Best of NAMM 2008

Asking for a top pick from Winter NAMM is always a tough one, as almost every vendor seems bent on outdoing the guy across the convention center. Unusually, however, there weren't too many surprises this year. There were plenty of goodies to be had, but nothing that seemed [at least for the moment] revolutionary.

We all knew about the Prophet 8, as it saw a release prior to NAMM. The LinnDrum II is, for the moment, a box of blinking lights with lots of promise. Perhaps the biggest upset this year was the amount of micro-gear that exceeded our expectations.

M-Audio released the ProFire 2626 which promises 26 simultaneous in/out while delivering high-quality 24 bit/192 khz audio. Essentially, this is a competitor to the FireStudio Project, making it another entry in the world of more affordable digital interfaces. Torq also received an update at NAMM that includes a new feature allowing skip protection for DJing loft parties and roller-derbies.

Korg finally showed off the Kaossillator, a compact synth, drum machine, and looping devices that promises to become the new toy to carry to DJ gigs and shows. Boasting a bank of 100 synths, basses, natural instruments, chorded sounds, and drum sounds, the Kaossillator is a little bigger than an iPod and a thousand times more useful. Although not for every musician, it's a great addition to any live PA or DJ set.

For forward-thinking musicians two of the best things to appear at the conference showed up at the Access booth. First off, Richard Devine's demos of the Atomizer software prove that glitch has an even brighter future than expected. The Access Virus Snow is nothing revolutionary, but it makes owning the Virus module that much more affordable. The advantage to that, of course, is that you can now pack your Virus and a laptop in the same bag for a gig.

Moog added a pedal to the Moogerfooger line that allows you four assignable CV outs for whatever you might need to do to create killer sounds from outer-space. Kurzweil released the PC3X, which holds some amazingly hi-def samples, along with a more compact version of the 88-key behemoth. Waves' iGTR has yet to really be put to the test, but I'm sure a non-laptop bound version of the GTR3 software would be a welcomed relief for most guitarists who use the amp modeling software.

All in all, NAMM was overwhelming as usual but full of products that promise to keep our wallets steadily empty over the next year.