Musical Instruments

The Yamaha P-115B is a great choice to consider in the ever popular sub-$1,000 digital piano market. It has all the essential features, very good sound and comes in a convenient footprint for those looking to acquire a piano, but not the size and inconvenience.

It never hurts to model a new guitar offering after a classic played by one of the instrument’s greatest heroes. And so it is with Fender’s new Hendrix Stratocaster. Based on the guitar used by the game changing innovator of the six-string, this may just be the Fender you’ve always been waiting for.

We are all familiar with the iconic DJ scratching away on vinyl, as the art of turntablism grew these DJ would create more complex routines using just vinyl records, turntables and a mixer. Over time with the move away from vinyl to digital, all these complex mixing routines have now moved onto the computer, to be controlled via DJ controllers. One of the big names in digital DJ controllers is Hercules and this year at NAMM 2016 they had some new hardware to show off, the Hercules P32 DJ controller and the DJUCED 40 3.0 software. 

Ever evolving technologies is putting unrivalled control and affordability in the hands of regular consumers and hobby music recording techs. IK Multimedia has been at the forefront of this in recent years and with their introduction of the iRig Acoustic and iRig Pro Duo devices, they are giving users the option to play and record their musical ideas without being tethered to a desktop computer (although they will work with those too).

ESP guitars has previewed its new lineup of guitars including offerings from the ESP, ESP E-II, and LTD lines. There are new artist signature series models as well as new and updated guitars and  basses to whet your appetite and ensure that 2016 is a year where ESP is sure to have exactly what you want just waiting for you to pick it up.

If you have ever been in a DJ booth at a club chances are you would have seen a DJM-900NXS and some CDJ-2000NXS’s. This mixer and CDJs respectively have become industry standards and have rocked numerous clubs and some of the largest musical festivals in the world. This year Pioneer has launched at NAMM 2016, the remastered version of their flagship products with the CDJ-2000NXS2 Professional Multi Player & DJM-900NXS2 profession mixer.

The Marshall name is synonymous with tube amplification and loud gritty rock music. In 2010 Marshall took an exploratory foray into digital modelling with the JMD line but for the most part has remained on the outside of this hotly contested field. That is likely to change with the introduction of the CODE series at NAMM 2016.    

Gigging musicians that use iPads as their notation display rather than traditional paper-based music, consistently come across the problem of turning pages or scrolling while both hands are occupied. iRig BlueTurn is a simple Bluetooth solution to the problem – two soft illuminated footswitches to be operated by your feet.

IK Multimedia has always been able to come out with products for the mobile musician and audio engineer. The iLoud Micro Monitor joins a line of loudspeakers that further support that market. The speakers are incredibly small, but boast a feature set that is usually found in larger, more expensive studio monitors.

You can always count on Roland to announce products at NAMM that garner a second look. They’ve created quite a little buzz around a couple of new offerings that Best Buy is planning on carrying: The FP-30 Digital Piano and the Roland Boutique Series are going to have people talking for a while.