So, how big is Musikmesse? Big. More than 1,600 exhibitors, more than 30,000 instruments, more than 100.000 visiors on one single day. But these are just numbers. I got a better sense of the scale of the event when at some point I was wondering where Yamaha's presence was. Until I realised that they had one entire hall on their own:
Note: some of the +10 halls are sized like aircraft hangers, so, yes, Musikmesse is really big!
Some people might say: well, my ROMpler/Sampler also offers thousands of instruments, so what the heck? Well, just have a look at this picture which shows approx 50 of the 30,000 instruments displayed at Musikmesse:
Still think this just looks like one VSL patch? OK, have a look at this tiny snapshot of Hall 1 then. There were literally hundreds of Grand Pianos in this hall, and most of them were played at the same time. Sonicwise this was like being in the middle of an orchestral battlefield!
So, is Musikmesse mainly about established business? No, fortunately not. You get to see everything: handcraft, traditional family business with a +200 years company history, you have the big players, the classics, the challengers and you have as well highly innovative ventures in all musical areas. Of course, this also accounts for virtual instruments.
JUMANJI TIME!
But also beware this animal:
Predator - as the name suggests - is after prey in the Dance/Club jungle.
Yet another Hidden...
...Beauty!
Apart from the ongoing digital vs analog saga, there certainly was one dominating theme in Hall 5.1:
Guitars, another big theme! There was an entire hall dedicated to the Fenders and Marshalls, Oranges, Laneys etc of this world. It was loud in Hall 4. But soundwise the virtual folks in Hall 5.1 weren't far behind. Here you can see IK Multimedia, with a demo of Amplitube Hendrix edition:
The performance and sound was really amazing! For A2 owners, however, it is a pitty that Ik seemingly will release this as quasi new product. Hence, it's no surprise, that NI claims that with GuitarRig2 you can create Hendrix sound - without the need of buying an additional software package!
The really good thing about Musikmesse: almost all instruments are ready to be played, so if for example you are after organs or EPs you can play everything from full scale church organs (yep) to absolute classics (Rhodes, Hammond) or you could try this new baby:
There were also live gigs galore, ranging from Jazz, Music4Kids, drummer contests, big bands to Swedish Rock (The Greed). Unfortunately I missed Thund her Struck, a band which was announced as >an all-girl, American, AC/DC tribute band<. Well...
Anyway, it was worth going! I will be back.
.
Urs
