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Welcome to the 2013 edition of the NAMM Oddities

Another year, another NAMM. This year I was able to avoid contracting NAMMthrax, unlike last year, and for that I am grateful.

After the show people always ask me how NAMM was and my reply is "big, loud, and crowded." That usually results in a response asking me what I saw, this year my answer was "more fedoras than iPads." I'm not trying to be evasive or give trite answers. That's about all I can recall in the immediate NAMM-aftermath.

But once I start digging through gigabytes of photos and video, plus the pile of literature I collected and took notes on, it all comes back to me… and now to you.

You may have noticed the little critter up in the masthead. That's me as I appeared in my cameo in the Packrat comic by Dave Lovelace. It's an honor to become a brief part of such a cool–and very synth geeky–comic.

-Barry

2013 Oddity of the Year

I'm pleased to present my selection for the 2013 Oddity of the Year, the AlphaSphere.

Read all about it here.

A brief history of the NAMM Oddities…

After attending the Winter NAMM show for a number of years, I'd noticed that the exhibitors seem to fall into two categories: the established company showing its new (and sometimes vaporous) products and the independent start-up company looking to be noticed by distributors, music stores, potential investors and the music press.

It seemed that every year I spent more of my NAMM time checking out the various small companies that got stashed in some dark corner of the show. Many of the products from these companies were never seen by the average visitor, sometimes because they only appealed to a small market, or because most people simply couldn't figure out what the hell they were supposed to do.

That isn't to say that these products are ill-conceived or poorly executed. It's just that sometimes they're, well, a little odd. This situation made me think that there ought to be a place for people to come to marvel and wonder at all of these products. Thus, the NAMM Oddities were born.