NAMM Show 2006 - New Product Announcements

The Arbiter team attended the Winter NAMM Show 2006 in Anaheim, California, to see what was new from the world's leading musical instrument and equipment manufacturers represented by Arbiter in the UK. Here's a round-up of the most exciting products that we saw...

Steinberg

Steinberg announced two new products - WaveLab 6 and Virtual Guitarist 2.

Virtual Guitarist 2 will ship with an impressive 6.8 GB library consisting of meticulously recorded performances by top studio guitarists. Including the entire content of both Virtual Guitarist and Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition and a wealth of new top-quality content, Virtual Guitarist 2 offers a staggering total of nearly 1100 different parts across 88 styles including pop, rock, metal, reggae and country to name but a few.

Steinberg Virtual Guitarist 2
(Click image to enlarge...)

An impressive range of virtual stomp box effects that have been painstakingly modelled to recreate effects like tube saturation, wah, flanger, distortion and many more. The new amp modelling section recreates the sound of both modern and vintage guitar amps, as well as microphone type and positioning.

Steinberg's new WaveLab 6 audio editing package introduces a wealth of new functions including the facility to integrate hardware effect equipment during the mastering process. An enhanced master section now features SmartBypass - a time-saving new facility for assessing how a plug-in alters sound textures by compensating for volume changes induced by the plug-in.

Steinberg Waveab 6
(Click image to enlarge...)

Similarly new are a range of quality audio processors including a new sample rate converter, the advanced Dirac time stretching and pitch-shifting algorithm and the Spectrum Editor providing exciting new restoration and editing possibilities.

WaveLab 6 is due to ship in February 2006.

CME

CME VX Series (Click image to enlarge...)

CME - who built their reputation with the outstanding UF Series keyboards - introduced the stylish new VX MIDI Controller Keyboards. The CME VX range are the world's first controller keyboards with motorised faders and 12 programmable trigger pads. But that's not all - take a look at the preliminary feature list:

• Four Models:
  • CME VX5 (49-Key)
  • CME VX6 (61-Key)
  • CME VX7 (76-Key)
  • CME VX8 (88-Key)
    
• Built-in USB Audio and MIDI
  
• Multi-function expansion
  
• Graded hammer-action weighted keyboard (VX8)
  
• Semi-weighted keyboard (VX5 / VX6 / VX7)
  
• Velocity sensitive, initial and after touch
  
• 12 velocity-sensitive programmable trigger pads
  
• Ribbon controller
  
• Breath controller input
  
• 9 x 60mm motorised faders
  
• 8 x knob controllers (potentiometer)
  
• 9 x knob controllers (endless encoder)
  
• Pitch bend and modulation wheels
  
• 6 x sequencer transport buttons
  
• Multi-scale of the key to fit more kinds of ethnic music
  
• 4 x MIDI OUT, 1 x MIDI IN
  
• 2 x Mic/Line input with gain knob
  
• 2 x Line output
  
• 2 x headphone outputs with volume knob
  
  

Look out for more information soon!

Native Instruments

The team from NI announced NI KORE, an ingenious tool that integrates hardware and software to become the world's first Universal Sound Platform for both studio and live environments. KORE consists of a hardware controller and KoreSound, a universal sound format that shifts the focus from individual instruments toward the sound itself. The powerful database allows you to search and manage all your sounds according to specific musical attributes.

NI Kore (Click image to enlarge...)

Besides its incredible power within a studio environment, KORE is also built to be used live on stage. Advanced performance features and the high resolution KORE controller enable you to play your instruments and effects, switch between presets and recall songs all while staying focused on your performance.

And this is just scratching the surface, wait for the full details to be announced soon!

Arturia

Arturia announced their new vintage synth emulation: Prophet V. They have taken the first and last synthesizers created by Sequential Circuits and combined them in the easy to use plug-in format. There are three interfaces: Prophet 5, Prophet VS, and Hybrid mode.

(Click image to enlarge...)

The Prophet 5 and Prophet VS emulations have all the goodies of the originals (5 voice polyphony, white noise modulators, dynamic waveform crossfading with joystick, etc). You can even import any existing preset banks from the original synthesizers via SysEx.

Arturia Prophet V (Click image to enlarge...)

Arturia also demonstrated their impressive trumpet, saxophone and trombone physical modeling instrument Brass to much praise.

StudioLogic

StudioLogic displayed their new VMK-161 Plus (61-Key) and VMK-176 Plus (76-Key) MIDI controllers with their premium-quality keyboard action. These join the recent VMK-149 Plus (49-Key) and VMK-188 Plus (88-Key) and complete the new range.

The StudioLogic VMK-176 Plus - 76 Key Graded Hammer Action MIDI Controller Keyboard

All models feature a superior graded hammer-action keyboard which is progressively lighter towards the high end - just like a real acoustic piano. They are velocity and aftertouch sensitive with 30 user-programmable presets and include templates for popular synths from the likes of Native Instruments etc.

• 49/61/76/88 full size keys with Grand Touch® graded hammer-action
• Velocity and aftertouch sensitive
• LCD display
• Lightweight metal chassis finished with rubberised silver paint
• Pitch and modulation joystick
• 30 User-programmable presets, Including 11 presets for popular softsynths
• 8 programmable knobs
• 9 programmable sliders
• 8 programmable buttons
• 5-button sequencer transport control
• 3 programmable pedal inputs
• Bus-powered USB computer connection with two midi outputs
  
  
  

Echo

The latest news from Echo is that they will be adding two new models to their high-quality range of FireWire soundcards - the AudioFire 2 and AudioFire 4. We will bring you information and pictures of these new models soon.

Celemony

Celemony demonstrated their Melodyne 3 audio recording/manipulation software - which we think is one of the most astonishing software titles ever developed!

The Celemony Stand at NAMM 2006

Melodyne can now perform it's unique magic on polyphonic material - you are no longer restricted to working with just monophonic audio! It is the ultimate tool for natural sounding pitch-shifting and time-stretching - It will correct the intonation and timing of singing, quantise audio, produce harmonies, and remix and restructure the melody, tempo or timing of existing recordings. With Melodyne you can actually do what is seemingly impossible - and do it very easily indeed.

Melodyne 3 is now shipping and available from Celemony UK Dealers and our Online Shop.