The NAMM Show 2025: Techie Product Roundup

Article by Angie Kibiloski

The NAMM (National Association of Music Manufacturers) Show is a huge, 4-day trade show that happens every January at the Anaheim Convention Center. Despite many in the music industry being impacted by the Southern California fires this month, The NAMM Show 2025 went ahead as scheduled, on January 23-26, with thousands of industry vendors exhibiting products across all categories of music-making tools and tech, to the delight of many thousands of eager attendees. The ACC was filled throughout Halls A-E, and both floors of the North Hall, with traditional instruments both acoustic and electric, in dedicated sections for strings, brass, drums, etc., accessories for all, professional production and touring tools, MIDI and other more techie offerings, and so on. I loved walking around all of it, and have a personal fondness for unique acoustic guitars, but here I’ll be highlighting some of the more techie-focused products on display. This will only be a brief rundown, so I encourage you to follow the company links to learn a lot more about each.

We’re going to start with a company I’ve admired since I first saw them at CES years back. ROLI is a brand you may also be familiar with, in regards to their Seaboard and other MIDI keyboards, but the product I want to feature today is the Airwave, which just came out in October. Airwave is an attachment that can be used with any MIDI keyboard, not just ROLI models, and utilizes hand gestures above the keys to act as a sort of theremin-esque mod wheel and effects slider. With the wave of your hand or simply by lifting your fingers off the keys, Airwave helps you add expression to your music, adjusting intensity, modulation, controlling mixes, and more. Airwave works by using the infrared cameras on its upper bar to precisely track the movement of all 27 joints in each hand, providing precision control with even the smallest gesture. It comes with a copy of the Airwave Player plug-in, compatible with most DAWs, loaded with a sound pack, effects pre-sets, and a 3D visualizer so you can track your hand gestures on screen. For keyboard beginners, pair it with the ROLI Piano and ROLI Learn app for interactive music lessons and real-time correction of finger placement and note recognition. You can watch a few videos of Airwave in action on ROLI‘s website, and explore their array of MIDI keyboards while you’re there. The ROLI Airwave is currently sold out, but the next batch will start shipping in June, so pre-order yours today for $349.

Aeroband debuted their PocketDrum silent air drumming set several years ago, but in September they came out with their latest version, the PocketDrum 2 Max, with a few upgraded tweaks from their previous models. Essentially, the PocketDrum 2 Max is a set of Bluetooth MIDI drumsticks and pedals, connected to an adapter and paired with the optional Aeroband app. Once you calibrate your drumsticks using the included drum map, and memorize where the virtual drums sit in the empty space in front of you, you’ll be able to play anywhere you go with just the sticks and adapter to carry with you. You can choose from 8 different drum kits to play, like rock, metal, marching band, and 808, depending on your mood and style, and add the pedals to expand your kits with high-hat and base drums. The sticks have haptic feedback, so you’ll feel like you’re hitting more than thin air, and velocity control so your hits will resonate with the changing force of your strikes. PocketDrum 2 Max is great for drummers who want to get some practice in while on-the-go, or those who live in apartment buildings and don’t want to disturb their neighbors with actual drums. Pair with the Aeroband app for sheet music and tutorials, or use as MIDI controllers in your preferred DAW or drum kit plug-in. The improvements to this 2024 model over older versions include an optimized algorithm for better gesture precision, a more stable Bluetooth connection between all components, an updated tutorial for easier onboarding, and a pair of wired earbuds. The Aeroband PocketDrum 2 Max isn’t necessarily targeted at professional musicians so much as casual players or those still learning, but if the latter sounds like you, check them out starting at $179.

