MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014 Pics

Mouse over the image above for the slideshow controls.

Update: added a few notes below.  I hate picking highlights because I honestly do love it all.  That and I don't like missing anyone or anything.  The focus is on what's new.  More will come with the videos.

This is the full set of 282 NAMM pics including the following sub-sets just posted:
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: WMD et al. Modular Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Moon Modular Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Miselu, Quicco Sound & Audiobus Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Studio Electronics & Pittsburgh Modular Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Schmidt Analog Synthesizer Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Radikal Technologies Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Big City Music Booth & Aerosmith Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Buchla Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Elektron Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Dave Smith Instruments Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Monome ALEPH Looper Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Moog Music Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Dubreq Stylophone Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Bob Moog Foundation Booth Pics

And that's it for my NAMM pics. Videos will follow over the coming days. As you can see I missed a few of the major synth booths including Clavia/Nord Keyboards, Waldorf, Access, Teenage Engineering, Korg, Roland, Novation, Studiologic and Yamaha. This is no slight to them. I would have loved to check them out, specifically the new A1 from Clavia and the new Waldorf 2-Pole filter.  I did see the new full size KORG MS20 kit but the booth was packed and I didn't get any pics. I knew anything AIRA was not going to be shown so I skipped Roland. I typically go to NAMM on Saturday as I'm literally glued to the site posting away all the NAMM news along with everything else that comes in up to then. By Saturday I have a pretty good idea of what has and hasn't gotten plenty of coverage on the site.  Based on that, new product announcements, and prior commitments with those that reached out to me, I go through my list of booths in order.

As for standouts, although I didn't get to try the new A1 from Clavia, I was impressed by the new oscillator and effects section in the demos to date. I like what I hear. I do think they made a mistake with the messaging on it being an entry level synth. Not sure why they chose to go that route as it degrades the synth's capabilities in my opinion and the price does not reflect an entry level synth.

The new Elektron Rytm sounded fantastic. I should have a video of Highsage jamming on it coming up. Hopefully the audio is good.

The Sub 37 is a thing of beauty.

I'm a fan of the Prophet 12 and the new Prophet 12 module. I'm a fan of mixing digital with analog and I think it is capable of timbres you simply can't get out of pure analog.

The Tiptop Audio system at the Big City Music Booth was absolutely insane! Tomio is a Jedi master on that thing. I should have video of it coming up.

The new Make Noise modules were a mind trip. Video coming.

Noise Engineering is new to the scene and their modules sound fantastic. I particularly like the drum module. They also have a vocal formant module. I mentioned the Yamaha FS1R's formant synthesis and they said it was actually based on it to an extent. Video coming.

The STG EMS Oscillator sounded insane. Video coming.

The new Studio Electronics Boomstars sounded pretty incredible. Video coming.

It takes quite a bit to surprise me.  Two things did.  Full on patch memory on a modular synth with the Buchla Music Easel and what's coming for Audiobus. The Miselu iPad keyboard and Quicco Sound controller were pretty cool devices as well. The Future Retro Triadex Muse based sequencer caught my interest. I didn't show it, but it definitely was a geek out moment for me and caught me by surprise. Who would have thought technology based on the obscure Muse would re-appear today.

That's it for now. The videos and pics should speak for themselves. I love it all.

New Pittsburgh Modular System Videos at NAMM 2014

Pittsburgh Modular System 90 [NAMM 2014]

Published on Jan 30, 2014 Electronic Musician Magazine·49 videos

"Pittsburgh Modular's Richard Nichol walks us through the features of the System 90 analog synthesizer at the 2014 NAMM show in Anaheim, California."

Pittsburgh Modular Foundation 3 [NAMM 2014]

Published on Jan 30, 2014

"Pittsburgh Modular's Richard Nichol walks us through the features of the Foundation 3 analog synthesizer at the 2014 NAMM show in Anaheim, California."

Nova Musik - Pittsburgh Modular System 10 & System 90

Nova Musik - Pittsburgh Modular System 10 with Richard Nicol at NAMM 2014

Published on Jan 26, 2014 Nova Musik·97 videos

"Richard Nicol of Pittsburgh Modular Synthesizers introduces us to the new System 10 synthesizer, which is housed in Pittsburgh Modular's Cell [48] Case and includes the new Synthesizer Box module along with Mix Mult, MIDI2 and Outs utility modules. The Synthesizer Box module incorporates Pittsburgh's new Waveforms oscillator and Lopass Gate."

