For some reason, Summer NAMM seems to have picked up a reputation as a snoozer show with not much going for it. This is not a fair impression, but it lingers, accurate or not. Summer NAMM itself as a trade event did its job and did it well. The problem in evaluating Summer NAMM is Winter NAMM -- Summer NAMM's bigger, louder, more boisterous brother. Compare any musical instrument trade show to that monstrous double-barreled extravaganza in Anaheim and you are bound to come up "lacking" in a few departments.

For one, I found the reduced pace at Summer NAMM to be more enjoyable than the enormous circus that is Winter NAMM. There just seemed to be more oxygen in the room: there was certainly less noise. And you can't have any semi-annual show in any high-technology industry without serious developments to report.

For my money, the best stuff at Summer NAMM were no less eye-popping than those at the Winter behemoth. If I had to point at one single standout, it would have to be...

Audio Impressions Realtime Instruments powered by DVZ

Somehow, we bypassed this powerhouse of orchestral majesty at the Winter show. Bill Holland and I stood agape as composer Chris Stone put this standalone, works-best-with-OEM'd-rack-PC orchestral tool through its amazing paces. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and the Audio Impressions user interface made the best of its opportunity to amaze.

One look at how the screen real estate is parceled up and you know that musicians -- composers, conductors, arrangers - not software developers -- made all the decisions about what nav and UI objects were available and what the readouts were. No software developer would make the decisions these guys made, and users can dance a jig of joy at the result.

Section seats are displayed in a normal, real-world manner relying on visual duplication of instrument icons. One of the best and best-integrated features was the space technology feature - allowing you to pick up the virtual orchestra players and arrange them around virtual microphone pickup points. Beyond cool! Using this feature, one may convincingly simulate any seating and microphone arrangement.

The product continues to amaze with its divisi features (the thing is named DVZ after all, divisi, DVZ, get it?). The term, which in orchestration means to "divide" the ranges of notes on the score and assign those ranges to specific seats in the orchestra. The flexibility means such a huge payoff in terms of timbre and color available.

And the sample set underneath results in a brilliant and full orchestral output, balanced with the fine precision afforded by the many playback features. DVZ not only makes a distinction between pizzicato notes and "Bartok pizzicato" notes, it has a sound engine hardcore enough to make the difference glaringly obvious, natural and colorful. Viva DVZ!