My first trip to The NAMM Show was, in a word, overwhelming! There was a lot to see and, I don’t think I could’ve visited every booth I wanted to if my life depended on it.
Still, it was a very exciting time for me to witness the hustle and bustle of this iconic show. NAMM is an annual event, described as “The World’s largest trade-only event for the music products, pro audio, and event tech industry.”
⚠️ Order (or pre-order) the stuff you hear in today's podcast: https://passionatedj.com/hookup/namm
NAMM stands for the “National Association of Music Merchants”, and was founded in 1901.
It’s a business show which caters to dealers and distributors, with the main draw being product exhibits where manufacturers show off their latest in music products and technology.
Of course, only a very small percentage of the NAMM displays are DJ-related, but it was still pretty difficult to cover all the bases. Ultimately, I decided to focus on a few key items that I thought would be most important to our Passionate DJ audience, and cover those well (going deep rather than wide).
So, I got on a plane from Ohio, where there was snow and ice on the ground, flew across the entire country… over the snow-covered plains and beautiful Rocky Mountains, and many hours later I was enjoying the sunny low-70s weather of the west coast... in January. And it was glorious.
Anaheim was beautiful and the convention center is located almost on top of Disney Land. The walk to-and-from the show was a sea of convention badges and mouse ears.
Inside the convention center, I barely knew what to do. You can go in any direction, up any escalator, and there will be another part of NAMM there just waiting to be explored.
Here's what we will mostly focus on today:
• Denon Prime 4
• Akai Force
• Rane Twelve & Seventy-Two
• Reloop Elite
• Technics SL-1200mk7 vs. RP8000mk2
• Phase DVS
• Traktor DJ 2
Gemini also showed off their all-in-one unit called the SDJ-4000. It seemed to have decent build quality, uses Gemini’s own software, and is essentially a cheaper alternative to the Prime 4 or the Pioneer XDJ-RR.
Speaking of Pioneer, while their entire DJ lineup was well represented at the show… they didn’t really have anything new on display.
Besides all the new Traktor news, Native Instruments also released a new three-octave keyboard called the M32, which is compatible with their Komplete Kontrol plugin and contains transport controls, touchstrips, and so on to control your studio software. NI also released the Audio 1 and Audio 2 sound cards, for very basic connections for those needing inputs on stage.
⚠️ Order (or pre-order) the stuff you hear in today's podcast: https://passionatedj.com/hookup/namm
Episode 155: Wherefore Art Thou Traktor?
Episode 154: Community Wishing Well
Episode 153: Golden Nuggets (Industry Insight From DJs Over 50)
Episode 152: The Dos and Don'ts of Mobile DJing
Episode 151: A Very Scratchy 80s
Episode 150: Trouble in EDM Paradise
Episode 149: 20 Small Wins for DJs
Episode 148: Community Struggles
Episode 147: Summer Hardware & Industry
Episode 146: The Free Bonus Episode
Episode 145: Ten Years Ago (2008)
Episode 144: The Belleville Three
Episode 143: How to Get More DJ Gigs
Episode 142: Pick 3 (Back in the Day)
Episode 141: Cryztal Grid
Episode 140: Hot Stories
Episode 139: AMA (Ask Us Anything) Three (Part 2)
Episode 138: AMA Three (Ask Us Anything) (Part 1)
Episode 137: Adventures in Networking
Episode 136: Making Longtime Fans
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