Julian was the only member of the Production Expert team to attend NAMM 2023. In spite of this we got to see an awful lot and in spite of some major players not attending there was still a great deal happening. Here are his five top products of the show.

The last time I visited NAMM was in 2020. A long running joke about NAMM is that the inevitable illnesses such a coming together of so many people all swapping germs results in ‘nammthrax’ on attendees’ return from the show. In 2020 the version being swapped wasn’t funny and after a tentative return last year, this year saw a return of NAMM in a more recognisable form. There were significant brands who weren’t present, but there were a lot of brands who were in attendance and after three days of frenetic activity I wanted to share my top five finds at NAMM 2023.

Honourable Mentions

First some finds which I’ll categorise as honourable mentions. Avid were at the show, on a much reduced stand but after their announcement in 2021 that they were no longer going to attend big trade shows it was great to see them back at NAMM. The stand was tiny compared to the huge presence they used to have, but it was big enough to show the new Matrix 2 and a tech preview of wider channel widths up to 9.1.6 and some long requested improvements to markers.

However the tech preview is a preview and not available today so it doesn’t make my top 5.

Another aspect of NAMM is the conversations you get to have and the free exchange of ideas. Having largely ignored GPU audio as an idea which had been around for years but never seemed to have come to prominence, the obvious enthusiasm from some people whose opinions I respect had made me curious to find out more. However that work remains to be done and I have to confess that at the time of writing I’m not quite there on what has changed to make this processing solution more attractive. It has my attention but I’m yet to reach any conclusions.

So on to actual products I saw which among the hundreds I saw, and it has to be noted the thousands I didn’t, left a lasting impression.

Sound Radix Auto Align 2

Auto Align was the first product released by Sound Radix. Actually it wasn’t the first product to enter development but it was the first to be released. The story goes that the first project Nir Averbuch was working on in the very early days was what went on to become POWAIR but a conversation in the studio prompted him to develop Auto Align. Find out more about this in our podcast with Nir, embedded below.

Auto Align was one of those products which solved a problem people actually have in the studio and did it well. It was a huge success and has continued to sell throughout the 13 years it has been available.

13 years is an extremely long time in the plugin world and with Auto Align 2 Sound Radix have done far more than just re-skin a plugin. It’s a brand new plugin which sounds better, gives richer visual feedback and offers a more streamlined workflow.

With a one click workflow, spectral phase optimisation with accompanying heat map displays of the processing across the frequency range on a per track basis and ARA 2 compatibility all within a single multichannel window this plugin is my stand out find of the show. Really impressive and I can’t wait to check it out!

Yamaha DM3

I come from a live sound background and I try to stay familiar with what’s happening in that world even though I don’t do live work these days. Digital mixers offer a huge amount of flexibility and power and I do echo the sentiments of Luke’s article which asks whether we are overlooking them in the studio. It strikes me that with just a little work a digital mixer could be the answer to so many problems in the studio.

When I tried the MBOX Studio I found the usefulness of having a very capable digital mixer like the MBOX Studio more appealing than I expected. However the mixer in the MBOX was only accessible through the desktop control app, if it could be controlled from a tablet, and featured dynamics processing I’d have considered using it with my band for small gigs, it’s big enough for a pub gig. However, looking around none of the available small digital mixers quite did it for me.

This new compact mixer from Yamaha ticks a lot of the boxes for me for a tool I could use both out with my band and in the studio. It’s big enough for my purposes live. It has a grown up interface and feature set. I’ve used the early Yamaha digital mixers like the LS9 a lot in the past and the unfriendly UI of a small non-touch screen is worlds away from this with its 9 inch multi touch screen and ‘touch and twist’ one knob control as found on Digico consoles (and Audient audio interfaces) it’s really easy to get around.