Now for something a little bit quirky. The Demon Box from Eternal Research is a triangular, aluminum instrument box that reacts to electromagnetic frequencies (EMF) and turns them into audio. The box is covered with 33 little circular inductor sensors on the top that capture the EMF, and an array of knobs at the front that control the 3 output channels, adjusting panning, phasing, and effects. When you pass your hand over the inductors on top nothing happens, but bring anything close that emits EMF and The Demon Box will start making sounds. Move the EMF-producing item in different directions, angles, and heights to manipulate the sounds, and you’ll start to create some wild effects. At the booth demo they used a cell phone, a TV remote, an electric drill, and a tuning fork, but you can literally use anything that emits EMF. Play The Demon Box aloud in its analog form, or connect via USB to a computer and translate the sound to MIDI for use within your digital masterpieces. Visit the Eternal Research website to read an in-depth background story about the designers and their philosophy on music, then pre-order The Demon Box for $599, which will start shipping in the Spring. To learn even more details about the tech that isn’t on their website, and see some fun photos of how it has evolved from prototype to consumer-ready final product, check out their Kickstarter campaign, which ended its run in October. This was a pretty fun device to play with briefly at the booth, and it would be pretty interesting to see what variety of sounds could be made by experimenting with whatever electronics I have lying around the house, and maybe adding some spice to my next track-making session.

The next product is also a bit quirky, but all for the sake of accessibility and inclusion rather than fun and experimentation. Arcana Instruments has created the Arcana Strum, an input device designed for differently abled bodies to be able to play MIDI instruments, no matter their accessibility needs. The Arcana Strum is a durable console with a large circular keypad at the left for playing notes, an array of settings buttons in the center, and a strumming handle at the right to activate the notes chosen on the keys. The keypad can be used with the standard 5 keys, or fitted with a 3-key option for users who struggle with motor functions. The default strumming handle is a wide knob grip, but can be swapped for a variety of handle attachments, including differently shaped grips or some with straps for those who have trouble gripping, and can even be controlled with a foot. Both the key pad and strumming handles can be fully rotated to accommodate conditions that hamper hand or wrist flexibility. In addition to the strumming grips, there are other accessories to include users with other cognitive or physical limitations. The Air Strum proximity sensor can be activated by bringing a hand, foot, elbow, or even chin close above the surface, to control the strum without using the stick, a set of external buttons can be attached to control the keys at a distance from the unit, and the T Mount straps affix the Arcana Strum to a tray or desktop so it stays securely attached to the play surface without needing to be held. Since the Arcana Strum is a MIDI controller, it can be used to play any MIDI instrument, not just guitar, so users can enjoy learning and playing their preferred instrument, be that guitar, keyboard, drums, or anything else you can find in a MIDI sound collection. This device was originally designed to be used in a special education school setting, but any consumer with special needs can get one for home as well, starting at $1,450. Learn more about Arcana Strum and the mission of Arcana Instruments on their website, and find out how they’re working to make music more inclusive and accessible for all.

Rounding out the slightly quirky theme, we come to the Circle Guitar, an electric guitar and rhythm machine combo, currently in the prototype phase of development. Circle Guitar can be played like a regular electric guitar, but also has a unique rotating disk that can be programmed to actually control the strumming of the guitar from your DAW while you play the strings on the neck. All around the disk are 16 magnetic holes, which can be fitted with special cylindrical picks of varying flexibility, and the disk rotates to strum the strings with specified picks according to the sequence and rhythm that you’ve programmed into your DAW. The disk can also be rotated using tap-tempo or a speed dial on the guitar body for more in-the-moment control. When pre-programming via a DAW, you can also set volume parameters for each individual string, and assign certain effects to fluctuate at different rotation speeds. By adding this extra element of control, or of relinquishing control in a way to the pre-programmed rhythm, the Circle Guitar can open up a musician’s creativity and get them thinking about their performance or song composition in a totally new way. As this is still in the development stage, release date and pricing info isn’t available, but from what I gathered from the designer at their booth, it’ll be in the price range of a professional recording and touring artist, not necessarily for the hobbyist or bedroom producer. Still, the Circle Guitar is a very cool instrument that is getting some celebrity attention, so it’s well worth checking it out on CircleInstruments.com, and watching a few videos on their YouTube channel to see it in action.

