The Alternative NAMM Report; THE REAL TRUTH!
Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 2:35 pm
ZVex were showing tons of one-off pedal designs, and had a set-up in their stand for keyboard players! A mini Korg synth going through a few choice boxes. Also ZVex branded hot dogs were pretty popular... Zachary took time to answer all technical questions I asked him, Andrew frequently directed dealers/distributors over to me. I regularly took my pedals out of my bag and spread them out over their counter! They didn't even complain once (unlike some other companies I visited).
Electro Harmonix seem to be releasing a new pedal every month; some amazing stuff, alot of it quite simple - but still good! Gave me lots of ideas.
Have you seen the RTG (random tone generator)? No input, just plug the output into your amp, adjust the speed and let it burble away.
Pigtronix had a mini range of bass pedals, all tweaked for bass, sounding great when played through by the likes of Doug Wimbish. Pigtronix' Dave Koltai explaining and demoing them in his clear and confident style, also added honestly "... and it says BASS on it - cos bass-players like that!". Their Infinity looper seemed to be acting as a pre-amp for all other pedals on their board, and sounded amazing and easy too. Their most popular item apparently.
The modular synth section of NAMM was just brilliant. I thought I was obsessed with LEDs - but these guys have a problem!
One module had a tiny little oscilloscope in it!!! (Not in the synth shown). 4ms confided that they're doing much better since they stopped doing pedals and do modules... which is interesting but kind of depressing!
BTW those modular guys are almost as friendly as ILFers... Have you checked out ILF equivalent, muffwiggler.com?
The food at NAMM was awful.
The equipment at every coffee stall seemed to break down as I joined the queue.
Anaheim itself is a grim wasteland of gas-station type grocery stores and Disney souvenir shops.
It takes about six minutes to cross a road on the way to the show (waiting for 'walk' signal, then crossing the 10 lanes...)
Sorry for late posting - I just got home from driving round LA music shops demoing Rainger FX stuff.
Hey - I went to an interesting star-gazing/telescope lens grinding evening too!
Electro Harmonix seem to be releasing a new pedal every month; some amazing stuff, alot of it quite simple - but still good! Gave me lots of ideas.
Have you seen the RTG (random tone generator)? No input, just plug the output into your amp, adjust the speed and let it burble away.
Pigtronix had a mini range of bass pedals, all tweaked for bass, sounding great when played through by the likes of Doug Wimbish. Pigtronix' Dave Koltai explaining and demoing them in his clear and confident style, also added honestly "... and it says BASS on it - cos bass-players like that!". Their Infinity looper seemed to be acting as a pre-amp for all other pedals on their board, and sounded amazing and easy too. Their most popular item apparently.
The modular synth section of NAMM was just brilliant. I thought I was obsessed with LEDs - but these guys have a problem!
One module had a tiny little oscilloscope in it!!! (Not in the synth shown). 4ms confided that they're doing much better since they stopped doing pedals and do modules... which is interesting but kind of depressing!
BTW those modular guys are almost as friendly as ILFers... Have you checked out ILF equivalent, muffwiggler.com?
The food at NAMM was awful.
The equipment at every coffee stall seemed to break down as I joined the queue.
Anaheim itself is a grim wasteland of gas-station type grocery stores and Disney souvenir shops.
It takes about six minutes to cross a road on the way to the show (waiting for 'walk' signal, then crossing the 10 lanes...)
Sorry for late posting - I just got home from driving round LA music shops demoing Rainger FX stuff.
Hey - I went to an interesting star-gazing/telescope lens grinding evening too!