The 52 Hottest Things We Saw at NAMM 2020
IT SEEMS THAT, with each year, we look to the winter NAMM show with increasing anticipation. The MI industry has been on a roll, turning out fantastic gear that meets the desires and needs of musicians and makes innovative use of emerging technologies and materials. Once again, this year’s NAMM show in Anaheim, California, didn’t disappoint.
While we found plenty to like in all of the gear categories, we agreed that this NAMM was all about acoustics. We saw some remarkable advances in the acoustic world, including new models from Martin, Taylor and Yamaha, as well as Gibson’s rebooted Acoustic Custom Shop and L.R. Baggs’ Soundscape technology. That said, there was no shortage of terrific new products and technologies in the realms of electric guitars, amps, effects and gear for studio and live performance.
But take a look for yourself. Over these next 10 pages we’ve collected a sampling of the gear that got us most excited about the year ahead. Watch for these and other products to be reviewed in our pages in the coming months.
LIVE & RECORDING
1 IK MULTIMEDIA AXEI/O SOLO
IK’s AXE I/O high-end audio interface won praise for its sound quality and features designed to help guitarists capture great tones quickly and easily. The AXE I/O Solo brings the same great tones and ease of use into a portable two-in/three-out interface for players on a budget or simply on the go. It features IK’s high-end Pure mic preamp, an instrument input with proprietary tone-shaping options, an amp output to incorporate hardware gear into your setup, and 24-bit/192 kHz converters for pristine audio. AXE I/O Solo also has a streamlined re-amplification setup and a blend knob to mix direct and processed signals for zero-latency monitoring. It can even act as a controller for IK’s AmpliTube 4 software, which comes included, along with a suite of T-RackS mixing and mastering plug-ins. Available now for preorder. $249.99. ikmultimedia.com —CS
2 RADIAL ENGINEERING HDI
The unique color control on Radial’s new hi-definition, studio-quality HDI direct box provides seamless blending between ultra-clean tones and amp-style distortion and saturation, so you can get just the right amount of character and grit. And with the onboard opto compressor, high-pass filter and presence control, you can dial in great tones in seconds. Other features include XLR mic and line outputs, a processed output for using the box with an amp and a 15db pad switch. $799 (street). radialeng.com —CS
3 TASCAM MODEL 12 MIXER/INTERFACE/RECORDER/CONTROLLER
If you want a mixer that can interface with most popular studio DAWs and cover you for practice sessions and gigs, the Model 12 is hard to beat. I saw it hooked up to Ableton Live — my DAW of choice — and was blown away by how seamlessly it integrated with the program via its 12-in/10-out audio interface and became a controller for the onscreen program. The Model 12 has a classic analog mixer-style design that’s intuitive and features precision 60mm faders and familiar EQ and aux controls. The unit boasts high-grade mic pres, MIDI capability for syncing drum machines and keyboards, and a built-in 12-track recorder that captures your recordings on an internal SD card at up to 24-bit/48kHz resolution. $599 (street). tascam.com/us —CS
4 UNIVERSAL AUDIO LUNA
The LUNA recording system transforms any of UA’s Thunderbolt-equipped Apollo and Arrow interfaces into a full-featured analog-style, Mac-based production system. Tight hardware-software integration allows it to quickly route audio through DSP-powered UAD plug-ins with no discernible —CS
