You’d think all the best product and interesting stuff is at the show, but sometimes you have to travel a little to find it. Some of the best things I’ve ever seen at NAMM have been away from the show, or buried in the basement. This year is no exception. A suite in the Hilton held one of the most interesting ideas that could one day be a product: the SynthTable

The idea behind this is using a turntable to control a synth. I tried really hard to get my camera to record a video worth a damn but it just didn’t work out in my favor. And pictures don’t really translate, so at the bottom of the article we’ll put up the youtube videos that exist and they’ll send me the Soundcloud link soon so you can download them for your own collection.

DJs who use Ableton Live have been wanting to integrate turntables to their collection for a while, and this is the step in that direction. They add modulation, right now at least, using guitar effect pedals and just scratch some CD sounds using the Numark HDX (when it works). The growing idea, though, is integrating this into software and computers. I know they are toying with the idea of using the old Stanton SCS1s, and I definitely do not envy their efforts.

While it might not seem like a huge deal, it’s one of the few things here where old technology is being repurposed for something exciting. The nerd in me gets super excited about hacks like this, and I can only hope they can get their ideas integrated into something like Bitwig or Ableton so us DJs can have some fun with other things.

Check out the videos below.

SynthTable 101

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JZwsrjgqFE

SynthTable Summer Showcase

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCmYkzyfSg8

Airhorn Extravaganza

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv8iVjyq6Wc