316. The 2026 NAMM Show Recap

In Episode 316, it’s time for a post-NAMM recap of all the cool people, places, and things Sean and Andy got to catch up with and check out at the 2026 NAMM Show at the Anaheim Convention Center. Loudspeakers big and small, useful gadgets, new mixers, earplugs, new IEM models… there was something for everybody this year, and we’re here to tell you all about it! This episode is sponsored by Allen & Heath and RCF.

Episode Links:
TT+ AUDIO GTX 7C
Dark Matter Audio Labs DMA7 BA 7
Violet Audio dMix 128
Yamaha RIVAGE PM V7
Adamson USB Milan Bridge
Neumann Virtual Immersive Studio (VIS)
d&b audiotechnik U Series
De-Feedback
Yamaha MGX Series
Meyer Sound TIGRA & LFC-1800
Adamson MS 8.2
D’Addario IR Mic Mute
Dark Matter Audio Labs Hearing Projection
Episode 316 Transcript

NOTE: Mike Green, the artist who performs “Break Free” that opens every episode, has some new music hitting the market starting today, available on all streaming platforms as well as DSPs that support spatial audio. And, Mikegreenmusic.com will direct folks to pre-order the vinyl release, or allow them to purchase singles individually.

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The Signal To Noise Podcast on ProSoundWeb is co-hosted by pro audio veterans Andy Leviss and Sean Walker.

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Transcript

Signal To Noise, Episode 316: The 2026 NAMM Show Recap

Note: This is an automatically generated transcript, so there might be mistakes--if you have any notes or feedback on it, please send them to us at signal2noise@prosoundweb.com so we can improve the transcripts for those who use them!

Voiceover: You’re listening to Signal to Noise, part of the ProSoundWeb podcast network, proudly brought to you this week by the following sponsors:

Allen & Heath, whose new dLive RackUltra FX upgrade levels up your console with 8 next-generation FX racks – putting powerful tools like vocal tuning, harmonizing, and amp simulation right at your fingertips. Learn more at allen-heath.com 

RCF and TT+ AUDIO.... Delivering premium audio solutions designed for tour sound and music professionals for over 75 years.  Visit RCF at RCF-USA.com for the latest news and product information.

Music: “Break Free” by Mike Green

[00:00:58] Andy Leviss: Hey, welcome to another episode of Signal to Noise. I'm your host, Andy Leviss. With me is always the orange to my juice. Mr. Sean Walker. What's up Sean?

[00:01:07] Sean Walker: What's up buddy? How are you? Just feeling a little orange today.

[00:01:10] Andy Leviss: uh, still raspy. Still congested. Still pounding the orange juice. Uh.

[00:01:14] Sean Walker: Yeah, right. Totally.

[00:01:15] Andy Leviss: This is what week, week three of, uh, of some sort of I,

[00:01:19] Sean Walker: Just got the

[00:01:19] Andy Leviss: I don't know. Oh, there's some nam, there's whatever I had before NAMM.

I mean, I've, I, whatever daycare bug came home this week. It's, uh,

[00:01:28] Sean Walker: Right, right, right. Totally. You gotta stop

[00:01:30] Andy Leviss: you're sounding a little better than last week though.

[00:01:32] Sean Walker: I'm feeling better than last week. Last week I had the NAMMthrax something fierce, and I was, I was feeling like I got hit by a truck, dude. I, I was down for the count for sure. Yeah, totally,

[00:01:41] Andy Leviss: No, I, I, I pulled a sick day the other day. It was, I was just like, I gotta, I gotta drop the kid off at daycare and I gotta sleep.

[00:01:49] Sean Walker: dude. Totally.

[00:01:50] Andy Leviss: uh. So, but yeah, we, I mean last week, so last week we talked about, uh, De-Feedback, which was one of the cool things we saw at NAMM and, you know, that we kind of focused a whole episode on, 'cause there was a whole episode worth of, of story and, and demos and stuff to, to do that.

And if you're listening to this today, uh, there's still, um, the discount code that Devon gave us for 10% off any purchases from De-Feedback originally. We had said that it was gonna expire today, February 6th. It's, Devon's actually extended it, so it's good till February 10th. So you got a little bit of a window there if you're gonna purchase.

So look at the show notes from last week. Grab that. It's just discount code signal to million as a checkout, we'll get you 10% off. Anything from Alpha Lavs.

[00:02:32] Sean Walker: Heck yeah, dude.

[00:02:34] Andy Leviss: thanks to Devon for that. Uh, but yeah, Sean and I wanted to get together and just, uh, do a little, uh, post NAMM recap of the. Cool stuff. We saw, uh, what, what we did out there.

Um, I, I don't know about the weather by you. I'm certainly gonna, uh, try and warm up reminiscing about the California weather now that I'm still looking at piles of snow that haven't melted outside. Man,

[00:02:59] Sean Walker: it's beautiful here in Seattle. Dude, today is beautiful, clear. Very unie day today. It's

[00:03:04] Andy Leviss: it's the one day a year.

[00:03:06] Sean Walker: Yeah, right. Totally. No, no, no. It's the one day, the winter. Usually in the summer it's beautiful, but one day in the winter here, it's beautiful. And you go, oh man, that's why we live here. I got it. All right. I remember.

[00:03:14] Andy Leviss: Yeah. Great. Now, now tomorrow we'll be back to back to grain flannel.

[00:03:18] Sean Walker: Oh, a hundred percent bro. A hundred percent. Totally. Totally. Dude, there was a couple things, uh, at NAMM that I thought were really cool. I'm just gonna squirrel. Uh. Did the Violet audio, I think it was Mixer. The Rack Mounter they had was pretty fricking sick.

[00:03:37] Andy Leviss: That's the thing that just kind of looks almost like a stage box, but it's got a whole, whole mixer inside.

[00:03:41] Sean Walker: 32 in and 16 or 24 out.

I don't remember exactly. Some kind of outs, but enough of 'em. Like it's enough ins, enough outs, and a rack mount unit. You're gonna get your web search FU on here and correct me. Thank you.

[00:03:53] Andy Leviss: The Dix 1 28.

[00:03:54] Sean Walker: Yeah, dude. But it was like made by a. Bunch of guys that had made other mixers, like they had been involved with the other big companies that had done, I don't know if we can say it or not, but I, but you know what?

I'll get fired. I don't care. They helped with the Mackey stuff. They helped with the Soundcraft UI stuff. They helped with a bunch of other things, and now they're doing their own thing. And when I was like, dude, what made you go on your own? He goes, you know, I just, I just wanted to do like make, do it right, like do the one I wanted to do.

You know what I mean?

[00:04:26] Andy Leviss: Yep.

[00:04:27] Sean Walker: The cool part was not that it's another rack mount mixer, because there's a bunch of companies that make great rock mount mixers, right? Like Allen Le Heath has their sq uh, BARR just got the wing or the X 32, like, you know, a lot of people have got those, right? But

[00:04:39] Andy Leviss: Mm-hmm.

[00:04:40] Sean Walker: the cool part was will also be a stage box over a ES 67 over Maddie, over whatever.

So Yamaha, Digi code, whatever, they can all use it as a stage box, which is fricking dope, dude. So if you've got your, let's say. Artist is on in ears. They got their own band in a box rack, right? You got this banging mixer that works awesome for them, so you're not limited to like 16 ins and eight outs or whatever, or three different boxes chained together, hoping they're all working right?

You could actually have a real rig on it and then you've got Maddie out or a ES 67 out to plug your, let's call it, real front of house desk into it. Like I thought that was freaking dope.

[00:05:18] Andy Leviss: tight and it's like, I'm trying to tell if it's like four U or five U, but like somewhere around there.

[00:05:23] Sean Walker: dude, totally. So that, and a package of fricking, like you put that and some fricking spectera in a rack, all of a sudden you got a six U fly rack that's got ears, wireless mics, fricking everything over one network cable. Like, oh my goodness, dude, that's like, that's a sick fly rig for a band in a box.

You know what I mean?

[00:05:42] Andy Leviss: Yeah, and I mean this thing's cram. I'm looking at it, it's crammed fully. I, there's like 32 analog inputs, 24 analog outputs. Uh.

[00:05:51] Sean Walker: Plus a ES outs. Right? Like didn't have a S outs.

[00:05:54] Andy Leviss: there's, uh, looks like four channels, so like two pairs of a SI O2 headphone, uh, uh, outputs on it, each with a headphone knob right next to it, video output.

