The Metasonix G-1000 is also known as the F*cking F*cker. Sorry abo*t the stars. My * key is broken.  

Waves shows off the iGTR, a personal, pocket-sized guitar processor that has a myriad of effects including very cool [and warm] distortion. It's the perfect travel processor and about twice as fun as Travel Yahtzee.  

SONiVOX Anatomy is a very interesting set of sounds all emanating from every human noise you can think of. We're not talking about simply vocals, here. Use your imagination, and keep in mind you can edit parameters.  

QSC made a ceremonial announcement at Winter NAMM 2008 regarding the new GX series of power amps. Dr. Q discusses the design process of the GX series and how the heroic QSC design team managed to keep prices low while keeping audio quality high.  

It seemed as if everyone came out with a new field recorder at Winter NAMM 2008. I'm not just talking about the manufacturers, either. Strangers were approaching me on the street with their new field recorders.

So what makes the M-Audio MicroTrack II better than the rest? Aside from the obvious that M-Audio is more reputable than a gentleman I believe called himself "Madd Skillz" who accosted me in the 7-11 parking lot, you'll have to watch this video to find out.  

Have you ever seen those completely awesome videos of shoppers on Black Friday trampling each other to get into Wal-Mart for some prices rolled back to the extreme? When The Dave Smith Instruments / Roger Linn Design LinnDrum II hits the shelves, the scene will be the same, so lace up your stompin' boots because stompin' season has officially been declared all year round.  

If you think Propellerhead Reason beats are weak, try telling that to Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, DJ Pierre, the guy with the Dr. Robotnik haircut from Prodigy, or a number of other huge acts who incorporate Reason into their work. They'll probably just laugh at you and then knock you unconscious with a huge sack of money.  

J. Irving-Giles and Bill Holland were excited when they were tipped off about the Best of NAMM Breakfast. Both enjoyed the great gear they saw at NAMM and both also enjoy free breakfast. It sounded like the perfect start to the perfect day . . . little did they know, it would be their last!  

The IK Multimedia StompIO brings together the tonal range of software amp modelers with the unadulterated joy of stomping. Editing on the StompIO never requires any painstakingly boring turns of the wrist, so lace up your stompin' boots because stompin' season has officially been declared all year round.  

Remember those Micro Machines commercials with that guy who talked really fast? Me too. Anyway, Digidesign shows off the MBox 2 Micro at Winter NAMM 2008 in a normally-paced voice.  

Q: Why does the Roland TD-9 Module use icon based editing?

A: Because most drummers never learned how to read!

Q: What? Nobody's going to play a stick?

 

The CME VX Series is unique in that its the only keyboard on the market with motorized faders. Don't believe me? I didn't believe me either, so I Googled "keyboard motorized faders," and it turned out I was right.  

Raymond Calitri from Gone in 60 Seconds would have loved the new KORE Player, which gives users access to around 50 sounds from MASSIVE, FM8, ABSYNTH, and more -- unless Native Instruments was overestimating.

Seriously -- if there's even half a sound below fifty, Raymond would get pretty angry. Bill Holland's doppleganger might, at this point, try to offer him a lower price, but Calitri would just punch him or Bill with a pair of brass knuckles because no one insults him, and one Holland is as good as another.

 

When I get off of work, I usually go sit at home and listen to digital reverb by itself for a few hours before I go to sleep. SM Pro Audio's STAGE-BUDDY makes it possible for me to do this on headphones, too. I'm sure it can do a number of much less creepy things.  

Digidesign made a big to-do about the Elastic Time update in Pro Tools 7.4, but don't let that overshadow these fine updates to their synthesizer and percussion virtual instruments, Hybrid and Strike.  

DigiTech's Andrew Lovegrove shows us some of the most premium pedals DigiTech has ever made -- the HardWire series. Andrew tells us what quality components are making their stompbox debut, like Lexicon reverb algorithms and new DSP chips.  

Dixon is releasing three new drum kits, aiming to please the deviant in every drummer. The Dixon Chaos, Dixon Demon, and Dixon Outlaw are Dixon's first actual drum kits -- up until now, Dixon stuck to drum hardware.  

If you're a fan of fuzz, than OohLaLa Manufacturing is definitely a pedal company to check out. The four pedals in this video [my favorite being the Soda-Meiser based on name and design alone] range from classic Marshall fuzz to synth-like fuzz breakup.  

We visit Dr. Epiphone who is excited to show us the new Epiphone Prophecy series and more. This new Epiphone line for shredders is equipped with EMGs or Dirty Fingers, thankfully unlike Dr. Epiphone who could've easily used his costume to check us for hernias.  

Native Instruments TRAKTOR 3 with TRAKTOR Scratch makes a DJ's life much easier. It's packed with convenient features that span from simple beat matching between to glitchy beat mashing within them.  

IK Multimedia's StompIO gives you all you need to control your Powered by Amplitube software from outside your normal computer setup. Shipping with handy extras like X-Gear software and an expression pedal, StompIO is sure to convert some curious guitarists away from their massive stompbox collection.  

Elastic Time, a new feature in Pro Tools 7.4, is about as handy as an elastic waistband during IHOP's Never Ending Pancakes promotion [valid until probably around February 12th]. Now Pro Tools can line things up to a beat for you, even if your inner metronome isn't precise.  

As promised, here's part two of our look at the Hammond G37, a Leslie speaker with a built in guitar amp. This time, we listen to some acoustic guitar to see how it sounds through a Leslie speaker.  

With so many Macs being used to make music, Logic grows in popularity and features at a pretty healthy rate. It makes sense, then, that Frontier Design Group's AlphaTrack support Apple Logic. It would've been insane, and I mean "telling your C/S you'd rather not go to OT this lifetime" insane, to ignore Logic.  

Roland's V-Drums are the Kleenex brand of electronic drums. The biggest name in electronic drums by far, V-Drums new TD-9 series brings a lot of excitement to electronic percussion.  

Mackie was proud to present the Hotwire at Winter NAMM 2008 -- a guitar amplifier with a lot of fresh ideas packed into it. Kevin Van Pamel shows us how the Hotwire embraces a different method of thinking about tonal versatility.  

Bill Holland is not a guitarist, but Digidesign was confident it could even transform Bill's riffing into an audio masterpiece. As close as this software program comes to emulating tube amps, it still doesn't possess magic power.  

Rode has some new microphones [Awesome!] slated for future release, but at Winter NAMM 2008, they were busy promoting Rode University, a series of online lessons that educate home studio hopefuls on various recording topics.  

Berlin keyboardist Mitchell Sigman proves that the M-Audio ProKeys series does more than just act as a controller. The built-in sounds are a key component to the appeal of this item.  

METAlliance ™ is looking to put an end to the use vague terms like "high quality" to describe products by setting up a system of standards for accurate classification.