I think I’m going to have to start teasing random projects I’m doing, like taking a picture of the corner of a dirty dish before I do the dishes, or showing a corner of my shoe before I tie them in the morning. But here’s one more teaser for you, especially since Americans today have the day off.

One reader tips us off to an image inserted in iKaossilator. It sure looks like a new KAOSS product. Aaron lazytrap writes some reasonable speculation:

New KP, red & yellow = Kaossilator+KP in one h/w box? New `tribe (play/stop buttons)? Hrmn.

I’m just hoping KORG will get some MIDI connections and MIDI sync back on their products, cough – we’ll see if this continues the trend of leaving that out.

Thoughts?

Ready to just use the gear you’ve already got and quit it with the teasers, already? (Hey, after NAMM week, I get to sit down and make music again myself, hopefully.)

Trade shows aren’t what they used to be. For those of us who love music technology and the spirit of invention, it’s a good thing – why shouldn’t people be coming up with ideas year round? Why not spread them in places other than the gray, fluorescent glow of a big trade show floor open only to the industry?

On the other hand, there’s something to be said for those moments when an entire industry can come together face-to-face. And perhaps with that in mind, NAMM next week in January is gearing up to what looks like a very big week for new toys and tools, even as some vendors – notably a number of the bigger software makers – take a pass.

We’ll be in Anaheim for NAMM at the end of next week, and there are very good reasons to be excited about the trip. Some of the news, indeed, we’ll have in advance of the show, and in some cases can even publish it. Possibly triggered by leaks, we saw a big announcement from Moog last week as well as the first of three from Akai.

Here are 10 reasons to be “stoked,” in California parlance, for what’s happening in music tech this January:

1. Casio back in the synthesizer business. Matrixsynth gets some great scoops and research on this one, aided by ComputerMusicGuide. Whatever Casio’s reputation, the’ve produced some of our all-time favorite synths — particularly those in the CZ line. Sure, some of these twee, adorable low-end models may have become the butt of hipster jokes, but make no mistake: phase distortion is genius. So, that makes it intriguing just what Casio is teasing for NAMM. Will this be just another entry in a crowded entry-level synth market already well covered by the likes of Korg, Novation, and recently even Avid? Or can Casio channel some of the greatness of its history into something genuinely new and different?

2. Teenage Engineering. I’m in regular touch with TE, and I have no idea what this video is about, but I know the Teenage guys always come up with something fun to look at – thanks to some serious industrial design chops and imagination, and a business small enough to get from idea to prototype quickly. Synthtopia takes notice; DE:BUG predicts a designer synth; I’m imagining an accessory.

3. Moog. We already know Moog is in with a new monosynth called the Minitaur, at just US$679. The design is traditional, but the sound and playability look top-notch. With the accessible pricing – even with the cat out of the bag (the bull out of the … pen?) – this could be a show highlight. And given the popularity of Animoog, I wouldn’t put another surprise or two past the North Carolina company. Oh yeah, and since it’ll be hard to play with the Moog but easier to get a feel for the Akai controller and software, this is tied for me with seeing the other big announcement last week in person – the Akai Revolution.

4. Universal Audio: DSP vendor UA has been on a bit of a roll lately, and I expect something big from them. Stay tuned.

5. Line 6 tells us they’re launching something major at the show. No clue what it is, but this vendor has been exploding into markets from guitars to iOS, so stay tuned; they’re atop the visit list.

6. KORG has been especially adept at giving users what they want, from the inexpensive, accessible-analog Monotrons to ground-breaking mobile apps for iOS and even Nintendo DS, and some major, crowd-pleasing hardware. NAMM is a big show for all of the big three from Japan – Yamaha, KORG, and Roland – and of the three of them, KORG are the ones that I hear people buzzing about already. (You hear that, Roland and Yamaha? Them’s fightin’ words… we’ll be visiting you, too…)

7. The Basement. Once the dominion of only hard-core synth geeks, the blogiverse has made some of the odder, boutique creations and analog labors-of-love more interesting to average electronic musicians than the splashy booths and bigger names. From French Eowave to local modules, I know there are some very nice folks showing up I’m eager to meet. I even hear MeeBlip designer James Grahame may be lurking around Disneyland…

8. Parties … off-campus. There are always some good parties around the NAMM area, but it’s getting into Los Angeles and away from Anaheim that has appeal for me. We’ll be teaming up with local live performance collective Interface LA for a Very Controllerist Party at downtown LA’s Bootleg Theater, with Mike Slott headlining and unique performance rigs from Moldover, Rich DDT, and Nonagon, and some great crews from both SF and LA. Stay tuned for details on that. I also hear Droid Behavior will have one of their legendary loft parties going for Wham Bam … maybe I should just stay awake until my early-Saturday flight back to Berlin.

