NAMM 2008: news pt.1

Namm 2008 news are starting to circulate and here we’ll try to collect some of them (well, unless you really want to know which heavy metal hero is going to play in your fav guitar’s brand booth, sorry, you won’t find it here).

Outboard, mics, etc.
Thermionic Culture will present its new twin channel, called The Rooster. A valve based mic/line + DI pre-amp with EQ and a distortion section based around the same 5725 used in the ever-popular Culture Vulture. The input stage uses a custom 1200-ohm input Sowter transformer and an ECC81/12AT7 valve. The EQ section has a broad bass lift control, peaking at 60Hz, a mid cut at 700Hz, and a selectable mid/high lift at 2.5k, 4k (“bell” shaped) and 7k (shelving) respectively. The 6 position bass cut is straight off the Earlybird 2 pre-amp.
Price: 1639 pounds (approx. 2200 euro/ 3200 usd)

Lauten Audio will have three new mics at Namm 2008: The Lauten Audio LT-381 is a condenser mic that features dual-diaphragm capsule, NOS pentode input and triode output circuit, variable omni, cardioid and figure-8 polar patterns, 20Hz to 20KHz frequency response and 7-pin XLR and 3-Pin Standard XLR outputs. This product have been designed as a vocal mic because it reproduces almost every audio detail.
The condenser Lauten Audio FC-357 Mic features solid-state FET circuit, pressure gradient condenser, cardioid, omnidirectional and figure-8 polar patterns, -10 dB attenuation and +10dB gain switch, 25Hz to 20KHz frequency response, requires +48V phantom power and 3-pin standard XLR output. The main functions of this mic are vocal, back vocals and instrument recording.
The last product is the Lauten Audio ST-221 a condenser mic with NOS vacuum tube circuit, pressure gradient condenser, cardioid and omnidirectional polar patterns (with interchangeable capsules), 20Hz to 20KHz frequency response and 7-pin XLR and 3-pin standard XLR outputs. This mic is great for drum miking tasks but also works with string instruments and pianos.
Price: TBA

Software, plug-ins, etc.
Well, first of all the most two mysterious items of the lot: Yamaha will launch an X-Factor VST thing, and Spectrasonics will have a new product out, probably a sort of super-synth (?!?). We’ll see…
McDSP has announced three new plug-ins: DE555 de-esser, the FutzBox signal distorter and noise generator, and the NF575 noise filter.
The DE555 is a new generation of de-essing technology, providing transparent, precise de-essing with unique flexibility. FutzBox is a distortion and noise generator plug-in for creating low-fidelity versions of audio signals. The NF575 noise filter is a high-resolution filter set designed to remove a wide variety of noise types from audio.
The new plug-ins will be available only to owners of the McDSP Emerald Pack HD and Emerald Pack Native bundles as an upgrade ($195 HD / $95 Native for owners of Emerald Pack version 2). The new Emerald Pack bundle (version 3.0) will retail for $2795 for the HD version, and $1495 for the Native version. This increase in price is equal to the upgrade cost, so customers needing Emerald Pack immediately need not wait for version 3.0 to be available.
Emerald Pack 3.0 will also support Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard), as well as Windows XP and Digidesign’s Venue Live sound system. Support for Vista is not official yet.

Controller, Midi, etc.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about Euphonix new products, which should make them more familiar to the small studio owners, given their affordable price. We’re talking of the MC Control and the MC Mix.
The Euphonix MC Control is a DAW Control Surface with Programmable Touchscreen, 4 Touch-sensitive Motorized Faders, Programmable Knobs and Buttons, Transport Controls, and Monitoring Software.
The Euphonix MC Mix is a compact Control Surface with 8 Touch-sensitive Motorized Faders, Rotary Encoders, Programmable Buttons, and Ethernet Connectivity.
Price: TBA (but Sweetwater has them in pre-order at 1499 usd and 999 usd)

Percussa will show a new software for their nice AudioCubes. From their press release “AudioCubes are a unique and visually intriguing performance tool that can be used as fully assignable MIDI controllers for music and multimedia as well as a standalone wireless digital/analog lo-fi sound generator and processor.
When used as a controller, the AudioCubes translate their physical positioning and proximity (including external surfaces) to Trigger and scalable Continuous Controller information, which can be routed via its MIDI Bridge software to other applications such as as Ableton Live, Reason, softsynths, plug-in FX and physical MIDI devices. Through construct development programs such as Cycling 74’s Max/MSP/Jitter these capabilities can be extended to the control of Lighting, Video, even electromechanical Installations, and open a world of research and education possibilities in which hands-on interaction with technology plays a key role.
Besides presenting an update to the MIDI Bridge application and manuals for AudioCubes, Percussa will demo new sound generator software which lets you use the cubes without acomputer, to be released as a free download for all AudioCubes users after the NAMM show.”

Guitar stuff, accessories, etc.
I like the picture and that’s a good reason for them to appear here! Source Audio, creators of the Hot Hand Motion Control Wah Filter and Phaser/Flanger systems, will introduce its new Soundblox guitar effects pedals at NAMM: Soundblox Multiwave Guitar Distortion, Soundblox Tri-Mod Guitar Wah pedal, the Soundblox Tri-Mod Guitar Flanger pedal and the Tri-Mod Guitar Phaser pedal.
Price: Soundblox pedals 149.99 usd each, Hot Hand Wireless Adapter & Controller 150 usd, Hot Hand Wired Controller 24.95 usd.

To be continued (more about 2008 NAMM)…