Today’s podcast starts with an interview with Doug Rogers of EastWest, whose company–it was announced today–will be partnering up with Digidesign to provide sounds for Structure, the new sampler for Pro Tools that Digi unvieled today. Rogers talks about that and about Fab Four, the new EastWest instrument that recreates the instrumental sounds of the Beatles.

Next up is an interview with David Gedge, leader of a very successful British indie band called the Wedding Present. Gedge gives his impressions of NAMM, and talks about how technology has affected him over his twenty-year career.

Topping off the podcast is an interview with drumming superstar Omar Hakim, who talks about his studio, the difference between playing acoustic and electric drums, and more.

Click here to listen to EM’s day 2 podcast.

This 20-minute edition starts with a demo of Moog’s new Freqbox Moogerfooger, followed by an interview with Public Enemy producer Johnny Juice on producing and mixing with a subwoofer monitoring setup. Next you’ll hear 2 demos from Propellerheads’ new Reason Reggaeton Refill and an overview of GCI’s new iKey portable recorders. Finally, you get Del Tha Funkee Homosapien freestyle rapping at the Ableton booth. Check out the

Remix Podcast Day 2 Winter NAMM 2007.

I’m up in my room at the front side of the Marriot, editing my podcast while listening to the John Lennon Songwriting Contest bus band who is currently playing a selection of jazz tunes at smoking tempos. The two guitar players are tearing it up and it’s nice to hear such good playing coming through my front window. NAMM is a great place to hear fantastic talent (and a lot of NOT so fantastic talent) but that’s life right? Eliminating the crap so you can get to the goodies. I LOVE NAMM!

I found a lot of cool gear here today! You’ve got to hear about the new DI/reamper from producer/engineer Michael Wagener (:50) and the latest mic release from Mojave Audio (12:11). The absolute best part of today was listening to Steve White (5:51), he’s a blues player that lives just north of San Diego and mesmerized everyone that came across his path. I’ve got a short clip that’s a must listen. I also talked to Line 6 about a great new guitar/vocal/everything plug (7:45) and SoundToys about their latest products (13:40). Last but not least, Digi showed me three great plugs that provide tape saturation, delay and flanging (15:33). Fridays are nuts but Saturdays are like the 405 during rush hour. Check out our Day 2 Podcast and visit the website for more hot NAMM news and products.

Star City that is. Producer and owner Jeff Glixman just showed up with Lily and the rest of the crew. They say the new room in Bethlehem is up and passing signal, but I guess there’s been a whole lot more. Lily?

Hey everyone - this year we made it to the show with more of our family. Tyrone Vaughan is here looking for the next Fender and trying to get his own custom Matchless delivered as quickly as possible. Aaron of Fizzkicks.com is here networking and looking for a guitar for his daughter. We can’t forget Phil Ehart who is getting his next drum set tomorrow. Now that you know who is here, let’s talk about the important stuff…

Construction is 95% complete, new carpet, new color, new entrance, more lounges but the best part is that our renovation of the theater which is now called ‘the stage.’ This new 12×28 room is multi-purpose, where we will be able to track either locally or in our Axiom room. We can accommodate live showcases, rehearsal space, webcast anything you dream…we have the right team to make it possible.

Thanks to Tom and Joe for making this possible and all of you for taking the time to read it. Oh yeah and have a rockin’ 2007!!

Bye for now and see you in Bethlehem… Lily, Jeff, Tyrone and Aaron

We’re here with Fadi Hayek, new to SSL, but you may remember him from his days at Yamaha/Steinberg. SSL is showing FIVE new products! At a NAMM show! My, how our world is changing. Fadi, whaddya got?

Quite a bit actually. We’re rolling out a series of three 48 channel A/D and D/A converters. The Alpha-Link is a two space 24 Channel 24bit 96khz Analog to digital converter with an additional 24 channels of digital I/O for a total of 48 channels. There are 3 varieties. The MADI SX ($3595.00) includes 24 of AES/EBU, the MADI AX ($3595.00) includes 24 of ADAT light pipe and the AX ($2695.00) excludes the MADI I/O option. All versions come with word clock I/O, MIDI I/O and a 64 channel buss connector.

The next product is the SSL Mixpander ($1295.00). The Mixpander is a PCI card that mates with the 64 channel buss connector on the Alpha-Link providing a complete I/O solution for all Windows based native DAW systems. The mixpander includes full DSP capabilities that allow the user to host Soundscape Plugins inside their favorite Software workstation.

Our final MADI product is the the cost effective Delta-Link ($3595) which provides 128 channels of Pro Tools HD to MADI conversion. Th Delta-Link is ideal for any one using a MADI based console. Also, if you connect it via MADI to the Alpha-Link SX or AX, a Pro Tools user can get 48 channels of SSL I/O at $7200.00

The Xrack is getting a new 8 channel line mixer ($850.00). This new addition to the Xrack lineup provides 8 channels of summing with insert point on the first 4 channels and mono or stereo panning. The 8 channel module along with the rest of the Xrack modules provides a fantastic front and back end to any DAW. Utilizing SSL acclaimed Super Analog technology, it’s like having the best part of an SSL console right in your digital audio workstation.

Lastly during the next quarter we’ll be releasing a new Plugin for Duende called Drum Strip ($299). With this powerful SSL channel strip , DAW users can attain increased presence, clarity and detail in their drum tracks; reduce spill in individual tracks; restore natural brightness and achieve greater perceived loudness.

While resting my weary dogs in the Mix booth, I met Bob Clearmountain, saw Ronnie James Dio stroll by, watched CC Deville and Yngvie Malmstein sign autographs in the Dean Markley booth across the hall, and heard David Pack sing “You’re the biggest part of me” for Open Labs three booths away. Today is nuts and it’s only Friday! Tomorrow should be an extravaganza of NAMM madness with more gear, more people and of course more SPLs.

At this year’s NAMM, the commerical audio side of Roland called RSS announced the partnership between their company and Cakewalk. The two companies have teamed up to enable RECORDING of 40 channels of 24bit/96kHz audio from a split of the S4000 Digital Snake by a direct connection to a PC’s gigabit Ethernet port.

They also announced the BETA program where potential users can register to work with an RSS Digital Snake and Cakewalk’s SONAR to provide feedback on the final product release. If you’re interest in becoming part of this cool BETA program, you should visit www. rolandsystemsgroup.com/REACbeta

Chris Muth at Dangerous Music showed me the Dangerous D-Box that they hinted at during AES 2006. It’s going to ship in March and features 8 channels of analog summing, monitor control, onboar D to A conversion, Talkback with wired remote, Headphone out and simultaneous input monitoring.

I just got back from a champagne press event at the Celemony booth and saw the new Melodyne 3.2 with improved algorithms for polyphonic use and some GUI tweaks. One cool thing is how the slider on the scroll bar has a rendition of your audio waveform and it can be used to zoom. They played a guitar playing some chords and took it up a 4th, changed the formant and voila, you’ve got a new part. Very impressive. So much so that a bystander commented that somehow Satan was involved.