January, 2006 archive

NAMM 2006 Winter Show: Mackie “previewed” what it calls “the next generation in recording interfaces,” the new Satellite FireWire Recording System.
The Satellite FireWire Recording System features a two-part audio interface designed to get the best out of computer recording in both live and studio environments.
The heart of the Satellite System is the Satellite Pod, a […]

2006 Winter NAMM Show: Mackie introduced Mackie C4 Commander, a software companion product for the Mackie Control C4 plug-in and virtual instrument controller that allows users to control hardware MIDI devices such as keyboards, sound modules, guitar PODs and effect processors via the Mackie Control C4.
With C4 Commander, keyboardists can tweak all the parameters in […]

NAMM 2006 Winter Show: Lexicon Pro has announced a new USB desktop recording solution, the Alpha Desktop Recording Studio.
The system includes everything needed for portable, professional recordings including the Alpha Studio USB I/O mixer, Steinberg’s Cubase LE multi-track PC and Mac recording software, and the Lexicon Pantheon VST reverb plug-in.
Jeff Phillips, Harman Music Group Market […]

Cakewalk introduced Rapture, described as “the ultimate wavetable synthesizer for igniting the sounds of today’s pop, dance, and electronic music.”
Rapture is the latest dual platform synthesizer to come from the Cakewalk Instruments engineering team. In Rapture, musicians will find powerful and flexible wavetable synthesis in an inspired creation tool that enables vast sonic possibilities and […]

NAMM 2006 Winter Show: Arturia introduced a hybrid of two classic Sequential Circuits synthesizers that changed the face of music during the ’70s and ’80s, the Prophet V.
The warmth of the Prophet 5, one of the first programmable polyphonic analog synths, is combined with the digital textures of the Prophet VS in the […]

NAMM 2006 Winter Show: Akai announced Version 2.0 software revision for MPC1000 Music Production Center. The update, which coincides with a cosmetic change (from blue to black) for new units, is available free of charge from the company’s website and includes a number of significant enhancements that facilitates greater versatility from this popular […]

NAMM 2006 Winter Show: Akai Professional introduced the MPC2500 Music Production Center.
The MPC2500 is the successor to the company’s highly acclaimed MPC2000XL. Featuring an inviting user interface, great-feeling velocity and pressure sensitive pads, twin onboard effects processors with a send for outboard effects, Q-Link controllers, plus 10 outputs and an S/PDIF digital output, the […]

NAMM 2006 Winter Show: Akai Professional introduced the EWI4000S Wind Controller.
The newest addition to the EWI family incorporates numerous enhancements to its overall design as a wind controller, and adds an integrated analog modeling synthesizer optimized for wind control, dedicated MIDI In and Out ports, an audio output, new performance functions, internal effects processing, and […]

The Zeit Step Sequencer is a long-anticipated project from Infection Music. It was announced, long ago, along with several other Berlin-school themed mega-sequencers, including the Phaedra and the Atem.
The Zeit made its US debut at the 2006 Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, California at the synth orgy known as the Analog Haven booth.

Unfortunately, it was […]

2006 NAMM Winter Show: Blue Microphones seems to be doing its best to make mundane things interesting, with the introduction of Ralph – the Wonder Mount, a new shock mount designed for many popular recording microphones.
Ralph was designed to be an effective and inexpensive alternative or replacement shock mount for any mic with a diameter […]

NAMM: CME announced two new audio peripheral products for 2006, the Matrix X five channel mixer and Matrix Y headphone amp.
The Matrix Y is a simple solution to a common problem – the inability to communicate while wearing headphones. This four channel expandable headphone amp includes the unique addition of a built-in talkback microphone. The […]

2006 NAMM Show Update: CME announced two new MIDI controllers, the Bitstream 3X desktop and GPP-3 pedal controllers, which have feature sets never before seen in MIDI controllers.

The Bitstream 3X is designed for controlling Virtual Instrument, DAWs, and other MIDI hardware. This compact desktop unit is the only 3 axis (X,Y and Z) controller on […]

2006 NAMM Winter Show: SAC Pro Audio made its NAMM debut with two new product introductions; the DiGi808/DiGi818 Digital Audio Mixers and the PUMP 6A/8A Direct Field Monitor Speakers.
The DiGi808/DiGi818 Professional Digital Audio Console is versatile digital mixer at a what SAC calls a “break-through price.” Its high-quality analog preamp section feeds a warm signal […]

2006 NAMM Show: Digidesign announced that it has purchased the assets of Trillium Lane Labs, a leading developer of effects and utilities plug-ins for Pro Tools systems, including the TL Space convolution reverb and the TL EveryPhase phaser plug-in. Versions of all currently shipping Trillium Lane Labs plug-ins are available for Pro Tools 7 software […]

NAMM Update: At NAMM, Digidesign debut the first two virtual instruments from Digidesign Advanced Instrument Research: Xpand!, a free multi-synthesis sound factory workstation plug-in, and Hybrid, a high-definition synthesizer plug-in, available soon in RTAS format.
Digidesign announced that the R&D virtual instrument design group that it acquired from Wizoo in 2005 has been renamed the Digidesign […]