audio fidelity Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 some highlights i'm seeing -spectrasonics trillian (trilogy update) -amplitube fender -tony maserati waves collection -keymap pro 2 (now works with other sample formats) -NI maschine -Play 2.0 - hope it works for you guys - both andrews Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 where's the namm thread!? It's right here. Wish to death I was there. GC employees get in free, however, they won't let us off work for it. Kind of puts a smirk on my face... Anyway, I actually hadn't been following it much, but thanks for the reminder, Jay. Those things are all on my radar as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audio fidelity Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 It's right here. Wish to death I was there. GC employees get in free, however, they won't let us off work for it. Kind of puts a smirk on my face... Anyway, I actually hadn't been following it much, but thanks for the reminder, Jay. Those things are all on my radar as well. awww the bitter irony - that's lame - well how about me and you summer namm in nashville?! i'll take care of you - you just get the tickets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 awww the bitter irony - that's lame - well how about me and you summer namm in nashville?! i'll take care of you - you just get the tickets heh, we'll see, not sure i'll be at GC by then, but I'm definitely up for going one way or the other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audio fidelity Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 i was talking to my teacher at MTSU about it - i might be able to get tickets this time around - we'll see how it goes down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Vagrance Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 tbh I've been kind of unimpressed with a lot of it. Aside from Ableton 8, everything I've seen has had a "oh thats cool I guess, but how useful will it be?" reaction from me, especially the Maschine and new Waves plugins. The joys of no desire... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nekofrog Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 my DO WANTS: Both delicious looking 7 string guitars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 I am looking forward to demos of: AI LASS and SILK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bustatunez Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 I was at NAMM, there was some pretty amazing stuff there. (actually supposedly there's some official NAMM video floating around, showing some turban-wearing dude playing a Hammond.. and I'm cameoing in the background O_o) Anyways I have my full summary at the office but here's what I remember: HARDWARE - Moog infinite sustain guitar - interesting concept, supposedly good make, but I can't see any application for it really. (then again I'm not a real guitarist) - Continuum keyboard - old news, but my personal favorite bit of hardware in the whole show. Some found it awkward, but I instantly caught on and was captivated by how much expression I can finally put into my playing. - CME 80 keyboard - extremely old news, but I finally got to try one. Got a good weighted keys touch, breath control, lotsa sliders, sequencer transports... a no brainer if you have the $$$ DAW SOFTWARE - Cubase 5 - Show-stealer this year. Finally 64bit. Additionally it's got a great melodyne-esque vocal editing suite, convolution reverb, in-line tempo and time signature changing, time-freeze function (so those of us who work on films no longer have to write linearly!), advanced bounce options so you can bounce the wet signal of your effects on separate stems (GREAT for protools/mixing compatibility), and.. my personal favorite.... an iPhone app that acts as a remote transport. - Sonar 8 - Also old news, step sequencer is still useless, but they keep tweaking the audio engine like crazy. I desperately wanna see a true comparison of Cubase 5 and Sonar 8 running the same plugins on the same machine, just to see the effect of all these optimizations they've been doing for the last few years. - Protools 8 - Didn't spend much time there, but they've basically just Apple'd it up a lot to look more like Logic. Added better piano roll and MIDI functions (a few non-destructive MIDI editing features), advanced notation view that essentially works as an integrated Sibelius, step sequencer that actually looks promising (still doesn't hold a candle to FLStudio), and a buncha plugins I couldn't tell if they were any good because the Waves booth nearby was being unfairly loud. Speaking of which, EFFECTS - Waves - A very classless display. Somehow or another the Waves booth ended up being right opposite the Protools 8 one, and throughout the whole show they blasted their speakers at the backs of people who were trying to listen to the Protools demos. I was also disappointed that, upon asking about 64-bit, they literally said "We have no plans for 64-bit compatibility because right now 64-bit is just a gimmicky fad." - Native Instruments - Not much new that isn't DJ-related. I was also a bit disappointed when none of their tech guys could answer a simple question about Kontakt3's RAM overhead (instead they decided to talk down to me and assume I was using Kontakt the wrong way). - iZotope Ozone 4 - YES. This plugin was already amazing, but they've just added some UI features that make things even easier. Global sliders for each effect (and for the whole shebang) for easy control of the overall intensity of the effect, easy intensity-parameters within the preset browser, a new volume maximizer "character", and a new linearphase+analog "hybrid" crossover mode for the multiband effects are the main new features. There's also a jillion new presets. SAMPLE LIBRARIES - Garritan Steinway - My favorite piano library of the bunch. Smaller, but the best tone, never ran into issues with it not having enough velocity or RR, good dynamics, etc. Compared favorably to Ivory, EastWest, and VSL's new pianos. - EastWest Silk - (south and east Asian ethnic instruments library) Sounds good, curiously lacks Sitar though (so if you're looking for that..... www.impactsoundworks.com :) ). Otherwise it's a great ethnic library if you're willing to