live show will be a lot better.  link

Waldorf Largo. I’m going to quote the Waldorf press release on this one because it says it all, “Many producers and synthesizer enthusiasts asked for a full-blown Waldorf Synthesizer for their virtual rack. We listened, and now we proudly present Largo. Largo mirrors the technology used in Blofeld and Q hardware synthesizers.” If it has the sound of the Q it’s a great win. link

Native Instruments Maschine. A controller built by Berlin’s NI with a companion software instrument perfectly matched to it. It can run stand alone or in your DAW. Maschine can also be a standard midi controller. link

Motu BPM. Don’t let the Groovebox look fool you because the new BPM from MOTU is purely software. 15 gigs of sounds, multi-effects including convolution reverb, Step and Note Sequencers an internal mixer and more. I bet some producers will make their full songs all in this software. Could it gain a cult following? Just like Propellerheads Reason I can see this on my laptop for an alternative view every now and then. AU, MAS, TRAS, VST, MAC/PC, in your DAW or Stand Alone.   link

Roland AX-Synth. Finally, the return of the “Keytar” from Roland. You get keys, you get a Ribbon, D-Beam and modulation bar. The new AX-Synth also touts 6 hour battery life and MIDI over USB. I like it but why isn’t this wireless? link

All the above I want in my possession. Some other interesting things that peaked my interest at this year’s NAMM included the Celemony’s Melodyne Editor with DNA, Arturia’s Minimoog V 2.0 and the Moog Etherwave Plus Controller Theremin.  Some of you maybe happy about Cubase 5, Novation Automap 3 and the newest Virus TI synth? The weekend is just getting started so I will update this post when I find more goodies that peak my interest. What’s getting your goat going?

Korg nanoSERIES. These small, flat and inexpensive controllers are just what a lot of musicians have been waiting for. These are perfect to toss in a laptop bag. The nanoKEY, nanoPAD and nanoKONTROL will be available in October and will each be under $150. link

The Moog Guitar. Some people are scratching their heads on this one. A Guitar from Moog? Would Bob approve? According to Moog (the company) this was being planned when Bob was still with us. Personally, I have no problem with the idea. My main gripe so far is that all the video demos I’ve seen of the M.G. in action are not too impressive. The first of the Moog Guitars available is the The Paul Vo Collector Edition which will cost you $6,495.00. link

Arsenal Audio. A new brand from API. A few years ago a friend of mine brought a filled API lunchbox into my studio and hooked it up to my microphone. My voice never sounded so good and never has since. API as a company knows what they are doing so when they launch a new division I’m ready to give it a chance. I’m not totally sure why they need to branch off. Are these built in China or something? If they sound good I won’t care. Three products kick it off: the V14 4 Band VPR 500 Format Equalizer (fits in a lunchbox), the R 20 2 Channel Mic Pre and R 24 2 Channel 4 Band EQ. link

MOTU Digital Performer 6. I’m an Ableton Live fanatic but competition is what keeps the sequencer space evolving at high speed so DP6 is very welcome. This is the true Mac sequencer. Was born on a mac and always lived there so let’s give the guy some respect. What are the new tidbits DP6 has to offer? A new interface, Track comping, Masterworks Leveler plug-in, ProVerb Convolution plug-in, Final Cut Pro Integration, Enhanced Pro-Tools HD support and Direct Audio CD burning. Not bad! link

SPL Phonitor. Imagine you could mix solely in headphones. Imagine you wouldn’t have to pay for a studio space somewhere far away from cranky neighbors. The Phonitor could be the first product that could make this dream a reality. This is a high end piece of hardware costing about $2k. You spend a few minutes dialing in parameters to match the sound of your speakers with your headphones and viola! I can’t wait to read reviews and hear from users of this product. We need this to work! link

So those are the new things that really peaked my interest. Roland continued to bore me with it’s new Juno Stage and of course there were more amazing Melodyne Direct Note Access demos. Sonic State and Sound on Sound have some great videos from the show floor worth checking out. Did I miss something you really liked?