That's, that's pretty slick. And so I didn't realize, like, I knew it was Violet audio, and I didn't realize this is different folks from Violet. Designs who make the microphones. That's the whole, like all the, uh, Jay-Z versus Violet Designs is the whole weird post blue, but all, you know, lot being microphone situation.

[00:06:28] Sean Walker: What's Jay-Z gotta do with his dog? He ain't, he ain't done nothing to you. He just, he just out making rap songs, bro.

[00:06:34] Andy Leviss: Uh, but yeah, so

[00:06:36] Sean Walker: anyway, so the cool part, I'm gonna just right

[00:06:38] Andy Leviss: Yep. Yep.

[00:06:39] Sean Walker: so I was like, Hey man, and I know that Andy's gonna get all in a second, but I told the guy, I was like, Hey dog, if you could make this. Head Amp controllable with a Yamaha console, it could replace the Rios. And then we got like a super cool multi-tool and we'd buy the shit outta these and he was like, uh, we're working on it. But Yamaha's not particularly forthcoming with the control protocols for their head amps. I was like, yeah, fair enough, dude. Fair enough. But it would be dope. 'cause then you could use it to convert from. E 67 to Maddie to analog to like, it, it is a mixer. It could be a format converter. It's pretty fricking sweet, dude. It's, oh, and you can control it with mixing stations, so everybody that's like not wanting to download a new app or whatever, they can do it with mixing station, which is pretty sick because it's, it's UI based now, right?

Like the, like the Soundcraft used to be, right? Where you just have a web browser.

[00:07:38] Andy Leviss: Yeah.

[00:07:39] Sean Walker: But I, I thought that was really dope. I was really excited about that. 'cause we still get, even though we mostly focus on corporate, we get a bunch of like, you know, the, the bands that want to go have ears. And so we make racks for, for bands a lot, you know, using the, the SQ racks or the wing racks or whatever.

And this would be a super dope solution for that.

[00:08:00] Andy Leviss: Yeah, no, it look, it looks pretty slick. I didn't get a chance to see it in person because of the whole having a piece out a day early, uh, 'cause of the snowstorm. But, uh, but yeah, no, I've, I've heard good things. Looks really, really cool. Looks really well

[00:08:14] Sean Walker: Yamaha to allow them to have head amp control?

[00:08:16] Andy Leviss: I, I believe this is a point where I'm le legally obligated to say that Yamaha, uh, cannot accept, uh, external idea submissions.

Uh. And, and, and shut down the conversation. Uh, that's, we, yeah, that's as with any, any, any corporation. We always get that, that reminder from legal right before a big trade show with the hey. So, uh, yeah, I can cannot speak to that.

[00:08:44] Sean Walker: Yeah. That, that's why our, that's why my comments to other manufacturers usually fall on deaf ears too. Hey, if you just made it work like this, we'd buy a bunch. Oh, okay. Anyway, so it's gonna work the same as it always has. All right. Great. Cool man.

[00:08:55] Andy Leviss: Yeah, that's the fun. Like I don't envy like my friends in like r and d 'cause I'm like, how does, how does that parse between what's a feature request that you can take and what's a, a new idea submission that you can't, and it's, uh. That's, that's a complicated line and I'm, I'm glad that is not part of my, uh, my side of the manufacturing world and support as

[00:09:18] Sean Walker: Right. Totally,

[00:09:19] Andy Leviss: Um, yeah. What, and yeah, no, I, I, I dig that these folks are like the, yeah, we got tired of being told what we couldn't do. We didn't went off on our own and started making the product we actually wanted. I mean, that's what, um.

[00:09:32] Sean Walker: That's sweet, right?

[00:09:33] Andy Leviss: Yeah, shoot. What was the, uh, that's what a PB Dyna Sonics was like. That was the guys who designed all the Crest analog mixers.

And then when Crest started scaling that stuff back, they were like, well, we'll form our own company and actually build the version of like the XR rock mount mixers that we always wanted to make without the compromises. And, um, and I mean,

[00:09:51] Sean Walker: one console switcher already used for years.

[00:09:54] Andy Leviss: yep. And then, and like, and I mean, dark matter, it was, you know, that's tall and Dave going like, let's make the inners.

We, we wanna make,

[00:10:00] Sean Walker: Totally.

[00:10:01] Andy Leviss: um.

[00:10:02] Sean Walker: like that. I mean, especially, you know, since we're on in years, like these things are fricking stunning, man. These dark matter sixes are, are ridiculous.

[00:10:09] Andy Leviss: Yep.

[00:10:10] Sean Walker: But, uh, the other

[00:10:12] Andy Leviss: you get a chance to listen to the sevens at, uh, NAMM Speaking of new things at NAMM?

[00:10:15] Sean Walker: I did not, did you.

[00:10:17] Andy Leviss: I did not. They were like jammed at, at the booth every time I was, I was there, which is awesome. I'm glad, I'm glad they were busy and also. Uh, there's a lot of listeners out there who apparently are going up and telling, telling Tall and, uh, Rochelle that they heard about them from us.

So we appreciate you letting, letting 'em know that, uh, you we're the reason you're excited about them because that, that, that helps us both with, uh, past and future guests, uh, when they know that, uh, that you guys are actually listening and for whatever crazy reason, value, what Sean and I think of things,

[00:10:49] Sean Walker: Whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't know if, I dunno if we went that far, bro. They'd said, heard, they didn't say like, although I hope everybody likes 'em as much as we do, honestly, like that they're, I, I really, truly think they're, they're stunning. So I, I hope everybody else is, is getting, getting the, the jollies like I do, man.

That,

[00:11:04] Andy Leviss: Yeah. Like, and so, and their two big things they were showing were the, the DMA sevens, which are, uh. More like a mid base boost is my understanding. So I kinda like, you know, rocking it for drummers as opposed to like the eights, which are like just boom, they just like double up on the bass and they're fo like, I've heard the eights and in like the, the demo units and they're like, take the sixes and just like turn the bass knob up and just like, for like you or me for like critical mis mixing, they're not gonna do it, but they are real fucking fun to listen to.

[00:11:36] Sean Walker: No, I bet, dude, I

[00:11:37] Andy Leviss: Uh, yeah. And again, for like drummers or bass, those are, but like the seven is a little more mid base than like low base apparently. And

[00:11:44] Sean Walker: Got it. I I wouldn't say that the sixes are base light in any

[00:11:47] Andy Leviss: No, but they're, they're, they're more, more even tempered.

[00:11:50] Sean Walker: Yeah, yeah. They're more, a little more accurate than, than the bo boosted

[00:11:53] Andy Leviss: Yeah. Like they've definitely got a, they're definitely not. Ruler flat, like I've headphones that are like that, and then that's not what they're supposed to be, and that's not what I want from them. But yeah, they're, they're not lacking in base by any means, but they're not like, they're not, you know,

[00:12:08] Sean Walker: haystack either. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. I got

[00:12:11] Andy Leviss: Um, yeah. And then the other thing that dark matter was, was previewing and starting to take orders for theirs. They're doing custom, uh, earplugs now,

[00:12:19] Sean Walker: Oh, cool

[00:12:20] Andy Leviss: so, yeah. So, and, and if you've already ordered in ears for them, they've got your impressions on file as digital files, so you can just reach out to them and, and order repair.

You don't have to get new impressions. Uh. So, uh, encourage folks to do that. It's, uh, I said we're probably due to do another, uh, another hearing protection hearing safety episode soon. And it's, it's kind of a once a year, once a year thing. We'd like to hammer into folks 'cause it's always important.

[00:12:46] Sean Walker: Huh.

[00:12:48] Andy Leviss: uh, yeah.

What, uh, I'm trying to think.

[00:12:51] Sean Walker: I finally got brought into this century. I got drug around to all the different wireless stuff and I finally got learnt about Sennheiser Spectera,

[00:12:59] Andy Leviss: Okay.

[00:13:00] Sean Walker: holy cow, dude, that is pretty fricking cool dude.

[00:13:04] Andy Leviss: Yeah.

[00:13:05] Sean Walker: Pretty fricking cool. And I, I didn't realize, 'cause I was like, oh yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah.

