NAMGLA, Day Two (Updated)...

I just got back from the Trash_Audio BBQ. You may or may not have heard a rumor that I tried to start a fight between Alessandro Cortini and BT, the two friendliest people in the music industry. This is patently untrue. Alessandro started it. I had nothing to do with anything. These are not the droids you’re looking for.

NAMGLA, well, what to say? Today was stupider than yesterday because of the simple fact that all the has-been musicians that have to spend the week working a “day job” have Saturday off, and don’t realize that hanging around other musicians isn’t really a good enough reason to pull out the full Genre-Related Fashion Statement. We were noting, however, that nowhere else on earth could you take a random picture and have every fashion fad of the last 45 years equally represented in its full splendor, from Rockabilly to Hippie to Punk to Hairspray Ass Metal to Industrial to Grunge to Hipster (and some outliers like “Candy Raver Goth” and Ukelele Ray.) This has to be worth something. Today’s highlights:

1. Black Waldorf Blofeld. It’s a Blofeld. It’s black. What the fuck else you need to know?

2. Perzina Upright Grand. This instrument is very obviously the absolute pinacle of both woodworking craftsmanship and mechanical engineering. I played several pianos while I was there, and this was, by far, the nicest. It sounds as nice as it looks. Above my pay grade, unfortunately. It also comes in Grand.

3. The Z-DSP Euro-Rack Module from TipTop. I know, I know. These things are old news. But seriously, I didn’t really understand what it could do until I got a hands-on demonstration from Gur. The cool thing isn’t that you can use some random DSP program that you downloaded from the Spin Audio site. The cool thing is that you can SERIOUSLY fuck with it afterwards, via CV. I couldn’t believe some of the weird-ass yet useful sounds he was getting from $RANDOM_FILTER_PROGRAM. Extremely cool module, and the programmer makes all the difference.

4. The Vintage Vibe Electric Piano. Interestingly, NAMM put these guys right next door to the new Rhodes people. This made things a little uncomfortable albeit convenient for someone that wanted to compare and contrast their new EP against the Rhodes. But that said, I played both their new one and the new Rhodes for quite a while, and the Vintage Vibe piano dusts the new Rhodes. It sounds better (Rhodes smooth on pianissimo, barking in to Wurli territory on forte), is lighter, has a much nicer action, and looks cooler. All other things being equal, my opinion is that it is the better instrument. Wish I had thought to get a picture, because it’s a really sharp looking instrument.

Anyhow, I was on my feet talking for over 20 hours yesterday, and frankly I’m too old for that shit. I’ll post further thoughts on the Tempest later today or tomorrow. It was really cool to meet so many active AI members at the Trash_Audio BBQ. (Yet my Twitter stream is strangely silent this morning, which leads me to believe that things got a bit out of hand after I left last night.) I’m already looking forward to next year.