This Winter NAMM Show 2015 was, in our opinion, an excellent edition. Here are the Top 20 products that most caught our attention in Anaheim.
Listing a Top list was a tough job, for this new NAMM edition was both intense and unequal! Indeed, we found the most exciting announcements in the electronic instrument and music computer sections, and the number of products was so big that it was hard to draw up a balanced list. Fortunately, the community was here to discuss all the news and we also included your favorites.
So here’s the list, in alphabetical order… ;)
Akai Advance 61
The response to Native Instruments on the NextGen controller keyboard market: with its color display and mappings for the most important virtual instruments on the market, the Advance range has everything to attract those who were interested in the Native keyboards but don’t have the budget for them…
Akai Timbre Wolf
Akai drives a nail into the analog market with this polyphonic synth. Each of its four voices features a sequencer and its price is more that attractive. Ahh Woooooo!!
ARP Odyssey
The phoenix has risen from its ashes! Korg reissues the ARP Odyssey for the greatest excitement of vintage synth fans.
Arturia AudioFuse
Arturia debuts in the audio interface market with a compact, yet full-featured product: Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android-compatible, the AudioFuse even hosts a USB hub to connect your controllers. A real challenge for such a little box…
Arturia Beatstep Pro
Small, smart and cheap, the Beatstep was a nice little machine. So it’s a great pleasure to welcome the Pro version that pushes the boundaries of this MIDI/CV controller/sequencer…
Blackstar ID:Core Beam
On the steps of the Line 6 AMPLIFi, Blackstar offers its own vision of the Bluetooth bedroom amp for guitar… or bass.
Clavia Nord Electro 5
A new Clavia keyboard is always an event, and even though the new Nord Electro 5 is not revolutionary, it offers nice new features: split and layers, drawbars, OLED display, expanded memory…
Hughes & Kettner TriAmp Mark 3
With 6 channels and a smart tube routing system, this TriAmp mk3 has everything of an ultra versatile valve amplifier.
iConnectivity iConnectAUDIO4+
iConnectivity surprised us a few years ago with its new generation of MIDI interfaces that were able to manage audio streams from iOS devices. So we’re quite excited to discover an interface with the same specifications with 4 additional mic preamps.
Line 6 Variax Standard
Line 6 partnered with Yamaha to launch a new line of modeling guitars that will be available for a more affordable price than the James Tyler’s. A blessing for guitar players who like all-in-one solutions.
Manley Force
4 tube mic preamps under $2500, the aggressive price of the new Force will make Manley’s quality even more accessible.
Novation Launchpad Pro
Novation’s best seller comes back in a Pro version for the greatest enjoyment of Ableton Live’s aficionados. On the menu, velocity-sensitive pads with a more colors than on the Standard version…
Pioneer XDJ-RX
The DJ control surface according to Pioneer, with CDJ-style jog wheels and a 7” LCD display for even more independence from the computer when it comes to mixing.
Pro Tools First
Pro Tools for free? Indeed, at least in this First version designed to promote the famous DAW and its new online (Cloud) storing capacities, which will be at the heart of the new Pro Tools 12.
Roland JD-Xi
Roland has decided to bring you the best of both worlds with this hybrid synth that offers SuperNATURAL sounds, analog synthesis and a 4-track pattern sequencer…
Roland MX-1
In the Aira happy family, please give me the MX-1 mixer/control surface/audio interface, designed for both live and studio situations.
Sequential Prophet-6
This was the big news: Dave Smith, the founder of Sequential Circuits and the legendary Prophet has just got his brand back again. So it was natural for him to launch the… Prophet-6! Vintage is tomorrow!
Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2
Almost 7 years after the first version, which remains one of the most used software in the computer music world (we can hear it on many soundtracks), Eric Persing’s ultimate virtual synth comes back in an even more complete version, with a brand new granular synth engine and the ability to import your custom audio files.
Tech21 dUg Pinnick Signature Ultra Bass 1000
King’s X bassist Douglas Pinnick sign a Tech21 amp that combines a guitar saturated channel and a bass clean one. An original idea that provides 1000W at 4 Ohms!
Waldorf NW1
Waldorf debuts in the Eurorack world with the NW1 wavetable generator that should be the ultimate module for many synth fans.
And Pro Tools 12 has no new features other than the cloud collaboration stuff, which most people won't even find a use for, I bet. That's nuts, a new major version with almost nothing new? This all seems like a smoke screen to distract us from the fact that Pro Tools 12 is going to be sold by subscription. That's the scariest thing of all. I am definitely thinking of switching to another DAW and getting as far away from Avid as possible. I'm thinking about Cubase, although I've never used it, but it looks like it has a lot of great things in it. Logic seems good too. Anyone out there have any thoughts about which one is better? 
