This is seriously a cool piece of gear.

Keith McMillen Instruments has announced the release of QuNeo, a multi-touch pad controller for electronica producers, live musicians, DJs, and anyone else with a need to have a fully-programmable, touch-sensitive pad controller at Winter NAMM.

The size of an iPad, QuNeo offers 16 trigger pads with 127 levels of Velocity response, combined with X-Y location and various levels of pressure sensitivity. Rotary sensors and multi-touch sliders add to the awesome tactile features, but most importantly, QuNeo comes with it's own development kit and API to allow users to "hack" their controls however they want. Pretty cool!

While primarily designed with electronic music-making in mind, the QuNeo could be used for multiple purposes in the recording studio or during live sound reinforcement.

Line 6, makers of high-quality wireless gear and the word-famous POD systems, has announced the release of their new StageSource powered speakers -- representing Line 6's first release into pro-quality, pro-size PA speakers.

Providing 1,400 watts of power, the Line 6 StageSource is designed around a high-performance 3-way, tri-amp design. Aside from offering Line 6's legendary performance and reliability, the Line 6 StageSource Speakers are designed to seamlessly network with the new StageSource mixing system.

StageSource speakers will be available in February, with a price of around $1200 per speaker.

Last night, a reader emailed with a very important question: Why is the NAMM Show so important, and why's it so hard to get in?

The NAMM Show -- the twice-yearly event that offers music technology companies a chance to showcase their latest and greatest gear being released in the upcoming year -- is one of the most important events in the music industry; tickets are hard to come by, as it's limited to working professionals in the music business. So why's NAMM so important?

NAMM is the first time that many of the exhibiting companies showcase their new gear for the coming year; it's also a chance for these folks to meet face-to-face with retailers, distributors, manufacturers, and music industry media -- a rare moment of face-to-face communication in a busy, always-changing industry, something that many of us value when bringing the best quality products to our reviews. It's also a chance for those companies to get feedback from top-end professional users and media, face-to-face, about their products. That -- along with the outstanding production and events that the NAMM crew puts on every year -- make for one highly-anticipated event for professionals in a busy, rapidly advancing field.

Universal Audio has announced an incredibly exciting product -- the Apollo Duo -- especially interesting for those of us with unused Thunderbolt ports on our Apple computers.

The Universal Audio Apollo Duo is billed as the world's first Thunderbolt-based audio interface; it's got 18 inputs and 24 outputs, legendary UA reliability and sound quality (including the UAD Analog Classics plug-in package), and compatible with virtually any PC or Mac recording software.

Apollo Duo is available now for pre-order, shipping in first quarter 2012, with a price of around $2000 depending on your retailer.