my rundown of Musikmesse

JohnDP · Post by **JohnDP** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:22 am

So thanks to a cool US manufacturer I managed to get an entry pass for Friday at Musikmesse so that I could actually have a look at all the products instead of trying to swim amongst the absurd crowd on Saturday (the only non-trade day).

So let me report to you findings brand by brand.

1. ECLER
Nice stand with the EVO5 clearly in display (strange because they have good scratch mixers as well and no DJ was showcasing those) but although the layout is quite ok, I am pretty allergic against all sorts of double use of buttons and pads. I tried fiddling around with the filter section for instance and because I pressed it for too long, I data jumped to another effect. This can prove fatal in a mix, thus I dislike such functions.

Also, it doesn't seem that there is much buttons anyway, so I see it oriented towards Live but not enough. Clearly you cannot satisfy anybody 1t 100% but the EVO5 let me a bit down. Built quality is ok, not great, Ecler used to be better.

2. RANE
Did not do much there, as I am a Scratch Live user since 2004 and not into the MIDI-Video thing that was on display, so I did not check. Besides updates are free and information flow is perfect on their forum, so unless you don't own Scratch Live, a visit to their stand is superflous.

3. MIXVIBES
Where placed right in front of Rane and thus here the Musikmesse organisation messed things up a bit, I mean put head to head competition once in front of the other is not very politically correct. Anyways, I went to the stand to see the Vestax VC-100 controller and was dissapointed. Vestax used to do real rugged stuff but the built quality was terrible, wobbly things everywhere and partially really small buttons. I imagined better, even though its only a MIDI controller.

4. PIONEER
Nothing new here, they where showing off a great deal of video applications and me not being into them I did not pay much attention. I already have 2 CDJ1000 mk3 and could not be any happier.

5. MAWZER
A perfect example of how NOT to do business. These guys had a crap appearance at Musikmesse 2006 and this year it was not different. Their original idea was and still is great, yet the implementation could not be any worse. Serious.

6. KENTON
They showed the Killamix (simple but effective) and two other prototype controllers, of which also the Danny McMillan one. This last one is nearly a joke. Its just 4 faders with 3/4 rotary encoders above each channel to act as EQ/Gain and then a series of buttons on the right. I for one could not see the fuzz behind this. Sorry.

7. ABLETON
Could not find the stand, strange actually.

8. APPLE
Great, bigger stand and some interesting Logic tutorials.

9. ALLEN & HEATH
Great experience. Andy Rigby Jones took a great deal of time to talk me through a lot of stuff and I assisted at how well the MIDI Clock of the Xone 3D works. Now with this function, syncing analog and digital sources is a joke. Also very interesting are the Xone 2D (Controller+Soundcard) and Xone 1D (Controller only) that can be linked to a Xone 92 or used standalone.

10. NUMARK
I love the layout of the Traktor controller but the built is horrible. Such a shame really because it could have had a huge potential for 2 deck Traktor users.

11. TRAKTOR
I like the interface a lot (Traktor Scratch) and the upcoming DVD will provide a lot if insight into a very complex program whose features are rarely used to the max. The DVD will come out in a month or so, at least thats what I got told.

That is pretty much it. As you can imagine, I was expecting a bit more from Musikmesse in terms of DJ controllers but that will always remain an issue I guess.

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:57 am

JohnDP wrote:5. MAWZER
A perfect example of how NOT to do business. These guys had a crap appearance at Musikmesse 2006 and this year it was not different. Their original idea was and still is great, yet the implementation could not be any worse. Serious.

You mean they're still showcasing their shitty prototype of a product that should have been out 2 years ago?

Even if they ever get it out. I wont buy it.
I've seen how they do business. Have mercy on the brave souls who actually put money down on one of these things.

Talk about raping a concept...

Lo-Fi Massahkah · Post by **Lo-Fi Massahkah** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:17 pm

Jazzmutant?

sqook · Post by **sqook** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:45 pm

JohnDP wrote: 7. ABLETON
Could not find the stand, strange actually.

They didn't have one this year; they just had a meeting room. Some of the abes were around, tho.

Also, @ the jazzmutant guys, very cool stuff! I like the dexter concept a lot... I really wish that there was more of an industry standard protocol that they could use to get feedback from hosts in the manner that they had implemented. Not only would it be nice to see some other products offering the level of integration that they had with cubase and such, it would also be good to pressure more hosts into supporting these devices.

JohnDP · Post by **JohnDP** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 1:56 pm

Lo-Fi Massahkah wrote:Jazzmutant?

there was a huge crowd looking at the Jazzmutant, but I personally want physical buttons and knob so I wasn't there. Sorry.

Daim · Post by **Daim** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:23 pm

i tried out both jazzmutant machines.. pretty nice but i wouldn't spend more than 500€

i can post some pics later

Daim · Post by **Daim** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:26 pm

i liked the jomox xbase 999 most in that place..

i tried the ecler mixers as well.. didnt like the potis.. the old ones had been better..

and i saw lucca presenting some bullshit turntables

eamoon · Post by **eamoon** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 1:09 am

Speaking of Kenton, the Killamix is quite cool. I'm just starting to figure out how it'll fit into my live setup (basically, laptop + monome + killamix, with the monome mostly triggering clips via a Max patch). They've been incredibly responsive to feature requests (now it sends a CC when you select a channel, and has incremental CC output in a form that Live is happy with).

I'm considering attaching the killamix and monome to each other somehow, since it's so fun to pound on the monome while holding it...

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 1:56 am

What about Steinberg, they have a new software product called Sequel aimed at loop based music creation in the Garageband mould for 99 US bucks.

Some people at cubase.net scoffed that this 'will no doubt appeal to the ableton live crowd of non musicians', so I had to set them straight about that !

anyway, you can see more about why it doesn't match up to Ableton (not that steinberg are suggesting it does) at

http://www.sequel-music.de/

my rundown of Musikmesse

my rundown of Musikmesse

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Re: my rundown of Musikmesse