Each day our team on the show floor at NAMM 2019 are on the lookout for products that catch their eye and in this Best Of NAMM 2019 roundup James Ivey, Audrey Martinovich and Julian Rodgers share their top 3 from day 3.

Peterson Strobostomp Strobe Pedal Tuner

Featuring the largest tuning display Peterson Tuners has ever incorporated into one of their pedal tuners, the StroboStomp HD boasts a high-definition, LCD screen that incorporates a variable color LED backlight. The user-selectable colors can be used to personalize the tuner or to increase display viewing quality in different levels of ambient lighting depending on the usage environment. The vibrant screen colors can also be assigned to stock or user presets to significantly reduce menu navigation time and increase on-stage tuning confidence at the gig.

For tone purists, the StroboStomp HD provides a 100% silent, true-bypass operation mode to keep precious tone safe, as well as, eliminate the often annoying “pop” experienced when engaging such a feature in other products. It uses a unique series of timed relays incorporated within its circuitry to shunt the signal, draining the cause of the popping sound prior to breaking the connection, and effectively shutting the tuner down for direct play through without affecting tone quality.

The StroboStomp HD features over 100 exclusive Sweetened Tunings™, as well as, numbered guided tuning presets for a large variety of instruments and playing styles. Sweetened Tunings are exclusive to Peterson tuning products and are designed to help correct inherent tuning issues exhibited by many instruments. The new "Guided Tunings" mode allows the StroboStomp HD to display numeric string values instead of traditional note names making for sure-fire intuitive and rapid re-tuning to any number of open and alternative tunings. The Guided Tuning mode was instituted for beginners who want to experiment with popular alternate tunings, as well as, experienced players who employ multiple tunings in rapid succession. Numerically expressed scales are also included.

Neumann NDH20 Headphones

The Neumann NDH 20 is a closed-back headphone designed to combine excellent isolation with the carefully balanced sound image and outstanding resolution you’d expect from a Neumann product. The NDH 20 is thus suited to monitoring and mixing tasks, even in loud and noisy environments. Circumaural memory foam ear pads offer high long-term comfort.

While many other closed-back headphones are marred by nasty resonances in the midband, making it difficult to come to reliable mix decisions, the NDH 20 offers an astonishingly detailed, well-balanced sound image, similar to Neumann’s acclaimed studio loudspeakers. Superior sonics along with large memory foam ear pads make the NDH 20 a pleasure to wear for long periods without fatigue.

Dynaudio Unheard Studio - A Studio In 2 Containers

Back in August 2018 we reported on the success of the first outing for the Unheard Studio. Built into two, glass walled shipping containers, filled with the best of Danish audio from Dynaudio and DAD, this studio was a feature at the Danish music festival Smukfest. Conceived as a way to bring recording facilities to the bands who need them most - the unsigned, unheard artists, this project was such a success they have decided to repeat it at the 2019 Winter NAMM show in Anaheim California in January.

91 per cent of artists are completely undiscovered. Dynaudio wanted to do something to help level the balance. Together with the organisers of the NAMM Show, they gave unsigned artists the chance to get their big break. They received hundreds of sign-ups from aspiring and exciting new acts. They listened carefully to all of them and selected 14 unheard participants. A group of bands and soloist representing a wide variety of genres from metal and hip-hop to singer-songwriter and latin.

REVV D20 Studio Guitar Amp

REVV Amplification are showing the brand-new D20 Amplifier, which is part of its Dynamis series. It's a 20 watts (but can be switched into a 4-watt mode, great for low-volume practice situations), with a push/pull gain knob—push for signature Dynamis cleans or pull for characterful crunch and dirt.

But the special part is that it has Two Notes Torpedo technology built-in, Dan from Revv explains…

"It allows for a quick six on the front, so you save six of your favorite speaker cabinet impulses to it. On the back, it has a balanced out—XLR—so you can take your signal to an interface, front-of-house, whatever you need, and there's a built-in load so you don't even have to run a cabinet from it, you can strictly use the Two Note stuff."

