SOS synth guru Gordon Reid reports from North Carolina festival
Synthesis
Place / Event > Conference, Trade Show
Is it a music festival? Is it an arts festival? Is it a science and technology conference? Is it a forum to promote and debate weird ideas that sound like extracts from second-rate science fiction novels but may be much more than that? Or is it something else entirely? In truth, it's all of these things and more and, as I've watched the final preparations for Moogfest 2017 over the past three days, I've been acutely aware of the massive undertaking that the festival has now become. Growing from humble beginnings in 2004 as a small New York event aimed at Moog synthesizer aficionados, the latest incarnation of Moogfest is a huge, four-day festival comprising nearly 400 events that sprawl right across the city of Durham in North Carolina.
Trying to convey the scope of the festival is daunting. There are engineering workshops; concerts that range from world famous players and bands performing in major venues to obscure artists playing in even more obscure genres in intimate surroundings; lectures from eminent academics and industry figures; computing workshops; workshops on the place of music in politics; protest planning groups (yes, you read that correctly!); speculations on the interacting futures of music and technology and their evolving relationships with humanity' master classes on specific instruments; film presentations; business planning workshops; two synthesizer shops with some genuine bargains to be had and more. For much of the festival, you're going to need a ticket, with access to the various events determined by the type of pass you buy, but there's also much that's free of charge distributed across the four days, including DJ parties and musical performances, workshops, conversations and access to all of the shops and exhibits.
The Subsequent 37 CV is being built and sold at Moogfest today and over the next three days. Last night, I asked Casey Steinbacher, former CEO of the Durham Chamber Of Commerce, why the festival had relocated from Moog's home city of Asheville to Durham in 2016. She explained, Durham is not only a lovely, cosmopolitan city with a great university, it's the heart of a technological bubble at the forefront of scientific and business development. The city is an incubator for innovators and start-ups, and we're very proud that several of the businesses in the complex where part of Moogfest is based have been acquired by leading tech' companies, but have chosen to remain in Durham rather than relocate to Silicon Valley and elsewhere. This combination of a young, vibrant university city and cutting-edge technology made it perfect for Moogfest so, when I suggested this to Mike Adams at Moog Music, he simply said, let's talk about that , and here we are. We have an international airport to make transportation really convenient, and great support from the local community as well as the festival sponsors, so we plan for Moogfest to be based here until at least 2020, and hopefully much longer than that.
Moog engineers build the brand new Subsequent 37 CV in the Moog Store by Guitar Center at Moogfest.Of course, you can't have Moogfest without talking about Moog synthesizers, and yesterday the company announced a significant revision to its Sub 37 monosynth, now renamed the Subsequent 37 CV. The first 100 or so of these are being built by Moog's production staff in public in what they call the pop-up factory' on one of the main sites. I watched the first of these synths emerge from boxes of metalwork, circuit boards, knobs, nuts and bolts, moving down the production line from initial assembly, through calibration, finishing and final testing, and I suspect that many synth enthusiasts and DIY-ers will be fascinated to see how the pros do it. Mind you, I doubt that Moog will reach their production targets, because this isn't happening behind glass' and the staff are accessible to anyone who wants to interrupt and engage in conversation.
This Moog IIIc is proudly on display at Moogfest. Photo courtesy of Guitar Center. A few feet away, the production prototype of the Moog IIIC modular synth dwarfs the Subsequent 37s rolling off the production line. Following on from the System 35 and System 55 that were launched in 2015, this is another spin-off from the technology that made possible the limited edition Emerson Moog Modular synth that was unveiled three years ago at Moogfest 2014. It's a beautiful instrument and, even on set-up day, there was a constant stream of people trying to get their hands on it, often resulting in the cacophony that inevitably occurs when someone who has never used a Moog Modular gets his (it's always the men!) hands on one.
At the other end of the scale, there's a much smaller instrument that's also garnering considerable interest. At recent Moogfests there have been engineering workshops in which registered attendees can build their own Moog synthesizer (and, when completed, take it home). Last time I was here, it was the Werkstatt, which was later launched as a product in its own right. This year, it's the DFAM, a small analogue percussion monosynth based upon the Moog Mother 32. The tag line on the front panel, the Drummer From Another Mother' tells all.
Surrounded by dozens of synth fanatics in the pop-up factory a couple of hours ago, I spoke to Trent Thompson, Moog's Product Marketing Manager, and he enthused, Where else can you build people's dream instruments in front of them, and then hand over these awesome tools that are used to make music? When it's over, we'll be exhausted but also inspired by all of the interactions and feedback over the four days. It's good for us as people and as a com
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
28/04/2024
Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with U...
18/04/2024
Tom Durant Pritchard as Alexander Blake
Thursday 18 April 2024 Tom Durant Prit...
18/04/2024
Alone Australia goes from strength to strength
18 April, 2024
Media releases
The program again delivers for SBS with significant uplifts in digital BVOD vi...
18/04/2024
ORANGE COUNTY, Va., April 18, 2024 - L3Harris Technologies [NYSE:LHX] has entered into an agreement with Orange County, Virginia, to fund the expansion and mode...
18/04/2024
L3Harris Sky Warden multi-mission aircraft, equipped with the WESCAM MX-15 and WESCAM MX-20 EO/IR sensor systems, was selected for USSOCOMs Armed Overwatch prog...
18/04/2024
MELBOURNE, Fla., April 18, 2024 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) has received ...
18/04/2024
LAS VEGAS The National Association of Broadcasters is reporting that more than 61,000 people attended the 2024 NAB Show, where artificial intelligence and the c...
