A To Z: The Keyboard Online NAMM Report
April 2008 | Feature

There are two questions you can count on musicians asking each other mid-winter. Once “Where’s your new year’s gig?” has been answered, “Going to NAMM?” is never far behind. Here at Keyboard, the answer is always “yes.” The National Association of Music Merchants trade show — the NAMM show — is a convocation of nearly every musical instrument maker on the planet. Top-call session and touring cats play at what seems like every other booth, brass from big retail chains meet with manufacturer reps to write orders for the year, and the occasional star roams the aisles, entourage in tow, checking out the new gear. For music journalists, it’s four straight days of meetings and press conferences in a total sensory-overload environment. It’s like being the ball in a giant pinball machine, only this ball has to absorb information every time it hits something. We wouldn’t have it any other way. We love this stuff, and here’s a complete list of the stuff we loved. We even did a realtime photo and video blog that you can check out at livefrom.musicplayer.com. Where possible, each product entry has a link to the individual video or photo we grabbed live from the NAMM show. Also,  be sure to scroll down to the very bottom of this screen, where you’ll find our special sections on music notation software and studio monitor speakers. [READ MORE...]