NAMM 2024

 

The winter NAMM Show is now back on track beginning the show in January after a few scheduling adjustments the previous years due to COVID-19. This year also begins with a new CEO and President, John Mlynczak, after Joe Lamond retired from his 21 years of leadership and tickets to the show are now open to the public. It is now the only annual global music industry trade show after Musikmesse ceased to exist in 2019.

It began with the traditional morning NAMM U Breakfast Session with many more events to follow including the MusicCares Safe Harbor Morning Meeting that provides 12-step support meetings and fellowship. The Women of NAMM also had a meetup for first-time attendees. Clean energy was a big topic for stages, audio, video, and lighting systems. Discussions on marketing popped up throughout the event on how to go from connections to clients on Instagram and creating content that the TikTok algorithm favors. Workshops on mixing and mastering were discussed as well as many other fantastic events. 

Thursday night had a magical ending with Stevie Wonder, the official mayor of NAMM, making a special appearance with Take 6 at the Yamaha Grand Plaza stage. The adjacent hotels, Hilton and Marriott, also had live performances all day and late into the night some of which included Eden and Thomas Claxton and the Seventh Realm All-Star Band. 

 

 

 

 

Stevie Wonder performing

Thomas Claxton and the Seventh Realm All-Star Band

Thomas Claxton and the Seventh Realm All-Star Band

The band Eden performing

Stevie Wonder performing

Take 6

Dr Freeclouds Record Store Celebrates 29 Years

Dr Freeclouds, located in Huntington Beach, California, celebrated 29 years in business on December 10, 2023. After sailing through the turbulence of music sales over the years, and being forced to change locations, they now remain in the same city just a few blocks away with the sale of vinyl now on the rise and are proud to be the, "Last Record Store Standing est. 1994"! In this celebration the performers included: 

• Ron D Core
• Remo 
• Thee-O
  
• Reel-Tech
• Scott Whitaker
• DJ Krylon
• Binz
  

See our recap video of the 29th anniversary below.

Go here to see their 20 year anniversary with Ron D Core, Remo, DJ Nickel, Frankie Bones, DJ Dan, Marcel Videla, Mr. Koolaid, DPSM, and many more!

Don't miss their 30th coming up in 2024!

ArroyoFest

ArroyoFest was revived on October 29th, 2023 by organizer Wes Reutimann of Active San Gabriel Valley, after a 20 year hiatus. A historic stretch of the 110 freeway spanning 7 miles was closed along the Arroyo Seco Parkway allowing only pedestrians, bikers, skaters, scooters, and other people-powered transportation to explore the freeway without cars. As pedestrians ran and walked on one side of the freeway, the other was filled with bicyclists and one particular piano player, David Cutter. He was performing with a sign leaned next to his instrument: "Pasadena Piano Institute. A small school of piano teams for students." Also spotted was Nathan Bowers, a designer of microphones currently creating for Ohma World, specializing in creating custom modular ribbon microphones. 

As travelers continued down their car-free path, other live music, food trucks, activity hubs, and cultural exhibits could be seen. Musicians from the bands of 3peaceX and Kindred Spirits were some of the other performing acts. ~45000 attended, some of which participated in the runners marathon. 

It was quite the event for a short period of time as it began at 7am and closed at 11am in Los Angeles, California. 

 

Watch our video recap below:

DataMind Audio Has Relased The Combobulator AI Plugin

The Combobulator is a style-transfer AI audio plugin providing Real-Time Neural Audio Synthesis in your DAW, the ability to input any audio signal, the timbre is recreated with AI trained on artist-created datasets, is artist-Powered: trained on audio by the world’s top sound designers / music producers, ethically-Sourced AI: Artists are paid for every Artist Brain you purchase, modern Synthesis Workflow for exploring Latent Space in an Artist Brain, and sounds are 100% generated by neural networks, no samples included. Watch the video below:

Native Instruments Releases iZotope VEA

 

