New gear: NAMM announcements begin to take shape

© Richard Cummins/CORBIS

2011 is here, the annual drummer's playground that is NAMM is just around the corner and the flood of new product announcements has begun.

The first trickle (ahead of the mass flood that will come next week as the Anaheim Convention Center show gets underway) has seen several big drum names give details of what will be filling their stands (and your kit bags) this year.

Mapex will be unveiling the successor to their Falcon pedal - The Raptor. Of the new pedal, Joe Hibbs, Product Manager for Mapex, had this to say: "We have incorporated many of the key features from our popular Falcon pedal into the new Raptor pedal, including a beater with interchangeable weights, smaller pedal footprint, and floating spring assembly."

Mapex has also announced their new Black Panther range of kits. After whetting our appetite with the Black Panther snare series over the last year, we can't wait to see (and hear, obviously) these full sets in action.

Meanwhile, things are just as busy over at TRX, with the cymbal maker introducing their new Icon metals at NAMM. The Turkish cymbalsmiths have toiled over a raft of new products, including hi-hats, splashes, chinas and rides. Sticking with cymbals, Zildjian is debuting its Gen 16 Digital Vault range at the show.

Finally (for now), Gibraltar has added to its ever-growing hardware line with a neat new addition, check it out for yourself in the video below.