Nova Musik - Pittsburgh Modular System 90 with Richard Nicol at NAMM 2014

NAMM 2014: Pittsburgh Modular System 10 Demo | UniqueSquared.com

Published on Jan 27, 2014 Uniquesquared·536 videos

"For an overview of the Pittsburgh Modular System 10, visit our blog: http://www.uniquesquared.com/blog/pro-audio/namm-2014-pittsburgh-modular-system-10/

Richard from Pittsburgh Modular does a brief demo of the System 10 semi modular synthesizer."

Happy New Year From MATRIXSYNTH! - A Look Back at 2014

Happy New Year everyone!

I want to start by thanking everyone that comes to MATRIXSYNTH and helps make it what it is - the readers, the supporters, and of course all the sponsors on the right.

THANK YOU and have a GREAT 2015!!!

This site is a labor of love and a ton of work. This site is ultimately meant to be an testament to everything synth in the making. We have over nine years of daily synth history captured here, 119,983 published posts. I can't wait to see what the future brings us in 2015!

That said, here are a few interesting bits from 2014 in the longest post of the year. ;)

CLICK FOR MORE »

NAMM 2013: Studio Electronics Boomstar CS80/700s Eurorack Filters

Published on Jan 27, 2014 sonicstate·652 videos

"NAMM 2013: Studio Electronics Boomstar CS80/700s Filters Two new booms and news of Eurorack filters"

Nova Musik - Pittsburgh Modular & Studio Electronics collaboration at NAMM 2014

Published on Jan 27, 2014 Nova Musik·102 videos

"Marc St. Regis of Studio Electronics and Richard Nicol of Pittsburgh Modular talk about their burgeoning collaboration, which will manifest itself first in a series of modules based on SE's tried and true filter designs: 4075, 3003, 5089, SEM, SE80 and 700. There's also an Amp module designed by Tim Caswell."

Pittsburgh Modular Foundation 3 with Richard Nicol at NAMM 2014

Published on Jan 26, 2014 Nova Musik·98 videos

"Housed in Pittsburgh's new 104hp Move [104] Case, the Foundation 3 is their new flagship standalone fully modular monosynth. Among its many modules are two of Pittsburgh new Waveforms oscillator modules and two of their new Envelope modules as well as the new Lopass Gate coupled with their classic Filter multi-mode filter module."

Pittsburgh Modular analog synths at NAMM 2014

Published on Jan 29, 2014 keyboardmag1·372 videos

"Pittsburgh Modular offers built-up compact synth systems that are ideal for the beginner getting into modular synthesis."

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Pittsburgh Modular Booth Direct Audio Video

Published on Jan 30, 2014 matrixsynth·302 videos

Naked DNA Symbiotic Waves dual oscillator demo.

http://pittsburghmodular.com

Pittsburgh Modular at NAMM 2014

Published on Jan 30, 2014 perfectcircuitaudio·49 videos

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Studio Electronics & Pittsburgh Modular Booth Pics

The 2014 NAMM Booth List for Synths

And here is my list:

Hall A

6009 Waldorf
6100 Access
6314 Arturia
6409 Teenage Engineering
6440 KORG
6464 Studiologic, Clavia/Nord, Novation
6527 Radikal Technologies & Schmidt
6700 inMusic - Akai, M-Audio, Alesis & more
6724 Spectrasonics
6735 Big City Music (BRANDS: 4ms, Analogue Systems, Critter & Guitari, Cwejman, Dewanatron, Dirty Boy, Eowave, Jomox, Kenton, Kilpatrick Audio, Knas, Koma, Livewire, Mellotron, Metasonix, Mode Machines, Monorocket, Sherman, Vermona, Tiptop Audio and WMD.)
6825 Rob Papen
6809 Buchla

Hall B
5300 Moog
5304 Elektron
5400 Dave Smith Instruments
5406 Bob Moog Foundation (according to Marc Doty, "We'll have synths you'll want to see more than the synths in some of those other booths..")
5900 Casio

Hall C
4812 UVI

Hall E
1034 Moon Modular
1050 Haken Audio
1076 WMD - Analog Haven Booth (4ms, Delptronics, Enclave, Foxtone Music, Harvestman, KOMA Elektronik, MakeNoise, NoiseEngineering, Steady State Fate, Suit And Tie Guy...)
1385 Miselu
1675 Studio Electronics & Pittsburgh Modular

Yamaha: Booth# 100 (Marriott), 102 (Marriott)
Roland: Booth# 303C (Level 3), 302A (Level 3), (), ()

http://www.namm.org/thenammshow/2014/directory

If anyone is missing let me know.

Note: Link to this post added to the main link section above all posts.

Uninterested Synth Cat

Published on Jan 10, 2014 Pittsburgh Modular Synthesizers·14 videos

"Playing with one of the Pittsburgh Modular cases headed to NAMM in a few weeks."

This is the first NAMM14 post, BTW.