I took some time off this last week to travel to Anaheim,CA. Most people go there to go to Disneyland. I had other plans. Thanks to some friends, I managed to blag my way into the NAMM show.

Even though I was on vacation, and there solely to take in the latest and greatest in musical instruments, I was curious to find out just how much stuff is running Linux. Most of the manufacturers I spoke with wouldn’t tell me anything (and appeared quite puzzled that I’d even care). The only obvious ones were from manufacturers I already knew about (like the Muse receptor, Korg’s etc..)

There was one revealing moment however that I found amusing. In 1979, the Fairlight CMI was *the* sampling synth. Back then, its lightpen input device must have seemed like something from the future. (Here’s Quincy Jones demoing it). Anyway.. Fairlight instruments have returned, and created a retro style reproduction of the original CMI. One of my friends managed to capture a photograph of it when the synth UI crashed. Yup, looks like Ubuntu to me.

There’s really no escape from Linux. It’s everywhere you look.

I returned last night refreshed from time off from daily work, but also inspired in many ways by new things, and new people I met. Escaping the frozen wasteland of Boston for the sunnier climate did wonders for my general mood too. As draining as the whole experience was, I’m sure I’ll be going back next year.

(For those who care about any of the other things I saw there, I took a bunch of photographs too).

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