A new DJ sampler from Roland

Roland's biggest news at NAMM is this DJ sampler called SP-555. It samples everything: analog line and mic signals, plus the digital USB audio stream also. It imports of course the most important file formats: .wav and .aif. It has the superb infrared controller called D Beam, and a huge selection of DSP effects. It is expandable with standard CompactFlash cards up to 2 gigs of sampling memory - and you can synchronize your samples to any video performance with Roland's proprietary V-LINK technology. And a real surprise: the gadget functions as a computer audio interface also, via its USB socket (Sonar LE software package included). A/D and D/A conversion is performed in 24 bits. Check the full info page.

A special MiKo from OpenLabs

It will be a bit easier to follow Timbaland, the great producer from 15th August: on that day OpenLabs will ship the Timbaland Special Edition of their small Windows-synth called MiKo. The instrument was configured by the famous producer - it will have 4 gigs of RAM, and a Core2 Duo processor. Its main instrument is Proteus X2, with a huge selection of more than 7,000 preset samples (associated with Timbaland mostly). OpenLabs also provide their own huge library so you won't be short of sounds. Check all the details here.

Alesis to strengthen their drum line-up

Summer NAMM is up and running with very few real news. One of them is came from the drum factory of Alesis - on the picture you can see the Performance Pad, a decent drum pad controller with built-in high quality sound generator. It has 233 sounds, 100 drum kits and 24-bit output. It has two extra trigger inputs for bass drum and hi-hat pedals, has an external audio input (which is mixed to the output only), and the standard MIDI output of course. Check the product's page.

Rise the size and you will get DM5 Pro Kit, the new pro pad controller kit from Alesis. It is built around the DM5 sound generator and trigger converter, and has a bass drum, a snare, a hi-hat, three tomtoms, plus two cymbals - all electronic of course. Check here if you want to know more.

Sonivox has cheap instruments also

We already had news about Sonivox's high-end sample packages like Broadway Big Band but now the company targets another market segment with the brand new DVI (Downloadable Virtual Instruments) series. These are low priced (10-50 USD) sample sets with Tascam's sample player engine and they have a lot of them: the list is very long, check it here (Fender bass, Stratocaster, FM piano, Wurlitzer piano, bagpipes, Mellotron - just to name a few). The platform is PC and VST/RTAS, Maci is coming soon.