9. Waffle House and IHOP. Oh, yeah.

10. Surprises. I expect enormous displays from Yamaha and Roland in particular. But I can usually keep up with bigger players from a distance. NAMM is a time when I typically get surprised by vendors who I didn’t know were coming up with products – and get to see them face-to-face. And that’s why walking the show floor in person can truly be a pleasure. So, if you’re afraid we might not find your booth, please do get in touch and don’t be shy. Time is short, and stuff slips through the cracks, but we might be able to find a story about what you’re doing.

See also MusicRadar’s take on what to watch, which also looks forward to guitar announcements and some celebrity appearances.

I could go on and complain about Anaheim, the inability to hear on the show floor, the poor conditions for doing any reporting, the fact that “live” coverage is a joke thanks to dreadful wifi networks, and so on. But there are just too many reasons I think we’ll enjoy this year’s coverage. I’ll get stuff up as quickly as possible this week, and then we’re back to our usual coverage of tech and music the following week.

“Lemur should just run on the iPad.”

“There’s no point to have a Lemur when you can get an iPad for $500.”

“When will the Lemur just run on the iPad?”

Soon, apparently. Sources and an in-person sighting suggest to me you’ll see this in the very near future.

The JazzMutant Lemur, the touch control hardware I reviewed over five years ago, gave musicians the first widely-available, for-sale taste of multi-touch control of music. It established a lot of basic paradigms that would appear on other platforms: high-contrast user interface objects on a black background (so they don’t blind you in a club), widgets that represent familiar elements like knobs and faders, and also some fairly powerful features like unique touch-centric widgets, simulated physics, and scripting. Some of those latter, more advanced features haven’t really been available in other control applications, and Lemur owners have wondered what their long-term solution might be.

So, a funny thing happened to me the other afternoon. I’m looking over the shoulder of M-nus DJ Ambivalent (Kevin McHugh) at Berlin’s Watergate and an afterparty, and I see – no, that’s not TouchOSC. That sure looks like a Lemur step sequencer. And then I might have spotted something similar in the front-of-house at Flughafen Tempelhof’s FLY BERMUDA show, for Richie Hawtin.

It’s possible this was all a dream, of course. So – who believes me?

Sure enough, rumors are surfacing saying as much. (I’ve gotten at least one email, secondhand – no, Apple, no Apple employee has said anything to me; if they had, I wouldn’t even think of posting this story). For instance:
Apple Moving Toward Release of Logic Pro X? [MacRumors]

Now, of course, what I’ve heard even more than rumors is users of Logic in an absolute panic that Apple will muck around with their product. Putting it diplomatically, feedback to Final Cut Pro X has not been overwhelmingly positive. I have no idea what the next version of Logic will look like, so it’s very possible Apple will indeed screw around with Logic in a way that makes its existing user base unhappy. But, since I feel free to speculate idly simply because I really, truly don’t know anything and thus can’t get anyone fired / violate any NDAs (again, Apple, please, please, please don’t hurt me), I’ll say this:

Assuming Apple is “running away from pro users” is probably wrong. This was a widespread reading of Final Cut Pro X. I think it’s fair to say Apple hoped their adjustments would attract new users put off by previous versions and other pro non-linear editors. Otherwise, though, I have to disagree. Apple’s pro user base is hugely profitable, in direct sales and high-margin, high-end Mac sales, and there are a lot of those users out there – I’ve sat with that team at Apple as they talked video pro sales numbers, for actual sales from pros, not even including pirated copies. (Anyone who thinks Apple likes to see their product pirated so they can sell more Mac hardware? Highly unlikely, that, too.) There’s a big difference between wanting to alienate your pro user base, and doing it inadvertently. I think Apple’s reputation is such that people have come to believe that everything they do is part of a grand plan, even when it’s not.

