Day One at NAMM is at all times a wierd mixture of reunion, overload, and real discovery. You stroll in considering you might be there to take a look at gear, and also you stroll out reminded that this trade is absolutely about individuals, long-term considering, and instruments that quietly earn their place within the studio.
This 12 months, greater than most, there was a transparent theme working by means of the present. Not nostalgia. Not hype. Stewardship, refinement, and considerate evolution.
Wolff Audio: Console Pondering, Refined
One of many standout conversations of the day was with Paul Wolff at Wolff Audio. Paul has at all times approached design from a console-first mindset, and that philosophy runs by means of every part he’s doing now.
The Wolff W1 isn’t a 500-series tackle a console preamp. It’s the console preamp. Lifted straight from Wolff Audio’s flagship desks, the W1 retains the identical transformer topology, relay-controlled sign path, and achieve construction. Its unusually low baseline achieve permits you to observe extraordinarily loud sources with out pads, whereas the dual-stage structure offers you the choice to lean into tone with out shedding management downstream.
Alongside it, the Wolff RefPre takes a really completely different, however equally considerate, strategy. Designed particularly for ribbons and sources the place you need absolute honesty, it gives impedance-aware achieve staging that feels invisible in use. Clear whenever you want it, supportive when you don’t.
Then there may be the Sundown Sound Tutti, impressed by the unique Sundown Sound console modules, adopted by the Sundown Sound 4-Channel Tutti, which brings that character right into a scalable, fashionable workflow. These are usually not recreations for the sake of nostalgia. They’re instruments constructed for engineers who perceive when color issues and when it doesn’t.
The ProPatch system quietly drew numerous consideration. Absolutely relay-based, with no electronics within the audio path, it gives immediate, recallable routing with out touching the sound. It’s infrastructure accomplished correctly, not flashy, simply deeply thought-about.
A Pultec Second That Issues
One second that genuinely meant one thing to me was seeing Pultec underneath Wolff Audio’s care. Pultec was owned by my good pal Steve Jackson, and I’m really excited to see it now with Paul, one other nice pal. That sense of continuity, of legacy being handed between individuals who truly care, felt like an ideal microcosm of the present as an entire.
SSL ORIGIN EVO: The 4K, Reimagined
Over at Stable State Logic, the disclosing of ORIGIN EVO felt like a long-awaited reply to a query engineers have been asking for years.
ORIGIN EVO builds straight on the foundations of SSL’s iconic 4000 Sequence, carrying ahead the unmistakable E Sequence sound whereas integrating fashionable hybrid workflows. The place ORIGIN reignited the 4K lineage, EVO takes it additional, delivering an in-line console with genuine E Sequence dynamics, the legendary 242 Black Knob EQ, and versatile PureDrive mic preamps that transfer from ultra-clean to pushed character with ease.
Every channel options true RMS sidechain detection, original-spec Class-A VCA dynamics, quick gating, aggressive compression, and channel linking precisely as engineers bear in mind. Add to {that a} high-headroom combine bus, an enhanced Bus Compressor with extra ratios and sidechain filtering, and superior digital routing that simplifies setup whereas enhancing reliability.
Out there in 16- or 32-channel configurations, ORIGIN EVO’s modular centre part permits you to combine UF8 or UF1 DAW management, 19-inch outboard, and customized workflows whereas staying firmly within the candy spot. It’s recognisably SSL, unmistakably E Sequence, and genuinely sensible for contemporary hybrid studios.
Dirk Ulrich: Why This Transfer Actually Issues
One other dialog that stayed with me all through the day centred on Dirk Ulrich, and why his transfer from plugins again to {hardware} genuinely issues.
Most individuals know Dirk because the founding father of Brainworx and Plugin Alliance, corporations that reshaped skilled audio software program. What usually will get missed is that plugins have been by no means the vacation spot. They have been merely the route.
Earlier than Brainworx, Dirk was a producer and engineer. His first product concept was an analogue mid-side EQ. Software program grew to become the quickest method to discover these concepts, and one factor led to a different. In 2021, he bought each corporations.
For many individuals, that may have been the top of the story.
For Dirk, it was the reset.
