Today’s the last day of NAMM and there have not been a WHOLE lot of over-the-top announcements … at least not that have gotten me jumping out of my seat. Here are a couple of interesting product announcements that have surfaced the past couple of days that may be of interest to you.

TC Electronic Polytune

Strum. Tune. Rock! Welcome to TC Electronic’s PolyTune™ pedal, the most revolutionary product of NAMM 2010…

Forget the old days of string-by-string tuning – it’s time to join the PolyTune™ revolution. TC Electronic’s PolyTune™ is the quickest and easiest way to tune your guitar. Simply strum, tune… and rock!

TC Electronic has just revolutionized guitar tuning at a stroke – or strum – with PolyTune™, the world’s first polyphonic guitar tuner. This cutting-edge tuning technology revolutionizes tuning and accomplishes what has been deemed ‘impossible’ until now: tuning all strings simultaneously! Simply strum – PolyTune™ will tell you which strings need tuning – tune up and you’re ready to rock!

MUSE Research Musebox

Peavey® & Muse Research And Development® join forces to develop the Musebox™ Flexible Musical Instrument And Effects Module.

MuseBox features incredibly flexible I/O, with front-panel guitar and microphone inputs, MIDI, and four USB ports. Musicians can play with it, sing through it, process keyboards, play along to backing tracks, and of course, create lush keyboard sounds with a MIDI controller. Guitarists can use it to run their favorite amp modeling software, multi-effects libraries and more. Singers can enhance their vocals with reverb, compression, de-essing and pitch correction in real time. Keyboardists can run virtual pianos and other instruments with super-low latency and superb stability.

The MuseBox comes pre-loaded with a wide variety of ready-to-use virtual instruments and effects, including an assortment of essential keyboard sounds, reverb, chorus and Peavey’s award-winning ReValver™, a revolutionary amplifier modeling software VST that captures the true characteristics of vacuum tubes while allowing users unprecedented control over their tonality and gain structures.

Neil Peart Drums Vol 1: The Kit for BFD2

Okay, I’ll admit – I only put this in because I’m a fan of Rush and Neil Peart.  But geez, having Neil and his kit in your mix?  Who wouldn’t?

Neil Peart, legendary drummer of the band “Rush”, has collaborated with Sonic Reality and producer/engineer Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Foo Fighters, Alice In Chains) to bring the authentic sound of Neil’s “Snakes and Arrows’ Custom DW® Drum Kit into the digital domain. With advanced features such as deep level dynamics, humanized random alternating hits, discrete multiple mic mixing and more, this deluxe sampled kit is an ultra-realistic recreation of Neil’s actual acoustic set as used live on tour and in the studio.

“The Kit” features 8 Toms, a vast array of cymbals including 3 Chinas, 4 Crashes, 3 Splashes, Ride, 2 Snares, Massive Kicks, Percussion – such as Cowbells and more. It comes mapped in GM, iMap™, V-Drum and a Custom Map mode to be controlled by any electronic drum kit. It includes both discrete mic mixing and album-quality presets right out of the box for instant gratification.

Waves Introduces Three New Artist Collaboration Collections

Waves continues its highly successful string of Waves Artists Collaborations as it announces the release of two new bundles plus two new plug-ins: The Chris Lord-Alge Artist Signature Collection and The Jack Joseph Puig Artist Signature Collection, both part of the Waves Signature Series, and Eddie Kramer HLS Channel and Eddie Kramer PIE Compressor, from the Waves Modeling line.

The Waves Signature Series features customized multi-effects plug-ins (with compression, EQ, reverb and more) based on the personal processing chains and settings of top producers and engineers. The Waves Modeling line consists of software plug-ins based on vintage and rare hardware, such as SSL, API, and Neve mixing console components.

Well, I asked for it … I signed up to be on the media list for NAMM and my inbox has be inundated with emails since Wednesday evening. I haven’t even mentioned the RSS feeds that I follow and how their activity has escalated exponentially!