Developers want to make changes. Big changes don’t always work as expected, or work right away. Users are resistant to changes, and far more resistant the more the use of software is part of their pro, up-against-deadlines, demanding workflows. That’s the bottom line. I’m not going to be terribly complimentary here, though: I think the problem with Final Cut isn’t that it was designed for non-pro users, but that it wasn’t finished or fully fleshed-out. Enough has been said about that – see The Internet – but I can imagine anything similar in Logic would cause some (rightfully) unhappy users. And quality and implementation are everything; there’s a reason I gave Motion a positive review in Macworld, and you haven’t heard similar complaints about it, even though it uses some of the same UX paradigms and underlying engine. I hope future updates to Final Cut are more like that version of Motion in terms of user experience. (This is not a Final Cut review; that’d be glib. Suffice to say I tried Final Cut Pro X and decided to do editing in another program, and that I do appreciate some of what I believe Apple was trying to do, and that I do hope future versions are more successful. This is the reality of using pro tools.)

That said –

Apple is probably not overhauling Logic as thoroughly as Final Cut. Final Cut’s code base, as of Final Cut Pro 7, was not 64-bit and was dependent on deprecated video frameworks; it’s not unreasonable to assume that Apple felt they had to start over from scratch. Logic already has 64-bit support, and is already built atop parallel audio frameworks like Core Audio and Core MIDI that haven’t changed so radically. So while file management, save and undo, and other Lion-style features would likely call for changes, that doesn’t mean you’ll lose the old Logic, necessarily. And Logic has already undergone one Apple-administered UI overhaul, which was able to preserve the way Logic users work with the tool. Part of what’s admirable about Logic is its longevity, love it or hate it, so while a UI reskin is almost certainly in the works, that doesn’t mean Logic Pro X will be like Logic Studio X.

Apple will probably try to do Mac App Store distribution and take out some bundled apps. You don’t need rumors to figure this one out. App Store distribution? Almost certain. Unbundling tools like Soundtrack Pro or the rarely-used WaveBurner, each of which has robust competition from other developers? Certainly not unlikely. The interesting question here will be how Apple handles the sheer size of things like bundled audio content, and whether Logic’s support for plug-ins will mean either adjusting App Store rules, or whether Logic will get a special exception because it’s Apple (fully within their rights).

Apple probably won’t dump support for plug-ins. Apple continues to actively develop its Audio Unit plug-in format and push validation, and if they didn’t support plug-ins, they’d disrupt users and the entire vendor ecosystem. I’ll be stunned if that goes away. One thing they almost certainly will dump is technologies like Pro Tools interface compatibility – Avid has been moving toward Core Audio support, anyway – and possibly even ReWire. But while any change anywhere in a DAW will impact someone, neither of those would be likely to radically change user relationships to the tool.

Also, as a reader points out, Final Cut Pro X supports plug-ins.

The most interesting thing to me about all of this is whether the appearance of Logic on the Mac App Store, if it happens, will impact other audio apps. So far, it’s been a desert there, as I and some others (read: developers) predicted, partly because music software is so dependent on the plug-in ecosystem and sales to users through direct channels or music stores.

Additional evidence: GarageBand is already in the App Store, and supports plug-ins (AU). So the real question here is more the question of whether other hosts would try to / be allowed to follow the same model, and whether even plug-in distribution, using approved Apple frameworks, were allowed. (The former seems more likely than the latter: you can run a host without a plug-in, but not visa versa.)

What I’m interested in is whether other software follows suit at all. Aperture, Motion, and Final Cut haven’t necessarily produced an onslaught of other pro tools for visual Mac users – at least, not so many high-end or flagship tools, though there are many really useful smaller ones. Will audio be different?

Disclaimer: I know nothing. All of the above is purely speculative, based on things that to me seem pretty obvious. I’m not divulging secret, privileged information, my brain isn’t under an NDA, and all of that means I could be completely wrong. Take with a box of salt.

Updated: I neglected to link, by way of contrast, this editorial from around the time of the most heated Final Cut followup:
The End Is Night…

In it, Chris Randall (himself a plug-in developer tasked with supporting Logic and AU validation) argues basically the exact opposite of what I do here.

In review, my entire analysis above could be summed up as this: Logic will be on the App Store. It’ll still be more or less the Logic you love, or don’t love, as the case may be, but it’s unlikely to introduce radically new feelings even if you aren’t getting a stack of DVDs.

