NAMM 2014 Winners and Losers Thus Far

SmokinHalfNote

Inspired
Realize I'm opening the proverbial bag of worms here, but this is just my take so far.

Losers
Line 6 - I am not a L6 hater by any stretch. Just bought a new G55 Wireless and an extra transmitter, so I don't mind giving them my money, but after all the hype, I have to say - not impressed by the AMPLIFi. Looks like a decent practice/beginner amp, but hardly worthy of the hype. Their marketing department did a bang up job. Might be time to hire some engineers though.

Winners
Mission Engineering - Had no idea the Gemini series was coming, but looks really nice and well thought out.
Atomic/Studio Devil - Can't wait to try out an Amplifire - just what I've been looking for (either a backup to my Axe Fx/Kemper rig or a quality travel/small gig rig).
 
Yeah, not much excitement in Rolandville. The RD800 is ok, but I'm sticking with my RD300s. For me, so far, best of show goes to Fishman (Fluence pups).
 
There are a couple really cool things coming out. The Keith McMillen StrongArm sustainer.

The Touchmark guitar interface that replaces your pots and switches with 2 touch pads. He should change the name though. His name is Mark and I'm pretty sure I don't want to touch Mark... Just sayin.

The Guitar Wing midi controller. I'll be jumping on to Kickstarter for one of those.

TronicalTune robo tuners,

Antares auto tune install kits.

Thus far.....



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For me, so far, best of show goes to Fishman (Fluence pups).

I got to play with the Fluence pickup today, for just a bit. I know Frank Falbo, the guy who designed it. Being a pickup maker myself, Frank and I have a lot to talk about. I will be buying a few of them for sacrificial purposes. It took me about five minutes to figure out 99% of how they did with non-traditional "coils" once I'd heard about it.
Wonder if I can do it without the preamp. Hah.
 
Losers
Roland.

Seriously, it looks like Korg put the Kronos out and everyone else decided to give up trying to compete on workstations. Yamaha? Kurzweil?

Maybe Roland have a more upmarket model up their sleeves, but it is likely to be too little too late.
 
Seriously, it looks like Korg put the Kronos out and everyone else decided to give up trying to compete on workstations. Yamaha? Kurzweil?
I guess they just realized the market for professional workstations is not big enough for a serious competition here. I mean, just think about the horrendous engineering and software development costs for professional workstations vs. the small numbers of actually sold units.

Kurzweil and Nord have their market on the live SP sector and probably doing much better there in the status quo than trying to reissue the lost battle for studio applications.

Roland and Yamaha... basicly the same ... too much of global players to actually care about such a niché market.



When thinking about this, I'm still amazed at how Cliff managed to get his permanent footprint into the digital modelling market basicly out of nowhere. Think about the immense financial power of his competitors, it's almost scary he managed to get his startup straight to the top for such a long time. Entrepreneurship at its best.
 
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It's a rehashing of an old idea. I have an old Shergold Modulator from the 70s that has swappable modules that do everything from rewire the pups to add onboard effects. You loosen a simple thumb screw and interchange modules that are built on to a front plate similar to a Tele control plate. You can even get custom wired modules.

It's a good idea, just not a new one by any stretch, and IMO, nowhere near as cool as a Shergold.


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Not sure what Blackstar was trying to accomplish with id:core. Play up the stereo, take away TMB tone controls.
 
Any more namm highlights?!
It's killing me not to be there....

Any cool new PA gear?
Last year behringer stole the show with their x series mixers.
(And as an Xrack owner....they lived up to the hype)
Anyone see anything New like that? Wondering if Mackie has stepped their game?
 
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