The latest mode of NAMM transportation, caught by our roving cellphone reporter…

At NAMM today the most exciting thing I saw and heard was a synthesizer called the Solaris. It’s a work-in-progress by veteran synth and sound designer John Bowen. What began as a soft-synth project outgrew the confines of John’s computer, so he brought it to life as a living, breathing (okay, not really) keyboard instrument with lots of knobs and big, bright displays. It uses a variety of synthesis algorithms, from sample playback to FM to wavetable and more, and it gives you eight envelopes, five LFOs, and more types of filters than you ever imagined you might need. And the sound! It’s a beautiful thing, and it will be April (or so) when John hopes to begin shipping the Solaris. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait! But don’t take my word for it; head on over to http://www.johnbowen.com/solaris.html and hear what I mean.

Saxophonist Danny Lerman from the Great Midwest just dropped by and handed off his new album, Meowbaby, being distributed on EMI. He’s going to be headlining at the Hilton tonight at 6:10, so NAMMers, stop by. He’ll be with Tal Bergman on drums (formerly with Billy Idol), Fred Kron on keys, Ron DeJesus on the geetar, and Les King on bass. But first, let’s ask him what makes his sax wail different…Danny?

“South Bend soul. And longing to see my girlfriend in Israel next week…”

Tell me how the record came together…

“We recorded at No Favors Studio in Studio City, Tal Bergman’s place. Tal also produced it. We used a U47 on alto and for soprano we used a U47 and a KM…the old tube one. I put an AKG 414 on the bell for the soprano, with a C12VR up above. Vandoren reeds and Selmer saxophones. For soprano, I go for a pretty, but larger than life sound with some bite. That’s why we mixed the presence of the bell with the fullness of the stack. On alto, I like a big fat listen-to-me kind of sound. So I temper that with a tube mic to get that “aaaaaaaah.”

And where can we find the record?

It’s going to be released February 26 at your favorite music retailer! Stop by www.dannylerman.com to preview it

Hot news! There’s an all-new Gibson Guitar Corp. following today’s announcement of a merger with TC Group out of Denmark. Lots of details yet to be worked out, but right now we know that Anders Fauerskov of TC will be the COO and Henry Juszkiewicz remains CEO. The deal is expected to be finalized by the end of February.

Greg, you’re off the Electric Gnat Ranch acreage in Illinois and running around Anaheim…What have you seen, what do you know?

Conflicted news runs rampant in the aisles–is attendance really down, are we feeling the impact of the credit crunch? My response: Aisles are reasonably jammed today (Saturday 1-18), with people who count. My own casual, non-scientific research (based upon listening to the wisdom uttered by 27 years worth of contacts in this business while doing PR, and the insight of this, my 25th NAMM Show) shows things may not be growing as much as we’d like, but it’s not getting worse. Sail on, everything has its correction. Next year will post the numbers everyone is looking for now.

Look around in the pro audio ghetto (Hall A) and despite any misgivings about the health of the economy, you’ll find your fair share of new product intros and lively booth activity. On a closing note, happy anniversary wishes need to go out to QSC for surviving and thriving over the course of 40 years in this business, and special thanks to Shure Inc. for lending the legislative, moral, and technical support needed to guide us all through the current “White Spaces” maze in D.C.

So long for now–gd

Carmen stepped away and we’re here with producer/composer/musician Michael Boddicker, who tells us he’s about to break ground on a new studio (hooray for studios!) in Encino. Michael, what type of space are you building?

We’re building a mix theater, with an SSL AWS 900 and the Euphonix MC5 controller. I work in Pro Tools and I use Logic and Final Cut Pro too. I’m also putting in a Pro Tools edit bay, a composition room and a great espresso machine. Carl Yanchar did the acoustics. Jaime Pavez is the architect. Of course we’re just starting the build, but we have hopes to do good-sized film projects.

So what brings you here wtih the Intel folks?

Awesome processing, incredible stability, more power than I can grow out of in a decade, available to me now. Plus, they’re really nice people.

Thank you, Michael!

Okay, last night we had a smokin’ hot party at the House of Blues to relaunch the new EM, and the grooves all night, the pulse behind the rockin’ party, was Carmen Rizzo. And he’s here with us now…

Carmen, what are you working on these days?

I just finished up a track with k.d. lang. i added aome of my sound, some strings, and we had a good time. Ijust finished an HBO show, called The Song Story, a documentary-style show with a record producer, me, finding three young people through You Tube and MySpace, and I produced the tracks. They’re looking to franchise it.

What have you seen at the show?

I was really impressed with the Gator cases. I have a luggage fetish and nobody pays attention to bags. M Audio (I’m on the cover of their new catalog) have some cool new products out.

You’re standing here with Intel. Last year on the producer’s panel, you said the most important piece of gear in your studio was your Intel Mac?

Now that I’ve been on my Intel Mac for a year, I can’t imagine working without it. I’m spoiled by the speed. I work both sides of the fence, and it’s pulled my studio together.

Anything else?

My new solo album is about to come out. Two other projects, Niyaz and Lal Meri, both on Six Degrees Records. Check ‘em out.

It’s another NAMM, and everyone is finally getting a peak at the results of many months (and years) of hard work by some very smart people. Some products are ready to ship, some is right around the corner, and some of it is a long way in the future, but NAMM attendees have seen enough to know that most of it is worth the wait. In the middle category (right around the corner) fall two products from Moog Music: the MP-201 Multi-Pedal and the Minimoog Voyager OS—the “OS” stands for Old School.

The MP-201 is much hipper than any other foot-operated device I’ve seen, siimply because you can do so much with it. Essentially, it’s a programmable controller with four MIDI outputs and four control-voltage (CV) outputs that allows you to control four MIDI or CV devices using a single optical pedal. You can specify the range and polarity of the pedal and program it to address any parameter in real time to control your Moogerfooger, soft synth, digital or analog effects device—just about anything with a MIDI or CV input. This description barely touches on what you can do with this thing, so we’ll get a video clip of it online real soon. Suffice it to say, it’s much cooler than it might sound.

And if you’re wondering whether to take your aging Minimoog to the shop or replace it with something new and more dependable, you have a new reason to put it out the pasture. The Minimoog Voyager OS (remember, that’s Old School, not operating system) is a real analog synth with no digital functionality–no program memory, no fancy arpeggiator, just the same classic sound and hands-on controllability you got with the Model D. It does everything the vintage Minimoog did in an all-new package. You also get the audio and CV connectivity found on the original Voyager, thanks to a bank of 1/4-inch jacks. At $2,595 retail, the OS is priced between the Voyager and the Litle Phatty and will be shipping soon.

Twelve years ago, Steinberg introduced the VST platform. And today we got a look at VST3, the most stable VST platform ever. New in VST3….CPU effeiciency: now, processing plug-ins only kick in when signal is present. VST plug-ins will no longer be limited to a fixed number of I/Os, and their I/O configuration can dynamically adapt to the channel configuration they’re inserted in. The interface can deactivate unused buses after loading and reactivate when needed. Other features include resizable edit windows (yay!), sample-accurate automation and a kabillion other cool things. The SDK will be available as a free technology, open for developers…

Swag from Hall E…