Warm Audio WA-84 Small Diaphragm Condenser Microphones

Warm Audio have designed the WA-84 to have a very large sound for it’s size and uses a heavy Nickel CineMag transformer in it’s signal path to warm up and ‘enlarge’ sound sources.  Small diaphragm condenser microphones have widely moved to transformer-less technology in recent years for ease of design and a lower-cost manufacturing process.  When designing the WA-84 Warm Audio chose to go the extra mile and tackle a more boutique design known for it’s it’s crystal clear, yet smooth, large sound.

The Capsule - The WA-84 utilizes a custom vintage-style capsule designed to emulate classic componentry and design techniques. The WA-84’s capsule is carefully manufactured by an Australian capsule supplier and is precisely reproduced to vintage specs.

The Circuit - The WA-84 is a fully discrete Class A design that utilizes a CineMag USA transformer, polystyrene and Wima capacitors and a Fairchild FET.

The Transformer - The WA-84 utilizes an American made CineMag USA transformer that contributes to the legendary creamy smooth top-end and the BEEFY mid to bottom-end.

The Capacitors - The WA-84 proudly utilizes Wima, polystyrene and tantalum through-hole capacitors throughout.

Soundtheory Gullfoss

Gullfoss has been designed as an intelligent automatic equalizer that uses Soundtheory’s computational auditory perception technology to identify and resolve problems in the frequency balance of your signal. Adjusting its settings in real time according to the audible features of the input signal, Gullfoss allows quick and precise fixes for issues that would otherwise be unsolvable or would require a lot of time and experience to resolve.

Its user interface offers a set of basic parameters that can be adjusted to improve the clarity, detail, spatiality and balance of a mix or recording in a matter of seconds.

Gullfoss is even capable of fixing balancing issues between different sound elements without access to the individual tracks. The internal auditory model allows Gullfoss to make objective decisions about the perceived sound. As a result mixes processed with Gullfoss will generally translate more consistently between different listening situations.

The great news is that it is also available for Windows 10 as well as mac OS.

OWC ClingOn USB Type-C And Thunderbolt 3 Connector

Dropping a cable during file transfers or a work session can be devastating. ClingOn from OWC priced at $7.99 and is designed to hedge that risk by reducing – if not completely eliminating – the slight and ongoing cable strain of external devices with USB-C and Thunderbolt™ 3 connection ports.

The ClingOn is designed to be easy to install. The soft foam interior forms a snug fit to the connector that helps eliminate the wiggling and pulling that leads to slipped connections on your external drives and gear. ClingOn's rigid outer shell is made of hard plastic to protect your cable and features a strong adhesive to secure your connector to your drive's enclosure. It's compatible with any USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 device that has room for attachment.

Earthworks SR314 Capsule For Radio And Handheld Microphones

Earthworks has announced its newest microphone for live vocals, the SR314. The new Earthworks SR314 is a precision-engineered cardioid condenser microphone designed from the ground up to deliver a fresh approach to vocal miking in live performance environments.

Uncompromising Earthworks performance within a bold stainless steel chassis that blends retro and futuristic. Key features of the SR314 include rich open natural sound captured in a tight cardioid polar pattern that is consistent throughout the full frequency range. 145dB SPL handling and an extended 20Hz-30kHz frequency response are the footnotes on a vocal microphone as brilliant and striking as the rest of the instruments onstage.

The SR314 ships with an MC4 microphone clip and 8.5-inch padded protective bag. It will be priced at $699 and it is expected to ship from March 2019 onwards.

There will be also a capsule for fitting onto handheld radio mics with the 3 ring system that brands like Shure and Lectrosonics use and there is a Sennheiser compatible version in the works too.

Focal Monitor Made From Lego

As Julian was passing the Focal stand he spotted a Focal monitor made entirely out of Lego. James how wants this to add to his Lego collection.

That’s It See You at NAMM next year

This concludes our coverage of NAMM 2019. We have loved meeting many of you as the team has been walking the trade show floor and thanks to everyone who has helped to make it all happen.