NAMM 2018 is near. What do you wish for? Your predictions?

[GregC]

n[/b]

After all those years of fatigue, there seems to be hope again. I'm also very excited about Roland. This could become very exciting times... very exciting times...[/quote]

if you have a Backstage account, you can read what Roland is up to.

They do a press release for each new product. They issued 12 last night.

[Jan1]

I got an email announcing Roland's NAMM releases, and that was rather underwhelming.
I don't know if that's all for this NAMM, but there was nothing of interest to me.

[GregC]

I got an email announcing Roland's NAMM releases, and that was rather underwhelming.
I don't know if that's all for this NAMM, but there was nothing of interest to me.

not surprising if one is just into synths- we are all over every crumb of rumor/advance notice by the 'big ' keyboard cos. (Some of us have the Prologue spec and videos burned in).

For the synth niche, NAMM is a good showplace for the smaller boutique cos that don't have all the buzz and the ad $ to blast away on the Internet.

At least , last year, that seems to be the consensus of NAMM keyboard visitors.

[Bachus]

I got an email announcing Roland's NAMM releases, and that was rather underwhelming.
I don't know if that's all for this NAMM, but there was nothing of interest to me.

Same goes for Yamaha, nothing really sensational..
There is Monatge software upgrade 2.0
But it rather feels like 1.7, no real new features to catch me there..
And the things i was hoping for still missing

[GregC]

I got an email announcing Roland's NAMM releases, and that was rather underwhelming.
I don't know if that's all for this NAMM, but there was nothing of interest to me.

Same goes for Yamaha, nothing really sensational..
There is Monatge software upgrade 2.0
But it rather feels like 1.7, no real new features to catch me there..
And the things i was hoping for still missing

If you look at recent history, 2-6 yrs, these large electronic cos are only producing a full new W/s product about once every 10 years.

10 years.

Sure, maybe less, or 7-8 yrs , if you are quite the optimist.
Still a maybe.

And while we post routinely on this forum, I am skeptical that Korg is hanging on every word, digesting every post. I know this opinion might disappoint, but we have to look at the result and make an assessment. Korg is a smart co- they know the market, the #'s , the competition, the buyers, inside/out.

Plus they make numerous other products other than synths and w/s. So their focus is on that larger picture of product development.

Same with Roland, an even larger co.

Yamaha, that is 1 company I am reluctant to hold my breath on . I can't say Genos is a mind blowing " w/s ". Seems that fudging the definition of a W/s, is questionable.

If Genos is everyone's dream, I suppose folks that get their hands on it will be reporting soon.

[megamarkd]

Roland and Yamaha both have other aspects of their business that are not related to musical instruments/technology also, so NAMM is just another tradeshow for them I'm sure. Roland are going places in digital printing and have been for some time now. Must be hard with your eggs spread over many baskets to ensure they all hatch.

But that said, were you obliged to keep quiet about what Roland leaked to "backstage" members? I've found mention of more attempts at TR's this time virtual and a piano but that is it.

Getting away from the big 3 Japanese companies for a second and over to Sweden, Elektron have an FM machine: https://www.elektron.se/products/digitone/

[GregC]

Roland and Yamaha both have other aspects of their business that are not related to musical instruments/technology also, so NAMM is just another tradeshow for them I'm sure. Roland are going places in digital printing and have been for some time now. Must be hard with your eggs spread over many baskets to ensure they all hatch.

But that said, were you obliged to keep quiet about what Roland leaked to "backstage" members? I've found mention of more attempts at TR's this time virtual and a piano but that is it.

]

Thats exactly what I have been saying for a month- these co's are diversified and have other products, other categories to sell. And that stuff might be more profitable, thus they push it. For example, Roland went to CES in Vegas to push their ' other products '

These cos are run by business people, management types. They are not ' keyboard fanatics ' like we are. Its more of a numbers game for them and to make a wage/create jobs.

I know this is obvious to most but since we are not seeing much new (synths/W/s) from the big 3 , you can't be surprised.

I have also been saying for some months that the odds are 1 in 3 that Korg might introduce a nice new W/s class. As we got to Xmas, I said there is 66% chance that Korg would do absolutely nothing for Kronos. No OS upgrade , etc.

As we got into the 10 day before NAMM window it was more obvious that nothing would happen with a ' Kronos 3( a dressed up 2)' or greater.

I am happy with what I have. I think most Kronos owners are like that. I understand the wish for something greater. My only gripes are the lack of
sophisticated programming for other " non pop " styles using Kronos ( jazz and orchestra) . I also dislike Korgs non transferable approach to 3rd party sample libs.

[D575]

I got an email announcing Roland's NAMM releases, and that was rather underwhelming.
I don't know if that's all for this NAMM, but there was nothing of interest to me.

Same goes for Yamaha, nothing really sensational..
There is Monatge software upgrade 2.0
But it rather feels like 1.7, no real new features to catch me there..
And the things i was hoping for still missing

And Montage 2.0 still did not address the current Midi situation that many have called for.... having another option of setting midi channels for the parts as well as the current modes would of been much appreciated.

[Jan1]

Interesting to note is that whereas Yamaha decided to break away from the workstation concept and instead tether the Montage to the computer for workstation features, Kurzweil moves in the opposite direction and now turned the Forte into a workstation by adding a 16-track sequencer in the 4.0 update.
The Kurzweil team may be small, but their work shows they are really dedicated.

[Bachus]

The biggest thing on Namm in my opinion is yet again the Waldorf Quantum.. looks like a beast of a synth...

[D575]

https://www.gearnews.com/namm-2018-futu ... prototype/

[Koekepan]

Interesting to note is that whereas Yamaha decided to break away from the workstation concept and instead tether the Montage to the computer for workstation features, Kurzweil moves in the opposite direction and now turned the Forte into a workstation by adding a 16-track sequencer in the 4.0 update.
The Kurzweil team may be small, but their work shows they are really dedicated.

So far I think that the Digitone and the Forte are the biggest real news items. I haven't gone down the Elektron pathway, and I have all the workstations I need for now, but I have a lot of respect for what Kurzweil and Elektron are doing.

Synesthesia's Pipes module is also a strong contender, as a poor man's Integra.

[megamarkd]

https://www.gearnews.com/namm-2018-futu ... prototype/

Hmm interesting. Custom synthesiser, they say....
"The sound engine is based on something called NAT or Noise Added Tone which I’ve not come across before. But apparently, it’s a system that “presents an unprecedented realistic sensation by focusing on the hit sound or noises generated during performances.”" So they emulate the sound of the keys hitting the case as you play, not as silly as it seems really as I've heard of and had it suggested to me that mic'ing the keys to get key-clack is one way to create old school organ emulations sound more realistic.

The CPU and ram specs are something from a 10 year old PC:
CPU
core-i5 + 4GbyteMem
1TB SSD

SSD is nice though.

What would be even nicer is we could hear what it sounds like somewhere outside of NAMM.

[Broadwave]

My prediction for NAMM 2018, is that NAMM 2019 might be a bit more exciting.

Nothing this year has caught my attention other than the Quantum, and that's way out of my price range.

The Prologue was predictable, and in all honesty, other than it being Analogue, I can't see it being much better than the System 8 - Although the programmable oscillator/FX is a pretty nifty addition.

A hardware VA synth that's 100% user definable via an SDK would be a killer.

[Sharp]

https://www.gearnews.com/namm-2018-futu ... prototype/

Looks amazing. As a kid this is exactly what I hoped workstations in the future would look like.

Regards
Sharp.