The NAMM trade show brings together the biggest gathering of manufacturers of musical instruments and technology twice a year. Summer isn’t quite as big as the massive winter show in Anaheim, but you can still bet on plenty of new product announcements as the show rolls into sweltering Austin, Texas.

I’ve decided not to go to summer NAMM this year, so I’ll be covering new tech from afar. I’ll actually be in Chicago through the weekend, updating when I can and probably catching up next week. I have a project I’m really excited about that I’m working on in Chicago, but I can’t tell you what it is until later; stay tuned.

I do know that Ableton will be making an announcement tomorrow which we’ll be covering in detail; other than that, haven’t heard too much dirt.

But if you are in Austin this weekend, CDM wants to hear from you. Take pictures, tell us your impressions, and get instant fame, glory, and our respect for surviving this massive trade show. If not, well, as usual, I’ll be digging through the press releases to find what we really care about and, as always, to cover all the wonderful music-making stuff that doesn’t show up at big industry trade events.

I’d like to thank the Academy . . . Yes, it’s that time of year when the entire global music press put their heads together to pick their favorite products. It’s a bit like an Editor’s Choice, only with all the editors. The results sometimes lack nuance, and I wouldn’t take them as product advice, but they’re always interesting. See the complete results, but here are some of the categories we care about:

Ableton has booked a huge lineup for the NAMM show here in Anaheim, California. I’ll be talking today, Thursday, at Noon about how to abuse Live’s warp features and control Live with a Max/MSP/Jitter video input from a webcam. (Say hello if you make it; I hope to have tutorials on both these topics soon.) But I’m just as interested in the rest of the lineup . . .

Shawn Pelton and laptop beatboxer virtuoso Kid Beyond will hold clinics. My colleagues Jim Aikin and Craig Anderton will hold power tips sessions on Friday and Saturday. Ableton will provide tutorials on getting started, DJing, and performing. At the M-Audio booth, DJ Sasha, Junkie XL, and Junior Sanchez will join Ableton co-founder/CEO Gerhard Behles and M-Audio’s Robert Hanson to talk about the future of DJing. (I have to admit, I’m more interested in the future of music performance, not just DJing, but still interested to hear what they have to say.) Hey, we should do these kinds of things more often, outside of NAMM. See the full PDF schedule.

If you’re here in Anaheim, be sure to stop by, and if not, with Ableton’s help hope to put as much of this online as possible.

And in the meantime, enjoy these juicy 3D renderings of Ableton’s booth. I’m sure it can’t possibly look this good in person, especially once we clog it up with me and bunches of other NAMM-goers, so don your VR helmet and make believe! (More images after the break. Don’t think they work with 3D glasses, unfortunately.)

CDM’s Lee Sherman has been roving through the massive CES tech show and Macworld Expo over the last two weeks. He files this report on how music (namely, guitar music) is making an impact on consumer gadgets. -Ed.

Guitarists are finally catching up to their keyboard-playing brethren in embracing digital technology due to a spate of recently introduced products, including the RiffWorks guitar jamming software (which includes online collaboration, shown below) and Gibson’s Digital Guitar.

Last week, the largest consumer technology show in the world descended on Las Vegas, CES. And what did we get? Well, basically, a lot of boring announcements, a few fairly cool portable media devices, lots of non-shipping Skype devices, and Bill Gates telling us things we already knew about Windows Vista. Afterwards, we had lots of pundits telling us why we didn’t care. For some real cognitive dissonance, ponder: “Bill Gates” and “blow your mind.”

So, we’re down on tech? As if. Next week, CDM is headed to Anaheim, California for the massive NAMM music show, the single biggest trade event of the year for the musical instruments industry. With a dramatically narrower focus (stuff for musicians), NAMM still has almost half the exhibitors of CES. Except that since the CES exhibitors don’t manufacture drums, guitars, and tubas, meaning this show will be MUCH LOUDER.

Jordan Kolasinski, a grad student in Music Technology at NYU, reports to CDM on the Music Player Live event here in New York over the weekend. Verdict: not so hot, but Jordan did get the scoop on a fantastic piece of software for improvising and creating songs called RiffWorks (shown), currently Windows-only and bundled with hardware but may soon be available a la carte and Mac-compatible. Full scoop on both after the jump. -PK

AES used to be an insider’s show for audio engineers and academics, but that’s not the case any more. Now, with the audio industry pumping out new products, it’s a show to watch for new gear. (For the uninitiated, that’s AES as in Audio Engineering Society, the folks who gave us, among other things, the AES/EBU digital audio format.)

What’s likely to be big at AES? Harmony Central has, as usual, been a reliable source for press releases, and the European sites (darn them) are ignoring the embargoes on the press releases and going live with stories (links attached). Here’s what’s on the CDM radar that you’re likely to actually care about:

New Pro Tools: Pro Tools 7 will be unveiled with much fanfare. What’s in it? We’ll know tomorrow, with LE, M-Powered, and TDM expected. Leaked at GearJunkies.

New M-Audio Control Surface: It’s like the Digi 002 for users of Ableton Live, Logic, and SONAR. Think motorized faders and audio at a really, really low price (like $900). Leaked at MacMusic. Could there be more M-Audio kit? Possibly; they showed their MicroTrack recorder at AES Barcelona.

New Yamaha workstation keyboard: Leaked at GearJunkies. I have an interview with Yamaha tomorrow.

Bunches of new apps from Native Instruments: NI has a huge lineup expected. I’ve heard some inside dirt on this . . . could be cool. I’ll report back from their press conference.

Windows Audio of the Future: Cakewalk will talk 64-bit, and hopefully we’ll hear more about Microsoft’s upcoming OS, Vista.

Alan Pearlman, ARP creator, honored: M-Audio will present both the creator of the original ARP and the creator of the TimeWARP plugin.

Other stuff I can’t tell you about . . . yet. See, I’m well-behaved, so I honor those “embargoed” labels stamped across press releases.

Stay tuned to CDM and Gizmodo for live, weekend-long coverage and photos. Of course, since I’m actually there the press releases may beat me to coverage . . . but you want my spin on things, right?

Contribute to our coverage: Going to be at AES? Speaking at AES? Produt maker at AES? Take photos, take notes, send impressions — just drop me a line and get instant fame in front of thousands of Web readers. :-)

When I see a product like the new Aurora LT-ADAT LSlot Expansion Card, I think hot. Yet, sadly, the folks at Lynx Studios just send out a bland press release and product photo. In the spirit of selling AmpliTube with Swedish models, I humbly submit my own mascot. And to avoid allegations of being sexist, well, why not this dude . . .

Note: To Lynx Studios, I’m really, really sorry.