NAMM 2012

[Gutcha]

just been looking at reviews from the latest Namm show.
Anything caught peoples attention?

It seems be to a lot of ipad dock/interfaces appearing, is this going to be the new thing for computer music production?

The Nord drum machine looks quite tasty
Soundcloud

[Lectric]

i sure hope not. with every new ipad music app comes a wave of 14 year olds making shit drum loops calling themselves producers. it makes me sick to my elitist core.

[wormcode]

Yeah ipad apps can do one
Companies know that's where the quick cash is these days though.

The new Peavey guitars with built in autotune is jokes imo haha.

Few that grabbed my attention:

Arturia Minibrute analogue synth: http://www.sonicstate.com/news/2012/01/ ... minibrute/
Moog Minitaur: http://www.sonicstate.com/news/2012/01/ ... -minitaur/
Universial Audio Apollo: http://www.sonicstate.com/news/2012/01/ ... io-apollo/

[jrisreal]

^^ Minibrute looks amazing

[drokkr]

And the Livid Instruments stuff

[hudson]

And the Livid Instruments stuff

As cool as that thing is, it looks like something Behringer would make. Could definitely use a new color scheme.

[Gutcha]

auto tune guitars are just embarrassing

[Pedro Sánchez]

And the Livid Instruments stuff

As cool as that thing is, it looks like something Behringer would make. Could definitely use a new color scheme.

Thought the same thing and why replace real fader with them shitty touch encoder things. Ideas seem to be running thin this year.

[zerbaman]

i sure hope not. with every new ipad music app comes a wave of 14 year olds making shit drum loops calling themselves producers. it makes me sick to my elitist core.

I don't see why that's a problem. If you don't like that shit, avoid it.

[VirtualMark]

Ideas seem to be running thin this year.

My thoughts exactly. Pretty disappointing really.

The ipad stuff seems a bit gimmicky, more like a toy than a serious music tool. And that akai keyboard with the sliders.. again pointless. Sliders are a much better form of control, i can't imagine using a touch interface for precise filter sweeps.

And am i the only one who isn't excited by the minibrute and minitaur? They are analog, but they have sod all sound design scope compared with some vst's. I've grown accustomed to having wavetable, granular, frequency modulation, phase modulation, additive, subtractive, modal - all these are possible in just reaktor. Yet these new analog synths have saw waves and a filter, but their saw waves are supposedly better? Yet most people will be recording these synths into their daw... back to 24bit 44.1khz digital.

I just don't get all the hype over analog. Digital excites me much more, i'm always looking forward to the next advanced processing techniques. Analog's been done to death, as it was all they had decades ago.

[hasezwei]

Ideas seem to be running thin this year.

My thoughts exactly. Pretty disappointing really.

The ipad stuff seems a bit gimmicky, more like a toy than a serious music tool. And that akai keyboard with the sliders.. again pointless. Sliders are a much better form of control, i can't imagine using a touch interface for precise filter sweeps.

And am i the only one who isn't excited by the minibrute and minitaur? They are analog, but they have sod all sound design scope compared with some vst's. I've grown accustomed to having wavetable, granular, frequency modulation, phase modulation, additive, subtractive, modal - all these are possible in just reaktor. Yet these new analog synths have saw waves and a filter, but their saw waves are supposedly better? Yet most people will be recording these synths into their daw... back to 24bit 44.1khz digital.

I just don't get all the hype over analog. Digital excites me much more, i'm always looking forward to the next advanced processing techniques. Analog's been done to death, as it was all they had decades ago.

word.
however analogue has it's place and distinct sound, no denying that. its just in the way that for example a filter enveloped stab sound played by an arpeggiator for 5 minutes on an analogue synth will sound different the last 30 seconds compared to the first without you turning a knob. also, juicy filters. still, i'd prefer more groundbreaking stuff.

speaking of which, i dont get what y'alls problem is. have you looked at the new stuff by teenage engineering? i think that's groundbreaking as fuck.

[wormcode]

And am i the only one who isn't excited by the minibrute and minitaur? They are analog, but they have sod all sound design scope compared with some vst's. I've grown accustomed to having wavetable, granular, frequency modulation, phase modulation, additive, subtractive, modal - all these are possible in just reaktor. Yet these new analog synths have saw waves and a filter, but their saw waves are supposedly better?

They are the only things exciting this year imo, but yeah the minibrute and moog aren't anything new. As mentioned ideas (and probably funding) seemed to be lacking this year.

They are extremely cheap price-wise. MSRP of under 500 for the brute, so probably 350 usd or so in shops shortly after launch. That's the price of a microkorg which doesn't pack near the same punch as the brute. The little Moog is priced similarly, and is classic Moog.

The more features and oscillators etc an analogue synth has, the more the price goes up quickly. So to have some synths like this as cheap as most VSTs is a really good thing, and I'm sure they will sell nicely.

Basically a new kind of SH-101. The knobs and sliders on that minibrute looked really shit, but again for that price I'm surprised it had keys and wasn't just a sound module in a box like the Moog is.

