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

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.

Just had lunch with Maureen Droney, head of the Recording Academy’s Producers and Engineers Wing. The always lively Grammy Panel will take place tomorrow afternoon at the Marriott. The topic? “What’s in Your Rack? Top Producers Sound Off on How We Work Today.” Panelists include Nick Raskulinecz, Carmen Rizzo, The Underdogs and Butch Walker. Mike Molenda will moderate. In today’s age of laptop and multi-studio productions, the topic couldn’t be more timely. I’ll be back tomorrow with a full report, Till then…

Downstairs in the NAMM “dungeon,” you’ll always find some curious oddities. New company Percussa, for example, debuted its AudioCubes infrared MIDI controllers , which have been sold privately but do not yet have an official price or release date. These hand-sized cubes connect to a computer via USB and send MIDI commands according to how their four infrared beams connect to each other. For instance, with a set of four AudioCubes, one would be connected via USB, and the others could be wireless and running off of battery power (charged by a USB connection). As the other three cubes rotate around the central cube, MIDI commands are sent. Confusing? Not when you see it in person. Check out the website, which should be updated with videos soon.

We’re here with Yong-Joon and Lee-Ho of Joensori Books, a publisher based out of Korea. They’ve stopped by and expressed an interest in bringing Mix content to their audience in Southeast Asia. Joensori is a publisher of books on acoustic engineering. Yong?

We hopefully expect many subscribers from Korea. Engineers in South Korea need a good space for communication. Many of engineers showed us their need on this. So, Mix magazine will be the best way for satisfying their needs we believe. Come check out our site in a month to see our new version of Mix Korea

Digidesign announced today that its Advanced Instrument Research Group (which recently developed Xpand, Hybrid, and Strike) is developing an RTAS-format sampler called Structure. The plug-in will read a number of sample formats including ESX24, Kontakt2, and SampleCell. It will also include sample content from EastWest, which has partnered up with Digi for this project. According to Digi, a public beta is in the offing. Check back at the Digi site for details.

At the end of the day Thursday, IK Multimedia announced Amplitube 2 Jimi Hendrix Edition. It’s a specialized version of IK’s guitar-amp modeling plug-in, designed to emulate the sound of Jimi Hendrix’s gear. It features models of 9 stompboxes (including wahs), 4 amps, 7 speaker cabinets, and 4 analog rack effects units–all based on the originals used by Hendrix used. It’s due out in April and will cost $249. You’ll also be able to get it bundled with IK’s Stealth Plug (guitar to USB cable) for $299.