And in doing corporate. we get asked for things, we get specifically asked for ion, right? But we're not always being asked. So it, you know, we, we gotta have some axion around, but we don't have to have only ion in just a ton of it, even though it's wonderful. So we started looking at what are the other options are, because, you know. The sound devices has a cool rig, right? Spectera is getting lots of, lots of chatter and it's got a cool rig and Sennheiser has always made good stuff. So we know we went and looked over at the, at Spectera and I didn't realize, but it's like 10 grand for the base unit at, you know, retail like at Sweetwater, whatever, right?

Which is a one u Dante Inn out redundant and it's 30, it's. inputs and 32 outputs, and there's no licenses or any other things to buy. It's literally just 10 grand for this rack and do what you want with it. So it can be ears, it can be a microphone, it can be a combination of microphones and ears all at the same time.

And I was like, holy crap, dude. I was, I, I hadn't quite made that connection. I know that, you know, there's like a hundred thousand people listening to this laughing at me right now, and that's okay, dude. I'm, I'm cool with that. But like I, I'm so stuck in the Sure world where like there are input devices and there are output devices, right?

You've got ears and you've got this that I didn't, I didn't connect the two that it was in. One box could be microphones and ears and whatever you want. It was just fricking awesome dude. So then I started, you know, asking more and, and looking at some of the prices and I was like, dude, this is pretty fricking stunning.

So we're gonna. We're gonna get a, a pretty sizable spectera rig because it solves so many fricking problems. Like, okay, I've got handhelds body packs. If fbs, I've got fricking wireless transmission to another room for something, I've got blah, blah, blah, blah. You know what I mean? Just like ran all kinds of random stuff sometimes that it, one rack at a two world solves in a fricking heartbeat that's already on the Dante network.

Like, holy moly, what a cool rig

[00:15:15] Andy Leviss: One network cable to your antenna, like the, the transceiver is at the antenna. So you're not having to run, you're not running BNC cable.

[00:15:23] Sean Walker: So when we're ripping trade shows and you're like, cool man, I need this in four different rooms, you're like, cool, just pull some, you know, pull some cat to each. Oh my God, dude, so good.

[00:15:31] Andy Leviss: Yeah. We

[00:15:32] Sean Walker: I, I'm stoked about that.

[00:15:33] Andy Leviss: yeah, we gotta circle back. 'cause our, our friends at Zen Heiser have been talking about getting a couple of the like more. Like engineering type, uh, folks who work on Spectera to come hang with us and kind of nerd the F out about it.

[00:15:46] Sean Walker: Oh yeah, dude. We'll, we'll definitely get them on and, and chat with it

[00:15:48] Andy Leviss: circle back on

[00:15:49] Sean Walker: justice than I will.

[00:15:51] Andy Leviss: Yeah. And then, and the other thing we gotta is they're, they're what they're using on, I dunno if you know about masquerade, the immersive Phantom of the Opera.

Um, I think, I think Daniel and Andreas actually told us that they had just gotten to see it when we had them on the, on the show a while back. It's the new, like in, in Midtown Manhattan. They've got, it's Phantom of the Opera, but it's a fully immersive like, walkthrough experience. Like there's like, you know, forecasts going at once as like audiences go through and like these, like 16 minute or whatever, like waves.

Through the thing, and they're in the middle of the action, and like they're covering like multiple floors of this building on like 57th Street on the west side of Manhattan. And, um, you know, and, um, my, you know, old friend Cameron Stuckey, who we've talked about before, was like the RF consultant on it.

And they, it was one of those, like nothing else was gonna work. And my understanding is basically they like Specter, technically we're like stretching the boundaries of what they should be able to do, but we think it might work. And, and they tried it and it worked. Perfectly. I mean, they're doing some, I gotta, I gotta reach out to, to Brett and Sean about coming on on too, to talk about the design and like, it's wild how they're running that show.

'cause it is like, it's, I mean they're, the show's being mixed on a ravage DSP, but like. Not with the surface. It's being mixed off a combination of this proprietary show control, uh, software they have. And then, uh, just like a, you know, a fader pack. I, I forget what brand that like, ties into that for bits that need live adjustment, but it's like, it's like super duper custom.

You know, they've got some stuff that's like automated based on like meter levels to like make adjustments without needing human. It's, some of it's scary, but, um.

[00:17:30] Sean Walker: Dude, crazy.

[00:17:31] Andy Leviss: But yeah, they're doing some cool stuff. I, I gotta both try and check the show out and, uh, which I believe means actually dusting off a tuxedo.

I think you have to dress up appropriately for it.

[00:17:40] Sean Walker: Attaboy. I love that shit. I love that shit. That's awesome.

[00:17:44] Andy Leviss: yeah. So, uh.

[00:17:47] Sean Walker: For those of you out there that don't own a tuxedo, you need to find you one event a year to go rent a tuxedo and go to. And feel fancy, like get a haircut, get a mani-pedi, get all fricking dialed up with the, you know, beard, trim, whatever, and get in a tuxedo and go feel like James Bond for a fricking day.

It's pretty fricking fun, dude. It's fun. You, you, especially, especially if you don't live in that world, it's, it's 'cause I don't live in that world, right? Like, I'm a founder technician trying to figure out how to be a CEO, right? So like, it's super fun to go feel like James Bond for the night, you know?

[00:18:21] Andy Leviss: yep. Um, what else? Let's see what we're thinking of Sennheiser. Um. I think Neuman was the, who was, who's also a Sennheiser company. We stopped at, they had a,

[00:18:32] Sean Walker: Oh, I'm sending pictures, bro. You didn't mean I got, I got, I got dirty pictures to send to you, dog.

[00:18:38] Andy Leviss: they had a, yeah, they had a cool demo. They've got this, uh, immersive, like augmented reality thing using, um, the apple like vision, you know, glasses that you, you sit down and it puts a little dome, you know, in a stage with like, you know, a, a head that kind of looks like.

You know, Fritz, the famous, you know, head sitting in the middle of it and all the speakers around showing you where those are, and then little objects for each of the sound. And then you're actually just taking your hand and pinching it. And like with the glasses on, you're moving a little figure around and just like moving the sound here or moving it there or spreading it out.

And to, you know, Sean and Sage who are watching me on like either shoulder behind me, like I'm just sitting here like miming in space with these glasses on, looking, looking, uh, insane. And uh, and you

[00:19:24] Sean Walker: pictures, bro. I'm gonna put those in the discord. There's pictures.

[00:19:27] Andy Leviss: come by the discord after the episode. Popes, they'll, they'll, uh, they'll post the embarrassing photos, but it was really cool.

Um, it's, I think the, the limit that technology runs into now is that it's, at least for now, gotta use the apple's built in speakers, which are not neuman level speakers. So like, the technology is cool, the immersive rendering is cool. Uh. It's certainly not gonna fully replace like, you know, studio monitors or a sound monitor like I am.

I'm curious, and we didn't get a chance to really dig into it too much deeper with them. I'm curious to find out if they're like working to see if they can like, use it in conjunction with, you know, like in ears or, or headphones of theirs to improve the sound quality but past what the Apple thing offers.

Not that the Apple thing is bad, it's just, it's, you know, it's the, the speakers in those glasses aren't designed for what we're doing with it, so it's, it. I mean, and it seemed like they were showing it as like a proof of concept, um, of, of stuff they're playing with. And it was really cool to play with. Um, uh, yeah, I think the, like the only negative things about the experience were like, not about like their stuff, it's just the, the apple, uh, vision os is just.

Weird, particularly if you've never used it before. So like getting a crash course in it as you're sitting in a chair in the middle of a trade show floor to try and do this demo is just like, okay. So I do, and like the guy, he is like, you don't have to actually reach out and touch it. You can just look at what you want to touch and tap in air.

And I'm like, that's, oh, that works. But it's weird. It's disconnecting my finger in my brain. Um, but it, it's cool to at least now be able to say like, Hey, I played with Vision AR too. So, uh,

[00:21:02] Sean Walker: Dude, that's cool.

[00:21:03] Andy Leviss: was neat. Um.

[00:21:04] Sean Walker: only time I've messed with virtual reality, you know, showing how old I'm again, but was at, uh, the New York, New York Hotel in Las Vegas, right before you go on the rollercoaster, there's a, you can do it in virtual reality. So instead of doing the rollercoaster in. In person, you can do it.

