We were not fortunate enough to go to NAMM this year but we have been watching closely the iPad related announcements from there and we have mentioned a few of them over the last week, hopefully you saw those.

Now, a week later, lots of videos have been appearing on YouTube featuring these products and tantalising us further, so we thought we would pull a few of them together to distract you from your Friday. Enjoy!

Akai SynthStation49

Not the only keyboard with iPad dock at NAMM interestingly, but we included this SynthStation49 one because he also demonstrates the new version of the SynthStation app that is out soon which looks very nice. 

Alesis StudioDock

There are not enough superlatives to describe how excited we are about the Alesis StudioDock!

Amplitube Fender

Nothing really new in this video but it recaps all the main features of the new AmpliTube Fender version and gives us a quick look at the 8 track recorder, we are thinking about getting hold of a Strat-type of guitar just to test it, we did see a Tele copy in a secondhand shop down the road...

iRig Mic & VocaLive app

A live demo of the new iRig Mic which we hope to see soon and voice effects from the VocaLive app. The Choir effect looks like it might be useful and the Morph effect will let us do our Darth Vader impressions and scare the kids. Nice:

Just a few videos from NAMM 2011, there are loads on YouTube if you want to see more. We know it is going to be an exciting year for iPad and Audio and we can't wait to see how it all pans out.

When Akai Professional brought out the SynthStation25 with integrated iPod Touch/iPhone dock we were desperately scouring the Internet for hacks that would allow a dock extender to work with our iPads but most reports were that the full functionality was not going to work this way.

But worry no more, Akai have just announced at NAMM 2011 the iPad version with a larger keyboard to match, the SynthStation49 (with 49 velocity-sensitive keys as opposed to the 25 keys of the smaller version).

The SynthStation49 is iOS CoreMIDI compatible so should act as an interface to pretty much any App using MIDI but it also has an onboard USB connection so that you can hook it up to your computer / DAW and control that too.

We think this might just be what live gigging musicians have been waiting for to use some of the awesome iPad apps in a real context.

The iPad is charged when docked and can be adjusted to different viewing angles so it looks like they have put a lot of thought into the iPad integration.

We hope that Akai have addressed the latency issues that some were reporting with the SynthStation25 but we are sure we will hear about that soon enough!

You can read more details and a full description of the features on the SynthStation49 webpage, but here are the main ones from the announcement:

• Portable, velocity-sensitive keyboard with pitch and modulation wheels
• Nine velocity-sensitive MPC-style drum pads which light when triggered
• Dedicated transport control buttons including Play, Pause and Record
• Play MIDI keyboard and drum pad performances into an iPad via CoreMIDI or AkaiConnect apps
• Built-in, adjustable dock charges your iPad while positioning the screen at the perfect angle
• USB port for connecting to a Mac or PC, receiving power and controlling MIDI music software
• Professional ¼" stereo outputs with volume control to connect mixers, speakers and recording equipment
• Headphone output to practice and compose in private

If this is just what you have been looking for or you have any thoughts about SynthStation49 let us know in the comments.