NAMM 2013: New Product Round-Up

Half of the Attack team is at the NAMM trade show in Anaheim, California this week (the rest of us are back in London crying into the snow and cursing our rotten luck not to be with them). Here you’ll find our highlights of the new product announcements from the show. We’ll be updating over the next few days…

Korg MS-20 mini (left) alongside the original MS-20

Every year in January the entire world of music technology – and the media circus which surrounds it – goes a little crazy. The annual NAMM trade show in California is traditionally the setting for the biggest new product announcements of the year. 2013 looks to be no exception. From what we’ve seen so far it looks like we’ve got some very exciting new products hitting the market this year.

Here we’re going to bring you our selected highlights of the new products on display at the show.

Korg MS-20 mini

This is the one we’ve been waiting for. Since the announcement of the Monotron back in 2010 (an incredible 28 years since the introduction of Korg’s previous all-analogue synth, the Trident mkII), we’ve been speculating that the Japanese giants might be working toward something bigger. Something more fully featured.

Well, here it is. The MS-20 mini is an all-analogue 86% scale replica of the 1978 classic, issued as part of Korg’s 50th anniversary celebrations. The new synth – which is just slightly larger than the MS-20 USB controller released for the Legacy Collection plugin – really captures the spirit of the original, right down to the fully functional patch bay. It also sounds very good indeed. We can’t wait to get our hands on one to test properly.

30th anniversary of MIDI

Korg also displayed updates to the Wavedrum, the Kaoss Pad 3 and the Kaossilator Pro and introduced the analogue modelling King Korg.

The MS-20 mini is due in February, priced at around £499.

Dave Smith Instruments Prophet 12

Dave Smith’s credentials in the world of electronic music are second to none. This is a man who – in no particular order – revolutionised analogue drum machines with the Tempest, was instrumental in the development of the MIDI protocol (the 30th anniversary of which was celebrated in a cool display, pictured right) and designed more classic synths than you can shake a stick at.

Thirty-five years after his (excellent) first attempt, Smith is still trying to improve the analogue polysynth. The process continues with the Prophet 12, an all-new design which draws on the features of the Prophet 8 and Poly Evolver.

Expected late spring/early summer priced at $2,999.

Next: Moog Sub Phatty; updated Apogee interfaces…