Digidesign at NAMM 2007

As expected, one of the most visited booths at this year's NAMM is Digidesign, makers of Pro Tools software, interfaces, and many popular plug-ins. And they didn't disappoint!

Revolutionary Software

My favorite piece of software featured at Digidesign's booth is the Reel Tape Suite, a fantastic software package to help close the gap between digital and analog. Priced at $495 for the whole suite, and $295 for just the tape saturation plug-in, they're not cheap, but considering the cost of buying and maintaining a tape machine, it could be a great deal if you're after that analog sound. It's really intuitive (I'd almost go as far as saying it's nearly foolproof), and I think it's a great idea for anyone looking for a great-quality analog simulator.

Also offered is Structure, touted as the future of professional sampling. The specs are really impressive (as is the sound quality): 128-level multitimbral universal sound engine, support for an unlimited number of patches, and up to 8 simultaneous samples. It comes with a really impressive built-in sample library courtesy of EastWest, and it supports all the major sample formats (including SampleCell, Kontakt2, and EXS24). You've also got all your major built-in effects, a selection of over 20 individual effects with many useful presets. Sound quality is awesome, and it's seamless integration into Pro Tools is incredibly easy. It supports all the good bit depths, sample rates, and surround formats (up to 24 bit, 192 kHz, 7.1 surround). This could revolutionize how you work with samples in a Pro Tools environment, with it's combination of sound quality and features. A price wasn't announced, but keep up to date on Digidesign's website for a public beta.

ICON & Venue

Digidesign also had their impressive ICON and Venue systems on display. Attendees were able to take control of the Venue and practice mixing a live Tom Petty concert, recorded on a Venue system. For those ICON users interested in furthering their education, Digidesign also introduced a really awesome training program for their ICON consoles, the large-format mixing interface. A one-day program costs $1000, while a 3-day certification program runs you $2500. All training is hands-on and comprehensive.

No Digi003? Aww, man...

Of course, we were all holding our breath for some more consumer products; Digidesign had a great year with the introduction of the MBox 2 Pro and MBox 2 Mini, both fantastic products, but a lot of users had their eye on an update to the Digi 002, a mid-level system perfectly suitable for home recording engineers. Unfortunately, no update to the Pro Tools LE line was announced, leaving a lot of us wondering why several online retailers were blowing out the 002-R units. But here's the good news. A source at Digidesign hinted at a possible update in the not-so-distant future.