this will be even lonelier than the rolling NAMM thread
― My Chemical Romance did 9/11 (jjjusten), Wednesday, 3 April 2013 19:06 (twelve years ago)
Trying to decide if it makes sense to go this year -- will report back if I do.
― Three Word Username, Thursday, 4 April 2013 09:33 (twelve years ago)
xp well it turns out to be another of their super exciting 'Backing Keyboards', ie a souped up version of the arranger/sequencer on high end consumer Yahama keyboardzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz uh sorry I dropped off their...
― FINNISH HIM! Tuomas wins... (snoball), Thursday, 4 April 2013 09:39 (twelve years ago)
Especially if they retail at $150 like they claim.
― Will you see a political publicity stunt? (snoball), Wednesday, 10 April 2013 08:05 (twelve years ago)
I went today.
1. WAY smaller than previous years -- the MM + Pro Light & Sound is huge and previously two floors of 7 halls, and it was a full hall smaller this year. And keyboards -- and especially pianos -- seemed to have been hit the hardest. There were less than half of the piano exhibitors there were 2 years ago when I last went. Hardware solutions for keyboard and electronic music making are disappearing, in Europe at least.
2. A lot of guitar companies didn't bring basses. YOU SUNSABEECHES.
3. Instead, all sorts of people are making ukelele basses or other miniature basses, and they are all gimmicky toys that sound bad and play worse, with the exception of the Marleaux Soprano Bass, which isn't quite as tiny and is tuned an octave up, and is a real convincing musical instrument played as a octave bass or through a good octave pedal (which is what it is designed to do).
4. Some of the boutique-y high-end bass builders are finally offering passive electronics. Let this trend continue.
5. The Novak fanned-fret design (that you may know from Dingwall basses) is no longer patent-protected, and I played two fantastic (and fantastically expensive) instruments by German builders that used it. The more even string-to-string tension feels way more natural to me, and the different scale lengths do not take much getting used to.
6. Real surprises in the world of brass: organic valve oil (Thank goodness)! Carbon graphite horns that sound good and weigh nothing!
― Three Word Username, Thursday, 11 April 2013 20:12 (twelve years ago)
No joke -- the accordion section is always huge at Frankfurt, and it was at least as big as always. Especially striking giving how much smaller the number of other keyboard instrument exhibitors has gotten.
― Three Word Username, Wednesday, 24 April 2013 07:23 (twelve years ago)