NAMGLA, Day One...
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
I know, it’s actually Day Two of the North American Man/Gear Love Association (NAMGLA, and unfortunately I didn’t think of that; my friend Carl did. But I’m using it from now on, and it’ll eventually get credited to me, and I’m fine with that.) But it was day one for me, and what a day it was. I only saw a small fraction of the actual show, because most of my time today was spent catching up with friends. But the highlights of my first day, which you can file under “fucking duh…”
1. Elektron Octatrack. This motherfucker is the BOMB. I was initially somewhat reticent, although I’ve purchased everything Elektron ever made, and there’s no particular reason not to continue that trend. But now that I’ve spent a little time with the box, I’m quite impressed. This thing is the pinacle of the Elektron style of sequencing, which is more or less unique to them. (Although, their method has always heavily reminded me of the Sequential Studio 440, fwiw.) Chock full of features that you can read all about elsewhere. It looks and feels more advanced than the MachineDrum/MonoMachine, and it’s obvious that a lot of thought has gone in to it. I give this one a strong Buy. Obviously worth the money, if it’s the sort of thing that can fit in to your workflow in the first place.
2. DSI Tempest. Forget about it. The tits, plain and simple. I’ll be getting one, no question about it. There simply has never been another drum machine so thoroughly designed for what I need in such a box. Another strong Buy. I’m going to spend some quality time with it tomorrow morning, so my post tomorrow will some more comprehensive impressions.
3. Eventide Space. I know you’re thinking “well, fuck, it’s reverb. In a pedal. So what?” It’s really hard to describe how cool this is. It is, for want of a better term, playable. I personally use a lot of ’verb, but I tend to use it in a static fashion. I don’t think I’ve ever automated a ’verb plug or hardware in my entire career. This thing, though, just begs to be cranked in real-time. A really nice selection of effects that are eminently tweakable. A very strong Buy on this one, and no mistake.
Anyhow, that was Day One. One thing I will say about NAMGLA is that you can lose your faith in humanity quick-fast, in a hurry. The vast majority of the attendees fall in to two camps: young and hopeful (and thus stupid) and old and burned out (and yet still hopeful, and thus really, really sad.) The former generally desperately needs to be punched in the face, and the latter is essentially a walking metaphor for stale cigarettes, flat beer, and video poker. I imagine, other than the fact that I have a bit of taste in my clothing and accessories, that I fall in to the latter camp. Which is causing a bit of an existential crisis right now.
That sound you hear is me softly sobbing in to my pillow.
20 comments
I don't think North American men can claim exclusive love of that gear.
I don't need to tell you that I'm clearly in camp B, and I've been contemplating whether to go- everything looks the same to me every year.
One of the more odd experiences I had while working at a NAMM show was having a camp B accordion(!) player stop at our booth and literally demand to know how our products would contribute to his musical self-expression. It was late in the day and I was tired, but I tried to be polite, at least initially. However, I was working for Cycling '74 at the time and hence our products were Pluggo and Max/MSP. It was fairly rapidly revealed that this guy didn't use a computer as part of his music-making activities, and yet he still wanted me to explain to him what our products would do for him, and seemed to take it as a personal affront when I eventually gave up and told him that they were actually of no use whatsoever to him.
--Adam
Can't wait to hear more about the Tempest and Octatrack!
The Tempest is bar none a must have. I have not been this excited over something in a long time. In fact, i think it might have been when the MoPho was first released. I'll ve saving $100 out of every check from now on until it's released. Hopefully i'll have enough, otherwise, time to purge some gear. I'd even consider selling the 303 to fund it. It's gonna be a loonng 5-6 months...
I think you're wrong about the old and burnt out. I don't think they have any hope. What they have is a mortgage that requires a smiling face and a level of politeness. At least most of them.
I went to the NAMM show once for about half an hour, and while I wanted to kill myself before that period had passed, my friend (a non-musician) was ready to kill everyone in the place. I had to get him out of there. I still have flashbacks.
The Tempest looks amazingly bad ass. I don't even need a drum machine and I want one.
bb
CR's NAMM report is so needed after popping in on various forums where there is a semi feeding frenzy type thing going on. hysteria and stupids.
oooh... existential crisis.. hmmm. drink a beer, watch american psycho, become absurd until someone you trust says "knock it off you're annoying the shit out of me"
fear and loathing at the NAMM show. thanks for the report on the octo and tempest.
LONG time lurker, first time poster. I'm an old rec.music.industrial guy. Showing my age I guess, but at least CR and Sean Costello can relate.
Glad that CR keyed in on 2 of the 3 that got perked my wallet's ears up (Space and Tempest).
CR, as you are lucky enough to own (or did own) the H8000, could you please let us know how the Space compares sonicwise. I listened to the demos that CDM mentioned in their article and it seems to be the nuts, but I'd like a qualified man-on-the-street to confirm it.
Also, I just want to state for the record that Roger Linn is my all-time favorite good guy/nice guy in the music hardware gadget business. He has answered every email I've sent to him with utter politeness and friendliness, even when I asked crazy shit like if it was possible to add code to allow the Adrenalinn III to send CV through the headphone output. He has sent me chip upgrades for free. Just a great guy. I love my A3, and I hope the Tempest is everything we wanted from the BoomChik four years ago.
Note that if you read Roger's website, the Tempest is the version of hardware being released under Dave Smith's brand, and that Roger still has his version in the works.
ALSO, please don't be like me. PROOFREAD before you hit the Save button.
In an environment like NAMM it's difficult to make a judgment call on something as fine as comparing the Black Hole patch in Space to the one in an H8000. It's just simply too noisy.
That said, Space is very obviously Eventide. While the Eclipse and H8000 both have some more general reverb sounds, there are effects (like Black Hole) that kind of define the Eventide reverb "feel," and they put all of these in Space. I honestly couldn't come up with anything negative to say about it.
-CR
The parameter changes are excruciatingly smooth. Like "I hate DGillespie" smooth. The nice thing about Eventide shit is that you never have to ask a question that is any permutation of "does it suck?" because the answer defaults to "no."
-CR
Hey, that's the same answer i get when i think about if i can afford any Eventide or that omgomgomgomgwant-tempest. But i'm young and hopeful, err wait a minute.
But seriously, can't wait for more Tempest soundbites.
What's DJ Doucheface doing these days anyways?
bb
Watch this video from about 4:18 on and Linn talks about loading from flash memory and using samples as sound sources.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRD8f5BJSsw
I'm with boobs.
NAMM, meh.
I'll stop by to say hi to a few peeps from ableton and shure that i'm cool with, and audiodamage if there's a booth. Otherwise, I have no reason to go there.
...unless Martyn Atkins is there again. Then I have good reason to go.
He does indeed, but he's referring to loading different patches for each beat that can be analog or sample based. The samples in reference are pre loaded waveforms ala evolver I'm guessing.
Regarding Tempest & sample loading, I found this at sequencer.de:
1. There will not be user sample loading in software version 1.0, it may be added in 2.0
http://www.sequencer.de/blog/?p=9349
i'm hoping that now that the oktatrack is shipping videos of it being applied to things will be surfacing. they sure made a high production introduction. *fingers crossed* but, i haven't seen anything like an overview or feature tutorial.
it's good to hear it has impressed!
I can't really see paying 2 grand for a drum machine that you can't load samples into.
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