Memo to music software developers, artists and labels distributing music, and anyone else who uses optical drives: stop assuming they’ll always be there, because they won’t. Talking points:

• Netbooks and tablets already lack optical drives. With more mobile devices, they’re unlikely to be alone.
• Next up: laptops. Many laptops over the years have put optical drives in removable drive bays or shipped as external options to shed weight and bulk. HP Envy models recently came with external drives. And now, it’s a sure bet that Apple will drop optical drives on at least some MacBook Pros, as it did on the Air.
• If you’re selling paid software, customers do sometimes lose your discs (or they’re on the road without access to them.)
• If you’re sending music promos, the accessibility and manageability of digital may be essential. And you don’t want someone to fail to listen to a record just because they didn’t plug in their MacBook optical dongle.
• At gigs (see lament below) be ready with some … I don’t know, QRCodes? (QRCodes on t-shirts!) Anıl Çamcı has a nice idea – print QRCodes on the physical CD, get the best of both worlds. (Suppose that works for vinyl, too; your laptop doesn’t have an LP slot.)
• Yes, I also hope USB stick prices plummet. Until then…

I really love CDs and my occasional Netflix DVD and other optical distribution. But the writing’s on the wall here.

I don’t think that this will force Mac developers into Apple’s Store. Many pro software developers are unlikely to want to play along with all of Apple’s approval rules; some already have digital distribution. (It ain’t rocket science.) There are reasons they might consider that store, and this decision could help give Apple some momentum, but unlike on iOS, distribution through such a store is non-exclusive and likely to remain that way. That means that the presence of a particular drive does little to change the existing pros and cons of this and other stores. If you liked them before, you like them now; if not, you still don’t.

There’s a technology for loading content, code and music, tools and visuals onto a computer without shiny, plastic discs. It’s not called the Apple App Store. It’s called “The Internet.”

Nor do I think this means any major change – negative or positive – in regards to DRM.

In fact, expect an uptick in the use of USB sticks and other larger storage. That already had begun with massive sample libraries that number the hundreds of gigs. It’s a no-brainer for other large content, too. That’ll just have to square with another trend, however – solid state drives pulling average internal storage size lower and costs higher, at least in the immediate term.

One very big negative: physical handouts at shows. CDs are still far cheaper to reproduce (by an order of magnitude) than are USB sticks. Then again, maybe music lovers will keep that (now external) drive handy.

As a user, it’s worth not reading too much into this. My hope is that the internal drive bays remain, but are simply either available for upgrade or have a different drive in them. That means additional storage and customization configurations, one likely being optical drives if you want them. External drive options will also most certainly be available. And I hardly expect this to happen across the board all at once – particularly on the PC side, where there’s more model diversity.

Keeping optical drives around will remain a fantastic way to watch videos – particularly on the superior Blu-Ray format – and CDs aren’t going anywhere in a hurry.

Having online access to software you’ve purchased, though, is a no-brainer, and by no means requires an Apple-specific (or any other) store.

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Score one for standards. According to second-hand sources and a post to a public mailing list, the upcoming Apple iPad accessory adapter for cameras, the iPad Camera Connection Kit, will support audio interfaces that are compatible with the USB Audio Class. I don’t have official confirmation from Apple, and the adapter itself appears not to be shipping until later this month, so file this as “likely, but unconfirmed.” But it’s one to watch, and comes as a surprise to me. (Generally, camera accessory kits aren’t a way of providing audio expansion.)

Let’s assume, as these sources suggest, that USB audio devices were available via the standard stereo output (or even input) for the public Apple APIs for audio I/O. In that case, the other good news is that iPad apps would be able to support your third-party hardware without special modification of the software, or a signed hardware license agreement.

Most pro audio interfaces are not class-compliant; it’s more common to use custom drivers, even for USB 1.x-compliant interfaces. Custom drivers would be out of the question. But there are a number of interfaces that do provide class compliance, like the M-Audio Fast Track or Edirol UA-25. (I have a Cakewalk-branded, Roland-manufactured SPS-25 that works as a class-compliant device with the “advanced” mode on the back switched off.)