It’s Day 2 of NAMM down in Annaheim and I’ve just sifted through some of the news items that have come through. Here are a few interesting things I came across:

For the gigging keyboardist:

Roland announces the V-Combo VR-700 with Organ, Piano, and Synth Sounds

Roland has announced the V-Combo VR-700. Featuring the best of their Virtual Tonewheel organ, full key multi-sampled piano, and pro synthesizer sounds, Roland say that the V-Combo is perfect for players who need an all-in-one keyboard for a variety of musical settings, including houses of worship, stage performances, and rehearsal studios – offering powerful real-time performance capabilities in a simple-to-use-interface.

Available in March 2010 with an MSRP of $2,329

For the iPhone / iPod synthesist:

Akai announce the iPK25 MIDI keyboard with a built-in dock for iPhone or iPod touch

The iPK25 transforms iPhone or iPod touch into a portable music production studio for mobile music creation. This MIDI keyboard controller gives your handheld device a two-octave set of piano keys and professional audio outputs, and it works with the Akai Professional SynthStation Studio app. The iPK25 is powerful enough for professional musicians, yet virtually anyone can use is to easily create music.

Available in April 2010 – price is TBD

Akai launches the Synth Station App

Akai has announced their Synth Station App. Here’s the details…

• Three VA synths, three oscillators each
• Drum kits and sequencer
• Create melodic and accompaniment parts using arpeggiator with preset patterns
• Unlimited creativity with effects and filters
• Seamlessly compatible with Akai’s iPK25 docking keyboard controller

Available at the iTunes store for $9

For the Guitarist:

Boss releases the TU-3 Chromatic Tuner an updated version of the TU-2

The TU-3 is the stompbox tuner for the next generation of guitarists and bassists, retaining all the features of its predecessor while adding many new tricks of its own.

Housed in a rugged BOSS stompbox chassis, the TU-3 is built to last. The new high-brightness meter mode improves visibility under bright sunlight, and a newly-designed 21-segment meter light ensures super accurate and visable tuning. The proprietary BOSS Accu-Pitch function visually verifies when the target pitch is attained. The sound output is muted while the tuner is on, allowing players to tune silently on stage.

Available now with an MSRP of $160

For the Mobile Recordist:

Korg debuts Sound On Sound (SOS) unlimited track personal recorder

Korg has introduced the SOUND on SOUND (SOS) Unlimited Track Recorder, which they say enables musicians to capture and develop musical ideas as they happen, wherever they are. Battery-powered and completely self-contained, the SOS contains a high-quality stereo microphone and a built-in speaker for all-in-one recording and monitoring.

Unlike other portable recorders (even multi-track), the SOS allows for an infinite number of overdubs or alternate takes to be recorded. Each track, take or overdub is recorded as an individual CD-quality 16-bit / 44.1 kHz WAV file, and saved directly to a microSD or microSDHC card. Accurate BWF (Broadcast Wave Format) timing information is embedded in each track, meaning all tracks will automatically line up when imported into a computer-based DAW system for further editing, mixdown and final playback. The SOS can record up to 200 songs in the traditional linear manner, or be set to loop a specific section. Memory consumption is roughly 100 recorded minutes per GB (gigabyte).

It’s slated to be available in April 2010 and have a MSRP of $400.

For the Sonic Scientist:

Korg announce the Kaossilator Pro

A touchpad-based synthesizer, the KAOSSILATOR PRO offers built-in sounds suitable for an expansive range of musical genres including techno, house, hip hop, R&B, reggae and electro. Additional sounds simulate acoustic instruments such as piano, trumpet and guitar. High-quality PCM samples have been added to the DSP engine to provide realistic drum sounds, yielding twenty individual drum hits and twenty-five preset drum patterns. In all, there are 200 programs available – including fifteen vocoder programs that can process an external audio signal. Eight memory keys allow instant recall of favorite programs.

Available in May 2010 with a MSRP of $460

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There’s going to be more … I’m sure of it. ;)

While IHR has been unable to attend the annual Summer NAMM Show musical dealer conference in Anaheim for the past couple of years, we always have Barry Wood’s NAMM Oddities list. Definitely some weird, and some very cool, stuff this year.

Via Music Thing, here are some Winter NAMM ’08 highlights (check it out: Yamaha has joined the flash recorder fray).

As we mentioned before, we’re not able to go to NAMM this year, but we do recommend coverage from Sonic State and Gearwire, both part of the Home Recording Network.

