January 31, 2015 editorial: comments

Three Innovative NAMM Products

NAMM 2015 is history, and while there were scads of excellent or potentially excellent new products announced, I wanted to mention a few that really intrigued me. These many not all be the flashiest or sexiest products that were unveiled, but what they all have in common is that they’re innovative. 

Probably tops on my list is an audio interface called iConnectAudio 4+, by iConnectivity. Yes, an audio interface, and not even Thunderbolt, but USB. So what’s the big deal? Simply put, it has the potential to change the way you work in your studio. Let me explain.

With iConnectAudio 4+, you have incredible flexibility to route audio and MIDI in and out of numerous hardware devices, including more than one computer or iOS device simultaneously. So, you could run your computer and your iPad through it, or a Mac and a PC, or two Macs, you name it, and custom route and filter MIDI and audio throughout the system. The unit features four mic/instrument combo inputs and four analog line outputs, 29 routable MIDI ports, along with USB ports for connecting the various computers or tablets, and a “Host” port that can handle up to eight MIDI peripherals. All that for only $299. Of course, I haven’t tried it yet, nor heard its sound quality (the NAMM floor is a not a great place to evaluate sonics) but I walked away from the iConnectivity booth saying “Wow.” Stay tuned.

As always, the folks at Universal Audio had impressive new stuff to show, and I was particularly drawn one of the new “Apollo Expanded” plug-ins called Sound Machine Wood Works. It’s designed to take a DI recording from an acoustic guitar’s piezo pick-up, and make it sound like it was miked. UA also says it can “Re-voice the source guitar’s resonance and acoustic properties in real time or at mixdown.” 

As someone who records a lot of acoustic guitar, this got my attention big time. You could use a DI for recording an acoustic in the same room with other instruments, or recording the guitar portion of someone singing and playing simultaneously, and be confident of getting a good sound with the plug-in afterwards.

Because it lets you imbue a guitar recording with properties from other types of acoustic guitars, it has potential as a creative mix tool, as well. If it can improve badly miked acoustic guitar recordings, it has even more possibilities. Again, the proof will be in the pudding, so I can’t be sure of the results until I get a chance to work with it, but there’s a ton of potential. Knowing the quality of UAD2 plug-ins, I'm confident it will be as advertised.

Another product that I found to be technically quite interesting was the Hughes & Kettner 6-channel tube guitar amp, the TriAmp Mark 3. The amp equivalent of a high-performance sports car, it features six switchable channels, which all have completely different tone: The choices include 50s Californian Clean, 60s British Clean, 70s British Lead, 80s Brown Sound, 90s Californian High Gain and Modern-Day High Gain. 

The really intriguing part of this amp is that it contains six power tubes — two EL 84s and four 6L6s, and it lets you freely assign, and save for later recall, three different custom tube pairs, which can be switched between in real time via an included MIDI foot switch. You can substitute other power tubes to create even more custom amp tones. Since it sells for close to $4K, it’s unlikely I’ll ever own a TriAmp Mark 3, but as a guitarist, I definitely enjoyed drooling over it.

Have you been following our NAMM coverage? What products intrigued you, and why? I’d be very curious to know. Post your choices in response to this editorial, and we can discuss it. If you haven’t yet had a chance to check out NAMM products, we’ve got full coverage and tons of videos here.

Have a great week.

Mike Levine

U.S. Editor, Audiofanzine