NAMM 2025 - Paulee's Picks

US Products that stood out!      26/01/25

Anaheim's NAMM show is now in it's 123rd year! Sonic State were of course there to capture the ingenuity and playful experimentation on display. Here's a number of products that stood out for me:

Circle Guitar

 

I sometimes find musical inspiration in the wiring up of complex modular patches; As a keyboard player, I enjoy directly controlling notes and harmonies, whilst an array of gates and logic fire off rhythms - triggering held notes in unpredictable ways. This $9,995 product marries such rhythmic exploration with the electric guitar.

The wheel spins and a series of magnetic picks excite the strings. There's also a split pickup, giving each string an adjustable volume control. I'm always impressed whenever I hear this instrument and try to imagine how my own guitar style would sound, in circular form. Make a surf green one please!

Behringer BX1

 

This one has been THE talk of the show, on forums and synthfluencer channels at least! This clone blends elements from two of Yamaha's most desirable instruments - FM from the DX1 (the DX7's luxurious, bi-timbral cousin) and filters from the CS80 analogue polysynth.

However you feel about the practice of synth cloning - it's likely that the BX1 raised your pulse a little! Adorned with a starship panel of red LED's (also present on the original instrument), we see an early attempt at making FM programming more accessible - the algorithm layout, envelope parameters & keyboard scaling settings all visible at once.

Behringer have added a few more LED's which display the parameters for the CS80-based analogue processing section - envelopes, filters etc. My only criticism of the instrument stems from the decision to use ADSR envelope controls here - by mirroring the level/rate based envelopes elsewhere on the BX1, the instrument might have felt more cohesive.

Still, what a looker - with 2 layers of 6OP FM at your disposal, it should offer up plenty of weird and wonderful sounds, too!

Noise Engineering Dystorpia & Batverb

 

Amongst all of Sonic's NAMM videos, the sounds from these two pedals jumped out at me most. On the surface, there's not anything revolutionary about this distortion and reverb duo - but I think it's a great example of combining known sound processes in a novel way - under a fun UI that invites experimentation.

Dystorpia (heh) distorts of course, with modes that offer various flavours - fuzz effects, wave folding, basic saturation, and sub-octave. Heard above not on guitar but on a synth sequence; I found the textures full of life and grit.

Talking of grit, that's one parameter featured on the Batverb pedal, distressing the atmospheric reverb. Here, I am attracted to the Doom & Shimmer knobs which blend in an octave down & an octave up, respectively. I've seen these as separate presets or modes on other equipment, but I like the idea of blending octaves for unique 'verb effects.

Thanks for reading, see you next time!

Posted by MagicalSynthAdventure an expert in synthesis technology from last Century and Amiga enthusiast.

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