CES and NAMM 2012 Overview

Scribbled by Lethal Illness @ 8:43 PM on January 26th, 2012.

The site has finally finished transferring over to the new server and is fully running online! I’ve made some small back-end changes and upgrades so the site should be running a bit faster as well! If anyone notices any problems just leave me a comment and I’ll take care of it. Now that that’s all said and done, let’s get down to business.

My favorite times of the new year, CES and NAMM, have come to an end with announcing all the great electronics and pro audio gear I have to look forward for! I figured I would recap some of the stuff I was most impressed with and excited for at this years CES and NAMM.

CES 2012

This year’s CES brought a lot of great new concepts and technologies, as well as improving some already made ones. While there was a big, trending “craze” of Ultrabooks and tablets, I was more excited about other things that I’ve seen.

Thunderbolt Products

Back of LaCie's eSATA Thunderbolt Hub

There were several Thunderbolt products from several different manufactures announced at CES that will be debuting this year. Some noteworthy products were Seagate’s GoFlex Thunderbolt adapters, Belkin’s Thunderbolt Express Dock, and OCZ’s Lightfoot. The one I’m especially keeping my eye on would be LaCie’s eSATA Thunderbolt Hub. At the right price, I would be able to use my rather dusty Thunderbolt ports with my existing dusty (since going all Mac) eSATA port on one of my externals. This would provide the ultimate speed and bring eSATA to Mac products thanks to Thunderbolt. If the price isn’t in my projected $100-150, I might just get myself a second-hand GoFlex and buy the GoFlex adapter to add some fast expansion.

OnLive Drops Two Huge Announcements

I personally am not subscribed to OnLive’s online cloud gaming for their lack of catalog. They have a few worthy games, but I don’t play enough computer games anyway to really invest in their product. With that said, I think they dropped a bombshell of an announcement; they will be bringing their service to all GoogleTV products. This is huge for not only OnLive users wishing to bring their cloud gaming to the TV, but it could take some users from Apple’s “hobby” device and bring them over to Google’s current flop. Making this even more of a bombshell announcement would be that Vizio is set to launch a $100 Google TV set-top, the VAP430 Stream.

OnLive Desktop in Action

OnLive also announced a new product called OnLive Desktop. Essentially, OnLive Desktop brings Windows 7 and Microsoft Office to tablets like the iPad. I’ve gone hands on with it and I must say it is pretty flawless. There is no lag, just like OnLive’s gaming service. Right now it is only limited to Microsoft Office and default Windows 7 applications, but I’m sure that paying subscribers will have an option in the future to install programs like Adobe Photoshop and such bringing tablets to a whole new level.

Liquipel

What’s truly funny about this product is that I actually dropped my iPhone in the toilet the day before this product was announced. Liquipel is this revolutionary product that essential makes your device water-resistant. Unfortunately, you would have to send your device away plus pay upwards of $59. If you can last the pain of not having your smartphone for a week or so (or afford an extra $58.84 for overnight shipping) then by all means this could be worth it. Just watch the video below to see how breath-taking this technology is. If your curious how this work, Liquipel has developed this nano technology that is applied to your phone and is sucked inside of it. This nano technology essentially makes it impossible for water to pass through, making the water sit on the surface and not able to touch the circuits so that they cannot burn out. I would love to get my hands on this technology to do a review – maybe I’ll see what I can do.

ZAGG also has developed a similar technology called HZO. Though, they have stated their technology has to be applied during the manufacturing process. Do I smell either ZAGG or Liquipel being bought by Apple? Imagine the edge that can give Apple to really take everything to the absolute next level and eliminating water-damage once and for all. Waterproof Macbook Pro, anyone?

Nokia Lumia 900

I think it’s pretty safe to say that Apple currently has consumed my life [and wallet]. Aside from the original Mac Mini (deathly slow), I’ve been extremely satisfied with every Apple purchase I’ve made. I’ve written many articles from an Apple device as well as crafted this site on an Apple device. Before I had an iPhone, I had an Android phone. I was extremely disappointed with my 1+ year marriage with an Android phone. It was slow, lacked innovation, and was plagued with bad apps and an ugly OS. My phone was quickly replaced by a new Android model and wasn’t ever on an update schedule to a newer version of the OS. Worst part about it was that it was more than the $200 an iPhone costs.

Nokia Lumia 900

Enough about my anti-Android rant, my point was that if there is any competition to the iPhone, it will be from a Windows Phone 7. The last time I came in contact with a Windows Phone 7 was at Best Buy. It wasn’t a horrible experience but wasn’t good enough to sway me into trying a Windows Phone 7 for an extended time period. Though the Lumia 900 shows signs of improvement and the coming of more powerful Window Phone 7 phones. With some work on the OS to bring it more up to speed with iOS and Android it could be a serious competitor. More developers in their app market would also be most beneficial.

NAMM 2012

Let’s be honest, pro audio is half of my business. Though ultimately it’s about my skill set, I still rely on fancy high-tech pro audio gear to perform my job easier. I’ve got to admit, in addition to electronics and Apple products, I have a slight [huge] addiction to sexy pro audio equipment. NAMM featured a lot of new things including a new MPC, an MPC for the iPad, a lot of guitars, and even a fancy new Line 6 live mixer. What I want to focus on though is some stuff I found pretty original and revolutionary. I think there were some things at NAMM this year that could set future audio trends.