Incidentally, devices that support this spec will also easily work with Linux, and possibly upcoming updates to Android, if the latter adds similar USB host support. That means there’s now ample incentive for audio interface vendors to investigate providing class support, as it could mean more customers not only from iPad owners, but owners of other slates and tablets, too – including those we don’t yet know about. (Google tablet, anyone?) That further illustrates why up-to-date class descriptions for hardware are so badly needed (though it also, sadly, reminds us how much isn’t covered by these generic classes).

Before you get excited about connecting a MIDI keyboard to your iPad, I don’t know that this will mean support for the MIDI device class. But it’s nothing if not a reminder of the power of standards. (See also the Nintendo Wii remote, which enterprising musicians have used as a controller on multiple operating systems, thanks to its support for the Bluetooth spec.)

And yes, this means the prospects of the iPad becoming an all-in-one, live performance machine are looking brighter. DJs are still likely to be unsatisfied, as I doubt that this will allow separate audio cuing, but given that I didn’t see this coming, who knows?

Supporting evidence:
Re: iPad USB Audio Class 1 and Update on OSX Class 2 [Apple Core Audio API Mailing List]

Thanks to Art Gillespie for pointing this out. He’s got a connection kit coming, so expect a full test.

With Germany’s Messe trade show just a week away, buzz is pretty well focused on Swedish boutique machine maker Elektron, that beloved manufacturer of the Machinedrum. They’re about to launch something, and it’s a product with “octa” in the name, but that’s about all that’s known. Of course, that hasn’t stopped the Elektron fanbase from getting well worked up in an increasingly hilarious set of message threads. (Bless you, fora.)

First, the rampant speculation:
Are we expecting a new Elektron product at Musikmesse?

User Atiko, however, notes in a video of Elektron assembly a button labeled “Octatrack.” (That’s “button” as in “the kind you wear on your shirt at Messe.”)

http://vimeo.com/9879569

That in turn leads to another crazy thread:
Re:Mistery [sic] OCTATRACK: new from Elektron?

Elektron, for their part, hints at the upcoming launch with the text: “SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: THE OCTASHARK BITES” in the corner of their site. (Octashark?) They’ve also emblazoned their site with a Messe banner that reads, in text that suggests they’re about to release a prog rock album, “The New Dawn.”

Konkrete predicts this site will somehow enter the fray. What to do… do I fulfill the prophecy?

what I’m hoping for is a XXXCSHDRRT but we’re probably going to get a FFFRPPPI!!ING and then everyone who was right will be like ZZZWWWAARRW and all thoze who were wrong will be like OH ACTUALLY I’M REALLY DISAPPOINTED. Then there’ll be lots of BWWAWAWAWAWA maybe even on peter kirn’s ‘ELECTRONIC CABBAGE SPROGGIT PSEUD’S CORNER’ where the ‘a new butter based USB massage enables DIY multiple dorkgasms’ hook will lead into many a DEEP PENETRATIVE INSIGHT into the Oktospastik Cyclotron everyone’s all be waiting for and lathered up about. BUT I WANTED A FSFSSRRRGGRLL, and I’ve been saying that since 2004 when the first… they moan nonetheless. Then someone will complain that it’s too expensive and that anyway therez a plug wot can do all that anyway like. Cue nuclear flame festival and rotten tomato in the stocks hurling, bunion scraping, cheese rolling, caber tossing, frollicking Glastonbury mud orgy of a thread while we all save up the quids for DA TING with its 8 TRAXX of SEXX, which we can’t really justify to the better halves anyway cos it’s just a BOX THAT SEZ “MOOO!” (albeit repetitively), and it seems that there’s no way that that could possibly be worth more than a hair sandwich, EVEN if it’s set off in glorious brushed aluminium, COMEZ WITH STICKAZ and says moo REALLY LOUDLY when plugged into those expensive expansive high end tweeters in our sound proofed cave. But one thing is for certain. When we have TURBO MIDI, there ain’t gonna be no USB, especially not without no stinking Sepia Officinalis CONNEXION, dig?

Thanks, Konkrete. I’m … uh … flattered?

elektron.se

As always, we won’t cover every last bit of news, just the stuff we really find important. And in a twist, we’re also looking to volunteer participants to help us cover the community around music technology, not just the big industry-driven stuff.

Where and when to get your tech news

At 10:00 or 11:00 am tomorrow, January 14, Pacific Time (GMT-8), embargoes begin lifting on most NAMM news.

