Jan 27, 2012 12:13 PM, By The Mix Editors

Now that was a NAMM show! If anyone is still looking for anecdotal proof that the economy is on the upswing, the Anaheim Convention Center would be a good place to start: record attendance (more than 95,000), plenty of celebrity sightings and a flood of new technology introductions.

iOS capability seemed to be everywhere, as were live sound products, both in system control and hardware/software integration. And there was no shortage of studio tools, from Universal Audio’s much-trumpeted introduction of Apollo to Audio-Technica’s 50th anniversary limited-editions of its ever-popular microphones to MOTU’s release of DP 8, now available for PC users.

We’ll have much more product news and developments over the coming weeks, but here are some products and technologies that caught the attention of the Mix editors.

For the Studio

Over the past year of product introductions in the pro audio market, no category has been more competitive than the audio interface and converter markets. More features, more ins and outs, and now touchscreens and single-knob functionality. System-based approaches. It seems there is great demand for getting quality audio into the computers, and it was evident at NAMM.

Universal Audio Apollo interface

The biggest headline grabber was Universal Audio’s unveiling of the Apollo Interface, which includes four preamps, 18/24 channels of I/O (Mac/PC), real-time UAD processing, optional Thunderbolt I/O and much more. The company has measured sub-2ms latency with plug-ins in line, making Apollo a real option for tracking.

Meanwhile, Sonnox announced that it is now development partners for the UAD platform. This will bring Sonnox’s mixing and mastering plug-ins to UAD-2 DSP Accelerator hardware.

Apogee introduced the Duet Breakout Box, which enhances the company’s popular USB interface. The unit sports two ¼-inch instrument jacks, two XLR mic inputs, and a pair of XLR outputs, and it connects to the Duet 2 interface with multi-pin connector.

Steinberg debuted the UR824 and UR28M. The UR824 is a 24-bit/96 kHz USB 2 audio interface, with analog 8-in/8-out and 8 Class A mic pre’s; two pairs of ADAT optical I/O providing up to 16-in/16-out; word clock I/O with two BNC connectors; and two headphone buses. It comes with Cubase AI6 software and is cross-platform Mac/PC.

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