Walking the Floor at Summer NAMM
By Brian Belcher

Summer NAMM is a great place to make new friends and get to spend some quality time with some of the "right" people in the companies that you often look toward for support and purchasing. I must say that, unlike Winter NAMM, things are at a much slower pace and of a smaller scale, allowing more time to investigate the exhibits.

My first stop was the pro sound and lighting area (arena floor at Gaylord Entertainment Center). I stopped by the Sennheiser booth and took a tour of the Innovason Compact console. Jeff Alexander was great and even was cordial to the “Artist” across the aisle showing of some new TC Electronics pieces. I don’t think I can say enough about this desk. Comps and gates on every channel and 4 bands of parametric that are 20 to 20 for EACH band. 16 groups/outputs/routes to be used however you see fit that also include 8 bands of parametric eq and compressor and gate with up to 1.3 seconds of delay.

Yorkville's new CR12 amp

The software that is available on line, along with the great customer support available from the US distributor (Sennheiser) couple to make what is sure to be a long lasting relationship with companies in the US. Now, on to the cool stuff. I have mixed on the big brother to the Compact and have been amazed at how fast it is to get around on.

I was amazed at the sonic quality and the quality of the onboard compressor and gate. I really think that, as the technology moves ahead, the price will come down and we are bound to see more of this desk as the year goes on. My only complaint with the desk is the insertion problem, you have to make some sacrifices, and the lack of a frequency sensitive gate. But all in all, it is leaps and bounds ahead of the pack with its appeal to the average guy. It‘s the beginning of the transition to the digital console era for the average engineer.

Yorkville's new L804

After wearing out my shoes, I came across one of best pieces of the show, if not THE best piece of the show in my humble opinion. After a long wait due to the large crowd at the booth I finally got to talk to Rick Naqvi, National Sales Manager, Presonus Audio Products. I was excited to see their new digital equalizer, the DEQ 624. Rick explained all of the features and, then the true moment came - he gave me a pair of headphones and said “enough talking, just listen and tell me what you think”.

After listening to the built in limiter and trying to drive it into the red as long as possible, I was amazed at how transparent the limiting was. Other cool features include three setting for EQ range, +/- 6dB, +/- 12dB and my favorite +12 & -24 dB, with the ability to single out individually any one, or all, of the 31 bands and make then narrow band “Notch Filters”. It also has a high pass and low pass filter with the ability to store in memory preset eq settings.

All in all this is another product from Presonus that is sure to be as popular as the ACP88. As a sneak peak we looked at the new 4 channel frequency selective gate and expander and the new 4 channel compressor that will be available in the last quarter of this year. Rick promised me that I would get to try out the two new units as soon as they were ready. If these products follow the trend of other Presonus products, they surely will be a standard in every rack.

Presonus and Rick Naqvi with EQ

As I walked down the aisle away from Presonus, I ran right into Audix, who were super happy (see picture) to show me the new SCX 25 large diaphram condensor microphone. After looking at it I realized I recongnized it from the Presonus booth while listening to the DEQ 624.

In all fairness to the guys at Audix, I am sure that what made me love the warmth of the eq and the pristine quality was due in part to the FANTASTIC microphone. If you are looking for a new mic, you should look here first. This mic stands proudly ahead of most of the mics I have heard. The quality, both sound and build, are amazing and should make you look twice before you make a decision on another mic purchase.

On to a small little booth at the back of the hall. I was happy to see a couple friends leaving as I entered the Yorkville booth. After waiting patiently to be given the “tour”, I was led to see a product that Yorkville was very excited about. The Elite L804 looks to be a great product for a regional or small sound company or a band looking for a chance to upgrade.

Phil Garfinkel and the new large format condenser.

Two 15" drivers, two 6.5" mid range drivers that are horn loaded and a 2 inch compression driver are sure to make this box a great seller for Yorkville as well as make more than a few customers and dealers happy. The tradition at Yorkville has been defined by the high quality of their products, amplifiers and speakers, and the L804 looks like another good investment.

Finally, on the high end side of things, I stopped by the Eventide booth to see the new Eventide piece called the Eclipse. Now, if you’re like most of us, you are used to seeing the H3000 or one of its big brothers in racks. I personally have enjoyed using all of their pieces, it just always seems in a world where the cost of pieces is becoming more and more important that we don’t see enough Eventide in the racks. Not with this, they have priced it to compete with all the PCM 81’s and M2000’s of the world. The addition of a tap button and the hot key feature make this piece as user friendly as you can get. Not to mention the sonic quality is over the top.

NAMM is over and done and so are my feet. There were a lot of products to see and listen to, I am sure I missed something that was amazing, but is it really possible to see and hear everything???