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Work the tour.
Despite the hassle, the work, and the inevitability of dealing with the dreaded ‘NAMM-thrax’ cocktail of germs for a good week or so after the show, the annual NAMM trade show in Anaheim has always been a family reunion of sorts for me. I realized it is probably the only time of the year that I’m certain to run into quite a very large number of folks whom I’ve known in the industry for, in some cases, well over two decades. I don’t think I fully realized this until it was taken away from us for a few years during the pandemic.
NAMM seems to be on its way back to its pre-pandemic height. It’s not there yet; but should be returning to its traditional January schedule next year, and that show will be very telling. Whether or not it fully regains its past glory, I know that there will always be some folks who need this ‘family reunion’ as a sort of shot in the arm and re-motivator. I always come back with a renewed focus and new ideas for products.
Some advice I once read in the recording trade magazines many years ago was to always ‘work the tour’, rather than ‘let the tour work you’. I’ve always taken that to heart. Anytime I travel, I make it a point to always include an extra day or two for ‘me time’, and find some local sights to see, foods to eat, and places to visit. I did some of that in Anaheim; but the real treat was after the NAMM show, traveling down to Simi Valley to visit the Cinemag factory, where some of the world’s finest transformers are made.
Cinemag first came on the radar for me over 20 years ago, when I learned I could upgrade a then popular microphone preamp with their transformers. I remember reading about how only one metal processing plant in the world could make laminations to their specifications, and I was hooked. Cinemag parts are a quality reference, and have a clarity and openness that most other magnetics struggle to approach. When coloration is desired, they have a way of dialing that in with such precision and attention to results, that again, other manufacturers struggle to match.
Cinemag and I
Cinemag first came on the radar for me over 20 years ago, when I learned I could upgrade a then popular microphone preamp with their transformers. I remember reading about how only one metal processing plant in the world could make laminations to their specifications, and I was hooked. Cinemag parts are a quality reference, and have a clarity and openness that most other magnetics struggle to approach. When coloration is desired, they have a way of dialing that in with such precision and attention to results, that again, other manufacturers struggle to match.
I’m proud to have gotten to be a ‘point of contact’ between Cinemag and at least four different companies over the past couple of decades. As has been said about this industry; the companies may come and go, but the people remain the same. When we started United Studio Technologies, there was no doubt in my mind that Cinemag were the company we should work with on our first product, the UT FET47. There’s no doubt in my mind that the very special, large, ‘‘striped core’ transformer we came up with for that product has been one of the keys to its success in the marketplace, as it straddles a very fine line between revealing detail and a slight harmonic coloration dialed in specifically as a nod to the original German part.
The success of the UT FET47 part put considerable pressure on Cinemag to make more transformers, and to make them faster. This led to investment in more automation and sophisticated winding machines. Cinemag truly rose to the occasion, and it was great to see the fruits of some of those process improvements. They are able now to make as many transformers as we might need using these new processes; and the quality is as good as ever, if not better.
I had a great time visiting the factory and "seeing how the sausage is made" after decades of merely appreciating their work from afar. More importantly, we had some great discussions about future products and I let them know that we will soon have need for a part that I believe only Cinemag could truly reproduce correctly (in the USA, anyway). I cannot say more about that at this time; but suffice it to say that we have quite a few exciting things in development, and Cinemag will continue to be a part of that process going forward.
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