Each day our team on the show floor at NAMM 2020 are on the lookout for products that catch their eye and in this pick of the best of NAMM 2020 from day 1, James Ivey, Julian Rodgers and Audrey Martinovich share their top choices.

LUNA Recording System From Universal Audio

LUNA is a four-part recording solution consisting of a UA Thunderbolt-equipped Apollo or Arrow interface, the LUNA Application, LUNA Extensions, and brand new LUNA Instruments and will be a FREE to download solution available during the spring of 2020. The first release will be macOS only and we hope the PC will follow soon after, this is to be confirmed.

One of the key features of the LUNA Recording System is its deep integration with the Apollo and Arrow range of UA Thunderbolt interfaces and they have done it in such a way what we feel that no one is going to be annoyed.

Unlike the more traditional DAW software applications, Universal Audio’s new LUNA, with its tight hardware-software integration, allows for quick and easy routing and tracking through DSP-powered UAD plug-ins with next to zero latency via a new Accelerated Real-time Monitoring feature.

There are LUNA Extensions (plugins, which use your computer’s processors so they run natively rather than depend on your Universal Audio DSP hardware. Because LUNA is currently macOS only, you can also use AU plugins within LUNA.

The core LUNA recording system is free to download and use if you are UA hardware user. In conclusion, It is a fully-fledged DAW integrated into the UAD platform.

If you want to learn more about LUNA from Universal Audio then check out our article Universal Audio LUNA Recording System Announced - There's A New DAW In Town.

SoundGirls Mentoring Sessions

NAMM is much more than looking at the gear, and this year Audrey is taking a look at the training opportunities available across NAMM 2020.

In collaboration and sponsored by AES, SoundGirls have been hosting mentoring sessions during NAMM led by giants of the pro-audio industry.

Audrey went to one of these sessions about recording art and members of the audience were able to ask questions of the team of experts, led by Leslie Ann Jones with Jett Galindo, Catharine Wood, Lenise Bent, and Fela Davis.

There were questions like “how do you balance business with recording”, “what are the challenges you run into on a day to day basis and how do you overcome them”, “how did you get started” and “what recommendations do you have for people who are just starting out”.

If you want to know more about What SoundGirls and the Audio Engineering Society are doing at NAMM 2020, then check out our article SoundGirls And AES Partnered To Mentor Women At NAMM 2020.

Folder Tracks In Pro Tools

At NAMM 2020, Avid will be demonstrating the most asked-for new feature request - Folder Tracks. Although you will be able to see Folders Tracks on the Avid Booth, Avid tell us that is is another feature that is ‘coming soon’ and we understand this will be within 90 days.

Folder Tracks have been designed to improve the organisation of your Pro Tools sessions and will help to eliminate clutter and distractions on the screen, which ties in with Avid’s aim to continue to free your mind to work more productively without the distraction of numerous tracks and complexity on screen.

There are two types of folder track, there is a basic folder track, which is a logical organisation of putting a series of tracks together into a folder so you can hide them. You can edit the folder track and the edits will be mirrored across all the tracks in the folder.

The second type of folder track involves routing. You can nest folder tracks within folder tracks up to 9 deep. It displays folder tracks clearly, so you can see what is going on in the Mix window as well as the Edit window.

There is now a new Activity meter in the mix window. Because with folder tracks you don’t have to route tracks to the output associated with that folder track, the folder track level meter won’t necessarily display everything going on in that folder track. So the Activity meter displays the sum of everything going on in the folder track irrespective of where it is routed.

If you want to learn more about the new Folder Track feature coming to Pro Tools soon then check out our article Pro Tools Folder Tracks Announced - The Most Requested Feature Coming In Pro Tools 2020.

Antelope Audio Galaxy 64

At NAMM 2020 Antelope Audio, who must be one of the most prolific interface manufacturers, has announced not one but two new interfaces. The first is the  Zen Tour Synergy Core, which is an 18x24 DSP / Audio Interface that can process up to 256 effects over 32 channels with ultra-low latency and zero CPU drain, thanks to the four ARM-based DSP processors, working with the doubled custom-designed FPGA chip architecture of its predecessor.

