Hey, our friend Dan Moore from Microsoft is here to check in with old NAMM friends, spread the word about Vista, and overall, help make Microsoft easier for developers to work with…in his words:

I had the pleasure of enjoying my first NAMM in nine years not having to demo anything, sell anything, yell over the din of guitar amps and control room monitors…and yet my voice is still shot! To make things more fun, I was joined by two NAMM first-timers and they soaked it all up. Overall we had a great time, walked the floor and reached out to our partners, listened to what our partners need from Microsoft, and eventually will turn that feedback into a tighter worknig relationship between Microsoft and the audio/music development community.

After developing recording and computer audio products for Mackie for last eight years of my life, I really enjoyed having an objective perspective on the needs and wants of our partners as it applies to the Windows platform. I feel incredibly lucky to be in a position where I can apply the years of experience in pro audio to bear on what I perceive to be some of the biggest undiscovered business opportunities we have yet to realize.

There are so many compelling stories to tell around creativity and technology, and NAMM is great place to capture those. With Vista hitting the streets shortly, there will undoubtedly be more. I was amazed when I first learned about the new audio stack in Vista, the fact it was completely re-written to be more efficient, powerful, and reliable, and overall easier with which to work for the audio/music developer community. The launch of the Crossfader web site (http://www.crossfader.com) at CES provides a channel to tell those user stories, and highlight some of the great video content our partners have been doing for years.

Overall you get to the larger goal by hitting the smaller goals along the way. Having a presence and visibility at NAMM, reaching out to the partner community, and building these relationships was a necessary first step in reaching the larger goal of bringing the audio/music communtiy closer to what Microsoft has to offer. I am incredibly proud and grateful to be a part of that effort.