GEAR: This month, at the Winter NAMM, Roland announced its newest high-end keyboard offering which takes its well conceived, but not widely embraced, V-Synth platform and blows it up to a new level, with a far more powerful iteration of their Elastic Audio Synthesis Engine. It’s called the V-Synth GT, and it’s my next keyboard.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Author Dee Dee Phelps signs and talks about her memoir “Vinyl Highway” (ISBN-10: 1412073839) singing as Dick and Dee Dee, at Village Books, 1049 Swarthmore Avenue, Pacific Palisades 90272 on Thursday evening, February 8th at 7:30 pm.

GEAR: Yamaha Corporation of America expands on their top line of synthesizer workstations with the new Motif XS, featuring new sounds and new creative tools in a redesigned, intuitive user interface. The Motif XS includes new Xpanded Articulation sounds featuring 355 MB of wave ROM to inspire creativity.

NAMM REPORT: The developers, inventors, creators and programmers found at NAMM (formerly the National Association of Music Merchants) are a fascinating bunch of people. Some are geniuses. Some are certifiable. Some are both. And we must face the fact that some are electronic device zealots with an expensive hobby instead of a 401(k).

NAMM REPORT: The National Association of Music Merchants, now known simply as NAMM, held a lovely little party for four days in January. With displays of gear from 1,500 manufacturers and the hallways packed with 85,000 attendees, it was a show that was a sonic circus of electronic innovation.

INTERVIEW: In September 2006, Peter Frampton released his first all-instrumental album, called “Fingerprints.” For the project he was able to bring together not only many of his contemporaries and peers, but also a couple of his long time “heroes” and inspirations, Hank Marvin and Brian Bennett of The Shadows. The album showcases many influences, including the rock beats Frampton is known for along with “quieter” instrumentals with a jazz sensibility, and even blues.

GEAR: The new “KORG Legacy Collection - ANALOG EDITION 2007″ was announced January 18th. The popular “MS-20″ and “Polysix” from the KORG Legacy Collection are now joined by the “Mono/Poly.” According to the company, these are “classic Korg analog synthesizers newly reborn as software instruments in a powerful production package.”

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — A&R Select, the leading independent A&R firm in Hollywood, has announced it will be a participant in America’s leading independent film festival. A&R Select will sponsor an event highlighting “Music for Films” at the Sundance Film Festival.

QUEENS, N.Y. — The Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning mixes the rich, vibrant and scintillating sound of four continents in its New Young Artists (NYA) concert series scheduled for Friday, March 16 and Saturday, March 17 at 7 p.m. The NYA series will showcase African, jazz, rhythm and blues, funk, reggae, and Latin music; audiences can travel the world in just two days.

ANAHEIM, Calif., Winter NAMM 2007 — Cakewalk, the world’s leading developer of powerful and easy to use products for music creation and recording, today announces new versions of its popular SONAR Home Studio and SONAR Home Studio XL titles. SONAR Home Studio 6 and SONAR Home Studio 6 XL feature the power of Cakewalk’s flagship SONAR 6 paired with a feature set, price, and ease-of-use geared towards home studio owners and budget-conscious musicians.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — A year ago, Arturia changed their logo and added the tag line “Hardware and Software.” Many people then wondered what it would mean effectively. Well the answer is unveiled today at the NAMM show in Los Angeles: Origin, Arturia’s first Hardware synthesizer, is introduced on booth 7013.

SEATTLE, Wash. — Kagi Media, producers of Mix It Like A Record, the enormously successful interactive mixing course authored by Grammy-winning engineer, mixer and producer Charles Dye, together with DUY, a leading developer of a broad range of plug-ins for Pro Tools, are sponsoring a contest in which three winners will receive a copy of the Mix It Like A Record mixing course and DUY’s Global Bundle.

COLUMN: There are deep, dark secrets in all of the heart-pounding and soul-melting music enjoyed by Valentine’s Day lovers and they are revealed by recording artist and commercial music composer Scott G (The G-Man). So sit back, relax, have some chocolate, and dip into some little-known stories behind those famous emotional tunes.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — As befits anything from an album by DJ Insane and The G-Man, the first music video is one of the strangest ever posted online. The opening track, entitled “Trans Addiction,” from the U.S. album CRAZED + DAZED (Delvian Records, UPC 6-75604-10252-0), has prompted an advertising copywriter in India to use open source film footage by an avant-garde German director to create the “Trans Addiction Wine Symphony.”

REVIEW: Take a pianist with a classical repertoire and a guitarist who grew up playing rock; turn them loose and you might get Davison/Coleman, whose first album wraps you up in melodies that reach back to the seventies and stretch forward to music that could come from a distant peaceful planet.

NEW YORK, N.Y. — New York City audiences will have the rare opportunity on Sunday night, January 28, to hear “Jazz Hits from the Broadway Stage,” a swinging, intimate program of well-known Broadway show tunes performed by some of the city’s most-accomplished and well-known jazz musicians. It is sure to be a treat for general audiences and jazz lovers alike.

WINDHAM, N.H. — Yellow Brick Road Entertainment LLC announces the launch of www.BandDigs.com 1.0, an interactive music web community that revolutionizes the way bands and fans communicate. Bands utilize BandDigs to video chat with their fans (large numbers of people at once) and to stream live video broadcasts from back stage at venues, their rehearsal spaces, recording studios and even clubs.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Building on the extraordinary, sold-out success of the 2006 ASCAP “I Create Music” EXPO, ASCAP will stage an even larger, more comprehensive event for music creators at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles on April 19-21, 2007. The ASCAP EXPO is the first and only national conference dedicated to songwriting and composing, bringing together top music creators across all genres with those just starting out.