You can follow CDM’s coverage in two places: here on CDM, of course, but also at:

namm.noisepages.com

On CDM, we’ll have our own editorial look at the show. For the latest, round-the-clock news, videos, and clips, dispatches from our contributors, as well as unedited press clippings, watch namm.noisepages.com. We’ll take the best bits of the noisepages site and round them up on CDM.

We’ll be covering official and unofficial news this week. So, yes, we expect to cover big names like Roland. We’ll also be picking up on tech in hotel rooms, open-source oddities at the party Friday, and hardware that can’t afford NAMM booths – you know, just like we always do. Every day is a news day around here.

Friday night in Los Angeles, I’ll be part of the big, unofficial Wham Bam Thank You NAMM party. We’ll have video, sound, and feature coverage both of the artists and of the discussion we hope to kick off about the future of music tech. So watch for bits of that over the coming days.

What to expect

Our most anticipated news:

Ableton and Serato have already teased ableton-serato.com. So, obviously, if you were to tune into CDM at 11am California time tomorrow, I’m sure there won’t be any news whatsoever. Got that? Do not, by any means, expect any news Thursday around 11am.

I’ve been looking forward to talking to Teenage Engineering about their gorgeous-looking, Casio-inspired, FM radio and FM synthesis-equipped OP-1 synthesizer for months now; NAMM had always been the timeframe. Whatever isn’t ready, I should be able to catch when I’m in Stockholm in February. I’m imagining their studio looks something like the Wonka Chocolate Factory. If you’re there, you can find them on the floor.

I expect lots more controller hardware from lots more makers, and, whether it’s at NAMM or Messe or (for many manufacturers) completely independent of any trade show, I think 2010 will see more integrated hardware-software products.

No LinnDrum. There won’t be a LinnDrum announcement this year. That’s actually not a rumor. I think it’s best to diffuse any potential disappointment early. Dave Smith Instruments, though, have promised an announcement, so we’ll see what Dave’s been up to and I hope to catch up with Roger (Linn) later this year.

I could make more predictions, except I already know a lot about what’s coming out, so the predicting is somewhat less fun. Let’s see, let’s see, something I don’t know — I predict that the panelists I assembled on Friday will propose something so ludicrous and absurd for futuristic music tech that we’ll all be forced to make it.

And protests of major guitar manufacturers. On a more sobering note, the Korean workers who make major US brands like Fender, Ibanez, and Gibson are assembling a protest of the whole show, as reported by MusicRadar. Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello is even involved. It’s guitars, which strictly speaking isn’t NAMM news – but nearly everything we make (even the inner circuits of a US-assembled monome) is built with Asian labor. If anyone can get the scoop on this protest, I’m happy to hear it.

Big 2010 NAMM news that’s… not at the NAMM show

A lot of the big news in 2010 may happen outside NAMM:

• Big makers skipping trade shows: Native Instruments, for instance, is skipping pricey trade shows to talk directly to would-be customers on the Web. So if there’s an announcement from NI – among ranks of manufacturers I expect will gradually grow – it’ll be elsewhere. I hear this Web thing is going to be huge.
• Renoise 2.5, 2.6: The underground tracker is adding some unique features. The 2.5 upgrades, like its unique matrix view, look cool enough, but it’s the 2.6 version, with full-blown scripting and OSC support, that gets even more interesting. We should know more about each as the year goes on. (There’s no NAMM announcement, but you can catch Renoise at the Indamixx booth on the show floor.)



• Ruin & Wesen’s magic box: The techno geniuses of Ruin & Wesen have been hard at work on their MiniCommand, plus the open Miduino library – built on Arduino – that powers it. This deserves a lot more attention for things like algorithmic musical programming, but the short version: expect magical music-programming capabilities that bridge hardware and software.
• OpenSoundControl/OSC: Yeah, I know: OSC has been waiting for its big breakout year for some time. But don’t forget, OSC already has new traction, from becoming a standard in live visual/VJ apps almost overnight to inclusion on new hardware. There’s some big news as far as better hardware and software implementation in the pipeline. Oh, and because it’s open, we’ll get to just talk about this, and actually make it happen. OSC won’t be at NAMM because that’s not where it belongs: it’s a way of implementing Internet standards as much as it is a way of creating music-specific protocols, and a lot of its future lies directly in your hands.
• Open hardware: It won’t be on the NAMM floor, but there is a convergence of monome users, alternative developers, and even (at the party Friday night) open-hardware Arduinomes. DIY tech is something we’ll be watching in Anaheim and all year long.
• …and the suitcase brigade: Technically, NAMM doesn’t allow “suitcase” behavior – that is, people showing stuff who don’t have a booth. But I have at least one product demo booked offsite at a hotel room I think you’ll like. (Whoa, that sounds way more illicit than it is.)