The 16 in 8 out local IO is complemented by Dante on one model, this makes it hugely more useful and is the one I’d get if I were to push the button on one. I’ve looked at small mixers like the SSL SiX before as potential problem solvers in the studio but for anything from capture, podcasting, video production and just those unexpected head-scratchers we all get from time to time, I think this could be a really useful unit, and of course it would be fantastic as an upgrade to my band’s live sound. Trying it out in person answered all the construction and build quality questions I had and although much of the marketing seems to revolve around ease of use, with presets and one-knob EQ features I’d never use, this is a serious piece of gear. I’d love one.

Sound Particles SkyDust 3D

Sound Particles are clever people and considering how powerful and efficient tools like Energy Panner and Brightness Panner are , when I heard they were showing a synth I had to check it out.

The execution is great but the real strength here is just what a great idea it is. SkyDust 3D is a powerful synth with a party trick as the oscillators can be panned in a similar way to the Sound Particles Panner Collection pans audio sources. In stereo it’s cool but in immersive formats it’s brilliant. Oscillators can move through the soundfield as if they were Atmos Objects. They aren’t Objects, that would be to miss the point but the results are similar with dynamic moves panned across channel widths up to 9.1.6 or 6th order Ambisonics. Soundscapes which would take hours of laborious construction using multiple instruments and detailed automation become embarrassingly easy. Having heard it at the show I can say that the presets are impressive and instructive. Check it out and you’ll see what I mean. 

Yamaha CK88

I wasn’t keen on having a second choice from Yamaha in this list but considering they are the biggest musical instrument manufacturer in the world I thought it was justifiable. After all it’s possible to buy both a Grand Piano and a jetski from Yamaha. They have a diverse range of products!

This one is very specific to me but I have been increasingly irritated by a couple of shortcomings of my Nord Electro 6D. It’s a lovely instrument and having a 73 note, lightweight keyboard which covers almost everything I need in a package which I can carry on my back is brilliant. However the organ style waterfall keyboard, while lightweight and great for palm glisses and Hammond lines, is a little trigger-happy for a player as sloppy as I am. Also the Nord doesn’t have a filter, or pitchbend and mod wheels.

The CK88 is a lightweight keyboard which ticks all of these boxes. I read about it and had to check it out because, while the internet is a wonderful way to find out about products, there are some things which you just have to get hands-on to figure out. The feel of a keybed is one of these things and while it would be refreshing to read a manufacturer describe the feel of their keybed and “springy and horrid but at least it’s cheap” I don’t think we’ll be seeing that level of honesty any time soon.

The 88 note weighted keyboard on this felt better than the more upmarket CP to me, I’ll probably find out they have identical keybeds now but that is my recollection. It’s a great feeling, progressive hammer action - Tick. Next was weight vs filmsiness and I can confirm that it’s remarkably light but doesn’t feel fragile as a result - Second tick.

Next was the filter and I was very happy to discover that it can be assigned to the audio input so I could trigger loops from my Nord’s sample memory and filter them on the CK - massive third tick. With pitchbend and mod wheel mercifully above the keyboard, length is kept down so squeezing into tight spots is made just that little easier too. The UI is clear, sounds are good and while the neatest solution to my problems would be to swap out my Electro for a Nord Stage, even with selling the Nord I would be looking at spending nearly 3 times as much on a Stage as I would buying this. The CK even has built in speakers and can run on batteries!

Eucon Soundflow

Lastly Soundflow. I think Soundflow’s biggest problem is communicating just how powerful it is without bewildering people who aren’t familiar with it. It’s more than just a way to trigger single actions from a button push in Pro Tools. Just look at Andrew Scheps’ uber-powerful Bounce Factory to see what can be achieved.

With Avid on board and what looks like a strong partnership I suspect we’re going to see more and more from Soundflow but their recent announcement of Eucon integration means that for users with Eucon control surfaces the potential has increased significantly. Looking at my humble S1 I already have plans for the user buttons but if you have an Avid Dock or an S6 then the ability to trigger Soundflow Macros from your control surface brings what was already deep integration with Pro Tools into new territory!

NAMM is of course about people and conversations but for those who aren’t in attendance it is still about the gear and this year it was good to see that of the gear that I saw, there were good ideas being well executed. Long may that continue!