I was like, oh man, I'm gonna try this. I was there with my son for nascar. He's like, you know, he is, he's eight. So we hopped out, we did it. He had a blast. And I was like, I'm gonna throw up, like this is craziness to be like, 'cause it's mo the chair's moving and it's not the same. And it's a weird feeling to be like, I know that I'm not doing this, but I am doing this.

You know what I mean? And then we went and got the rollercoaster was no big deal. It was like, woo hoo. You know? But it, it was crazy. And it, it's cool what they can do with it though.

[00:21:45] Andy Leviss: Yeah. And well like in the AR is cool 'cause it's like you're, it's super imposing what you're seeing on top of the real world and instead of completely replacing it, um, yeah, I've.

[00:21:54] Sean Walker: totally.

[00:21:55] Andy Leviss: I haven't done any full VR stuff, but, uh, that is getting way off topic for us. Um, see other cool stuff from now. Um, one thing that somebody was showing at NAMM that you and I actually got to play with a little bit earlier, um, is the, am I, I don't know if I'm gonna say it right, did Drio, the, the guitar folks, um, I, I hope I'm pronouncing right, if not, my apologies.

Uh, they came out with an IR mic mute. Uh. Which, uh, we've had to play with for a little bit. I'm, I'm not using it right now. Only 'cause the microphone I am using it with does not lend itself well to this type of muter. Um, uh, but I've, I've played with it a bunch and it's super cool and I'm definitely gonna keep in my, in my, well my ntic or pelican for those of you aren't as particular as I am.

[00:22:41] Sean Walker: super cool. It's like the old opto gate, but,

[00:22:43] Andy Leviss: yep. I'm gonna say it's, it's. Yep. It's pretty similar to the Opt Gate. Um, it, I know Opt Gate, uh, has like two versions, one of which is just a ducker and one is a full mute. This just mutes, it doesn't offer the ducking option. Um, what's nice about it for like quick setup is the opt gate needs a screwdriver to, you know, go in and change the trim pot to set the distance.

Uh, this one just has like a little like spinny thumb wheel on top that you can really easily adjust it. Um, you know, there's the hard button. The other cool thing is the mute is powered by Phantom. So if, uh, this shit goes off the rails and you need to just bypass it and just let the mic through, you just kill Phantom and audio start passing a, assuming it's a dynamic mic, obviously

[00:23:26] Sean Walker: Yep. Yeah, it, it's, it's freaking awesome. I've got one client that the drummer is on that drummer. Is, uh, also kind of band leader, you know what I mean? So he's able to just swing the micro, you know how they do swing the microphone away, right? Muted B-B-B-B-B drumming away, it's not a bunch of drum bleed, and this drum mic swings it back, puts it in his face, all of a sudden turns on.

So instead of having a, you know, a, a hot shot or something like that to have to deal with, he can just fricking drum and swing and talk and swing it away, and it works flawlessly. It's awesome.

[00:23:54] Andy Leviss: Yeah, I mean, honestly, if, if I were using like a more handheld style mic with a cylindrical, like a slim body, I would use it for the podcast just so I can like lean, lean back and lean in and not have to remember to mute myself when I cough. Um, the, the, I just, I'm. I'm bouncing back and forth between microphones right now 'cause I can never make up my mind.

But I'm either on the MD 4 21 Compact or an RE 20, and both of those just block the IR sensor on this thing. Um, which is not an issue, not a thing I fault them for at all. 'cause this was designed for like backup singers and drummers who are gonna use a 58 and nine 30, they're gonna use a handheld mic. So, uh, it is, it is, uh,

[00:24:34] Sean Walker: just not the right application, but that's okay. It works killer when the, when the right. Application is

[00:24:38] Andy Leviss: Yeah, it's great. And the other thing is when I saw it online and, and just knowing like the products from this company, I know I, I was like, oh, is the reason it's, you know, a lot cheaper than an optic gate? Is it like lightweight and plastic? It is not. It is, it is some beefy metal here. It is really well made.

Uh, really impressive. Uh, little thing. They were showing that off at NAMM. Like I said, they sent us a couple to play with earlier. Uh. Yeah, that was one of the, one of the cooler things from a company. I didn't expect a product like that from at all.

[00:25:09] Sean Walker: Dude, awesome.

[00:25:11] Andy Leviss: Uh,

[00:25:12] Sean Walker: We had a, we had a really fun, uh, run in Garrett and I were down there. Garrett was, was ripping patch at the, at the, uh, RCF arena most of the time. But he got to squirrel away a little bit and we walked around the trade show floor and, uh. We got to go to link USA since Garrett's the builder in our, in our organization, he's the mad scientist, right?

So we went to the link USA booth and got to walk through all the parts they have, the things they make, the way they do stuff. And it was rad 'cause one of the few booths this year that actually had espresso that they would just make U espresso. So we hung out at link a lot longer than we should have. But it was great dude. It was cool to see all the new stuff they're making and things that I didn't even realize. They could make, you know what I mean? We were like, well, here's what we're doing right now. And they were like, oh, we could make a cable that does that in one cable. We're like, oh my God, how

[00:26:02] Andy Leviss: Nice.

[00:26:03] Sean Walker: So like all the looms we make, you know what I mean? To make like. Power signal data, you know, comms, whatever, like five different things. We could like do it in one cable with a twist lock. I was like, that's sick. That's so sick. So we're, we're stoked. We're talking about those guys, about making some custom stuff so that we can just pull like one cable to the grid and blow out a bazillion speakers and free speak and spectera and everything.

Just over one pipe would be sick.

[00:26:30] Andy Leviss: Nice. Uh, I think, I'm trying to think, who else do we see? Uh. I mean, I know RCF had new speakers. They were showing off, right? They're getting into the cardio world.

[00:26:39] Sean Walker: They are. Yeah, the G TX seven C is cardioid, which is pretty dope. That's like a, uh, XSL or car size kind of box. Uh, or I guess leopard is about that size ish too. Um, that was pretty cool. I finally got to like go put hands on the NXL 14, which is. Gonna be a staple for us for like lobby fill speakers and front fills and that kind of thing.

They're, so, it's like a, it's like an HDL six on its side in a wood box. You know what I mean? So it's like a, like a, I don't remember exactly the specifications, but I'm just gonna say like a three inch horn and then two six inch roofers vertical in a wood box. So it looks like a Meyer X 20. Right.

[00:27:19] Andy Leviss: on.

[00:27:20] Sean Walker: Cute little thing that's really slick for like galas and corporate and that kind of stuff, but Sounds awesome.

And totally rocks, you know what I mean? And uh, so that was, that was sweet to go check out and see that guy, see some of the other stuff they're making. Um, across from them was Meyers who got to see the Tegra, I guess it's called. I don't, I'm sorry if I mispronounce it, but they pick weird names of these things.

[00:27:43] Andy Leviss: If, if not, we'll

[00:27:43] Sean Walker: I'm rolling with it. I don't care. I'm rolling with it. Uh, and that was cool to see. They're making a, you know, like an HDL 30 or, or dual 10 kind of box that was. Fit in a lot of things. That size format fits a lot of places, so that's cool. You know what I mean? Adamson's got a baller like CS 10 in that size, you know what I mean?

Our bro, Chris has got, he was, he was there with, with Adamson and they had a, a really cool thing in that same form factor. I think that's for like regional sound companies doing concerts. That's a good form factor of like not having to load a large format PA into your truck, right. And have to support that, but also not have to deal with a super compact pa.

It's a good mid-size to like. Rock, some good sized shows and also be able to maybe do it in corporate if you had to. And a, a kind of a good multi-tool, you know, so I'm stoked to see that there's some some high end offerings in that, in that realm with Admirers and Meyer this year. That's pretty sweet.

[00:28:35] Andy Leviss: Nice. Uh, yeah. What else? In Adamson, like we were looking at, they have a couple of cool, like little like cube fill speaker options

[00:28:41] Sean Walker: They do,

[00:28:42] Andy Leviss: we were looking

[00:28:42] Sean Walker: a six switch. They've got a really cool like Milan switch they've made for themselves now that they, they made all in-house. It's not a. Yeah, it's not a rebrand of something else. It's their own proprietary. I, I think it just does Milan and it's got

[00:28:55] Andy Leviss: Yep.

[00:28:56] Sean Walker: fiber like optical, it's, maybe it's optical Con Duo or Quad.

I don't, I don't remember. Chris will have to,

[00:29:01] Andy Leviss: Yeah, I'm, I'm,

[00:29:02] Sean Walker: to the Discord, but it's, it's got optical con on the front and econ.

