Published
Tue, Apr 12, 2011, 12:00
- We look back at the movers and shakers from last week's show in Frankfurt.
In this week's Sounding Off, it's time to turn our attention to MusikMesse and some of the highlights from this year's show. In previous years, Europe's premier music technology convention has been somewhat overshadowed by the NAMM show in California, with most manufacturers choosing January to kick-start the release cycle for their new products for the year. This year, however, there were plenty of new things to be seen in Germany, including some real surprises.
First and foremost, Roland announced the Jupiter-80 which offers a 21st century version of one of the most coveted synths of all time, the Jupiter-8. Already there is some controversy here as the Jupiter-80 is fully digital, so reneges on the analogue signal path of the original design. Roland's philosophy is that the original used the available cutting edge technology of the day to attempt to recreate "real" sounds, which of course, it couldn't. Now that technology has moved on, Roland have tried again, using a new technology called SuperNatural. This helps you play realistic performances of acoustic instruments alongside its capable digital synth engine. It's sure to divide opinion between purists and futurists.
Also on the keyboard front, Korg debuted the MOX6 and MOX8 which are the latest additions to their Motif range. These substantially drop the price of the original workstations and also provide USB audio interfacing, while there's even direct DAW control from the front-panel. Korg were premiering their Monotribe, which borrows technologies from both the Monotron and their Electribe phrase sequencers. The device retains its monophonic synth engine but adds more waveforms and envelopes, as well as a noise generator. There are now three parts, with an eight-step sequencer so that you can put together analogue drum and bass parts to accompany your synth noodlings.
Universal Audio were in town to show off their UAD-2 Satellite, which allows iMacs and older laptops to use the UAD plug-in range. As Satellite was announced a few weeks ago, perhaps more interesting was the forthcoming release of software 5.9 which includes an emulation of Lexicon's 224 reverb as well as new plug-ins built in collaboration with Brainworx and SPL.
For DJs, the headline news came from Novation. Having already built a controller for Ableton Live, the latest device, entitled Twitch, is designed for users of Serato's ITCH. Twitch ships with a copy of the software and provides flexible ribbon controllers for playback. It also contains a slicer function which automatically chops your tracks into eight regions which can be triggered in any order, as well as loop and jump possibilities to specific track locations available via dedicated pads. There are built-in effects including repeaters, filters and delays too, to allow you to bring your performances to life.
Steinberg announced version 4 of its Halion sampler alongside the recently released Cubase 6 and also debuted a Yamaha Vintage collection of VST/AU plug-ins. In other DAW news, Avid premiered Pro Tools MP9, specifically designed for enthusiasts and existing owners of M-Audio hardware.
All in all, MusikMesse gave a chance for European punters to see a wide variety of technologies announced first at NAMM, with the additional bonus of several flagship new products being exclusively premiered. What's clear is that there's plenty to look forward to in the months ahead.