As he did for the NAMM 2010 & NAMM 2011 conventions in SoCal, once again my man Shing02 has filed a report on the this year's annual NAMM 2012 convention exclusively for the Amoeblog.  The renowned Japanese producer/emcee/multi-instrumentalist/all round hella great guy headed to the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA music gear/tech convention a couple of weekends ago (January 19th - 22nd, 2012) to file this report (video above, text & photos below) with help from host Yamato Kaneko in which they visit DJ TechTools, STOKYO, Teenage Engineering, Vestax, AKAI, Tiptop Audio, McDSP, KORG, KDJ-One, RANE, Emulator, SlipmatsOnline.com, Vintage Vibe, NORD, Slaperoo and some other booths too. Thanks Shing02!


The annual NAMM convention in Anaheim showcases a convention center full of eye-candy for the gear geeks, and 2012 proved no different. Although the music and recording industry seem to be stuck in an age of meticulously fine-tuning software with no big leaps in ideas and technology, some brands still managed to stand out. My personal favorite was the OP-1 synthesizer by Teenage Engineering from Sweden, which was introduced last year at NAMM, but came back stronger with upgrades. In essence, OP-1 is a synth / drum machine that feels more like an old-school game than a modern machine, which creates a fun learning curve to create unique grooves. (It actually has a game-mode built into it!)