Yesterday we took in our final day at the NAMM show. Being Saturday, it was the day where the big crowds turned out to see the big name artists and the big changes taking place in the world of music gear.
After seeing pretty much everything that’s being exhibited this year we thought it would be cool to share a couple of new developments here that we think you are going to like and that maybe, will change the way we interact with music in the future.
The first thing that really got us buzzing is the new Eleven Amp from Avid (the guys behind Pro Tools).
They call it the killer rack because it puts professional recording and signal processing in the hands of every guitarist. Eleven has been an amp-cab-mic modeling software plug-in for pro-tools for some time now, but recently the avid team have developed the idea and turned it into a stand alone piece of hardware.
Taking Cool Processing technology from their Pro equipment TDM HD systems (big $$) and adding that to the software, Avid have produced a box that completes all the intensive algorithms that drive the complex software and delivers the audio to your speakers, amp setup and or via USB to your computer and pro tools environment with no latency.
The Eleven rack will suit the guitarist that is at the level where studio and stage is becoming part of their musicianship experience. This is a tool that will allow you to record your guitar straight into the digital world and have the end signal sounding very nice indeed. The quest for analog tone in the digital world drives these development teams project by project and the reality is that one day a cheap $100 guitar will sound like a rare 70’s telecaster through a 60’s fender combo.
The well trained ears have previous said, these emulation plug-in sounds are good, but they don’t sound like the real thing being mic’d up with the old 60’s combo.
James Michael – Producer, engineer,songwriter; motley crue, meatloaf, scorpions said, ” I’ve seen the potential for years with small preamps and amp emulation plug-ins, but Eleven is the first plug-in that can honestly replace the guitar amp.” Very exciting future for production.
You can find out more about Eleven here.
Another interesting development is the new partnership between Fender Guitars and eJamming. We all know what Fender are famous for, but you may not have heard of the eJamming crew before. eJamming have been around for a few years now but it’s only recently that they have partnered with Fender and gained more exposure.
Basically, eJamming is just that – jamming online. eJamming’s online platform allows you to connect and jam out with your friends and other musicians no matter where both parties are in the world. The Fender representatives we spoke to said the partnership was a natural progression for Fender and that they chose eJamming as it offers the lowest amount of delay in signal.
This is definitely worth checking out and it’s free to try, so you can test it out with your friends before signing on. Check it out here.
If you do get a chance to try these things out then please leave a comment on this post so others can read your thoughts about them.
So, that is it from us at the show for now. While we’ve shared only a few interesting highlights here on the blog, we’ve taken a lot more information away from the show that will help us develop a better service for all of you in 2010. Also, look forward to to more NAMM related posts in the next couple of weeks.
Cheers
Jon