Berlin, January 17, 2024 – Native Instruments today announced iZotope VEA, a new AI-powered Voice Enhancement Assistant for podcasters and content creators. VEA features AI technology that listens first, then enhances audio so creators can feel more confident with their voice and deliver better sounding content. VEA increases clarity, sets more consistent levels, and reduces background noise on any voice recording.  “Many people don’t love the sound of their voice when listening back to a recording,” explains Todd Baker, VP Product at Native Instruments. “VEA quickly polishes your vocal sound so you can feel more confident as a host or narrator. VEA is also easy to use even if you haven’t worked with audio tools before, so you can spend more time focusing on what you want to say, not on how you sound.”  For people that are new to audio production, VEA features three simple controls that are intelligently set by iZotope’s AI technology. Those that are more familiar with editing vocal recordings will find a new way to finish productions quickly by consolidating their effects chains and saving on CPU.  Key features:  The Shape control ensures audio sounds professional and audience-ready, without having to worry about an EQ. Shape is tailored to each voice, and matches the sound of top creators or podcasts with the free iZotope Audiolens tool. The Boost control adds loudness and compression as it’s turned up. Easily boost the presence and power of voice recordings without spending time struggling with settings. Boost delivers a smooth and even sound to speech for a more engaging listening experience. The Clean control takes background noise out of the spotlight so every voice can shine. VEA learns the noise in the room automatically and preserves speech for light, transparent noise reduction.

VEA works as a plugin within major digital audio workstations (DAWs) and non-linear editors (NLEs). For a list of officially supported hosts, see the System Requirements at www.izotope.com/vea.

Pricing and availability 
Starting today, VEA is available from https://www.izotope.com and select retailers.

VEA pricing:
$29 / €29 / £29 / JPY 4200 / AUD 45 / CAD 39 / CHF 29 / CNY ¥199

Bob Moog Foundation Features Patrick Moraz At NAMM 2024

 

Asheville, NC - January 9, 2024... The Bob Moog Foundation is excited to announce that it will feature its The Story of Moraz: The Life of a Music Genius exhibit at the 2024 National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) convention, taking place from January 25th-28th at the Anaheim Convention Center. In addition to the exhibit, Patrick Moraz will be present in the Foundation’s booth, number 10707, from 1-3 pm each day. Moraz will also be interviewed by Michelle Moog-Koussa, Executive Director of the Bob Moog Foundation, during a TEC Tracks session on Friday, January 26th at 4 pm. 

The Story of Moraz: The Life of a Music Genius explores over 70 years of Moraz’s musical journey. The exhibit features photos from Moraz’s personal collection coupled with an extensive personal narrative, as well as his 1974 Minimoog used on Yes’ Relayer album and his 2004 Moog Voyager synthesizer, which he purchased directly from Bob Moog. Both synthesizers are on loan to the exhibit from synthesizer collector Lee Keeley.

Patrick Moraz is a virtuoso keyboardist renowned for his prodigious career with Mainhorse, Refugee, Yes, The Moody Blues, and Moraz-Bruford, as well as for scoring 37 films, releasing a multitude of solo albums, and working with Bob Moog in the mid-1970s on the Polymoog and Micromoog synthesizers. In 1976, Keyboard magazine awarded his solo album I (aka The Story of I) Best Keyboard Album of the Year. In 2019, he performed at Moogmentum, the grand opening celebration of the Moogseum. 

“The Bob Moog Foundation is honored to be highlighting Patrick’s immense talents and his long, storied career through The Story of Moraz exhibit at NAMM,” noted Michelle Moog-Koussa. “His life and work are a rich tapestry of prodigiousness, creativity, and collaboration. He is beloved by fans the world over, and he shared a very special working relationship and friendship with Bob Moog. We are proud to be bringing this history to the fore for NAMM’s 100,000 attendees. We are extraordinarily fortunate to have Patrick in the booth with us each day.”

The TEC Tracks session will explore Moraz’s performance from “Future Memories Live on TV,” as well as his decades-long career and his collaborations and long friendship with Bob Moog. Questions from the audience will follow. The session will be held in room 204B of the convention center and will be live-streamed from the NAMM+ app.

Year In Review: PRIDE 2023 Recap

PRIDE is a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community and its allies since ~1965 that often envelop a fabulous festival and parade with all sorts of entertainment including live music, food, dance, comedy and more with a number of sponsors. These amazing events are still growing with hundreds of thousands of attendees throughout the United States and around the world. In Southern California - Palm Springs, Long Beach, and San Diego are some of the largest gatherings while others continue to grow. 

Below is a recapitulation of Pride events in Southern California including the Irridescent Festival in Costa Mesa, Palm Springs, OCpride in Santa Ana, Orange County, and Riverside Pride.

Search "Pride" and where you are located to find one in your area. 

Don't miss the next Pride in a city near you!