At NAMM 2024, Harris Fogel took a lot of photos. Well, he is a photographer after all. Part One of this picture-packed photo essay ran in Issue 208. Here are more thoughts prompted by the show, and photos featuring the people who make the world's biggest musical instrument trade show happen.
I’ve been thinking about the larger issues raised by the similarities and differences between consumer and professional audio. For most audiophiles, their love of equipment is related to playing back the music they love. It’s an interesting point, since the creative act of making and capturing music has a referential relationship to how it sounds when played back.
While a hi-fi audio show might have a fifty grand speaker on exhibit, matched by equally expensive audio components, it’s easy to forget that many of the best recordings were mixed using cheap speakers as a “reference” to hear how they would sound on car audio and other average systems. (To be fair, pro studios also have excellent main monitoring speakers.)
So, for me, this gap between the musicians, producers, engineers, technologists, hardware and software companies, mixing board manufacturers, and the final product that the consumer receives sometimes makes it seem like they’re miles away from each other. But maybe not. I’m currently reviewing an inexpensive FOSI V3 stereo amplifier. It’s a contemporary Class D amp, less than a hundred bucks, and it sounds surprisingly musical.
At NAMM shows, you see an amazing variety of gear, from absolutely drop-dead-gorgeous guitars to companies showing off high-quality connectors, and everything in between.
There are lots of studio monitors at the show, ranging from some that are only a couple of hundred dollars to high-quality powered speakers that cost tens of thousands. It’s interesting to me that most audiophiles wouldn’t dream of building their systems around the same speakers used to mix and master the music they listen to. Yet, those are about as close as you are going to get hearing the intent of the musicians, producers, and engineers.
I spent some time talking to Vince Treanor, who was the Doors’ road manager, and whose book Behind the Doors is essential reading for fans of the band. By today’s standards, the stacks of Acoustic amplifiers and PA they used in the 1960s and 1970s were quite crude. Yet today, incredibly sophisticated digital signal processors and room measurement and correction allow a stadium’s sound system to be tailored to an extraordinary level, and the same technology enables even a low-priced big box store’s home theater in a box to take advantage of software that equalizes a system’s in-room frequency response, compensates for time delay, and performs subwoofer bass management. The days of the Beatles at Shea Stadium, where no one could hear a thing (either the Fab Four or the fans) not only are long over, but the lines that used to be drawn between pro and consumer audio are more blurred than ever, and the crossover between stadiums, recording studios, and your living room is now a lot closer then we might have ever imagined.
To use a photography analogy, when a digital printer for photography is first calibrated, it’s self-calibrated or “nulled out,” which means it’s in a neutral, predictable state and has a linear response with no “bias.” The performance of such a piece of equipment is dependable and repeatable. Now, to really get the best out of a printer, you need to load it with the paper you plan to use and the inks you will use, and then print a test sheet, and see if it matches the source image on your computer. There are different tools, but they all boil down to printing a special pattern, measuring that pattern, then generating a “profile” for that specific ink/paper/printer combination. That profile represents a way to adjust colors on the fly, so that the printer matches your source image.
To bring this analogy to audio, calibrating a printer is like using a room measurement and correction system, like the Dirac, REW, or others. They generate test tones, a special microphone measures the output from the loudspeakers, and then the software figures out what it takes to bring the system to a predictable and reliable, calibrated “null state.” In theory, after that process, if you play some music, the system should reproduce it without coloration, bias, or frequency response changes.
The NAMM Show is where ideas like these, products, and technologies collide. In particular, the impact of Class D amplification was everywhere. I think the advent of high-quality Class D is revolutionizing audio amplifiers. While it’s apparent that fans of big, heavy Class A and AB amplifiers will probably never go away (and some of them are ideal for use with difficult-to-drive speakers), I think the day where amplifiers are sort of taken for granted is upon us. Where once I was raised by my kinfolk to consider the sound signature of the amplifier to be the most critical component in a system, next to the speakers, now I think that the age of not worrying about how amplifiers sound is upon us. They are just quickly becoming a given. I see this happening with Class D amplifiers, at NAMM and at audio shows.
Gabriel Antonini of DPA Microphones showed us some pre-selected microphone kits that are used when mic’ing live events. The kits we looked at were in the $12,000 range!
NAMM attracts people from many areas of audio. Here are Robert Eberl (European Motion Picture Association Association), Benny Bergman (Mac Edition Radio), and Daryl Sansevero from high-end audio show T.H.E. Show.
Claire Goh of Paper Citizen plays a customized Fender Mustang at the Roni Lee Rooftop Jam, an annual NAMM event.
Kat Lorme (left) admires the playing of guitarist extraordinaire Larry Mitchell as bassist Koko Powell adds accompaniment.
I never feel that volunteers and staff get enough love. Here at the Roni Lee Rooftop Jam are Brandy Toressi (handling the door, and band merch, an unidentified hotel employee, and Jan Caselli, partner and audience/VIP coordinator.
Megan Steiner (Pulp Vixen) Olivia Tosic, Koko Powell, and Becky Moon (Pulp Vixen) hang out at the jam.
Natalie Morrison of Yamaha Corporation of America enjoys the show with Heather Mansell Schroeder of Yamaha Music USA, and John Krivit of AES.
