The slogan “The Music Begins Here” is that of the NAMM Show, organised by the International Music Products Association or the National Association of Music Merchants. It is one of the most important US Trade shows, which is held at the beginning of the year, and presents new products, usually available at retail a few months later.

Here we are talking of electronic musical instruments, selling and buying them. As opposed to the Music Messe at Frankfurt, this Californian show is limited to manufacturers, sellers and their invited guests.

Paradoxically, in this world where digital techniques are everywhere (even in the synthesizer shown below) the word which, in one form or another, appears most often is the word “Analog” – the sound of the first synthesisers, those of the 60’s and 70’s, built with oscillators, filters and amplifiers, all voltage controlled!

Take for example the star of the 2016 show, the Korg Minilogue. This starts with the name of this polyphonic analog synthesizer (with 4 voices, but not polytimbral): the root “-logue” just invokes the analogue world! What really shows the point to which the world is obsessed with analog is the presence on this instrument of a curious gadget: a small waveform display.