January 19, 2017 | Leave a comment Feature By Jim Tremayne | DJ Times – After opening yesterday at the Anaheim Convention Center, the Winter NAMM Show will run today through Sunday, Jan. 22. Over 90,000 music-industry professionals—manufacturers, distributors and retailers—are expected to flood the annual exhibition/trade show, which will see scads of new products and technologies unveiled. Of course, the DJ segment of the market—playback, studio, PA, lighting and accessories—will see plenty of debuts as well. As always, Testa Communications—publisher of DJ Times and ClubWorld magazines—is there with a dedicated exhibition booth (#5034). It’s also producing Convention TV @ NAMM, which provides on-the-spot show coverage. Yesterday, we looked at new DJ-related playback products and DJ lighting, so today we report on debuts from the worlds of pro-audio, studio and accessory gear. Onto the showfloor: Pioneer DJ has debuted the TORAIZ AS-1, an analog synthesizer created in partnership with Dave Smith Instruments. Related company, Pioneer Professional Audio is showing its XPRS Series of portable, active loudspeakers. From Akai Professional, an inMusic brand, NAMM attendees will see three introductions from its MPC series of studio products. They include: MPC 2.0 music-production software; MPC X music-production center, which includes a full-color, multi-touch screen and 16 velocity- and pressure-sensitive RGB pads; and MPC Live, which features 2GB of RAM and 16 GB of on-board storage. Electro-Voice, celebrating its 90th year in business, is showing its new ND Series of microphones, while showcasing its range of portable speakers, including ZLX, ELX, EKX and ETX models. Harman Professional Solutions is introducing the HARMAN Connected PA, a complete, integrated ecosystem of live sound products that bring together units from Soundcraft, AKG, dbx and JBL Professional. AKG is unveiling two new products—the P5i vocal microphone, which fits into the HARMAN Connected PA ecosystem, and the C636 master reference handheld condenser mic. Soundcraft is introducing the Ui24R digital mixing and multi-track recording system and JBL Pro will debut the 7 Series powered studio monitors. Loudspeaker maker RCF is debuting several products. They include: the ART 708-A MK2 active 8-inch two-way cabinet; the HDL6-A active line-array cabinet; the SUB9006-AS 18-inch active subwoofer; the TT45-CXA active stage monitor; and the TTL6-A active three-way array module. As well as showing its DJ-808 hybrid DJ-controller/instrument, Roland is debuting its SYSTEM-8 PLUG-Out synth, which features the latest generation of Analog Circuit Behavior technology. In addition to showing its new XR Series studio monitors, Mackie is debuting several other studio-oriented products, including three new models to its popular Big Knob Series of monitor controllers—Big Knob Passive, Big Knob Studio and Big Knob Studio+. Yamaha Corporation’s Steinberg Media Technologies is showcasing its flagship DAW, Cubase Pro 9, as well as Cubase Artist 9 and Cubase Elements 9. Also, Yamaha is debuting the MPH-MT5 and MT8 studio monitor headphones and the TF-RACK, a compact rack-mount version of the company’s TF Series digital mixing consoles. In addition to FaderPort 8 Mix Production Controller and the StudioLive 16 digital console/recorder, PreSonus is showing its new 1,300-watt ULT10 active speaker for mobile and permanent apps. Sennheiser is launching the XS Wireless 1, a series of wireless mic sets for budget-conscious users, and the XS Wireless 2 radio mic series, plus the HD 200 Pro headphones and the Neumann KH 80 DSP monitoring loudspeaker. Avid is launching Pro Tools 12.7, an updated version of the fully cloud-enabled DAW software that will allow producers to find audio samples faster, bring them a new Loopmasters sample library and afford them overall faster workflow. Blue Microphones, makers of products popular with podcasters and more, is showing an updated Essentials Series of mics (Spark SL, Bluebird SL and Baby Bottle SL), plus two new headphones—the Ella premium planar magnetic unit and Sadie, a next-generation hi-fi unit. Tracktion Corporation is debuting: the Waveform DAW; the Raspberry Pi I/O card and DAW integration; the Copper Reference Pro stereo I/O device; the Waverazor VST by MOK; and the DAW Essentials Collection of plug-ins. SKB Cases is breaking out a slew of new solutions. They include: the 3i-5616-KBD iSeries case for 88-note keyboards; the 3i2222-12QSC iSeries case for the QSC TouchMix-30 mixer; and the 1SKB-iSF2U Studio Flyer 2U injection-molded, waterproof carry-on studio rack case. Seca Group is showing headphones from Floyd Rose’s Pro Audio Collection, including the handmade FR-18 wood units and FR-36 Bluetooth units. Synthax, distributor for digital-audio-solution manufacturer RME, is unveiling three new products. They include: the RME Fireface UFX+ Interface with Thunderbolt and USB 3 connectivity; the RME ARC USB remote; and the ADI-2 Pro High-End AD/DA converter. VocoPro is debuting three products, including the Digital-1 wireless microphone system, the UDH-4-ULTRA and UDH-8-ULTRA wireless systems, and a new package of its KaraokeDual-Tablet wireless karaoke system with two wireless mics and a MS-UT mobile tablet stand. Source: DJ Times Magazine