Winter NAMM is but a memory but not the slick gear that bowed at the show in Anaheim. The Mix/EM crew shot some great video from which I’ve picked my favorite pieces.

1.  I attended the Waves press event on Friday where Jack Joseph Puig, Chris Lord-Alge and Eddie Kramer showed off their latest plug-in creations. Although some of the GUIs were in beta, the concepts and sounds were fantastic and worth a further listen when they’re released.
2. API’s Arsenal line is now renamed JDK. The R-22 is a two-channel rackmount compressor launched at NAMM bearing the API legacy of quality and an affordable price point.
3. I got a great tour of Amplitube 3 at the IK Multimedia booth. It has some slick new abilities making it sexier than ever to model amps, cabinets, processors and more.
4. Dan Duffell from SSL showed me their new X-Patch system, a very slick and organized way to manage studio signal flow through any gear you’d like.
5. Do any remote recording? Then you have to check out Sony’s new and affordable PCM M-10 handheld recorder. It has lots of great features pulled down from their higher end units and comes with a number of great accessories.
6. Engineers with ears I trust were raving about the new JZ Vintage series mics. It mimics some famous legacy mics via switchable capsules.
7. We ran across producer/engineer Ronan Chris Murphy in the A Designs booth where he gave us an unsolicited testimonial of the new NAIL Compressor. Some unique features make this a box to put on your “must hear” list.
8. Radial Engineering had a gang of studio problem solvers plus their new Workhorse 500: a vertical rack for 500 series units including a summing mixer and easy module linking.
9. Presonus was showing off their new, and larger, StudioLive mixer designed to work across a variety of situations. The slick smart channel design easily puts parameters at your fingertips.
10. Jonathan Little at LittleLabs demoed his 500 series VOG module which makes it easy to pinpoint desired frequencies, lifting a track to greatness. I heard it myself and it’s very impressive.