NAMM 2010 - Where's the Beef - Part I

I hate to be negative about things musical, but I have to say that I was expecting a bit more innovation out of NAMM 2010.

First, let's take a look back at past NAMMs and promises made and not kept:

The Roland V-Synth

This synth has caught my eye many times and I must admit, that at times I have thought about expanding my already cluttered collection of synths to included at least the rack mount version. But let's look at NAMM. Roland releases the Roland VP-7. The VP-7 looks like a nice little box and it was somewhat attractive to me but let's face it, Roland is repackaging their vocodor technology along with the vocal side of the V-Synth. And let's no forget that that side of the V-Synth was a card and that more of those cards were going to come and expand the V-Synth. Hmm, those seemed to be strangely missing from NAMM.

One of the reasons that I liked the V-Synth was that it was expandable. That and the phrasing technology and the time trip pad where alll nice innovations. That and some old COSM technology made this a nice package with a lot to offer but the expandability was key and that, seems to have gone by the wayside.

Dave Smith

More repackaging. Following along the footsteps of other mini synths, the Morpho now has a keyboard. OK, nice to have if one is looking for a synth on a budget but can you really call this new technology?

Korg

How the mighty flagships have fallen. OK, Korg introduced some new stuff most notably a better Kaossilator (lest anyone forget, still old technology) and the Wavedrum (old technology returned). What was missing where new upgrades to the expandable (?) flagship synth, the OASYS. To thing that I though of investing huge $s in this synth hoping that it would be a do it all synth that would continue to expand. I thought better and got myself a real analogue synth (the Moog Voyager) and foogers and have a system that is almost modular and real (no emulators for me). For FM I have the FM8 (digital technology anyway so why get a hardware synth for this) and I am hoping the Applied Acoustic Systems might come out with some new physical modellers. Granted, at the movement the OASYS is better for this but of course I have never played one.

More latter. I have to go make the donuts but part II will follow.