In the present day, Dirk owns Manley Labs and Apogee Electronics, bringing them collectively underneath a small holding construction known as Rockforce. Not non-public fairness. Not a faceless group. Identical groups. Identical places. Identical identities.
Manley stays hand-built in Chino, California. Transformers are nonetheless wound by hand. Models are assembled the best way they at all times have been. There isn’t a curiosity in turning Manley into a less expensive model of itself. On the similar time, Dirk is introducing real looking methods for extra engineers to entry this degree of {hardware} by means of rent-to-own fashions.
On the Apogee facet, new {hardware} is already in growth, centered squarely on how hybrid studios truly work now. The place these two worlds meet is the place issues develop into genuinely thrilling.
It feels much less like an acquisition, and way more like a continuation.
Monitoring That Really Helps You Work
A genuinely helpful dialogue adopted round monitoring with IK Multimedia, and particularly the iLoud Sub. This isn’t about including extra bass. It’s about fixing monitoring from the underside up.
The iLoud Sub delivers deep, managed low finish in one of many smallest footprints out there, whereas concurrently enhancing the efficiency of the satellite tv for pc audio system it’s paired with. What units it aside is ARC X, which mechanically calibrates the sub and any linked displays to the room, no matter model.
The result’s a monitoring surroundings that feels calmer and extra reliable. Extension right down to 25 Hz with out mud. Kick drums lock in. Bass turns into outlined quite than guessed. Mixes translate higher in all places.
It isn’t about extra bass. It’s about higher bass.
Fender: Pondering Finish-to-Finish
One of many extra pleasurable components of Day One was spending time at Fender with my pal Matt Lange. As ever, it was much less about standing nonetheless and extra about speaking concepts, workflows, and the place music creation is definitely heading. Fender’s presence made it clear they’re considering far past guitars on a wall.
A significant a part of that considering is Fender Studio Professional, Fender’s just lately launched, rebranded and advanced model of PreSonus Studio One Professional, now absolutely folded into Fender’s broader linked music ecosystem.
This isn’t a superficial rebrand. Fender Studio Professional represents a deliberate transfer to assist musicians, producers, and engineers throughout your complete inventive course of. From the second you decide up a guitar to the purpose the place you might be arranging, recording, and ending a observe, the software program is designed to really feel musically centered quite than technically intimidating.
At its core, Fender Studio Professional integrates Fender’s personal amp and results know-how straight into the DAW. You get 39 guitar amps, 18 bass amps, and over 100 results drawn from the Mustang and Rumble traces, all working natively contained in the software program. It removes friction between taking part in and recording.
AI-powered audio-to-note conversion permits guitar and bass performances to be translated into MIDI for modifying and orchestration, alongside clever chord instruments aimed squarely at songwriting quite than novelty. Workflow has additionally been refined, with a cleaner visible design, a Channel Overview for sooner mixing choices, and up to date samplers together with Pattern One and Impression.
Crucially, Fender Studio Professional doesn’t exist in isolation. It’s designed to pair seamlessly with new Fender-branded {hardware}, together with the Fender Quantum Sequence interfaces and Fender Movement controllers. The intent is obvious, a coherent end-to-end surroundings the place devices, software program, and {hardware} communicate the identical language.
Hanging out with Matt and seeing this ecosystem come collectively, it was apparent Fender isn’t making an attempt to switch anybody’s workflow. They’re making an attempt to assist it from the very first observe.
Closing Ideas
By the top of Day One at NAMM, a transparent thread had emerged. Essentially the most compelling moments weren’t about novelty or quantity. They have been about readability, belief, and long-term considering.
From SSL evolving the 4K lineage with ORIGIN EVO, to Wolff Audio refining console considering into modular instruments that keep clear whenever you want them, to Dirk Ulrich inserting Manley and Apogee into genuinely caring arms, to IK Multimedia fixing low-end monitoring correctly, the purpose was the identical.
Take away friction. Protect musical intent. Assist engineers make higher choices sooner.
And someplace between all of that, from SSL to Wolff, IK to Manley, Apogee, Fender, and Elysia quietly reminding us how forward-thinking analogue ought to nonetheless really feel, it was reassuring to be reminded why we fell in love with recording within the first place, cautious listening, considerate instruments, and the enjoyment of constructing music correctly.
Have a marvellous time recording and mixing.