The second is so new we have only seen it on the trade show floor, it is the Galaxy 64. Here is a list of the key features in the Antelope Galaxy 64 interface…

• 64 channels of analogue I/O on 25pin D-Sub connectors

• Stereo AES and MADI I/O

• Dante I/O

• 4 HDX ports

• 2 Thunderbolt ports

• Synergy Core processing with 12 DSP chips and 2 FPGA chips.

We suspect James is already working out what to sell to be able to buy the Galaxy 64 because this would fit into his workflow very nicely. Although the Galaxy 64 doesn’t have any mic preamps that doesn’t matter to James as he has his Audient large format console full of their lovely mic preamps. Then because the Galaxy 64 supports Dante this will dovetail into his Dante powered artist monitoring system.

Mix With The Masters

Another training program at NAMM 2020 is the Mix With The Masters stage. if you are at NAMM 2020 then we recommend you visit their booth 14104 in the North Hall and take advantage of their Q&As and Mixing Sessions on an SSL with the Masters. Here is the schedule of sessions…

• Thursday 16

  • 11am Andrew Scheps

  • 1pm Tony Maserati

  • 2pm Tony Maserati

  • 3pm Neal H Pogue

  • 4pm Jacquire King

  • 5pm Sylvia Massy

• Friday 17

  • 10am Larry Klein

  • 11am Shawn Everett

  • 12pm Rob Kinelski

  • 1pm Jaycen Joshua + Boi-1Da + Rodney Jerkins + Dave Pensado

  • 2pm Jaycen Joshua + Boi-1Da + Rodney Jerkins + Dave Pensado

  • 3pm Tchad Blake + Mitchell Froom

  • 4pm Tony Maserati

  • 5pm Gavin Lurssen & Reuben Cohen

• Saturday 18

  • 10am Eddie Kramer

  • 11am Josh Gudwin

  • 12pm Greg Wells

  • 1pm Tom Lord-Alge

  • 2pm Chris Lord-Alge

  • 3pm Bob Clearmountain + Tchad Blake

  • 4pm Al Schmitt

  • 5pm Jack Joseph Puig

• Sunday 19

  • 10am Joe Chiccarelli

  • 11am Jimmy Douglass + Marcella Araica

  • 12pm Alan Meyerson

  • 1pm Tchad Blake

  • 2pm Young Guru

  • 3pm Malay

  • 4pm Nick Launay

McDSP APB-16 With Moo X Mixer Plugin

At booth number 14905 in the North Hall, we found the new Moo X Mixer for the McDSP APB 16. The Moo X Mixer plug-in is the world’s first fully automated hybrid mixing console under total software control. Session recall is instant, and all mixer controls can be automated or saved as a preset. Features include equalisation, analogue compression and saturation, and a master section with auxiliary input and stereo analogue compression and saturation.

The Moo X Mixer is only available with the purchase of an APB-16 Analog Processing Box.

We covered the main McDSP APB-16 unit at NAMM 2019, it’s the McDSP Analog Processing Box (APB) that has been designed to combine the flexibility of software with the fidelity of premium analogue processing.

Each channel can be controlled by an APB plug-in giving true digital workflow with genuine analogue performance. We will be getting one to test but the challenge presently is that Colin was telling us that they are selling them faster than they can make them.

Processing options include not only the Moo-X Mixer, but several other unique plug-ins. The Moo-X Mixer plug-in showcases the programmability of the APB-16 hardware and how it can be integrated into a hybrid mixing solution providing optimal workflow.

With the Moo X mixer, you instantiate a plugin on each of the tracks you want to feed into the Moo X mixer and then there is some digital EQ, (because the APB-16 cannot do analogue EQ, its good for saturation, compression, limiting and transient control), analogue saturation and compression. The summing is digital.

One really good feature is that it looks after the gain structure. It has been designed so that when you come out of the analogue section, it is not possible to clip the digital summing, as Julian says “it will hold your hands through that”, which means you can abuse it, like a piece of analogue gear, without having to worry about gain staging everything once you do back into the digital domain.