Tops and Flops: Highlights of the Week
A roundup of some of this week's highlights in the world of music.
3,2 / 5,0 | 
In this week’s edition of Tops and Flops, we’ll discuss the most exciting and entertaining stories, and a few other gems I’ve found online.
This Week’s Highlights
Tops and Flops: Highlights of the Week
Happy New Year to all! we hope you’re having a restful holiday period. While many of us are still firmly in relaxation mode, the cogs of the industry have begun to turn slowly, and we can start to see new gear on the horizon already.
Tops and Flops: NAMM 2025
It’s almost NAMM time, folks! Can you feel the excitement? We certainly can. The convention runs from Tuesday the 21st to Saturday the 25th of this month, with representation from a wide scope of manufacturers ranging from Behringer to Fender and many, many more.
While some brands like to announce new products in the weeks leading up to NAMM, there may well be others that choose to use the convention as a platform to unveil their latest and greatest musical offerings, as we have seen in the years gone by.
As usual, we will be covering all the developments here on Gearnews, so be sure to check in to find out all about the new gear releases.
Tops and Flops: Markay Fairley’s Touring Keyboard Rig
If you follow Moog Music and the gear sphere in general, you’ll be well aware of the release of the new Moog Muse polyphonic synth last year. Well, the Muse saw some real action on tour with musical director Markay Fairley, who incorporated it into his keyboard rig for the recent Nas Illmatic 30th Anniversary tour and the Las Vegas residency that followed.
Markay’s rig is particularly impressive, besides the Muse, he also uses the Moog Subsequent 37, as well as the Nord Stage 3, the Nord C2D, the Roland Jupiter 80, and the Roland Fantom 8. While the whole lineup isn’t always used in every show, the Nords and the Jupiter 80 are the core of the rig, while the rest are added to cover particular sounds.
The tour included dates at iconic venues such as Madison Square Garden and The Royal Albert Hall, so you can be sure that the Muse was put through its paces on the road. For more details about Markay Fairley’s tour experiences be sure to follow his Instagram page.
Tops and Flops: Frankfurt’s MOMEM to host Tangerine Dream Exhibit
From April 7 until September 28 this year, electronic pioneers Tangerine Dream have an exhibition entitled Zeitraffer running at the Museum of Modern Electronic Music in Frankfurt. In addition, on the opening night, the band will play a show at the Alte Oper concert hall in memory of founding member, Edgar Froese.
Zeitraffer, meaning time-lapse, covers the epic history of Tangerine Dream and the effect that their music has had on electronic music culture. Besides the curated collection of artifacts and artworks on display, MOMEM will play host to a series of talks, film screenings, and lectures running in conjunction with the exhibit.
Since its opening in 2022, MOMEM has actively contributed to spreading awareness of the cultural significance of electronic music for visitors both young and old. Currently, the museum is hosting an exhibition covering Italo Disco until April 2, so be sure to pay them a visit if you can.
For more info, check out:
Tops and Flops: Tony Black NYC
Toward the end of last year, I discovered the Tony Black NYC YouTube channel, which is a goldmine for information about the professional recording industry. Besides being a YouTuber, Tony Black is a professional mixing engineer who worked at The Hit Factory in New York City, from 1993 to 1998, when Hip-Hop became a real force in the commercial marketplace.
His clients range from Michael Jackson to Alicia Keys (winning a Grammy for The Diary of Alicia Keys), as well as Jay-Z, Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, and many more. Besides technical info about the inner workings of professional studios, Tony also shares his opinions on the current content-orientated media landscape that we find ourselves in today.
If you’re interested in how Hip-Hop was made back in its prime days, this is a channel worth checking out. You’ll find it refreshing to get information about music production from someone who has actually worked at the highest level, rather than the speculative takes you generally find scattered throughout YouTube.
Tops and Flops: Richard Devine Got Hacked
If you’ve used any type of synthesizer, softsynth, or effects plugin in the last 10 years or more, chances are you’ve come across presets designed by Richard Devine. The electronic music artist and sound designer hails from Atlanta and has created patches for a range of manufacturers and developers including Native Instruments, KORG, Waldorf, Clavia (Nord), Reason Studios, and many more.
Despite dealing with the flooding of his studio a few weeks ago, we were informed by his Instagram page that his Facebook account had been hacked. If you follow Richard Devine on Facebook, you’ll have noticed that from the 27th of December of last year up until now, the page has been posting strange “food for thought” posts at a rate of more than 5 per day.
Although I thought it was somewhat comical at first, I imagine that having someone illegally take control of your social page is a complete nuisance. The issue seems to be taking more than the 48-hour time frame mentioned in his announcement, so we can only hope it is resolved soon.
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