At NAMM 2015 we had an incredible opportunity to check out all the great new gear being released. We partnered with Sweetwater’s Worship Sound Pro to cover what gear matters most for Houses of Worship. Here’s a rundown of some of the great gear we saw.
MIDI Controllers
If you’re looking for an inexpensive keyboard controller, the M-audio Code Series is a great place to start. It’s affordable and offers lots of great features keys players want in a controller.
Akai’s new Advanced Keyboard Controller is a great solution for players looking for more flexibility and control over their sounds. Using their VIP software, you can use all your favorite Plugins to get access to all their features right on the keyboard. This keyboard is a great solution for people looking for in-depth hands on control of their sounds.
For those of you looking for a full-sized keyboard controller for playing Piano and using soft Synths, the KeyLab 88 is a great solution. Knobs, faders, and pads for mapping sounds, 88 keys, weighed hammer action, and light weight. Plus it works out of the box with all the sounds Arturia makes available in their Analog lab software and great Piano modeling Plugins.
Keyboards
Nord needs no introduction to keys players in churches, but their Electro 5 is a great solution for churches. It’s packed with incredible sounds out of the box and is easy to use. It’s a great solution if you’re looking for great sounds in a hardware solution that you can also use as a MIDI controller with your favorite software.
Analog is alive and well! If you’re looking for a great synthesizer with a rich history, the Sequential Prophet-6 is a great solution. You won’t find a modeled piano or rhodes here, but what you will find is an incredible sounding analog synthesizer that pairs well with effects pedals and can do everything from rich warm pads to bright synthy leads. If you’re looking for a keyboard that will add some 80’s vibe to your service and bring a new sound- you can’t go wrong with the Prophet-6.
Omnisphere 2
One of our favorite demos was for Spectrasonic’s Omnisphere 2. We were able to sit down with Eric Persing from Spectrasonics to get a demo of some of the great new features of Omnisphere 2 for churches and hear how Eric uses Omnisphere in his own church.
Audio Interfaces
Arturia’s long-awaited AudioFuse is a great solution for users that need plenty of inputs and outputs in a small form factor. The components are all high quality and the built in USB hub is an added bonus as well.
The K-mix from Keith McMillian Instruments is one of the most unique audio interfaces we’ve ever seen. It combines the best of an audio interface with the best of a control surface. It’s an 8 in, 10 out interface with a control surface built on top of it. It’s a great solution for keys players that need faders and multiple outputs to run MultiTracks live. It’s small size and price point make it great new contender in the audio interface realm.
LaunchPad Pro
Novation’s new Launchpad Pro is a great controller for Ableton Live. The improvements it adds to the original Launch Pad are incredible. If you’re looking for a low priced grid-based controller the Launch Pad Pro is a great solution.
MIDI Interfaces
We also had a chance to talk to Christian Paschall, drummer for Crowder and Matt Gilder, MD for Chris Tomlin on how they use the iConnectivity 4+ on the road to connect all their MIDI gear. No matter what type of MIDI connection you have, the 4+ will get it connected to your computer and your other gear. We had a chance this weekend to see it in action at Passion in Houston.
iOS Audio/MIDI Interface
The Alesis iO dock 2 is a great audio interface solution for your iPad. If you’re running Playback Pro and need a way to get MIDI into your iPad and Audio out, you should consider the iO 2 dock.
You can see all the rest of the gear we covered while at NAMM here at Sweetwater.com.
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