18/04/2024
Ann Keefe, Regional Director - UK and Ireland at Kingston Technology, explains how storage and memory decisions made now are underpinning creativity in the futu...
18/04/2024
Krisha Marcano Announced as Dean of Theater for Boston Conservatory at Berklee The theater educator, choreographer, and performer will join Boston Conservator...
18/04/2024
The newly acquired UKVI licence enables Escape Studios to recruit and retain international students
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: April 18, 2024
The newl...
18/04/2024
Attendees from more than 163 countries were present, including 34 delegation buying groups from around the world
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: April 18, 202...
18/04/2024
In August 2023, Dyn Media launched as a new broadcaster in European sports, aimed at giving sports beyond football the exposure and viewership they deserve. The...
18/04/2024
Hitomi Broadcast, market leader in audio/video alignment and latency tools based in the UK, has signed a partnership deal with global broadcast rental specialis...
18/04/2024
18 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and Dynamic Television announce new Scripted Initiative
Savage River
Screen Australia and Los Angeles-based telev...
18/04/2024
Vislink's DragonFly V - The Company's Smallest-Ever Transmitter Debuted ...
18/04/2024
MediaSilo to Offer Camera to Cloud with Atomos
Brie Clayton April 17, 2024
0 Comments
Integration between MediaSilo and Atomos Cloud Studio unlocking ...
18/04/2024
MultiDyne Updates its SilverBULLET Series to Serve More Fiber-Optic Links
Brie Clayton April 17, 2024
0 Comments
MultiDyne Fiber Optic Solutions intro...
18/04/2024
Cinedeck Partners with Paramount to Revolutionize Content Delivery Process
Brie Clayton April 17, 2024
0 Comments
Cinedeck, a pioneer in integrated de...
18/04/2024
Unreal for video adding rocks and foliage
Graham Quince April 17, 2024
0 Comments
Welcome to my series on learning Unreal Engine for After Effects u...
18/04/2024
Best Budget Beginner-Friendly 4k Drone
Sean Alami April 17, 2024
0 Comments
Potensic Atom 4k 3 axis Gimbal Drone, ideal drone for beginners.
Some con...
18/04/2024
Rocky Mount Mills will be overflowing with runners, families and friends, all fo...
18/04/2024
Berklee's Yoon-Ji Lee Receives Guggenheim Fellowship Lee, an assistant professor of composition, creates music based on unconventional and nonlinear struc...
18/04/2024
Ben Sherwood, former president of Disney ABC Television Group, has been named CEO and publisher at The Daily Beast. Joanna Coles, former chief content officer a...
18/04/2024
Ping pong for the masses: Bringing an old sport to a brand new audience with Wor...
18/04/2024
Fanatical fans: IMG on bringing the world of table tennis to a new global audien...
18/04/2024
Back to All News
Netflix Follows Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in New SeriesPlay Video
Play Video
Entertainment
18 April 2024
GlobalUnited States
Link copie...
18/04/2024
Back to All News
Chinese-Language Revenge Thriller Series The Resurrected'...
18/04/2024
Back to All News
The Witcher Season 4 Begins Production in the UK and Netflix A...
18/04/2024
Apple has reduced its overall greenhouse gas emissions by more than 55 percent since 2015, the company shared today in its 2024 Environmental Progress Report. T...
18/04/2024
Prison Journalism: April's experiences of black boudoirThabo Mthembu was incarcerated in Pollsmoor Prison from 2014 to 2019. Read Thabo's story
by Tha...
18/04/2024
Prison Journalism: Can gangsterism and violence be reduced in prison?Dean Mashimbwe, a Zimbabwean migrant residing in Cape Town, was incarcerated at Pollsmoor C...
18/04/2024
Software making music: How DJs are doing itSoftware plays a big part in music production, recording, and performances. Here's what DJs are using, and how yo...
18/04/2024
Tonight on House of Zwide: Zanele later blindsides an unwitting Faith into meeti...
18/04/2024
Debut author stuns with international bestselling thriller Anna O'Matthew Blake burst onto the book scene with his bestseller Anna O', a deliciously d...
18/04/2024
It's time to get a little wicked. Members can now stream No Rest for the Wicked from the cloud.
It leads six new games joining the GeForce NOW library of m...
18/04/2024
Skeem Saam: Wednesday's episode, 17 April 2024 [video]Missed an episode of Skeem Saam? No problem! Watch the latest episode of your favourite South African ...
18/04/2024
Watch: Trailers for the best Afrikaans movies ever madeDon't know what to watch? Here are some of the best Afrikaans movie trailers ever made, including Too...
18/04/2024
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Thales alongside partners SISINT and CONECTICABO...
18/04/2024
In response to growing concerns raised regarding the adverse impact of TikTok co...
18/04/2024
We were saddened to learn this morning of the passing of our friend and former colleague, Alf McCarthy who died yesterday.
We remember Alf as a popular present...
18/04/2024
NVIDIA today recognized 18 partners in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for their achievements and commitment to driving AI adoption.
The recipients were hon...
17/04/2024
Opening today, the exploration is aimed at selecting a location that will preser...
17/04/2024
On April 18 and 19, experts from across the audio industry-including artists, pu...
17/04/2024
With its particular combination of talent, ambition, culture, and, of course, wo...
17/04/2024
At Spotify, we want to equip student creators with the tools and resources neede...
17/04/2024
L3Harris Communications Australia Field Service support continues to grow with a...
17/04/2024
An optical technician lays on a diving board suspended between NASAs Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescopes primary and secondary mirrors. The photo is a projected ...
SOS synth guru Gordon Reid reports from North Carolina festival 