[00:29:07] Andy Leviss: got, uh, eight, eight Ether Con and two, uh, optical con multimode duo fiber port. So 10 connections. And then they also, uh, dropped their USB Milan Bridge. Which is so, because I mean, there is, there's some A VB interfaces that'll work for Apple, um, and Apple's got, you know, some degree of A VB built into the os.

But for Windows, there's not really anything hardware wise. So now there's a little USBC box that like. Pop A USB cable into one end, a network cable into the other end, and pump a bunch of channels. Uh, uh, what does it do? Uh, 32 inputs and four, yeah, 16 inputs and 16 outputs. 96 K, 32 bit

[00:29:48] Sean Walker: That's pretty dope.

[00:29:49] Andy Leviss: USBC bus powered.

Like that was, that's pretty slick. Uh, did you look at the, what else was the, uh, the DBU series?

[00:29:57] Sean Walker: I didn't, I didn't see that. I've, I've heard about it, but I didn't see it. Was it cool?

[00:30:00] Andy Leviss: that's their, their new point source box that is their first self-powered and powered, uh, POE, which I had, I had, again, that was one of the, one of the demos that was on my list for Saturday to try and get to that I had to cut short, uh, that, and I was gonna go check out the acoustics demo and see, uh, see what the Ryan and Scott show was.

[00:30:19] Sean Walker: That show was cool. I went and hung with Ryan and those guys and got to fly L two in their demo, which was, which was cool. You know what I

[00:30:25] Andy Leviss: I was gonna say, I heard Sean. Sean flew and away for the first time in a long time.

[00:30:29] Sean Walker: Hey, how easy, killer. Easy. I had to take my white gloves off and actually put some more gloves on. No, I'm just kidding. Uh, but that was, that was really cool.

You know, really easy to, obviously it's a demo, so it's all set up and ready to go, but it was, it was easy to fly and rolled out sounded great. You know, that that was, that was sweet. That, uh, plus like. In addition to the technology, um, I, I judge motherfuckers based on how they treat people, right? So RCF and El Acoustics both do an excellent job in their demo rooms of welcoming people, right?

[00:31:04] Andy Leviss: Mm-hmm.

[00:31:04] Sean Walker: it's quiet, there are snacks. There's like. Water, coffee, you know what I mean? Sometimes there's a sandwich buffet or something like just here's a fricking reprieve from the absolute chaos that is a trade show of this size, right?

[00:31:18] Andy Leviss: Yep.

[00:31:18] Sean Walker: and, and NAMM is, NAMM is unique, uh, in that everything is loud right there.

Every, every hall you go to has drums or guitars or trumpets or pro audio demos or whatever. And NAMM, the organization does an excellent job. It's not a, a comment about that. It's just the nature of what we do is fricking loud, right? So to have this like quiet moment to come into. Where, you know, like you walk into RCF or you walk into El acoustics and they've got wine or coffee or fricking snacks or whatever, where water, you can just have a fucking minute to like, take a breath, think through what's going on, and it really helps you to be involved in the moment that's happening with you rather than trying to figure out like, dude, I'm dying.

I need coffee. Where do I, how, how do I get to the coffee stand that the line's 10 miles long or whatever? So. It really says a lot about these manufacturers that understand what we're going through as attendees. And also I judge 'em because I'm like, Hey man, how they treat us before they've got our money says a lot about how they're gonna treat us after they've got our money.

Right. As a buyer, as a, as a company owner. Right. And that's been true that you know that, that when you have somebody that's got a bare bones demo, you're like, cool man, I'm gonna get bare bones service when I'm done. When they don't, you're like, okay. They, they are thinking about customer service. They're thinking about what's going on, and I'm likely to have better support going in.

'cause you don't really know until you in Right. You have no idea. You're just guessing. So well done to acoustics, well done to RCF for having incredible demos set up and a really hospitality forward mindset. It was, it was awesome. It was very nice to go to. Um, I didn't see. Meyer or DNB demos. I didn't go into their rooms, so I can't speak about that.

I'm not, I'm not slagging on anybody else. I'm just complimenting of

[00:33:12] Andy Leviss: There's only,

[00:33:12] Sean Walker: I, who I did

[00:33:13] Andy Leviss: time. Yeah.

[00:33:14] Sean Walker: I'm just complimenting who I did see. I'm not slagging anybody else. But, uh, you know, it, it was, it was great to, to go do those things. And then, um, what else was really unique? Either we covered. Super cool. L Acoustics demo.

Cool. RCF demos, Spectera, violet audio. Anything else that you had? Oh, the De-Feedback was fricking dope. Like

[00:33:39] Andy Leviss: Yep. Um,

[00:33:40] Sean Walker: of customer service, I'm gonna pause for one second. I know we had a whole episode with him, but like I just emailed Devin from his website outta the blue and was like, Hey, does this work on Live Box?

Hey, are you at NAMM? What's going on? And I walked right up to the label. He goes, yep, yep. Walked right up to the waves booth, chatted with him for a minute. Like he's super approachable. So if you go get De-Feedback, you're gonna have great customer service, which is really important to us. Running companies where you're like, I can't be a support ticket in the queue for a year.

You know what I mean? Like, you know that doing support for a great manufacturer, right? Like you gotta get through that. People are literally on show site or having problems or prepping shows, like you gotta get through it. So that's, that's awesome dude. Devon's gonna be a great resource for our. Our community and our industry on his stuff, which is killer.

So I was really stoked to be able to, like, as he didn't know me, he didn't know who I was. I just emailed from my fricking work account, you know, Hey, does this work here? Can this do this? Boom, super fast. It was great. So I was stoked that we were able to get him on after that and, you know, get everybody the info they wanted about that pro.

That was cool dude. So good. Good on him.

[00:34:45] Andy Leviss: Nice. Uh, yeah, and, you know, it was, it was an interesting name for me 'cause it was my first time being their manufacturer side. So, uh, I was doing a lot of demos, which of course we, we should talk about the new stuff that, uh, that we were showing at Yamaha, which, um, a lot of my time there was spent showing off Ravage V seven, which, uh, just released, uh,

[00:35:05] Sean Walker: Which

[00:35:05] Andy Leviss: last week.

[00:35:06] Sean Walker: sick, sick.

[00:35:07] Andy Leviss: Yeah, there's some cool, cool new stuff there. Uh, quick coyotes, real, uh, mix to mix routing. Uh, little bit of an a footnote and just the limit on which mixes you can send to, to which just due to some architectural limits in the console. Uh, the short version basically being, uh. If you're gonna use mix to mix on ravage, put all your destination mixes at the end.

'cause basically every bank of 12 mixes can route to any of the banks of 12 after it. So like chip mixes

[00:35:41] Sean Walker: won't route to itself. You,

[00:35:43] Andy Leviss: or anything before it,

[00:35:44] Sean Walker: can't do mix one, to mix two. You gotta do mix one to mix 12 or

[00:35:48] Andy Leviss: or 13. Yeah. So basically mix one through 12. Can mix, can go to mixes, 13 through 72, 13 through 25, can go to or through 24, can go to 25 through 72 and on down the chain,

[00:35:59] Sean Walker: Yep. Got it.

[00:36:00] Andy Leviss: I know is, is, is, seems a little weird. It's just, it has to do with the internal architecture of the DSP. Um,

[00:36:07] Sean Walker: know what? It's better than not at all. Dude. That's a huge, that's way better than not at all. And with that many buses, you're just like, cool, man. All my,

[00:36:13] Andy Leviss: Yeah. It's not like we're lacking for mixed

[00:36:15] Sean Walker: in fricking, they're at the end. No problem. Custom fade or labor. They're right next to each other. We wanna see 'em anyway.

Done. Fucking laughing at it. No

[00:36:21] Andy Leviss: let's see what else In V seven, uh, we expanded a lot of the immersive control. So we've always had our own, uh, a FC image as well as, uh, Alisa control. We've now got native DB soundscape control and then, and then also added A-D-M-O-S-C, which is an open source protocol that a whole pile of platform like Meyers involved in it.

So like space map go, supports it right now. Um, uh. Uh, I believe the Adamson Fletcher machine supports it. Um, you know, like lots of the list of manufacturers either supporting it or, or who have like expressed an interest in adding it to their products is. As well. I mean, I, I believe, uh, Elisa even technically supports it, although with, with, uh, ravage you don't need it 'cause we have the native Elisa, uh, control.

