Most Innovative Product

[Anderton]

Which product really seemed to break new ground, or was just plain clever?

[Anderton]

Okay, I'll get the ball rolling with a couple of suggestions...

Line 6 BackTrack. The idea of never losing a riff is really pretty cool, especially if you're a songwriter.

Gibson Dark Fire. Granted, all the elements - automatic tuning, onboard parametric EQ, computerized setup, MIDI compatibility, and hex outputs existed before. But they've never been put together into one package.

Yamaha Tenori-On. Yes, it's expensive, and yes, it's mostly oriented toward dance music. Still, it gets very high marks for innovation.

Steinberg CC121 and MR816. Someone finally approached the DAW thing as a true hardware/software combination.

[Helmey]

I'll nominate the Kaossilator because it's cheap, fun and simple.

And I'd nominate Beat Maker software for the iPhone as my favorite innovation in software for creating a relatively full-featured music production station for my ipod.

[vrm]

I'm not up on all the electronic stuff, so I nominate the Dark fire.

[JazzFromHell]

gibson dark fire..

[Lee Knight]

Zoom H2. Was that this year?

[The Rossness]

Moog Guitar

[srspud]

Line 6 M13.
Just effects pedals with some control. Brilliantly simple.

[Scafeets]

OptionKnob (http://www.optionknob.com/)

A goofy but cheap and effective device.
http://www.optionknob.com/img/the_solution.jpg

[Anderton]

OptionKnob (http://www.optionknob.com/)

A goofy but cheap and effective device.
http://www.optionknob.com/img/the_solution.jpg

That's wild!! How did you find out about this?

[Scafeets]

That's wild!! How did you find out about this?
One of those little ads in a corner of Vintage Guitar mag. I play in a cover band and use a big pedalboard for a variety of different sounds. And I need to adjust parameters on chorus, delay, tremolo, etc.
One of those dumb little inventions that makes you say "wish I thought of that." It's like my favorite dumb, cheap invention of the previous year, the SwirlyGig.
http://www.swirlygig.com/htm/productsCSG.jpg

[Jon Chappell]

The Gibson Dark Fire and Melodyne Direct Note Access both impressed me deeply, yet they're so different it's hard to compare them and say which one is the single most innovative.

So if this category ever "splits" (to use a Wall Street metaphor) or "doubles down" (to use the Las Vegas argot) into "hard" and "soft" categories, remember my prognostications. You heard it here first. :)

[SingLoco]

The moog guitar.

I heard it won best in show at NAMM.

[Snouter]

I saw a You Tube demo of The Moog Guitar and it seems like a take off of the Variax which is basically a $300 guitar with expensive software running on inexpensive circuit boards inside. The Moog however has what appears to be an built-in E-Bow in the pickups.

The Moogs are going for almost $6,000. For less than $3,000, you can get one of the best factory guitars available, a Godin with synth access, that Roland GI-20 box that converts the synth access signal to MIDI. Some soft synths and hosting software like Cakewalk, a USB or firewire box and a laptop to process it all. And can thus create any sound possible.

Anyhow, not sure when it came out but the AdrenaLinn III gets my vote.

[girevik]

I know this is a guitar and keyboard heavy place, but I'm going to post this anyway:

K-Bow (http://www.keithmcmillen.com/kbow/index.html)

There have been other attempts in the past to measure bow movement for MIDI or OSC, but they generally involved messy wires attached to the bow. This is the most elegant solution I've seen yet - completely wireless.

http://www.keithmcmillen.com/kbow/files/bowaxis_sml.jpg

And I mentioned the StringPort under Audio Interfaces but maybe it belongs here too.

[Armchair Bronco]

The Egnater Rebel 20 amp head.

Settable wattage from 1 to 20 watts, and a revolutionary EL-84/6V6 blend pot.

http://www.egnateramps.com/images/Rebl20.jpg

[jskpongoui]

+1 on the Tenori On, kaosillator is quite nice too