Tweak's
Summer
Namm 2006 Report
from Austin
Texas
page 1
By TweakHeadz
Lab
Few climates compare to Austin Texas when it is
near 100 degrees and humid. By the time I got downtown, around 11am, I was
already drenched in sunshine and sweat. As I approached the Convention
Center, the famous Austin landmark, the Frost Building, looked down on me like an iceberg in
the hot sea of humid air. Opening the doors I was rushed
by a blast of cold air. Ahhh, at last, things are cool again. We're going to be here till
they kick us out!
So come on along with Tweak as I walk the aisles.
 
The first sight as I entered the convention
area.
First impression: Guitars, guitars,
guitars! Everywhere you looked. You're a guitarist? Well cool.
This show is made for you. Drums, Basses, Pianos, Band Instruments, Amps
and PAs a plenty. Synths and Studio stuff were there as
well but were much less conspicuous. But I think I found most of it.
Absent, as far as I could tell, were the major software makers. I instantly reminded
myself this was Summer Namm, not the massive show that happens in the Winter.
But believe me, this was not a small venue. There is no way this report
can do justice to the variety of of great products at the show or even cover
more than a handful of the manufacturers. So you get to see the stuff that
interested me, and hopefully you too.
Coolest Product and demonstration of the
show
The Winner: Was a product that had a debut at last Winter's Namm
show. It is the Boss RC50 Loop Station. This product is absolutely
insane with possibilities for live performance art. Rappers and Hip Hop
guys, take note.
The incredible artist above put together a
montage of sounds with just a microphone in real time that had me smiling. First
he "Beat Boxed" a drum kit with a few overdubs on phrase track 1, then over
dubbed his voice about 10x doing a harmony swell, which was huge sounding, then
threw other phrases one top of that. Imagine doing a rap over that.
One guy, Mic, amp, RC50. Totally entertaining.
RC-50 Loop Station
get a price:
Boss RC50 Stereo Loop
Station Pedal
Housed in a spacious seven-footswitch floor unit, the RC-50 lets
you manipulate three stereo phrase tracks simultaneously. Each track supports
multiple overdubs, so phrases can be stacked one by one on each track, resulting
in a monstrous layer of looped phrases.
- The new industry-leading looping tool for live
performance!
- 7 footswitches for intuitive control; realtime
control of playback speed
- Play up to 3 stereo phrase tracks
simultaneously, all synced to an internal or MIDI clock
- Ultra-long recording time (up to 49 min.,
mono), 99 patches (3 master loops per patch)
- Undo/Redo function for recording and
overdubbing
- Center-cancellation feature, "flat" amplifier
simulation feature
- Stereo input, dual stereo output, XLR
phantom-powered mic input, stereo mini-jack Aux input (for recording from an
MP3 players, etc.)
- USB port for data/audio backup, import/export of loops as WAV files
Next Page
Keyboards and Modules Index
Keyboards: What you need to know
Multi-Timbral Synths Compared
Choosing a Controller
MIDI CCs Explained
MIDI Modules
The Triton Family
The Motif Family
The Fantom Family
Keyboard Price List
Triton Rack and EXB Expansion Boards
Novation ReMore 37 SL
On Programming Synths
Emu Xtreme Lead -1
Proteus 2000
Korg Electribe EA1
Roland JV1010
Emu Planet Earth
Roland SRX boards
About MIDI Interfaces
Poll: Best Synth Under $600
Poll: Triton vs. Motif vs. Fantom
Forums: Korg M3
Forums: Trance Synths
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