But, uh, yeah, there's some cool stuff there. Um, one that I know, uh, our, our good friend Sage was particularly excited about is we've got a ping pong delay effect now.

[00:37:19] Sean Walker: Oh, she was stoked.

[00:37:20] Andy Leviss: Yeah, she was like, I've been trying forever to fucking make one of those with like just the delays that are in and it's really hard. Um, and it's, it's, it's, it's got a drive, uh, function built into for some harmonic distortion, so you can have that ping pong effect, but like, make it sit in the mix really nice and not like super.

In your face, although you can, if that's what you want. Uh, yeah, we've got that. Um, uh, you can now send OSC messages out on scene recall, uh, handful of other stuff. I'm not gonna sit here and do like a whole infomercial on the, on the show.

[00:37:49] Sean Walker: Sweet. I got a question. I got a question for manufacturers and, and this isn't directed at your manufacturer 'cause you guys didn't do this, but I noticed that several manufacturers and, and I, I'm asking you, since you work for a manufacturer, maybe you've got some insight, even though it's not directed at your manufacturer.

I noticed that several manufacturers that were demonstrating specifically speakers. Had either sales or marketing set it up and they did not have an audio engineer or a systems engineer deploy their line array or their system at a show specifically made to sell their line array or their system to other engineers.

Do you have any insight as to why they would've cheaped out on a couple of day rates to make sure that was baller?

[00:38:31] Andy Leviss: I.

[00:38:32] Sean Walker: what are they thinking? What does it, how does a company think internally like that? 'cause there was a few where you walked through. That were like, why is this all hung straight? And you're like, you took over a different stage.

You're trying to do something cool, and it's all hung straight and sounds awful. Like what is going on here? You know? And it's not a bad product, right.

[00:38:50] Andy Leviss: yeah. Honestly, I don't know. I, I mean, I think there's, sometimes there's politics involved. Sometimes it's the, 'cause a lot of times, like the manufacturers aren't necessarily bringing their own gear in and setting it. Because A, they don't necessarily have like that large a demo rig, you know, they've got a certain amount.

Um, but so they'll team up with like one of their local accounts and it, and it, it, that works beneficially financially for everybody too. 'cause that way, like, you don't wanna like come into an area where you've got an account and be like, we don't need you. We've got our own stuff. Like, you know, you, you, you throw some love to that.

And then, so in certain situations I think there can be some politics there on who's actually doing the tuning. Um. Yeah. It,

[00:39:33] Sean Walker: mostly like design and tuning is really what I was thinking about. Like holy moly, dude.

[00:39:39] Andy Leviss: I, I think it varies based on company and, and I'm, I, I, I know some of the reasons which are stuff like that or politics are like, sometimes they're just within a company.

The engineering side and the marketing side are just different folks and have different opinions about what sound goods are, what they need out of a show. Sometimes it's down to shows are expensive and, and. You know, and, and you know, the marketing, it all comes outta the marketing budget and no one,

[00:40:04] Sean Walker: down to one word and that's drayage.

[00:40:07] Andy Leviss: that.

There's, that, there's, uh, there's the, you know, the show is under the marketing budget line and marketing doesn't want to pay for engineering, but engineering is like, this is your thing. We don't want to pay to send our guy. Like,

[00:40:19] Sean Walker: Fair enough. All right, I got you.

[00:40:21] Andy Leviss: I mean, I know like that's one thing we particularly do for Yamaha at the booth is, is there were, uh, Jonathan and I were staff there as we're the tech support engineers and.

You know, like a good chunk of the time we were just, you know, tagging in with the field marketing engineers and just, you know, doing demos of like the new features and answering questions. But that way we're also there when people have, you know, heavy duty like tech questions, you know, they can, they can ask us and we can do, we can answer them or, you know, one of the, one of the marketing folks can be like, hang on, let me get you, let me get you a nerd, uh, and, you know, flag one of us

[00:40:53] Sean Walker: Oh, you fit that bill for sure.

[00:40:55] Andy Leviss: that's, that's my job.

[00:40:57] Sean Walker: Nerd. Nerd, Andy.

[00:40:59] Andy Leviss: Yep.

[00:41:00] Sean Walker: All right, cool.

[00:41:01] Andy Leviss: yeah. And then what else did we, we had, um, we dropped the, the MGX, uh, mixers and,

[00:41:07] Sean Walker: Oh, that was cool to put hands on. You got one in front of you now, don't

[00:41:10] Andy Leviss: I, I, I have one. I'm actually, you guys are listening to me through an MGX 12 V right now.

[00:41:16] Sean Walker: How is it? I, I didn't, I mean, I, I put hands on it, but I didn't really get the demo. I.

[00:41:19] Andy Leviss: It's, so, it's, I mean, the mgs are, you know, our little, like, you know, like our version of like, similar to like a mixed wizard or a Mackey or like any of like that, that inexpensive utility mixer that like, you know, a lot of bands will have that's got a couple ENSs, uh, you know, maybe a built in effect or two, you know, in a stereo mix.

Like it's not gonna do crazy routing. And so the MGX is basically taking that and popping it up into the digital realm. So like the 12 has like four XLR inputs. Uh, is it like, uh, you know, two quarter, two sets of quarter inch stereo, two sets of, uh, RCA stereo, you know, a, a pair of xl r main outs, six quarter inch outs and four different headphone mixes.

So it's, it's, it's. Very, uh, oriented towards being useful for folks who are streaming things. 'cause you can have multiple, uh, headphone mixes on it. Uh, when you plug it into your computer, if you've got the driver installed, it actually shows up as four USB interfaces, uh, three of which are stereo and can all have the same or different mixes.

And then, uh, and two by two in either direction. And then one of which is, gives you like the full, like just it's a dot connection. So it gives you direct outs of every channel.

[00:42:33] Sean Walker: Oh, that's cool.

[00:42:34] Andy Leviss: so both for multi-tracking or just using it as an audio interface. Um, yeah, it's got like dynamics built in. Uh, there's like a touchscreen on it.

It's, um, again, being like an MG family. It's like the 60 millimeter faders. Uh, faders aren't motorized, so scenes will recall EQ and a bunch of the other stuff, but, uh, but aren't gonna recall fader levels. Um, it's got a eight button, like kind of instant replay, like sound effect pad built in that you can record sounds into.

So, uh. And I remembered which button it was too. I hadn't labeled it.

[00:43:11] Sean Walker: Nice.

[00:43:11] Andy Leviss: Uh, yeah, sorry. Everybody at home, uh, um.

[00:43:15] Sean Walker: Oh my God, that was great.

[00:43:17] Andy Leviss: Yep. Yep. You, I, we did, we did not plan that at all.

[00:43:21] Sean Walker: Oh my God, that was

[00:43:21] Andy Leviss: yeah, so like for folks who are podcasting and stuff like that, it's got that built in. Um, and then the URX is basically take that, shrink it down to like a six channel mixer, get rid of the faders and build it into USB interface.

So it's sort of like a hybrid mixer, USB interface, which is a cool little, uh, little thing. Um. It's, you know, it's been, it's interesting, like Donly had my podcast set up in something like this as opposed to like, I, you know, usually use like an SSL two plus and there's, you know, a much more flexibility, but that also means a little more work, getting it set up outta the gate to do some of the things.

Like I don't have to, to basically have a big handle for my near fields here, but be able to pull that down quickly when we go to record so we don't get echo. And I want my mic going to my in ears, but not to the near fields. And that's. It's both quick and not on, like the SSL two 'cause it's, it's a couple knobs, but they're just analog knobs that are right there.

Uh, whereas on this, it was like building a couple mixes to do it. Um, but it's like super powerful once I figured, once I, you know, thought through how I wanted to do it. So that was pretty cool. Um, yeah. And then, and

[00:44:28] Sean Walker: uh, just made it a whole lot simpler and I am just using that Sennheiser thing they sent where it has a mute button and a knob, and I can just do it all right here. It's really easy. I don't have to even make any. Anything. It's pretty sweet. You should try simplifying.

[00:44:40] Andy Leviss: Yeah, it's, it's the hole that I spend my full day going between, like doing this, taking phone calls through my computer for, for the day gig, uh, listening to music, rocking it out. I, I just added a sub for, to my set up, uh, was my holiday gift to myself. Yeah, I got, got an HS eight s kicking under the desk now.

