Saturday 30th September in Bristol.
This is a major show with many synth and modular makers exhibiting, and panel talks, DIY workshops and lots of live music.
Also featuring the DivKid Stage with a full afternoon of interviews with top module makers.
Good combination of larger and smaller companies and lots of other activities. This should be popular, so expect to see a crowd. There is a chance the tickets for this will sell out.
A little company Stochastic Instruments has announced that they will show a new module at MB.
I also look forward to seeing more on the wofi from Kiviak ( thread ).
Also ( me-being-me ) i always check out ASM. They’re not on the exhibitors list this year at Knobcon, where they have always shown, but are on the list for MB this year.
Novation a company that you’d think would naturally be at MB are not, but they will be at Knobcon. Go figure.
It’s fun to look at the overlap, there aren’t many companies at both shows, but here are a few that are :
1010 Music
Befaco
Buchla
Dreadbox
Polyend
PWM
Zlob
These companies all fall into a category for me of companies on the move. It wouldn’t surprise me for any of them to have new products. ( Well PWM is showing their Mantis. )
I’m so looking forward to this. Hoping to record some stuff for my YouTube channel, anyone have experience of little setups for this sort of thing? I don’t want to interview or be on camera, so I’m thinking of just using my phone (Oppo Find X5 - Android w/USB-C) and a little USB-C audio interface along with my Joby tripod for capturing audio and video of gear being used.
If you come along to the Divkid stage between 6 and 8 there will be a mix of tunes from Escher Music Connection (a producer meetup) by local legend DJ’s Em and Stav, including a track by yours truly
SOMA Labs will be at MB so maybe it will be one of the first times ( and then soon after at Synthfest UK ) to see their new FLUX synth, It is still under development so perhaps the showing online may be preparation for an unveil at the two shows.
Similar in concept to the Theremin. Hand positions are sensed magnetically. It’s playing surface looks like this :
Probably a small thing but there is something new called the PlayFader a 2 channel CV performance looper device from a company ( startup ? ) called Play All Day to be unveiled at MB.
Neuzeit will be showing off their new Warp Eurorack module. They showed this in the Spring at Superbooth ( my post ), but they are now shipping, and have completed ( at least an initial ) sound design.
There is a lot ( digitally ) going on under the surface, but the controls make it pretty approachable. It is both an additive and wavetable synthesis, and fills a sound space that is rather unique ( too my ears at least ). This one is worth paying attention too. There is an expansion module that adds polyphony and MPE support – up to four voices of polyphony.
They put together an hour long demo that really shows this synth off.
Looking forward to more word from those at the show on this. ( in just a week now. )
Befaco is ready to ship their Eurorack FX unit FX Boy, that comes with seven different hot pluggable cards, designed by different synth makers to give very different effects. This was shown at Superbooth, but will ship in October.
I think this is a great concept, bringing together all these separate makers for very different signature sounds. There is also a bare board that will allow you to make your own custom plug-in.
ADDED : I like the idea of being able to quickly change a modular set-up by just changing a plug in card rather than having several separate FX modules and rearranging the cabling.
ADDED : DivKid did a really good video on the FX options on the FX Boy, and how they sound. The video is just worth listening too. He has me convinced now on the value of this module.
Yeah I will be presenting the xr-1 at Machina, very excited! That old thread was for a previous idea I had that used the same name.
Basically, around 2020 I wanted to make a 909 style drum machine. Then I thought maybe a program change sequencer would be interesting given that so many synths have great sequencers but may not have a song/arrangement mode. Then I took a break, and came back to wanting to make a device that I actually wanted for myself to be able to use when making music or performing, sort of inspired by a lot of great gear that I liked but felt that any one device didn’t capture fully, so the xr-1 is that.
I had no idea that article was going to be made about it, but very nice of them to do! There’s still a lot of work to be done before launch, and I plan on having a sign up page available after/around when Machina happens this Saturday.
