SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 2018 The Official Show Publication DAILY The NAMM Show has truly changed. New booths, new companies and a dedication to more segments of the industry than ever before. With a massive reorganization of the show floor also comes opportunity. Where’s your next growth area — the percussion market, lighting, B&O, pro audio, guitars, keyboards, DJ, live sound? It’s all here, under one roof, organized by tribes. Here are a few companies that might just spur the next big idea. 1. The RapcoHorizon team shows off the RAT FX distortion cable. 2. D’Angelico’s Brenden Cohen high- lights the company’s first foray into solid-body guitars — the Deluxe Bedford and the color is called Chameleon. 3. From left, Jason Carter, Mary Rowden and Dan Roberts pose with three new models in the Noteworthy Music Stand Collection at their booth on Friday morning. 4. Toni Fishman, owner and CEO of Telefunken, shows one of the company’s DI boxes on the show floor Friday. 5. From left, D’Addario’s Steve Mucciolo, Brian Vance and Rob Cunningham take a break from taking care of retail- ers to smile for the camera at their booth on Thursday. BREAKFAST SESSION Meet Marcus Sheridan and hear from a man who’s been called the “web marketing guru” by The New York Times. Breakfast Session Innovative Signature Sticks 2 New Sigmas Ibanez Heats AZ Series The Real Feel Page 102 Page 61 Page 67 Page 70 Page 95 2 UBD January 27, 2018 NAMM Show News AM&S Spotlights Brands U.K.-based Focusrite kicked off Friday sive Fostex-approved tuning. dBTechnolo- morning’s American Music & Sound press gies added the ES 1002 to its ES line of com- conference with the introduction of three plete plug-and-play column systems. studio-quality USB interfaces: Clarett 2Pre Allen & Heath unveiled the SQ, a com- USB (10-in, four-out), Clarett 4Pre USB pact, 96-kHz digital mixing powerhouse. (18-in, eight-out) and Clarett 8Pre USB (18- Two models offer a choice of size and con- in, 20-out). trol configuration. “We’ve always tried to bring profession- Meanwhile, Kurzweil’s SP6 stage piano al sound to the masses, and we always try exemplified a company moto: “Powerfully to democratize the very best sound quali- Simple.” ty,” said Giles Orford, marketing manager “Basically, it’s going to be power and for Focusrite, Novation and Focusrite Pro. ease of use — and lightweight — without Several music and sound companies compromise,” said Daniel Dabek, Kurzweil distributed by AM&S were represent- soundware engineer. “You just grab it, call ed during the event. Fostex introduced up a sound and start playing on the stage.” Giles Orford, marketing director at Focusrite, shows one the Limited Edition 5th Anniversary $ American Music & Sound of the company’s new Clarett USB interfaces during Friday’s press conference. TH-900mk2 Sapphire Blue with an exclu- (americanmusicandsound.com) Color Pops with MXL’s LSM-9 Mic The impetus for MXL’s new LSM-9 microphone series is clearly K-Pop. “These are premium, handheld dynam- ic microphones,” said Jackson Root, MXL’s marketing and creative services manager. “They are specifically designed to withstand the rigors of nightly use … and definitely From left, Brad Kirkpatrick, RBI Music president; Lane Davy, RBI Music executive vice president made for live performance. of sales and marketing; Rick Taylor, RBI Music product manager and artist relations; and Chris Pittman, purchasing for RBI Music. “The first order of these is going right into K-Pop houses,” he said but added RBI Music Increases Growth that Karaoke will be another important RBI Music shared details about its been another of several bright spots for the Jackson Root, MXL’s marketing and creative market. move to a new location and increased company. services manager, poses with the new LSM-9 microphone. $ MXL Microphones (mxlmics.com) sales across several brands, which include “We moved to a bigger facility this year Toca Percussion, A Tempo Percussion, [due to increased sales and] growth,” said Odery Drums, Fret-King Guitars, Vintage Brad Kirkpatrick, president and CEO. “We’re Guitars and Rhythm Band Instruments. looking forward to 2018 and growing more.” Taylor’s V-Class Bracing “It’s been a crazy-big year for us,” said Chris Pittman, buyer and operations Lane Davy, executive vice president of sales manager, said RBI moved into a Enhances Playing Experience and marketing. “Guitars are clearly the 35,000-square-foot warehouse, noting, Taylor Guitars’ V-Class bracing system stars for us right now. Our Vintage line is “We modernized our network infrastruc- is a new sonic “engine” developed by guitar growing by leaps and bounds.” ture so as to better leverage our resources.” $ RBI Music (rbimusic.com) designer Andy Powers. Davy added that Toca Percussion has The bracing system marks