Moog Voyager OS. Take a normal Moog Voyager and get rid of its Midi, presets, display and XY pad and you have the new “OS” which stands for Old School. I’m not sure I totally “get” this new synth. Unless the sound quality improves by removing those features what’s the point? Having midi, XY and patch memory has to be worth a few hundred bucks to anyone, no? link

Dave Smith Instruments Prophet ’08 Synthesizer Module. A table top or rack mount version of the Prophet ’08. If you want to play chords and you want real analog it’s either an uber pricey Studio Electronics Omega, something used or the new Prophet 08. The new module will be the least expensive way into the polyphonic analog world. link

Access Virus TI Snow. A small table top version of the Virus TI. I would rather have a real analog synth or a Waldorf Blofeld but I know the Virus sounds great. Somewhat unique in a hardware synth is the new Atomizer utility announced for Virus TI’s which allows for stuttery effects. link

Alesis SR-18. This is a big surprise! An update to the SR-16! Drum machines are back! The SR-16 was such an 80′s sound. I still use the tom sounds whenever I can. Id like to sit on a couch with the SR-18 for a few hours. It runs off batteries, 32MB sound set, has a bass synth and built-in effects. link

Akai XR20. Another new digital drum machine! The XR20 has 700MB of sounds, runs off batteries, has built-in effects, glowing pads that follow the beat and a mic input. link

Akai MPC 5000 - How can I list all of the features of the new MPC? I’m not! Let’s just say this box has every feature known to man. I’m not sure adding a 8-track hard disk recorder and 3 Oscillator synth is what the MPC needs but nevertheless there is a new MPC flagship in the house. link

Spectrasonics Omnisphere. Talk about hype, this new product from Eric Persing wont even be out until September. Eric is a master at marketing with lots of cool videos on his website. He also likes to create new buzzwords for the technology in his products and for Omnisphere it’s “Steam Engine”. Apparently Omnisphere is not a rompler and has “real” Oscillators and such. Modulation comes from Granular Synthesis, Timbre Shifting and Polyphonic Ring Modulation. Keep using big words Eric we are listening. link

URS Saturation plug-in. URS makes the best Native plug-ins. The URS Classic Console Strip Pro really does bring the sound of a high end console into your laptop. Saturation is a key tool to use in everyday ITB mixing. So URS is now releasing a Saturation plug-in and I’m happy. It will offer four models: Motorcity, German, British and Modern. link

Sugar Bytes Effectrix. I’m not sure if German software company Sugar Bytes was at NAMM but their announcement coincided so I’m adding this to my list. I love plug-ins that mangle, glitch and randomly rearrange things on the fly. Effectrix looks like it fits the bill. Basically it’s a mini effect sequencer that opens in your main DAW as a plug-in. Effects you can control include: Looper, Timetretch, Scratch, Reverse, Tape Stop, Tonal Delay, Stutter, Crush, Filter (10 filtertypes), Phaser, Chorus, Delay, Reverb. The price is right on this one too! link

Metasonix Fucking Fucker. Eric Barbour of Measonix makes products using vintage vacuum tubes. He makes products that sound nasty. He names his products nasty names. His latest is a guitar amp that costs $5000. Its name? Fucking Fucker of course. I’m sure Tommy Lee (Mötley Crüe) is already on the waiting list. link

M-Audio Torq 1.5. When people ask me what DJ software to get I say Torq. The interface is gorgeous and the built-in sampler slots and effects are super fun. I also really like the X-ponent controller available for it. Some of the new features in Torq 1.5 include: Tempo Anchors, Plane Elastique time-stretching/compression technology, Hide Mixer option, Effects Chains, Auto Gain and more. link

Novation Nocturn. The new mini controller from Novation has some tricks up its sleeve. Appearance wise, it reminds me of a Faderfox. “Automap” is now at 2.0. What’s Automap? Simply put it automatically connects your on screen knobs to the Novation hardware. The new Automap has a cool transparent HUD (heads up display). The Nocturn has eight touch-sensitive rotary encoders, each equipped with LED rings, eight user-assignable illuminated buttons and a 45mm cross-fader. link

Yamaha Pocketrak. Small solid state recorders have hit the mainstream market big time. The Sony PCM-D1 and D50, Zoom H1 and H2 are examples. Here comes Yamaha’s entry and it’s pretty. Its small… very small: 1.7 Ounces and 1/2 Inch Thick. Its got 2GB memory and USB 2.0 connection. Every musician should be out in the world grabbing his own sounds instead of buying them. link

So how are you going to spend your money in 2008? Do any of these or other NAMM new releases tempt you? Have you ever been to NAMM or Musikmesse?