Yes, it’s once again that time! Winter NAMM 2006. I’ve arrived fashionably late this year, leaving me with only a few hours to see the show on the first day. The first interesting change is the new Propellerheads booth which no longer sits in the highly coveted software row. The new booth is situated to the south in what i call “Limbo”. It’s a space between Hall A and the Arena. The new booth is a cozy bar room setting. The old disco lounge feel has grown up!

Of course, i had the chance to catch up with my old friends and meet the new crew from Sweden along with the people from Line 6. Magnus Lidström of Sonic Charge maker of the µTonic and developer of the Malström has also come. I was one of the few lucky recipients of the new Tin Tonic edition of the µTonic plug-in which comes packaged in a cool little can. Packaging designed (naturally) by Bitplant.

I took a quick stroll around and ran into Mike Prager, author of the Reason 3.0 Power! book, who is now working for cakewalk. I didn’t have the chance to take a look at the new products, so I’ll head back over today to take a look at Rapture (yet another bitplant GUI). Mike introduced to me his publisher at Thompson who happened to be checking out a demo, who extended an offer for future projects. So maybe another book might be in my future…who knows.

The day ended with a few drinks at the Electronic Musician Magazine Party. Ben from Camel Audio and Magnus were trading tips on how to deal with Software Piracy. Both guys are basically one man operations who develop software and manage their businesses simultaneously. They don’t have massive profits, nor do they have the budget to contract protection systems, so piracy has had a serious impact on their businesses.

We finished the night off with our regular tradition with the Merkles at this italian restaurant, “Bella Marri” with a Pizza Napolitano: Anchovies, Capers, and Black Olives. Yes it’s really tasty, but only for the gastronomically adventurous

Well I’m off to the show again.

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