BILL HOLLAND: We’re on Gearwire.Com in Nashville for the 2008 Summer NAMM Session here with Ernie from M-Audio. Thanks for joining me, Ernie.

ERNIE: Thank you very much for your time.

BILL HOLLAND: And M-Audio has never done digital pianos. Let me ask you though. Why is M-Audio getting into digital pianos?

ERNIE: Well, M-Audio is a company with a vision that realizes that the consumer market is certainly a lot bigger than the professional musician market, and as you can see by these instruments, they’re more appropriate for someone’s home as opposed to the other products, the other pianos that M-Audio offers which are more geared for the stage and performance.

BILL HOLLAND: Okay.

ERNIE: So, we feel obviously that that market is there for this type of a product. And with our affiliation with Digidesign and Sibelius, we’re also going to be packaging and bundling a lot of software.

BILL HOLLAND: And also sheet music and sheet music...?

ERNIE: Yes. Notation programs and things like that. We’ll also see a lot more of that type of partnership going on between the different companies that are under the umbrella of Avid Audio -- Avid Technology obviously.

BILL HOLLAND: Excellent. Now, what makes your digital pianos different than say like a Yamaha, like the old Clavinovas or like some of the other digital pianos that other companies offer?

ERNIE: Well, these are pretty -- I mean a piano is a piano, let’s face it, but we feel we’ve got some very aggressive price points, and if you compare our products on a comparison check, you’ll see that our specs are a little bit better as far as sequencer memory, the number of sounds that are offered, and USB hookups and things like that that make it a lot more home friendly let’s say.

BILL HOLLAND: Now, do any of these have like you can put disk in their flash drives or anything?

ERNIE: No. Flash drive you can use because of the interface but can run on disk drives no.

BILL HOLLAND: But if I -- I meant well some sort of device, obviously flash drive makes the most sense now but so you can actually record a sequence or do you use multitracking at all in here like?

ERNIE: No.

BILL HOLLAND: Not audio but MIDI?

ERNIE: Right. On the higher models I believe there are two tracks of recording available.

BILL HOLLAND: Okay.

ERNIE: And then you can save it off to a computer if you want. We’re really going to make a play for the interface between the computer and the piano. I mean it’s not a secret. I mean everybody knows that you can plug a digital piano into a computer and do a lot of fantastic things with it, but as funny as it seems there’s really no company that’s saying, “Well, here’s how you do it.”

BILL HOLLAND: Right. [OVERLAPPING]

ERNIE: So, we’re trying to make it as easy as --

BILL HOLLAND: [INDISCERNIBLE]

ERNIE: Exactly.

BILL HOLLAND: Okay.

ERNIE: So, on our higher models, we’ve got one cable that connects to the USB that also not only records MIDI but also records Audio. There’s a phantom power supply on them so you can plug a microphone, a guitar, and sing and play along and record directly to the computer in that way.

BILL HOLLAND: So, there are eventual plans to include maybe like a mini Mbox or something with this or some sort of smaller interface?

ERNIE: Well, the interface is already there and we can show you that later. Underneath the piano is an interface with the connections and everything you would need to do it.

BILL HOLLAND: Oh great. All right. Well Ernie, thank you again. I appreciate it.

ERNIE: Thank you for your time. We appreciate your time as well.

BILL HOLLAND: Definitely, and this is pretty cool. M-Audio has introduced a digital piano line here at Summer NAMM 2008 and hopefully this picks up and people really get into it.

ERNIE: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

BILL HOLLAND: Thank you.