NAMM 2015 made it feel like Christmas came twice this year. It was the year that forced every major to cave in to the decades of pressure. An era of consumers moaning at companies to put down their software, and start making circuits again. It’s safe to say that they all delivered… to different extents. And that’s what made this month’s crop of demos range from astral modular bliss, to awkward Ketamine-induced monkey patching. So let’s recap the show’s biggest announcements with the greatest demos we all have to see.

Out of all the NAMM demo darlings, Korg’s Rich Formidoni is definitely a household favourite. And that’s probably because he’s got bigger forearms, and a meaner chin strap than you. But let’s not brush aside that — when it comes to keys, the dude has chops. Rich doesn’t show his true colours until he’s actually twisting knobs, and that’s what makes him the best in the biz. Like when he starts “experimenting” by swerving around sliders that do nothing for 20 seconds, until finally crashing into a tree of white noise.

There’s no where to start this YouTube demo video because it’s a full 5 minutes of “Dan from Akai” hating his fucking life. Likely because the voices for their new Timbre Wolf need to “warm up” to get in tune, or how about the knobs don’t actually do anything, or maybe it’s because this drum machine inspired mutt still sounds like it’s being filtered when it’s turned all the way to the right. But don’t forget folks, “it’s a lot of fun *hard swallow*”.

Just in case the JD-Xi didn’t make you cringe enough, Thomas is here to remind you that it’s, “pure analog straight through, right”. It’s got the “meat everyone wants in the analog world, right” when you cross it over with digital distortion to “make it sound like something brand new, right”. It’s like Roland handed this guy a bunch of buzz words and pumped him up with speed. At least give them credit for not being so shameless about it.