Here are Roxy Seeman, Case Newcomb and Kenji Nakai of Sonic Lodge Studios, with Mark Stebbeds (THE Company, LLC), Shania Huffman (dialog and sound editor), and Brian Gibbs (AES).
David “Dres” Miranda (Anomalin, LLC), Christian Eisenbarth (Fourth Perspective), Kevin Weichel (KrossfadeMusic LLC), Nathan Fleischer (KrossfadeMusic LLC), and Rachel Ludeman (Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences) pose outside of the Food Hall, a popular destination!
Ryan Gladieux (Fir Audio LLC), Larry Whitt (Atlantic Studios West), and Marcus Garcia (Fir Audio LLC), discuss IK Multimedia's AI, Machine Modeling software, said to be able to replicate the sound of any guitar amp, cabinet, or overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedal.
The amazing Cookie Marenco of Blue Coast Records is one of the world's leading engineers and producers, who does outstanding work in the DSD format.
Mixing engineer/producer/artist Dennis "Roc.am" Jones enjoys a moment with Dave Malekpour of Professional Audio Design, and recording artist J. Rose.
Now here's a group of industry heavyweights for you! Sony's 360 Virtual Mixing Environment (360VME) panel hosted engineers George Massenburg, Frank Filipetti, Ronald Prent, Will Chason, and artists ROC.am,and David Leonard, hold with Adam Weissler moderating. 360VME is designed to replicate multichannel sound via headphones.
Martin Ramone and Sankar Thiagasamudram of high-end headphones manufacturer Audeze share a laugh.
Roxanne Ricks and Gary Boss of Audio-Technica welcome visitors to their booth.
The mighty Case Newcomb of Hyde Street Studios flexes his audio muscles.
Trishes, who is a musician, writer, and co-host of the Hope & Hard Pills podcast, performs at the Gritty In Pink jam and party.
Hitmaking legend Debbie Gibson performs at the She Rocks awards, honoring women in music, shown here with Ariel Bellvalaire on guitar. Debbie Gibson made history at 16 with her Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper "Foolish Beat," as the youngest artist to write, produce, and perform a Number One hit, and she is still the youngest female to hold that record, for over 30 years. Gibson has sold over 16 million albums.
Here's solo artist and Bangles member Susanna Hoffs (center), with Joanna Goldstein (left) and Nikki Stevens (Fender Play).
You might think you're cool, but can you look this cool? Lorraine Lewis (Vixen, Femme Fatale) relaxes in the She Rocks green room.
Without volunteers like these, non-profits like She Rocks wouldn’t be able to exist.
Susanna Hoffs and guitarist Bill Bonk perform the Simon & Garfunkel classic, "A Hazy Shade of Winter," later also a big hit for the Bangles.
Emiko Carlin, organizer of T.H.E. Show, is also an accomplished musician. She's having a lighthearted moment with Eric Bertotti of NAMM.
Myron Floren would have loved this: Hohner had a large room dedicated to different instruments, including Latin music. Mexican norteño bands are hugely into using Hohner accordions.
Gathered together are Stacy Robin (singer, songwriter, percussionist, scientist, pet rescuer; Stacy Weitsman is the name she uses as a scientist), Janet Robin (2024 Grammy award-winning guitarist), and Sylvia Massy, winner of a 2024 She Rocks Groundbreaker Award and Grammy-winning engineer and producer.
Two guys with beards and long hair are holding the most magical substance on earth: Salmiak (salted black licorice), which came all the way from Sweden. They're Copper's own Harris Fogel, and Baskim Zuta of Sweden's ZUTA Group, manufacturers or great musical instrument pedals and amps.
Eric Emery seems to have happily spent his allowance on a few tattoos, and shows them off in the lobby of the Hilton Anaheim hotel.
Christian Santangelo of Yamaha mixing the the YouTube live feed for the Yamaha Grand Plaza Stage, one of NAMM's main live music venues. Because of limited bandwidth, the YouTube mix requires more compression and EQ than a normal broadcast.
Takashi Fujiwara and Alex Derycz are from LayficTone, a new headphones company from Japan that was exhibiting at NAMM 2024 for the first time.
Grammy-winning producer/engineer Jimmy Jam hangs out with Paul Peterson (Electro-Voice), and Paul Sidoti (Avid Technology).
We visited the Klawitter Design suite to listen to their new line of monitors. Here, Dindae Sheena (KRK Systems) and Keith Klawitter (Founder of KRK and Klawitter Design) are surrounded by various models.
Southern California guitar impressario Natalie “Nova” Toppo is throwing some fun around at NAMM.
The company formerly known as Monster Cable Products has became Monster, which now licenses its name to a variety of products, including cables for instruments, microphones, amplifiers, and more. This is the team that makes them possible: PJ LaMariana, Cody Chamberlain, Rob Bingham, Shannon Book (of in-ear monitor maker Westone Audio), and Christopher Grau.
David Bandrowski of the Deering Banjo Company is having a good time playing one of their new Goodtime banjo models (or maybe laughing at a banjo joke someone told him). It's made in the USA.
Header image: Lynn Sorensen, Sean McNabb, and Thomas Blug rockin' out at the Roni Lee Rooftop Jam. All images courtesy of Harris Fogel.