For the past two years, Inside Home Recording has covered the annual January Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, California live from the floor. Our NAMM podcasts, photos, and blog posts from the event have been some of our most popular. The NAMM Show is one of the world’s major music gear conferences, where manufacturers, distributors, developers, musicians, and music dealers gather to ogle the latest stuff and make deals.

This year, Paul and I won’t be able to attend in person. I can’t go because of my cancer treatment. Paul has to miss it because of a long-planned family vacation (celebrating a birthday number he’d probably I rather not mention).

We’ll still be watching the Web for news from NAMM, of course, and we recommend you check out some of the other sites in the Home Recording Network that will be sending staff down to California. Coverage from Sonic State and Gearwire was particularly extensive last year, including lots of video—those guys know how to do it.

We hope to get back to NAMM in 2009, or maybe the Summer NAMM 2008 show might be fun if I’m feeling well enough. We’ll keep you posted.

I was pleased not to have to stay overnight following the first surgery in my colon cancer treatment. I was back home earlier today, and the painkillers are working nicely. If all goes well we’ll have a new episode of IHR up in the next couple of days too!

In the meantime, some yummy links I’ve been accumulating for a few weeks:

• Mix, Electronic Musician, and Remix magazines have some nice podcast coverage from last month’s NAMM Show.
• CBC Radio’s Editor’s Choice podcast had an episode about making music on a GameBoy (MP3 file) called “Chiptune.”
• TapeOpCon is coming up in Arizona June 8-10, 2007.
• If you want a waterproof iPod shuffle, you can get one now.
• The Rode to Recording System (the zZounds link gives us a small commission if you buy anything after clicking it) is a remarkably good deal for an excellent Rode microphone, PreSonus recording interface, and Event self-powered studio monitor speakers. It includes all the cables you need and a desktop mic stand for $750 USD.
• Millennia Music has a fascinating audio comparison of recording an orchestra with many mics vs. a single stereo pair.
• iZotope has posted a great set of video tutorials at YouTube about using their excellent plugins.
• Boom Recorder is a neat looking piece of Mac audio software: “a multitrack field recorder [for] the high stress production of a TV/film shoot, a concert or a live stage performance. Boom Recorder has many metadata fields that are used during a film production, making it easy to keep track of the many audio files in post production.” The two-track Lite version is $20, while a 64-track Pro version is $260 USD. (Via MacBreak Weekly.)

Okay, back to the painkillers now.

The latest Sonic TALK podcast from Sonic State has a great roundtable discussion about highlights from the NAMM Show, as a supplement to their excellent blog and video coverage, with over 70 videos and 200 posts. (And yes, Nick, we do listen to the show, so hello back!)

Non Eric, one of the panelists, has a podcast in German about the return of Waldorf Synthesizers—apparently all their new models (Stromberg, Blofeld, etc.) are named after villains in James Bond movies.

The latest podcast from MacNotables features Macworld’s Jim Dalrymple giving Apple-focused coverage of the NAMM Show.

While Macs were ubiquitous at NAMM, Apple did not display or announce anything all that new at the show (not even a new version of GarageBand), other than Apogee’s Symphony Mobile ExpressCard interface—the main highlight was demonstrations of Logic Pro.

Dalrymple does explain what the NAMM Show is all about for a non-music audience, and he and host Chuck Joiner have their own take on the event. One thing Dalrymple mentioned that we forgot to note was that Roland‘s booth was full of iMacs—even iMacs running Windows using Apple’s Boot Camp! Worth a listen.

I used the Zoom H4 portable recorder for all the interviews I did at the NAMM Show. Yet somehow I neglected to photograph the prototype $200 USD Zoom H2 on display at the Samson-Zoom-Hartke booth. It’s a smaller recorder, with an integrated three-capsule (!) microphone that should be shipping later this year.

Create Digital Music did get a couple of photos of the prototype in its display case with its basic specifications card. I hope we can get one for review in a few weeks or months. I quite like the H4, and this unit could be a worthy little sibling. While it doesn’t have XLR inputs like the H4, it is much smaller and has a more flexible setup with its built-in mic—and will sell for half the price of competitors like the M-Audio MicroTrack (which Paul used at NAMM) and Edirol R09 (which I did photograph).