Top 5 Innovative Products at NAMM 2018

Through the last two weeks, we've given you an insight into the various products we liked at the Winter NAMM 2018. But guess what? There's more! Here's the list of the top 5 innovative products released/showcased at NAMM 2018. This is something you want to watch out for, these products can easily change the music industry forever!

1. OneManBand

In the recent years, there have been many apps that have been created in order to make the guitar learning and playing process easier. But I don't I've seen anything like the OneManBand before. As it is with most products like these, OneManBand was introduced as a Kickstarter project back in August of 2017 and completely blew out of proportion! At this year's NAMM, people finally got to see what this product is all about, and it is certainly one of the most innovative ones this year! What does OneManBand do? It takes your guitar playing and produces an on the fly backing track. As it uses MIDI, you can use your guitar and make it sound like any other instrument if you wanted to. This might not sound like much, but it's certainly something brand new in the whole guitar exploration world. Watch it in action below: [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL3zheg_3NM[/embedyt]  

2. SABIAN FRX Cymbals

Sabian has been at the forefront of Cymbals and Percussive Instruments for a very long time, along with other pioneers in the field such as Meinl, ZIldjian, Paiste etc. With recent innovations in the Cymbal world from companies such as Zildjian and Meinl, cymbals have now become more than just pieces of metal that sound good. Enter the FRX Cymbal range from Sabian, introduced this year at NAMM. FRX stands for "Frequency Reduced Cymbals". What does that mean? It basically means that these cymbals are designed for playing environments where other cymbals are just too much. They are NOT low volume cymbals. Rather, these cymbals work by cutting specific frequencies, resulting in the perception of lower volume. Remove these frequencies, and suddenly your cymbals sit perfectly in the mix. [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04AEZALQITY[/embedyt]  

3. Audiomanix XTRAX Stems

Moving on from hardware, let's look more at the software world. This year, we saw the release of XTRAX Stems and it is definitely a tool that a lot of people can benefit from. What does XTRAX Stems do? Basically, it takes any stereo or mono song and separates it into its component drum, vocal and remaining musical components. So, the mixed track ends up in three or more parts. The extraction process is fully automatic, whilst also having the option to choose between 4 different algorithms to get slightly different results. The software is aimed mostly for DJs, producers and remixers, though Audionamix also suggests that it could be useful for musicians who want to practise. It's a wonderful tool for creating backing tracks for any instrument. Now, you might have heard of software's like this before, but it's Audiomanix's incredible algorithm that makes this product really work. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeOZQ461r_s

4. Smart Piano "The ONE"

Going along with products that help the learning process, next we have Smart Piano's 'The One'. It's basically an electronic bar with visual cues that helps learn the instrument very very quickly. The company claims that you can learn how to play the piano in 3 minutes! Controlled by an iOS/Android App, the One offers various features such as piano exercises, learning songs, playing games etc. We've seen a lot of learning guides for various other instruments, but it's the first time something this compact and effective has come out for the Piano. This year at NAMM, the company released a full fledged The One 88-key piano integrated with the whole Smart Piano system. Watch it in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0M2vI9uqug

5. Aerodrums

The growing use of Virtual Reality has lead to a completely new array of softwares and products in the music industry. Aerodrums is certainly one of those products to take that concept and make it a reality. Again another project that sprung up through funding, Aerodrums is basically a VR Drumkit where drummers can literally just "air drum" in any environment with the tools provided. It sounds like some kind of magic sorcery doesn't it? You must be thinking, well sure it's not that good. But it is! And not only that, you can also choose different drum kits and even create your custom ones! Now with one software and some VR goggles, you can play a drum kit wherever you want! Watch it in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH23eN9erS4 Well there you have it! These were our top 5 innovative products at NAMM 2018. What is your favourite from all of these products?