NAMM 2020 Round-up

This past weekend over 100,000 people flocked to the Anaheim Convention Centre in California to take part in the 2020 NAMM Winter Conference. HHB sent a small contingent to check out the latest and great from the show floor.

First stop on the list was the Avid stand to check out the recently announced Pro Tools MTRX | Studio and the Pro Tools | HDX Thunderbolt 3 Systems. These announcements come fast on the heels of the recently released and now shipping S1 and S4 Avid control surfaces.

The MTRX | Studio is a compact interface that houses DAD’s precision audio converts and premium mic preamps. From analogue to Dante® there are a number of ways to connect outboard gear and consolidate multiple devices.  Learn more about the MTRX | Studio here.

With the recently announced Pro Tools | HDX Thunderbolt 3 Chassis, users are now provided with a portable and easy connection to the latest high-performance computers.  While the latest Mac Pro can now host Pro Tools HDX PCIe cards, Mac minis and MacBooks still require a Thunderbolt connection to use an HDX card. A quick reminder; HDX cards allow for almost zero-latency monitoring of audio, more than 32 channels of I/O, have DSP that enables AAX DSP plug-ins, and much more.  These two newly-announced products can easily be bundled to give users everything they need: HDX card, Thunderbolt 3 Chassis (desktop or rackmount), Pro Tools | Ultimate software, and a choice of powerful audio interfaces, including the new MTRX | Studio.

As soon as these devices are available, they will be added to our extensive demo equipment housed at the Scrub office located in the centre of London. Those interested in a hands-on demonstration of these, or any of Avid’s products, can contact us here.

Moving to the fully digital side of audio, we checked in with Nugen Audio who announced an update to SEQ-S, the latest iteration of their popular and powerful spline-matching EQ. Included in this update are a new preset system for EQ matching, a resizable interface, and more. Learn more about SEQ-S here and for those interested, we are currently offering up to 40% off SEQ-S until February 24th.

 

Much like with broadcast and A/V shows, Dante has become an important theme among product releases at NAMM. Focusrite exhibited an excellent example of this with three new products that have been introduced to the ISA range, bringing the classic Focusrite sound to Dante Audio-over-IP networks. This includes the eight-channel ISA 828 MkII which can be Dante enabled when paired with the new ISA ADN8 (as well as the ISA 428 MkII) and the new ADN2 is an analogue-to-digital card for the ISA One.

Finally, we would be remiss if we didn’t touch upon the much talked about LUNA Recording System from Universal Audio.  Prior to NAMM there was a lot of online speculation on what UA would be releasing and after its show floor release there was much chatter about there being yet another DAW introduced to the market. While we can understand the fatigue with the ever-growing list of choices for DAWs, we will be waiting until this Spring when we can try out LUNA before passing judgement. That said much of what LUNA touts, such as classic console sound, warmth and punch, and deep, Apollo integration, are all well within the UA wheelhouse.  Stay tuned for a review this spring.

As always, we were happy to attend NAMM but are also glad to return home to the UK.  With a warm congratulations to all the award winners from the Sound on Sound to NAMM TEC Awards and a thank you to all the manufacturers who exhibited expertly at this bizarre but wonderful show.

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