MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014 Pics

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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.

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Bob Moog Foundation Booth Pics

http://moogfoundation.org

The highlight of course was the vintage 1967 R.A. Moog Co. Moog Modular with Synthesizers.com controllers.

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Dubreq Stylophone Pics

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Moog Music Booth Pics

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Monome ALEPH Looper Pics

You can find more info on the ALEPH via previous posts here.

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Dave Smith Instruments Booth Pics

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Elektron Booth Pics

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Buchla Booth Pics

This was definitely one of the biggest surprises for me this year at NAMM. The largest problem with any hardware modular system is the inability to save patches. Once you create something, you have to give it up to the ether to move onto the next patch.  The Buchla 200e introduced the ability to store knob settings, but not patched cable points. The card you see pictured on the Music Easel allows you to save both knob settings and patch points. It stores 10 presets. You can then create and save as many patches as you like on a dedicated iPad app and then load any patch you want to the card over wireless. You can watch a video overview by Todd Barton in this post. The technology, minus the software of course, existed with the original Music Easel back in 1973, but then you had to literally solder the patch settings in a card. You can see one of the cards pictured here has "Figure 21 Variation" written on it. That's actually a Buchla patch by Allen Strange who wrote the manual for the original Buchla Music Easel as well as Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques, and Controls.

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Big City Music Booth & Aerosmith Pics

Highlights included Tiptop Audio, Future Retro, Surfin Kangaroo, Dewanatron, Analogue Systems and Metasonix. Note the prototype panning by Surfin Kangaroo. It has 8 Audio Inputs and a couple of outputs. You can configure it as an 8 in 4 out / 4 in 8 out / 2 in 16 out / 1 in 32 out. The black panel under it is just there to cover the rack and is not part of the module.


Don't miss Aerosmith's Steven Tyler. :)

Update: added some info on the Surfin Kangaroo prototype. It's actually a panning system, not a sequencer.

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Radikal Technologies Booth Pics

RADIKAL TECHNO pic on purpose. :) Jörg Schaaf got a kick out that.

Update: see this post for a video from Keyboard Magazine covering the updates to the Radikal Technologies Accelerator including, "unisono mode" to fatten up sounds, MIDI out support for the sequencer & arp for external synths, and the ability to save complete FX chains. via Jörg Schaaf on Facebook:

"In version 1.70 it's now possible to save complete FX chains independent from the sound programs. That is especially great when using the Accelerator for external sound processing like in my guitar example from 2013."

Accelerator sounds, FXs and external signal processing

Published on Feb 13, 2013 Jörg Schaaf·25 videos

"Listen to some of the Accelerator preset sounds and check the cool FX algorithms which are perfect for external instruments like guitar or bass."