Digidesign, Apple, Native Instruments, Ableton, Steinberg and 1,400 other exhibitors! They have come, they are all present for this new edition of the Winter Namm Show that is about to open in a few hours now in Anheim, California. As usual, it's just the perfect opportunity to come and meet the very numerous musical equipment manufacturers but also to attend the numerous shows (training courses, concerts, demonstrations) organized by the National Association of Music Manufacturers.

The whole MacMusic team is on the starting blocks to get you informed about the latest news in this "Winter NAMM special report", and in the MacMusic Daily News Section. Enjoy the NAMM, either on the spot or on the web !

UPDATE: 80 more photos in our NAMM Galery!

At NAMM, Apogee unveiled Ensemble, a multi-channel digital audio interface designed specifically for use with Apple Macintosh computers. Ensemble is the first and only multi-channel audio interface to be controllable natively within Apple's Logic Pro software, creating a complete, fully integrated professional hardware and software system for audio production on a Mac.

Ensemble Features 36 channels of simultaneous audio, including 8 channels of Apogee's legendary A/D and D/A conversion, 4 transparent, digitally controlled 75db mic preamps, 8 channels of ADAT I/O, 2 channels of S/PDIF coax and optical I/O, and FireWire connectivity to and from the computer as standard. Ensemble also includes such Apogee's features as "SoftLimit", "UV22HR", and "Intelliclock". These technologies combined ...

Today at NAMM, Apogee Electronics Corporation (booth 6428) unveiled Symphony, a multi-channel PCI Express card designed specifically for use with Apple's Macintosh computers. Apogee's Symphony PCI Express card is a digital computer interface that is based on the PCI-Express architecture in Apple's PowerMac G5 computers. Controlled by Apogee's Maestro software, Symphony features 32 channels of digital I/O on a single PCI-Express card format. With support for sample rates up to 192 kHz, Symphony can be used as a digital router or patch-bay when connected to external converters or other digital outboard equipment.

Software drivers for Symphony will feature extensive routing capabilities and very low latency performance. Symphony connects directly to Apogee's Rosetta and AD-16X and DA-16X ...

Intel-based iMac and MacBook Pro can be happy. Roland, BOSS, EDIROL have prepared drivers for Intel based Macs. Roland drivers are in the final stages of qualification on iMacs and MacBooks and will be available as soon as they are polished. Firewire audio class drivers for EDIROL FA-66 and FA-101, along with USB mass storage drivers used for Fantom-x and other Roland, BOSS and EDIROL products are already included and fully compatible with the new macs.

Cycling '74 today announced revision software 1.3 for the JazzMutant Lemur Multi-touch control surface. New software features in version 1.3 allow the Lemur to be reconfigured in powerful ways from a host computer via the OSC (Open Sound Control) protocol. The Lemur is a hardware controller for new media applications featuring a proprietary LCD touch screen for which users create their own user interfaces. The Lemur sends OSC messages to a host computer over 100-base T Ethernet. The new version 1.3 software expands the repertoire of OSC commands the host computer can send back to the Lemur, allowing any of the eight types of user interface objects to be changed on the fly. This allows the Lemur to be used both as a controller and a status monitor.

The forthcoming update will be available via download for all current Lemur customers.