Digital is exciting for certain things, like analogue will always be exciting for certain things. There's good analogue emulation now in the form of stuff like UAD, but that costs thousands as well.

[underslung]

I went for a little. Didn't see too much that caught my attention (other then listening to stevie wonder play) but I was looking at mostly DJing equipment.
Numark did have an interesting concept that combined an mpc with an ns7 DJing controller.

[Pedro Sánchez]

have you looked at the new stuff by teenage engineering? i think that's groundbreaking as fuck.

It's aimed at programmers and synth builders though, in the sense that they halfmade a product and want you to finish building it at a price that leaves your arse hole swollen, plus it looks like a canteen tray.

[paradigm_x]

Ideas seem to be running thin this year.

My thoughts exactly. Pretty disappointing really.

The ipad stuff seems a bit gimmicky, more like a toy than a serious music tool. And that akai keyboard with the sliders.. again pointless. Sliders are a much better form of control, i can't imagine using a touch interface for precise filter sweeps.

And am i the only one who isn't excited by the minibrute and minitaur? They are analog, but they have sod all sound design scope compared with some vst's. I've grown accustomed to having wavetable, granular, frequency modulation, phase modulation, additive, subtractive, modal - all these are possible in just reaktor. Yet these new analog synths have saw waves and a filter, but their saw waves are supposedly better? Yet most people will be recording these synths into their daw... back to 24bit 44.1khz digital.

I just don't get all the hype over analog. Digital excites me much more, i'm always looking forward to the next advanced processing techniques. Analog's been done to death, as it was all they had decades ago.

Lol hello mark

You ever used an anlogue for any period of time out of interest?

[VirtualMark]

Lol hello mark

You ever used an anlogue for any period of time out of interest?

no, its never really interested me to be honest. i'd happily try one out if i knew anyone who had one, but i watched the videos on them and they didn't seem anything special. maybe i'm missing the point.

i just look at it from the point of view that the synths i saw looked very basic. i like to be able to assign envelopes to lfo's, automate stuff, change fx routing, duplicate channels etc. i think i'd feel a bit frustrated using one of those.

i do have a virus ti, and i find that a bit restrictive compared to softsynths. it doesn't have half the control that massive does, such as performer lfo's, insert effects, loads of envelopes etc. and you have to bounce in realtime when using it, which i'm not used to. and if you use a lot of unison, it runs out of voices. so i imagine that i might find a real analog synth even more annoying to work on.

still, a lot of people swear by them. i might have to get one to see what all the fuss is about.

[wormcode]

You can draw LFO curves into a virus like the performer, it also has some of the best onboard effects available in hardware synths. I always found the envelopes to be fine.

I come from hardware so I'm totally used to bouncing outboard gear, but I know what you mean. It's odd workflow, but imo the best thing about it is it also adds new sounds to your sample library every time you do it. Big bonus, I reuse the sounds a lot.

You can cut down on the need to bounce every sound you use by programming it in multimode, and bounce everything as one stem, but there's less control over single sounds once it's bounced audio, only drawback.

With MIDI and Virus Control you can also avoid bouncing, total recall works nicely assuming you keep the same patches loaded in the unit.

[cloak and dagger]

Minibrute looks amazing...I've wanted a real, hands-on synth for a long time but never really had the money for it. $500 is a great deal but a bit too much for my budget, but if it were around $350 I would definitely pick one up. Sounds great, easy to program but with a lot of sound design possibilities. Looking at the website now, and I'm struggling to keep myself from drooling to be honest.

edit: although looking at the website now, it says $550 USD and 500 Euros. I'm sure the cost of this in Japan would be even higher, maybe I can import it from the US if I can find one cheap enough (someday).

[Hircine]

Minibrute looks amazing...I've wanted a real, hands-on synth for a long time but never really had the money for it. $500 is a great deal but a bit too much for my budget, but if it were around $350 I think I would definitely pick one up. Sounds great, easy to program but with a lot of sound design possibilities.

edit: although looking at the website now, it says $550 USD and 500 Euros. I'm sure the cost of this in Japan would be even higher, maybe I can import it from the US if I can find one cheap enough (someday).

If it costs 550 USD there, it will cost about 1600 USD in Brazil. No way Japan is that hard on taxes

[VirtualMark]

You can draw LFO curves into a virus like the performer, it also has some of the best onboard effects available in hardware synths. I always found the envelopes to be fine.

I come from hardware so I'm totally used to bouncing outboard gear, but I know what you mean. It's odd workflow, but imo the best thing about it is it also adds new sounds to your sample library every time you do it. Big bonus, I reuse the sounds a lot.

You can cut down on the need to bounce every sound you use by programming it in multimode, and bounce everything as one stem, but there's less control over single sounds once it's bounced audio, only drawback.

With MIDI and Virus Control you can also avoid bouncing, total recall works nicely assuming you keep the same patches loaded in the unit.

Thanks for the info, it sounds like i've still got a lot to learn on the Virus! I do really like it, just find it a bit tricky to use compared to softsynths.