How to Send Us News Tips

Are you a manufacturer with a product? An attendee with photos, video, sound, or words on anything cool — even that late-night jam back in the hotel room with friends? We’d love to have you get it to us. Directions on the namm.noisepages blog:

Community-driven coverage: Help Us Cover The Stuff Everyone Misses

Ah, Internet rumors: so adorable, so not actually true. But this one does demonstrate that people eagerly await the ability to edit audio with more flexibility. Something about Melodyne fires up the imagination.

Celemony caused a big stir last year with a video demonstrating Melodyne DNA technology – Direct Note Access. The YouTube video itself went semi-viral, demonstrating a kind of holy grail in computer audio: the ability to seamlessly edit audio note-by-note, even in a polyphonic texture, as easily as you can MIDI patterns.

Then, this month, a rumor started spreading through the forums that Celmony was “in a panic.” An alleged copy of a magazine I’ve never heard of, “Real Music,” claimed the mad scientist behind the technology had failed. The copy:

Celemony in trouble over DNA promise
"The technology demoed in Celemony’s upcoming Melodyne Editor used prefabricated loops and edits to illustrate a ‘what if’ scenario.
An insider told us: Everyone’s panicing behind the scenes at Celemony. Peter used a mock-up of proposed technology for live demos. In reality, producing a fully working version is proving to be impossible. When he produces a mini demo for one sampled phrase the whole thing breaks for other phrases. He’s panicing because very soon he expects Celemony to retract the promise of the holy grail DNA feature and apologize to the userbase. Peter has taken a month off work after a row with Editor’s project manager over his persistent failure to make the feature a reality."

Now, I find this all strangely alluring: Peter Neubaecker, the mad genius behind Melodyne, locked in a basement cursing his audio algorithms, perhaps with a computer hooked up to a giant lightning rod. His elongated beard only helps him fit this role. Betrayed by his assistant, Melodyne DNA becomes an utter failure. (“Are you saying that I put an abnormal brain into a seven and a half foot long, fifty-four inch wide GORILLA?”) You know, something like this:

Strangely alluring – just not terribly plausible, and, according to Melodyne, entirely made up. A representative for Celemony points me to this quote from forum host and site webmaster Claudio d’Allere, who tries to dispel the speculation:

Nobody is panicking at Celemony. We know we are late, and that may have raised some speculations. However, DNA still works as intended, and we are happy to invite you to our public beta test that we expect to start in late May or early June. Feel free to try this beta with your own audio files and not just "prefabricated loops"."

So, yes, the story – sit down for this one – is that the software is late. Let me explain something: late is much, much, much better than early. Early means that someone has shipped software before it’s entirely baked. I know this comes as a shock, of course. Just as we know it’s utterly unheard of that software or other technology be delayed (the horror!), we certainly have a hard time imagining anyone shipping any music technology with some features missing or lingering bugs or anything like that. Jeez.

Anyway, all my sources say Melodyne DNA is very much on track, and still looks fantastic to me. I’m sure, as with any audio algorithm, you’ll find audio that doesn’t work perfectly, but that’s true even of simple things like a Compressor.

The good news is, if you don’t have enough to do or have extra time on your hands, you can use the affordable Melodyne Uno to have fun right now, by recreating the spooky voice of the GLaDOS computer from the video game Portal. Behold:

Lately, I’ve had a number of conversations with audio and music tech industry figures in which they complained about the untamed wilderness of the Internet. These chats didn’t necessarily start with “You crazy kids and your…,” though I suspect that may have been implied. I’m sure that odd twists like this rumor were what they had in mind.

The Web does indeed give the power to transmit inaccurate information quickly – but it’s equally quick at correcting it. And it does gives us things like this awesome GLaDOS tutorial, so to me, it all balances out.

I am a crazy kid, though. Guilty as charged.

Stay tuned for that beta.