Akai MAX49

Akai MAX49

Back in November, I was deciding heavily on a keyboard purchase between Akai’s MPK49 and Novation’s 49 SL MkII. Ultimately, I went for Novation’s offering because of the great price I got on it, the fact it was recently updated, and the Automap software. I’m completely satisfied with it, though a little jealous I didn’t listen to my gut and wait for NAMM. As far as keyboard features go, it is pretty standard. It’s the extra little things that make me jealous. While the 49 SL MkII definitely matches the Apple color scheme, I’m extremely attracted to the MAX49′s deep red [which is my favorite] color. The real wow-factor for me has to be the backlit “touch faders”. What an extremely original twist on keyboard faders that actually have a little meter-bridge style parameter indicators. The extra factor of full-sized backlit MPC pads is a big thing for some folks, but I am perfectly content with my Maschine that I didn’t consider pads when I made my keyboard purchase.

Numark’s Two New Controllers

While I do many things in the music production industry, DJing isn’t my specialty. If it were, I would be eyeing up two controllers for my next DJ purchase. First is Numark’s iDJ Pro DJ, a DJ MIDI controller aimed at DJs who want to take it to the next generation with full integration of an iPad. The iDJ Pro DJ brings looping functions, touch-sensitive platters, line-in, XLR outs, a crossfader, and volume control to the iPad. Numark is working with Algoriddim to put out a special edition of Algoriddim’s Djay that will be included with the iDJ Pro DJ when it is released. What makes this product even more interesting is that it will be Airplay compatible. This is one product that can revolutionize DJing by bringing in a tablet that can hold all my records in the cloud AND play them to speakers while cutting the cords. The only way I can see this being better is if they add a mobilized version of Serato and motorized platters like the NS6 or NS7. Either way this is a monster to be on the look out for.

Numark MPC DJ

The other new offering from Numark happens to be the MPC DJ. Numark go together with it’s sister company, Akai, and co-created what looks like a NS7 and MPC had a baby. Unfortunately, Numark didn’t bring a working demo to NAMM but rather a chasis of the prototype. This is still a thing to keep an eye out for because this could really benefit the DJ slash producer or even just sample-based DJs. I hope this prototype sees the day of light as a real product being that it is a dope idea.

Behringer Actually Draws My Interest

Behringer iX3242USB with iPad

If you ask any engineer about Behringer, nine out of ten times you will hear they make cheap Chinese products that don’t have the best of audio quality. I must say they have sparked my interest with a new concept of mixers, the XENYX iX series. Like Numark’s iDJ Pro DJ, the XENYX iX series will integrate an iPad fully into the product, in this case being a mixer. The actual mixer specs on the models in the XENYX iX series isn’t spectacular by any means and I wouldn’t expect them to be more than the typical Behringer product. What makes this product extremely versatile to me, is the ability to transfer audio both to and from the iPad as well as to a computer. The XENYX iX mixers will also allow you to tap into countless of music apps available for the iPad. This means you could actually track out that beat you made on iMaschine or FL Studio Mobile or even tediously import some sound kits to use. Like I said, the product itself won’t be the best of quality but it opens the door up the idea to other manufactures. What if PreSonus made a StudioLive that integrated the iPad as the meter-bridge as well as a source of input and output?

Universal Audio Apollo

Universal Audio Apollo

This is absolutely the piece I’m most excited about for a few reasons. One being that I’ve been eyeing up the UAD-2 Satellite (DSP processor) for a while now. Two being it is going to be able to be expandable with options. Finally, the last thing that excites me is it’s versatility. At a $2000 price point this interface is actually pretty affordable. It has a 4 channel preamp, 18 inputs, an audio interface via FireWire 800, and (duo for $2000) DSP processing – that’s a bargain! Probably one of the most interesting things about it is the ability to add on Thunderbolt in the future, making the Apollo the trendsetter for Thunderbolt in pro audio interfaces. Since it hasn’t been done before, I’m extremely interested to see what recording at those speeds would be like to the disk. The bummer is that is will be an extra cost to expand the unit to Thunderbolt, which could get very expensive. My guess is around $300-$500 for Thunderbolt expansion. If Thunderbolt expandability is really worth while, I would definitely pay that price for the ability to record like that. The DSP processing also blows my mind that it is integrated into the interface at the same time. The only problem I can see with that is how will both audio transferring through converters and using the DSP processing at the same time hold up? Maybe Thunderbolt will be near necessary to do that for a full mixing session?

Another neat feature would be the built in meters. I don’t recall ever seeing that built into a rack interface, which is very useful when recording digitally through an interface. The other interesting thing is the virtual mixer that comes included with the Apollo. It is actually similar to PreSonus’ VLC. The only major difference is that VLC isn’t necessary for controlling mixer elements as the PreSonus StudioLive has an actual mixer controller. With Universal Audio’s track record with interfaces and preamps I have no doubt the audio quality will be excellent. This could be one of those major products in pro audio equipment if everything works out like it sounds. Though, it could be too good to be true.

I already have a PreSonus StudioLive which does everything I need. The Apollo has things that I want like DSP and expandability to Thunderbolt but is missing the control surface I’ve grown to need. If I can find a way to integrate both of them enough that it is worth while for me than without a doubt I will pull the trigger on one of these bad boys sometime later in the year.

Both CES and NAMM 2012 had some pretty interesting and innovative things this year. I am excited to see what is to come at Summer NAMM and things that weren’t announced at CES as well as seeing these products make there debut. A lot of things could change from now to when they debut and products when launched can be better than what they originally were. All in all, I was impressed and look forward to 2012 and what’s in store technology wise. What were your favorite products!?