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Synthplex!

Dave Bryce

By Dave Bryce
in The Keyboard Corner

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elsongs

elsongs

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Posted
Any reports? Inquiring minds want to know. :)

 

I went without any expectations. I only had Saturday to attend, so I bought a one-day pass. I also splurged the $100 for the banquet because YOLO and, wow a performance by Thomas Dolby.

 

I did expect it to be a sort of mini-NAMM, which the exhibits exactly were. Most of the usual players were there: Roland (which was a major sponsor), Yamaha, Korg, Sequential, Casio, Spectrasonics, Arturia, Novation, etc. I did meet up with Mike Martin from Casio, as I didn't have the opportunity to stop by his booth at the NAMM show this year.

 

Speaking of NAMM, in a way, Synthplex was a little easier on me - I live in Los Angeles, so I have to commute an hour in heavy traffic to get to Anaheim, whereas Burbank is an easy 20-minute drive, mostly on surface streets!

 

I didn't get a chance to check out the pop-up synth museum, but there were some playable synths on display amongst the participating businesses/organizations that had tables outside the exhibit hall, including an OB-8.

 

There were also a bunch of seminars, which I wish were more clearly scheduled on the website, but I only was able to attend the music journalism panel, which included Stephen Fortner.

 

The banquet was around 200+ people, and it was an intimate audience for the Thomas Dolby performance. I had hoped to meet him or at least get a photo op, but it looked like they whisked him away right after it was finished. There was also another performance back at the exhibit hall area which featured Mark Isham and Vinnie Colaiuta. And then after that, BT did some part-seminar, part-performance appearance, which included him playing a Juno 60, SH-101, CP-70 and a laptop with Ableton Live. It was generally improv, which featured some interesting macros he made for Live. He also accompanied a poet friend of his, who did a reading while BT played music. And he also talked about recent recordings and projects, including being commissioned to produce 12 hours of continuously-evolving background music for Shanghai Disneyland's Tomorrowland.

 

At the end of the night, I got to chat a bit with Synthplex co-organizer Michael Boddicker, thanked him for the endeavor and even asked him a total comic book geek question regarding how he made a certain synth sound on James Ingram & Michael McDonald's "Yah Mo B There" that I had been wondering about for some 30+ years.

 

Look forward to next year. On this same weekend, there was a big comic book/sci fi convention at the Anaheim Convention Center called "Wondercon" that some of my friends attended. I have absolutely no interest in that world, but Synthplex was definitely *MY* Wondercon!

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The Real MC

The Real MC

Posted
Posted
Look forward to next year. On this same weekend, there was a big comic book/sci fi convention at the Anaheim Convention Center called "Wondercon" that some of my friends attended. I have absolutely no interest in that world, but Synthplex was definitely *MY* Wondercon!

 

Any synthplex babes there? :laugh:

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Philip Clark

Philip Clark

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Any reports? Inquiring minds want to know. :)

 

I went without any expectations. I only had Saturday to attend, so I bought a one-day pass. I also splurged the $100 for the banquet because YOLO and, wow a performance by Thomas Dolby.

 

I did expect it to be a sort of mini-NAMM, which the exhibits exactly were. Most of the usual players were there: Roland (which was a major sponsor), Yamaha, Korg, Sequential, Casio, Spectrasonics, Arturia, Novation, etc. I did meet up with Mike Martin from Casio, as I didn't have the opportunity to stop by his booth at the NAMM show this year.

 

Speaking of NAMM, in a way, Synthplex was a little easier on me - I live in Los Angeles, so I have to commute an hour in heavy traffic to get to Anaheim, whereas Burbank is an easy 20-minute drive, mostly on surface streets!

 

I didn't get a chance to check out the pop-up synth museum, but there were some playable synths on display amongst the participating businesses/organizations that had tables outside the exhibit hall, including an OB-8.

 

There were also a bunch of seminars, which I wish were more clearly scheduled on the website, but I only was able to attend the music journalism panel, which included Stephen Fortner.

 

The banquet was around 200+ people, and it was an intimate audience for the Thomas Dolby performance. I had hoped to meet him or at least get a photo op, but it looked like they whisked him away right after it was finished. There was also another performance back at the exhibit hall area which featured Mark Isham and Vinnie Colaiuta. And then after that, BT did some part-seminar, part-performance appearance, which included him playing a Juno 60, SH-101, CP-70 and a laptop with Ableton Live. It was generally improv, which featured some interesting macros he made for Live. He also accompanied a poet friend of his, who did a reading while BT played music. And he also talked about recent recordings and projects, including being commissioned to produce 12 hours of continuously-evolving background music for Shanghai Disneyland's Tomorrowland.

 

At the end of the night, I got to chat a bit with Synthplex co-organizer Michael Boddicker, thanked him for the endeavor and even asked him a total comic book geek question regarding how he made a certain synth sound on James Ingram & Michael McDonald's "Yah Mo B There" that I had been wondering about for some 30+ years.

 

Look forward to next year. On this same weekend, there was a big comic book/sci fi convention at the Anaheim Convention Center called "Wondercon" that some of my friends attended. I have absolutely no interest in that world, but Synthplex was definitely *MY* Wondercon!

 

That's it. Totally going next year.

Soul, R&B, Pop from Los Angeles

http://philipclark.com

 

Cannonball Gerald Albright Signature Alto, Yamaha YC73, Fender Rhodes, Roland Juno-106, Yamaha MX61, Roland VR-09, MicroKorg XL, Maschine Mikro, Yamaha Reface CP, Roland MKS-50

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Mike Martin

Mike Martin

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It was a very cool event. I think this will be even bigger next year. The seminars were particularly awesome as well as the synth museum.

 

We had the PX-S3000 there for people to try out and made some fun noise with the PX-5S too:

 

[video:youtube]

-Mike Martin

 

Casio

Mike Martin Photography Instagram Facebook

The Big Picture Photography Forum on Music Player Network

 

The opinions I post here are my own and do not represent the company I work for.

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