Speaking of tech for touring musicians, Oaktone has a range of 3 tools to streamline stage controls and backing track playback. The Oakboard Slide Duo ($389) is a 6-button MIDI control module with 2 USB-C outputs, to send MIDI signals to 2 computers simultaneously, creating a redundancy to protect against delayed or dropped signals from a single machine. This simple, dedicated hardware solution gives backstage playback engineers peace of mind that their sound cues will always be on time, and backing tracks always in sync. The Oakboard Mini 2 ($229) is a compact MIDI controller, made from durable, die-cast aluminum alloy, with glowing, backlit buttons for easy visibility on dark stages, with a Play button that can blink in time with the music. It has a single USB-C output so it doesn’t have the redundancy of the Slide Duo, but its small size makes it perfect for both backstage engineers and on-stage musicians to throw in their gig bag for triggering samples on-the-go. Finally, the Oakboard Floor Vista ($399) is designed for on-stage MIDI controls at a musician’s feet. There are 4 color-coded foot switch control buttons arrayed across the rectangular surface, with a screen in the center displaying a track list and DAW settings, so a musician can easily launch samples without having to glance at a computer. Each of these devices comes with a license to the Oaktone Taz Lite ($29) cue-launching plug-in, compatible with Ableton Live and Max for Live DAWs. Oaktone‘s goal with all of their devices is to eliminate a point of stress from the lives of touring musicians and backstage technicians, and I think these 3 products will definitely serve that goal.

Back in November, Lutefish released their Lutefish Stream device, to get musicians connected online without latency issues, so they can easily collab and rehearse remotely. Musicians connected through the Lutefish Stream devices can stream 48k audio with less than 30 milliseconds of latency, up to 500 miles away from each other, far better than through other online streaming platforms. By reducing streaming lag, musicians can rehearse and record together over the internet totally in sync with each other, making it more like an in-person session. The device itself is simple to use, just plug in the power, plug your instrument and mic directly into the device, and connect to the internet via the included ethernet cable. Turn on the Zoom-like mobile app, which controls the audio streaming and recording, as well as gets up to 5 people face-to-face with almost zero audio or visual delay. It does require a $12.99/month subscription, but that comes with not only the streaming service and 5GB of recording storage, but a vibrant Lutefish community of musicians to network, create, and cross-promote with as well. Within the community app, you can search for musicians to collab with by which instrument they play, location, or skill level, listen to their music clips, and message them within the Lutefish platform. You can also post gigs or find gigs and events featuring other Lutefish members. Even without the Lutefish Stream device, you can join the Lutefish community for free, to connect with other musicians and find gigs. If you want to connect more musicians, up to 50 in one session, and get 25GB of recording storage, you can upgrade to the Premium subscription for $19.99/month. Read more about the company, grab a Lutefish Stream for $399, and browse the subscription options on Lutefish.com.

One reason I really wanted to highlight Lutefish is because they’re donating 100 Lutefish Stream devices to musicians impacted by the recent Los Angeles fires, to get them reconnected with their band mates and creating again during their time of struggle. SoCal local musicians attending The NAMM Show got the chance to sign up to receive one of these units at the Lutefish booth during the 4-day event. Lutefish is just one of the many companies in the industry that is contributing to fire relief efforts for local musicians. The NAMM Foundation itself is donating $50,000 to aid NAMM members, music education programs, and independent music makers who were affected by the wildfires. You can donate to their grant fund to add to the available resources, and help even more musicians get back on their feet. Live Nation has pledged up to $1M in $5,000 individual grants through their Crew Nation emergency assistance program, as well as organized the FireAid charity concert event in Los Angeles on January 30^th. Guitar Center has a dedicated fire relief grant program, Metallica‘s All Within My Hands foundation has donated $500,000 to the Wildfire Recovery Fund, MusiCares has a short-term financial relief program, and Sweet Relief has set up a fund specifically for wildfire relief. The music industry has really come together to help their own during this most recent disaster, and if you have a few bucks to spare, I’d encourage you to check out any of these initiatives and help them spread more love and support.

The NAMM Show 2025 was really fun to attend, and though I only covered a very small portion of the awesome products from the show floor in this article, there were so many more gems I could’ve highlighted. It’s possible that I’ll be reviewing a couple of the smaller, more consumer targeted items, so keep an eye on our Featured Reviews section in the future. For now, follow the links in the product sections, read more about them on their company websites, and bring a few home if they suit your musical interests. Also, if you have any funds to spare for the musicians who were impacted by the LA fires, think about making a contribution to the relief efforts, by following the link to NAMM‘s donation site, or any of the other relief initiative that I linked above.