an advance- ment beyond traditional X-bracing, deliv- ering an enhanced playing experience by boosting volume and sustain while Wells Demos for Antares improving intonation. V-Class bracing will be in select models in 2018. $ Taylor Guitars (taylorguitars.com) Peavey Versarray Articulates Peavey Electronics has introduced The Versarray Pro represents the cul- the Dante-enabled Versarray Pro, a mination of 53 years of sound rein- powered, fully articulating line array forcement research and develop- system with ribbon drivers. They are ment and uses Peavey’s redundant the ideal solution for pro-audio appli- audio input system. This lets the cations where high output, optimized user select analog, Dante, or Dante coverage, and pristine high-fidelity with analog backup, ensuring reli- audio are required. Power, clarity, sim- able, uninterrupted performance. plicity, configurability, and portability It also serves as a fully articulat- Grammy-nominated musician, songwriter and record producer Greg Wells demoed make the Versarray Pro the new standard ing line array. the Antares Audio Auto-Tune Pro during the product’s launch party at the House of Blues Anaheim on Thursday night. for mid-size powered line arrays. $ Peavey (peavey.com) Auto-Tune Pro features a sleek interface that has been redesigned from the ground up for a more streamlined workflow. 4 UBD January 27, 2018 6 UBD January 27, 2018 Sennheiser Evolves, Neumann Revives a Legend Sennheiser widened its product portfolio Beebe, president of Sennheiser Electronic with the release of the evolution wireless Corp. “It has higher frequency agility, and that G4 series and two new XS Wireless 1 Dual means you can get more channels in a sin- Sets, both of which were announced during gle TV channel. We learned that the end user a press conference at the company’s booth wants the ability to control the transmit power, Thursday afternoon. Also during the event, so we built in switchable transmit power.” studio microphone manufacturer Neumann Wolfgang Fraissinet, president of Markbass founder Marco De Virgiliis (left) and bassist Marcus Miller pose with bass amplification products in the presented a re-issue of the U 67, the quintes- Neumann Berlin in Germany, noted the U 67 Marcus Miller Signature line Wednesday at the Clarion Hotel. sential studio workhorse mic of the 1960s. is being re-issued to celebrate the company’s The evolution wireless G4 microphone is 90th anniversary. “On this particular occa- the newest entry in a line that was launched sion, we thought it’s nice to bring a legend in Markbass in 1999 with the G1. the microphone industry, and especially in “We took all the feedback we got over those the music industry, back to life,” he said. Teams with Wolfgang Fraissinet, president of Neumann, years, and we took user-inspired improve- $ Sennheiser, Neumann at Thursday’s press conference. ments and built them into the G4,” said Greg (sennheiser.com, neumann.com) Marcus Miller Markbass unveiled its line of Marcus Miller Signature bass amplification prod- ucts Wednesday night at the Clarion Hotel. Miller, an acclaimed bassist and bandlead- Kawai Evolves Pianos, Relationships er, discussed his direct involvement with the Hirotaka Kawai, Kawai global president, John Muller and Kawai rep to Sam Ash, Bob House’s Luke Ma; Kawai Canada dealer of the development of products in the line, which began Thursday evening’s Kawai Awards Duncan; dealer of the year for digital pianos, year, Merriam Music; and Kawai America includes the 500-watt Little Marcus head reception by dispensing his vision for the com- Schmitt Music Company’s Tom Wennblom; dealer of the year, Lane Music’s Scott Lane. and the Marcus Miller CMD 103 combo. pany, which includes “evolving the piano.” Shigeru Kawai dealer of the year, Loewen Piano i Kawai (kawaius.com) Miller also discussed his collaborative “In our booth is our collection of six relationship with Marco De Virgiliis, the hybrid instruments that approach the hybrid founder of Markbass. “I wanted to provide category from three different directions — an amp that gives bass players a full range,” something no other company has done,” he Miller said. “If you want sizzling highs and said. “You also saw our newest examples of booming lows, you can do that. If you need to digital evolution — the new MP series profes- dial it down a little bit, you can do that. You’re sional products, the new CA series digital pia- not limited. The amp isn’t going to tell you nos and the new Novus NV10 hybrid .” what kind of bass player you’re going to be.” During the evening, the company Other products in the line include the 250- announced is 2018 award winners. They are: watt Little Marcus 250 head, the Little Marcus Kawai regional manager of the year, Bryan 800 head and the Little Marcus 1000 head.