Submitted by Shireen Ghosh
When I was a teenager in Kolkata, fervently learning everything I could about music and tech from the internet, I used to watch all my favourite YouTubers and musicians go to this annual trade show in Anaheim Convention Center in California called NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants): a big convention where all kinds of instrument designers, software developers, audio equipment companies, and other industry innovators, all gather in one place and have a massive display of their products. Having only ever seen it on videos from the other side of the planet, it was very surreal to get to attend it this year for the first time.
I only managed to make the final day, after a very chaotic and difficult week. I bring this up, because my largest takeaway from attending was this: if you have aspired to attend an event for over a decade, but don’t mentally prepare and go in with a plan, it’s almost impossible to process anything going on. And nothing could have prepared me for the sheer size and scale of this event.
An estimated 60,000 people attended, and it took place in one of the largest convention centers I’ve ever seen. Truthfully, I spent the day in a daze, thoroughly overwhelmed by all the cool things around me, stunned by the meaningfulness of being here at all, unable to decide which direction to walk in. It’s a very strange, almost out-of-body experience – every metre of space around you contains hundreds of potential rabbit holes to go down, and it’s very hard to choose something to look at.
Regardless, I did get to look at some cool things even in my limited time. I caught a brief glimpse of Stevie Wonder near the Avid booth. In the audio tech section, every major microphone retailer had their own showfloors.
I think my favourite of them were DPA and Austrian Audio, who had set up various stereo pairs of their mics at a player piano. They had headphone stations where you could solo each pair and assess all the different mic placements. AEA’s ribbon mics were another highlight, especially their approachable educational materials. In a loud convention center, it’s very difficult to truly listen to any speaker systems, but PMC’s isolated immersive audio room was a standout.
I have learned to be skeptical of things that claim to be “AI”. To me it’s an untrustworthy marketing buzzword for a device that has any kind of internal computer these days. But I got to see several software and hardware tools that use some form of machine learning to perform things like stem separation, noise reduction, file cleanups, and other time-consuming uncreative tasks. It made me really wish that “AI” was untainted by corporate overlords, so that I could fully appreciate the work and expertise that goes into developing tools like this.
Something I didn’t expect to be so enchanted by were all the accessories. Cases, straps, luxury picks, strings, mouthpieces, stands, adapters, tools… musicians need lots of hilariously hyper-specific products, and it’s really nice to be reminded that the manufacturers of these things are often extremely nerdy musicians themselves.
Music Gear Expo Spread Across Four Halls
The instrument floor consisted of four absolutely massive halls, and I could have spent weeks just trying to explore each one of them.
One of my favourite silly instrument companies, Stylophone, always manage to keep innovating on a seemingly extremely simple concept. I got to test out their new Voice model – it’s a portable sampler that you can record directly into, and play back with the classic stylus interface.
The Korg phase8 was an intriguing synthesizer with built-in acoustic tines like a marimba. I’m always fascinated by instruments that blur the line between acoustic and electronic, and this was a really cool find for me.
Guitar pedal showcases are a treat I will always go for, despite being a solidly mediocre guitarist myself. I always catch the infectious enthusiasm of the tone nerds who are inevitably drawn to this place, and experimenting with weird sounds will never not be fun. Notable products in this category belonged to the likes of Pigtronix Effects, Electro-Harmonix, Catalinbread and Darkglass Electronics.
One of the friends I attended with, happens to be a brass player. At one point, he gleefully picked up a contrabass trombone and proclaimed he was staying there for the rest of the day. The pure unfiltered joy on his face managed to break through my numb disassociation for a minute. It reminded me that at the end of the day, despite the very high barrier of entry required to be here, and despite how overwhelming it can be, this enormous event is really just a gathering of people who share an enthusiasm for art, innovation, and general cool things.
I hope I’m able to go again next year!