deal with the buggy Play VI. - LA Scoring Strings (LASS) - Terrible presentation (not their fault.. just underfunded, bad location, bad speakers, Kontakt kept unloading their samples b/c the computer went to sleep a few minutes before, etc.), but shows some promise. Basically the idea is they recorded each string section in three parts: section leader, first half divisi, second half divisi. Each of those parts is its own Kontakt patch for every articulation, so the legato and expression are very fluid. For me, their legato isn't much better than what I have going with my own samples (which curiously work in much the same way with multi-level patches), but what really impressed us was the staccato and spiccato patches. They can get VERY aggressive in LASS, extremely clear and well-performed. LASS also features a unique pattern sequencing script for the staccatos/spiccatos, which works as a velocity control for reattacking notes (basically hold down a note and it'll play the pattern, according to the velocities you've mapped on the grid... hard to explain, but effective and easy). This library will be < $1500, I probably won't get it because I've already spent about 5 years getting my own VSL+EWQL patches to sound just about as good, but if you have the money and want something this powerful right out of the box, LASS is a great choice. - Spectrasonics - Best sample-related presentation, in my opinion. First off, Omnisphere's getting an update with 2000 new patches for free; some really nice stuff too. Trilogy is now being upgraded to "Trillian", with some new samples (including the Chapman stick!) and interoperability with Omnisphere's Steam engine. If I'm remembering right, it also has some nice bass groove patterns that can also be used in conjunction with RMX, with groove lock. RMX's update is most exciting for me though - their new "Time Designer" allows you to sync RMX beats to *ANY TIME SIGNATURE*, any groove feel, anything. It's got a nice groove lock function that allows you to combine any two beats together and synchronize their accents / syncopations, and it even has a "Simplify" knob that can be used to calm down the more complex beats. I can see this being extremely useful for both live and sequenced RMX usage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pezman Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 Continuum keyboard - old news, but my personal favorite bit of hardware in the whole show. Some found it awkward, but I instantly caught on and was captivated by how much expression I can finally put into my playing. As soon as you can drop $5 grand. I mean, I've seen Jordan Rudess wailing on it. There's no way it's worth that much. It's just the pitch bend extended like crazy. Ridiculous doesn't begin to describe it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
analoq Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 The price is ridiculous, but it's a perfectly viable controller. That sort of expression has been available since the 1930s with the Ondes Martenot. The modern-day replication of which isn't exactly cheap, either. cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 I'd love more info on play- it's been working great so far for me, though i've heard of issues on non macs. I also love the sound of Fender amps so the fender specific amplitude is also very interesting to me. BGC- does guitar center have any of these programs set up for playing around with? I'd love to hear it before I dropped cash on it, and the guitar staff at GC tends to make me never want to shop there unless I absolutely have to. Basically the infinite sustain guitar is for having super sustained melodic lines without the need for high gain or a huge delay loop. It'd be completely nuts with a slide I bet. Though the samples I heard were all pretty much straight clean tone, i'd love to hear it with a touch of gain and delay. Overall a lot of cool stuff, as per usual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audio fidelity Posted January 25, 2009 Author Share Posted January 25, 2009 i coulda used that infinite sustain guitar on 'ring of bomb' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bustatunez Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 About the Continuum, it really is more than a pitchbend-on-steroids. It really is continuous 3-dimensional control in a way you can only get with bowed strings or wind instruments (pitch, volume, and intensity). Remarkably easy to just start using right away, too. Yes it's overpriced, but honestly if I personally were into live performance then I'd get it in a heartbeat (the novelty factor helps a lot too ). Only caveat about this is that every single note is its own MIDI channel, since it needs to express pitchbend / controller data on an individual note-by-note basis. So it can be problematic if you're thinking of using this to control, say, Kontakt. But, they do have monophonic modes, as well as internal sounds, so it's still a very usable instrument. About Play 2.0, basically their whole deal is getting back some of the customization/editing features that were lost on the move away from Kontakt. It's got a friendlier overall UI than Kontakt, and has a Python-based scripting engine. I asked about the scripting functions and whether or not it had a useful tool like Nils KScript Editor for Kontakt, to which they replied with something like "..... ....it uses Python." Oh well. Otherwise, I'd say if you've already bit the Play bullet and it's working for you then go for it - it's got some great sounds and will now allow almost as much editing capability as Kontakt. I just can't recommend it to new users as stability is such a huge issue (especially on PC), and they've been historically reluctant even to admit this. And about the Moog guitar, it really does sound how you'd expect when sliding and tapping. I only had a tiny bit of time to play with it, and it seemed like it had some kind of additional logic to determine when you want a continuous fingered line, so it may take a bit of getting used to. But then again I only play a guitarist on TV, maybe someone who's actually good at the instrument wouldn't have this problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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