Recording - March 2010 - 64

to be conservative. One of the first things to go when you’re tightening your belt is outlay for researching new markets, expanding existing markets in unusual directions, or for R&D on entirely new ideas. You tend to stick to what you know, selling what’s worked in the past to reliable markets, because that can get you through the hard times until things improve and you can start widening your reach again. If there are innovations, they’ll usually be for products that are proven sellers—for example, a redesigned ribbon mic is still a ribbon mic, something people know and want to buy. New markets and new ideas suffer when times are tight, and start to flourish when times start to improve—in fact, I’d argue that they’re a leading indicator of improvement, because even though there may not be a lot of money available to invest in them, we all know they’re vital to prevent stagnation, so the sooner we get back to expanding our horizons and creating truly new things, the better we feel. And this leads to what I am calling the Ukulele Factor. Editorial by Mike Metlay The Ukulele Factor As I type this in January 2010, the NAMM Show has been over for just a few days, and in my post-show musings I’ve made some observations that I’d like to share.They relate to one of the intangibles of a trade show that you can’t get from a press release or photo or video—the mood of the show. If you look at exhibitors’ attitudes, showgoers’ reactions to new products, amount and “quality” (store owners/ buyers vs. end users/gawkers) of foot traffic at the show, and to some extent the number and type of products on offer, you can get a feel for what I call “the mood of the show”—a general atmosphere that hangs in the air wherever you go, a sense of prosperity or gloom, of great things in the making or of coming disaster. This is imprecise and varies a lot from person to person, and it’s rarely something you’ll get a unanimous consensus for which is why I’m presenting my take on the NAMM 2010 mood as an editorial opinion, rather than a bit of factual reportage from the show floor. Some would argue that no sensible manufacturer would admit to having a bad year, so no matter how bad things are, people will always smile and say they’re peachy. Maybe so. Maybe the cautious enthusiasm I felt in every corridor and exhibit hall at NAMM, a marked contrast to the bravery-under-the-blitz attitude of last fall’s AES Convention, was nothing more than a collective hallucination, and all the statements of “my orders are up for the first time in a long time; last spring looked horrible but we’re seeing strong sales at long last” are exaggerations to bolster sagging confidence. But there are other ways of seeing that things are turning around. One could, for example, look at the ukuleles. In bad times, people tend to hunker down in the bunker, to circle the wagons,RECORDING MARCH 2010 Ukuleles were everywhere at NAMM 2010. I mean, everywhere. There have always been a few dedicated sellers, and most major guitar makers have had at least one uke in their lineups. But in the past few years—starting with the late Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s version of “Over The Rainbow” and moving on to Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister”—the uke has become a hot item among up-and-coming artists like Noah And The Whale and Never Shout Never. At NAMM we saw a real response to that heightened interest as new makers came to the show and existing makers expanded their lines. The uke may not last as a modern pop phenomenon, but it’s telling that there were people who felt that this was a market worth chasing, and—more importantly—felt they could afford the resources and ambition to do so. The Martin 3 Cherry Uke Many exhibitors were moving away from tweaks to existing reliable designs and into entirely new ways to do things. Metasonix released an alltube drum machine. Dwarfcraft’s booth overflowed with insane guitar effects, including some with dual joysticks for live sound mangling. Movek introduced a networked intelligent monitoring/mixing system that can even record multitrack audio to SD cards. Sonoma Wire Works offered us a sneak peek at a beautiful high-quality audio I/O system for iPhones, Akai showed a keyboard specifically designed to play iPhone sounds and NonLinear Software announced an easy design/subscription/publishing system for bands that want to create their own promotional iPhone apps. And I picked up literature from no fewer than six creators of entirely new instruments never seen before in the world, from the makers of the Sonic Palette and the Moldover Mojo wandering the corridors, to the Make Noise Pressure Points at the Analogue Haven booth, to the well-funded display introducing the Eigenharp. You tend not to see that sort of adventure when folks feel times are tough and getting tougher. Cautious optimism is still optimism. We have a ways to go before we can say we’re out of the bad patch, but the atmosphere of hope at NAMM 2010 is an encouraging sign. And with that, I’m off to practice my uke licks. Mike Metlay (mike@recordingmag.com) has kept a Risa Uke-Stick solidbody electric ukulele in his office at Recording for half a decade. Trendsetter or nerd? You decide.

Recording - March 2010

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