Dave Smith has this year end update for customers and fans of Dave Smith Instruments and a tease about the upcoming 2009 NAMM Show:

Those of you who are paying attention (and we know there are at least a few of you…) may have noticed a relationship between how often the site gets updated and how busy we are. In fact, you might even be able to speculate when we’re getting ready to release a new product by the general lack of activity here. The absence of recent updates can mainly be attributed to the annual distraction of preparation for the NAMM show. We won’t be showing or announcing any new products this year (unless you count Mopho, which continues to fly out the door and is still backordered), but it takes a lot of work to get ready anyway. If you’re coming to the show, please stop by booth 6948 and say hello.

And, since we’re talking about NAMM and new products, you might ask, “What’s happening with the LinnDrum II?” Dave and Roger have been hard at work on the new design of LinnDrum II and now have a better idea of the ship date, which we currently estimate to be during the third quarter of 2009. We wish we could ship sooner but there’s still a lot of work to do and it’s important to us that we get it right. As a result, we don’t anticipate showing it—in any form—at the NAMM show. Thanks so much for your patience. We think it will be worth the wait.

In Mopho news, there is a new version of the OS that squashes a few annoying bugs. Go to the Current OS page for details. Also, the Mopho Pro editor is now available. Additional features include patch librarian functionality, program genetics, phantom banks, and automation for the sequencer section. We are also pleased to announce that Soundtower is working on VST and AU support with a projected release sometime in Q1 of 2009.

2008 has been action-packed, but fun. The Prophet ’08 received numerous honors and that is extremely gratifying. Mopho has already racked up a couple, as well (though only one we can talk about right now…). And Future Music has had the Prophet as the #1 recommended hardware synth on their gear chart for several months running. (Mopho just appeared in the latest issue at #4!)

Last, but not least, the ranks of DSI employees have swelled by an astonishing 33% in 2008. That’s right: there are four of us now. Chris Hector (AKA “the new guy” and “the young guy”) has joined us as Audio Engineer. Chris has already proved his worth by filling some significant “knowledge gaps” at DSI. Welcome, Chris!

Thanks to all the faithful for your continued support and to all of you who have more recently taken the DSI plunge. We literally couldn’t do it without you. We hope you have as much fun with our instruments as we have making them. All of us at Dave Smith Instruments wish you a happy, healthy, and peaceful 2009.

Congratulations to Dave Smith Instruments for a fantastic 2008! We’re looking forward to seeing what they have up their sleeve for next year.