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Dear Musician,

Shortly after NAMM comes the world's largest music trade show, the Frankfurt Musikmesse. And we mean big: This year there were 108,000 visitors from 120 countries, and 2,400 exhibitors. Compare that to NAMM's stats (85,000 registrants from more than 100 countries, and 1,535 companies), and it's easy to understand why Messe is the global music industry event.

But it's not just about the business; the public is invited for a day, so the Messe stages concerts, has two outdoor concert stages, presents the finale of the School Jam competition (in fact, the winner will be playing at the Summer NAMM show in Austin this year), and provides the venue for Musik Media's prestigious Musikmesse International Press Awards show.

So of course, Harmony Central was there. But because a lot of the new products were already covered with our NAMM video blitz, Harmony Central's Craig Anderton took a different tack. His daily show highlight videos cover the "vibe" of Messe as well as the products, and there's more to come in the theater section, including whirlwind tours of the various exhibition halls, and of course, product videos.

If you couldn't make the Messe, Harmony Central is definitely the next best thing to being there—from the steady flow of press releases, to videos in the Theater, to discussions in the forums. Enjoy!

- Your Harmony Central Team

What's Hot on HC This Week!

New User Review Category!

There's a brand new user review category on the main site for MIDI keyboard controllers. To participate and enter your reviews, fill out the form here. Now's your chance to let the world know about that gem you love, or stinker you wish you'd passed by.

MIDI controllers used to be part of the Synth category, but given MIDI's resurgence with the advent of virtual instruments, we felt it deserved its own spot. Going forward, please add any reviews on MIDI keyboard controllers to this area.

We'll be moving existing MIDI controller reviews from the synth category into the new area soon, and creating new sub-categories for other types of MIDI controllers as well (along with categories for drums and percussion and computer audio hardware). As always, thanks for your participation—and especially for sharing your opinions with the Harmony Central community!

Reviews & Techniques

Hot Tip!

USB!?

USB comes in two flavors. USB 1.1, called Full-Speed USB, can attain speeds of up to 12 Megabits per second. This is more than adequate for mice, printers, keyboards, and other "slow" peripherals.

The other option, USB 2.0, is far faster and called Hi-Speed USB. It can run at speeds up to 480 Megabits per second—suitable for hard drives, DVD burners, and of most interest to us, the new generation of USB 2.0 audio interfaces (such as those made by Edirol, E-Mu, ESI, and others).

What you might not know is that if your computer has multiple USB ports, some might run at 1.1 speed and some might be 2.0-compatible. USB 2.0 devices will work with USB 1.1, but run at the slower speed. With Windows machines, to determine if USB 2.0 is available, go:

Click Start
Select Settings
Select Control Panel
Double-click on System
Select Hardware tab
Select Device Manager
Expand Universal Serial Bus Controllers, and if the Host Controller says "Enhanced," you have at least some USB 2.0 ports

Also note that other, non-enhanced Host Controllers will be present to maintain compatibility with USB 1.1 devices.

Music Headlines

Forum Watch

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HC Confidential - The Harmony Central Newsletter