[00:45:03] Sean Walker: Dude, speaking of monitors and subwoofers, I finally rolled over to the IK multimedia place and saw all their little, like MTM, oh fuck. I

[00:45:11] Andy Leviss: Yeah, like then the, the, the, the micro monitors.

[00:45:15] Sean Walker: Dude, those things are fucking sweet.

[00:45:17] Andy Leviss: I gotta a pair of the micro monitors in like a bad, it's up in the, it's tucked in the attic right now. There's like my traveling, like those things have no right to sound as good as they do for how small they are and how cheap they are.

[00:45:27] Sean Walker: Good for, for how big little they're, I get to listen to like the whole range. They had a little switcher, right? So you go from the smallest to the biggest and you know, from inside to outside kind of vibe. It was fucking unbelievable how dope

[00:45:36] Andy Leviss: Yeah, like there

[00:45:37] Sean Walker: like as they got bigger, they just had more low end extension, but they didn't really change.

And they mid range a ton. It was, it was unbelievable, dude. I was

[00:45:44] Andy Leviss: smallest one, like it, it's not a slacker in the low, like whatever

[00:45:47] Sean Walker: it sure is not.

[00:45:48] Andy Leviss: doing in there is wild.

[00:45:50] Sean Walker: dude. Yeah, yeah. No, it's great. I'm gonna get a pair for the desks just so I can, like, you know, I, I've got some HS fives right now that are just too physically large for the desk. Sorry, Yamaha. And, uh, these, I, these multimedia, ike multimedia things are gonna be sick, dude.

Just a little itty bitty guys. It'd be dope.

[00:46:08] Andy Leviss: Yeah, that's, I was doing, like, I was doing a corporate event in Vegas, like, what, A year and a half ago, two years ago, something like that. And I needed nearfield. 'cause, you know, um, the, uh, our, our, our friends in the hotel AV didn't have anything suitable. And I was like, on the verge between like pa Yeah. Yeah. Um, I was on the verge between like a pair of like the smallest Gen X and these, and like a couple folks in the Discord were raving about them that I was like, well, there's a return policy. If I don't like 'em, I can return 'em and get the Gen X. And I'm like, these are like half the way to the Gen X.

Like, they make a nice little padded bag you can get for them that's got space for the cables and the power supply. I'm like, they're, yeah, they're, yeah. Bonkers. Good for what they are.

[00:46:50] Sean Walker: Dude, totally.

[00:46:52] Andy Leviss: I mean, they're bonkers. Good for what they aren't like.

[00:46:54] Sean Walker: Yeah. Yeah, they're just good. They're just totally good. Let's see, what else? What else did we see there? That was, that was pretty freaking sweet.

[00:47:06] Andy Leviss: I mean, we saw, we saw our buddy Wayne rocking, uh, rocking his, uh, his pristine white, uh, white butted up at a front of house behind his paragon at

[00:47:13] Sean Walker: yeah, yeah, totally, totally. It was good to see everybody at RCF and freaking rocking. They had the arena going again this year. That was dope. uh, always fun. Oh dude. while hang, speaking of Wayne and hanging at the Paragon, the uh, oh, I'm gonna mispronounce his name, Larry Dropper from API and his wife and some other people from API came over because API owns the company a TI that is Paragon, right?

And they make JDK audio now and the API or a TI Pro six and the eight MX, two and eight, those kind of things. So they bought. A TI, which made the Paragon console. And so it was, and they still support it, dude. So you can still get parts for that Paragon from API that makes the, you know, five twelves and those kinda things.

It was pretty sweet dude. And, and chatting with, with Larry, he was just like blown away how cool it was that people are still using those products from so many years ago. And I was like. How cool is it to see your legacy still in work today? He is like, it's pretty rad, dude, because the analog recording consoles they're known for are what's really selling, right?

The 24 40 eights and 16 oh eights stuff. He was like, but it's cool to see people still using these and we will still support 'em. We've still got parts. They're not. It's not a bunch of like proprietary weird stuff you can't get anymore.

[00:48:38] Andy Leviss: Yeah.

[00:48:39] Sean Walker: they can still support all those desks. I was like, dude, what? How fricking cool is that?

Speaking of good customer service, like that was dope. That was a cool moment. You know what I mean? That was a cool moment to like, it just happened to be in the right place at the right time. 'cause I don't, I don't freaking know that dude. Right. But he was just, what a great dude and his wife was cool. His team of directors that were there, like it was a, you know, several people from API that were there to talk to Wayne.

And once they were done, I, you know, butted in like a. Nosy butt in guy, but it was, it was awesome. I know, I know. I'm so shy.

[00:49:10] Andy Leviss: uh, what else?

[00:49:11] Sean Walker: really cool that API was supporting that. You know, something that hasn't been made in, I don't know, was it 20, 30 years? Probably. You know, it's

[00:49:17] Andy Leviss: I mean, I'll tell you like we, I, I, when I fir, when I first started up at Yamaha over the summer, we actually had the breakdown. They showed me the breakdown of like, support cases for like the previous year. And like there's, we'll, every year or so get like a pm 3000 pm 4,000 inquiry, and. We're happy to support.

Like it's, yeah, no, we support it. Like, you know, if, if we got the parts, we'll sell you the parts. If we can't get the parts anymore, we can't. 'cause sometimes, sometimes just you can't. Um, but, uh, yeah, and I mean that was, that was part of the reason the sale and QL discontinued when they were, was to be able to commit to, we will absolutely have any of the parts you need for this for seven years from now.

[00:49:57] Sean Walker: That's perfect because I need an output card for one of my qls.

[00:50:01] Andy Leviss: Yeah, I'll, I'll, uh, uh, 8 6 6 2 1 1 9 3 6 6, uh, fi five for parts support. Uh, yeah, um, uh, yeah, it's, yeah, it's, it's cool. It's cool when manufacturers do that,

[00:50:17] Sean Walker: It sure is,

[00:50:18] Andy Leviss: I work for or other ones. Um,

[00:50:20] Sean Walker: absolutely.

[00:50:22] Andy Leviss: let's see what, uh. I mean, uh, like fun extracurriculars. We got to Black Tap, which was the burger place you couldn't remember the name of when we were talking to John

[00:50:30] Sean Walker: Totally. And I love it.

[00:50:34] Andy Leviss: in, I didn't, I didn't realize it's, they're like, they're all over the place.

They're not like a Disney specific. Like there's one in, there's one in Manhattan and

[00:50:40] Sean Walker: Correct. That's just, that's just where I get to have 'em visit downtown Disney when I go for NAMM every year, and they're delicious burgers.

[00:50:48] Andy Leviss: Yeah, no, that was a pretty solid burger. The, the Oreo cookies, I, not the, not the crazy shake. I did the normal shake 'cause I was still feeling under the weather. And also just, I, I'm too old to be having like bonker shakes like that.

[00:51:01] Sean Walker: Dude. A hundred percent.

[00:51:03] Andy Leviss: But, uh, yeah, it was pretty solid. And there, like, we had, uh, we hung out

[00:51:06] Sean Walker: look at shakes like that and you're instantly diabetic, right? Like,

[00:51:09] Andy Leviss: yep, yep, yep.

I'm like, I, my doctor told me I can't look at that too long. Like I, my cholesterol go too high just staring at it.

[00:51:16] Sean Walker: yeah. Yeah.

[00:51:17] Andy Leviss: Um, yeah, so that, that was a cool little outing. Like, um, Ryan came along with us. We saw Evan and a couple of his dudes and Nick and, uh, and Snaps was there. Um,

[00:51:27] Sean Walker: that it's so funny, like to be so diametrically opposed. Like, you and I are looking at Oreo shakes going, no, I don't know. I can't, I'm gonna be diabetic. Just looking at it, Evan's just knocking them bitches back like they're going outta style. Dude.

[00:51:40] Andy Leviss: I remember when my metabolism was like that. Yep. Yep.

[00:51:43] Sean Walker: great dude. It is great.

What a dude. What a cool bunch of people we have in this community, man. We get to run into 'em all over the world and it's so, I, I feel so blessed, man to have such cool homies all over the world that are just genuinely great people. Dude, it's, it was awesome. That was actually my favorite part, dude, running into Sage and Evan and Ryan and Nick and Snaps and all those guys, just fricking guys and gals, you know what I mean?

Like that's really what made the show over the gear for me was just seeing all our friends from all over the world, you know?

[00:52:14] Andy Leviss: and we have, and, uh, Ryan Anderson, who's, who's on the on the Discord and a good friend of ours who.

[00:52:19] Sean Walker: Such a great dude.

[00:52:20] Andy Leviss: Yeah, well, it's, so, it's funny, so like, um, like Ryan, like I've known him through the Discord and like helping out, like he, he, you know, does audio at his church on weekends and like I've, you know, like we've had some conversations about like some RF stuff they were doing there and that sort of thing.

And it's like, that's what I knew him as for the longest time. And then, like he mentioned in passing that he works for Disney. Like I did not realize, he's like one of the show control guys for Disney, like Ryan's. Like is, dude is doing some awesome, awesome stuff there. And he, he took us along with, uh, one of my coworkers from Yamaha on a little, you know, insider tour of, uh, some of the like audio and show control stuff there, along with one of their audio designers.

And we can't really talk too much detail about that 'cause uh, we just sign sign array first and second borns if we ever,

[00:53:04] Sean Walker: you can. You can talk totally. About it. It was baller. That's what I'll say about it. It was baller. And we're going to, we've been trying to like get him and his cohorts on to talk about the absolute gangster shit they're doing behind the scenes to make the fricking mouse parks unbelievably cool, like unbelievably cool behind the scenes dude.

And they got some nerd shit coming for you that you guys are gonna be like, get outta here with that.

[00:53:30] Andy Leviss: And I mean like one thing I think we can safely say, 'cause you can tell this from walking through the park, is one of the cool things about their approach there is that they're not particularly glued to one manufac. They're not like, we got a contract for this manufacturer. So everything in the park is from them.

They are solidly the, we have a problem to solve. Who makes a thing that will solve

[00:53:47] Sean Walker: what's the right tool to solve this problem? Great. We'll

[00:53:49] Andy Leviss: Fulcrum over there. You'll see Meyer over there. You'll see, you know, like, like, you know, whether it's like JBL or aw or like, it's, it's, I, I really respect that approach.

[00:53:59] Sean Walker: Totally, dude.

[00:54:00] Andy Leviss: Um, and they're just, they're doing so many different, like wild things there.

So yeah, we're, we're hoping we can, uh, get some of them on to talk about the stuff that they're allowed to talk about.

[00:54:09] Sean Walker: Yeah, dude.

[00:54:10] Andy Leviss: Um, uh. I was gonna say, were there any other fun next? Um, we caught, we caught up with Elliot Carroll, who's been on the show a couple of times before. Uh, it was good to catch up with him and

[00:54:20] Sean Walker: my favorite moments were all the dinners I got to have.

[00:54:22] Andy Leviss: Yep.

Yep. Some fancy steaks.

[00:54:24] Sean Walker: Totally, yeah. Got to have dinner with Elliot, Ryan, you, Evan, Nick, all those cats. Like it was fucking, it was great, dude. It was so great to just like hang out that, that's my favorite part is the people you know, I.

[00:54:35] Andy Leviss: Yeah. Well, and it's like, and it's wild though, like the different conversations you can have throughout a night. 'cause like, you know, we all went out for dinner, we're all walking back. We popped in on the RCF demo, um, uh, jam and then like kinda wa q us wandered away and then eventually like it peeled off and it's just like me and Ryan hanging in like we.

Stop at one of the hotel bars just for like, people with glasses of wine and just like, just got into the deep, like the, the, the quirks of like what it's like to be, you know, an audio person who works on the manufacturing side as your day job, which was, you know, which is kind of, kind of cool to like, you know, hang out with friends who like, understand that weird, that weird intersection of the industry and, and, uh, what it means and how it works.

Um, which was fun. And then like later on, you and you and Garrett came and hung with us and we kinda pivoted and like all sorts of other. Wild directions, and I did my best to not spread the plague too far,

[00:55:25] Sean Walker: You son of a bitch.

[00:55:28] Andy Leviss: but, uh, yeah, no, it

[00:55:30] Sean Walker: was great.

[00:55:31] Andy Leviss: it was a good show. It's again, I'm, I'm bummed I couldn't spend a little more time poking around Saturday and seeing what else was there. Um, oh, I, I did, I did manage to find the knockoff DM three and Teo,

[00:55:41] Sean Walker: Nice,

[00:55:43] Andy Leviss: which was, uh.

[00:55:44] Sean Walker: Teos are cheap enough. Like how? How much cheap are you gonna make the knockoff, bro? Holy crap.

[00:55:48] Andy Leviss: I didn't see pro I, I was wearing my Yamaha t-shirt at the time, so I was like, I don't think I can go too close to the booth or poker. They're just gonna start shooing me away

[00:55:57] Sean Walker: Right? Totally,

[00:55:58] Andy Leviss: but, uh, um. You know, I'm like, I, I, you know, the, um, the, the appropriate folks that may or may not need to be involved otherwise are, uh, are apprised and, uh, I'm not gonna engage.

But, uh, it was, it was while to be walking through the show and do a double take at a, at a consult that looked really, really familiar, but wasn't,

[00:56:16] Sean Walker: Right. Totally. Dude. I would say if, if people have the chance to go, like, if you know what I mean? If you can go to NAMM next year, grab a hotel room and a pass and like let get to rip. I've got, we are. We're NAMM members. My company is, so I'd be happy to get anybody a pass that wants to go if you get early enough.

'cause then we can just go, go hang out and, and check out the sites, you know what I mean? So just, uh, reach out. Andy's got some kind of email address. You can email he'll, he'll get it at me or come to the Discord and hit me up with a di direct message. And, uh, you're on your own for meals in hotel rooms, but I'm happy to get you a pass so you can get into the show.

But let's, let's freaking hang out, dude. That's the best part. Like, that's where we really make all the connections and really kind of make this world and industry go around is, is hanging with cool new people and, and we're accessible, man. We're not, you know, we're, we're just fricking dudes. They let Yap in microphones.

So Come, come, come visit

[00:57:07] Andy Leviss: there handing out stickers and, and, and, and stupid, uh, stupid, uh, uh, joke, Sharpies,

[00:57:14] Sean Walker: Yeah, right. Totally. Oh, the Sharpies, were rad, dude. I don't, I don't mess with the, I don't mess with the stickers, but the Sharpies were rad. As long as you can use it as a stylist on the Yamaha consoles, the Sharpies are dope.

[00:57:26] Andy Leviss: Um, I dunno. I, I think, is there anything else? Anything else Cool from NAMM we missed? 'cause we're getting right around a little shy of the hour mark, so it might be time.

[00:57:34] Sean Walker: Um, I don't think there's anything else we missed. I just, uh. I think that was it, man. My, my favorite, my favorite hot take from it was just hanging with the people man. You know what I mean? And then seeing a couple of new gear, you know, gear things. So I, I think that was, that was it, man. It was good to see our friends out.

Heath. It was good to see our friends at RCF, good to see our friends at, you know, l Acoustics and all the other manufacturers that we, we freaking have homies at, you know what I mean? It was, it's been really cool, man. It's been a really cool ride to like. Go be able to see everybody. 'cause we all get so busy, you're like quick texts or quick messages or whatever throughout the year, and then you're like, no, this is the place and the time where we've all got on our calendar to be all in the same place at the same time.

So you're just like, you know, whirlwind through all your homies in the industry.

[00:58:20] Andy Leviss: Yeah.

[00:58:21] Sean Walker: Right. And it's, it's just, it's cool man. It's super cool.

[00:58:24] Andy Leviss: Yeah, I mean, I've, I've got, I've got friends I did manage to see there, and I've got friends that literally I've got the text message thread of like two NAMS in a row now. Like, I will catch you at NAMM one of these years.

[00:58:33] Sean Walker: Oh dude. Totally,

[00:58:34] Andy Leviss: Yeah.

[00:58:36] Sean Walker: Yeah, that's it. I think that's a good place to wrap, dude. I don't,  I think that's all the cool stuff.

[00:58:41] Andy Leviss: Take us home buddy.

[00:58:42] Sean Walker: Thanks to you all for listening, thanks to Allen & Heath and RCF for letting us yap for another week on the pod about audio and nerd shit. That's the pod y'all. See you next week!

Music: “Break Free” by Mike Green