SUPERBOOTH19 – Synth Expo Berlin (Part 2)

Part 1 of the report having ended with a visit to Moog Music, we decided to remain in the American section for a while. One of the most notable figures in the synthesizer scene is Dave Rossum. We got there just as he was presenting his latest Eurorack modules …

High-quality craftmanship and a classic silver look: The Rossum modules remind us of the legendary EMU system of the 70s …

A step around the corner brought us to MOTOR SYNTH, one of SuperBooth’s most unusual instruments. An electromechanical synthesizer …

Black Corporation is the talk of the town at the moment. The company produces high-quality synthesizer clones in 19-inch format, such as the CS-80 clone “Deckard’s Dream”, the Polykobol clone “KIJIMI” or the recently announced Synthex clone “Xerxes” …

For those of you who hate doing music all alone, we recommend the DUO Synth

There he is, the master himself. Manfred Fricke at the MFB booth. Here he is with Dieter Doepfer. Mr. Fricke mischievously showed off his latest work, an 8-voice desktop synthesizer with 24 VCOs: MFB-SYNTH8.

The appearance of a drum kit surprised us. Pearl? Korg? Well, a cooperation of both companies led to the e/Merge Electronic Drums …

A short meeting with Kim Bjørn. His books on synthesizers, modular systems and effect pedals should be an integral part of any synth-enthusiast’s literature collection …

The global players were at SuperBooth, too. Roland … Korg … and Yamaha

Well, the C15 from Nonlinear Labs has been around for a couple of years now. But in contrast to many other instruments (fashion products with a short life span), the C15 has good chances of becoming one of the most important synthesizers in music history.

We also met Till Kopper, who has a C15 in his studio, of course. How else could it be?

Soundforce produces MIDI controllers for software emulations from vintage classics (Minimooog, Prophet-5, …). Now they have Eurorack modules in their portfolio, too. Truely analog, of course …

Tom Carpenter revealed a secret to us. Which is going to stay a secret. At the Analogue Solutions booth he focused on the “Impluse Command” synthesizer.

Then we met Axel Fischer, surrounded by two Schmidt Synthesizers. That successful instrument is currently in its third edition. Both models – the white and the anthracite colored version – were at the exhibition …

Havong been knocked down flat by the power of the Schmidt Synthesizer, we strayed a bit aimlessly through the SuperBooth … and collected more impressions.

John from Kenton Electronics presented his latest MIDI modules / MIDI patch bays …

We admire Tubbutec for what they are doing! Providing old synthesizers with new functions is a noble undertaking. Tubbutec upgrades are now to be seen in many vintage synths …

Richard Quirk alias AJH has his own place in the scene. His modules are of outstanding quality – both haptically and sonically.

Need some color in the studio? The speaker systems from Monkey-Banana – absolute eye-catchers!

One more pit stop at Sequential. Dave Smith seemed a bit exhausted at the end of SuperBooth …

Pulsar-23 caused excitement. The drum machine from SOMA not only sounds excellent (and is by no means “mainstream”), its sounds can also be substantially changed via little metal clamps …

A meeting with Eric Synthwalker rounded off our SuperBooth visit. That friendly synthesizer collector works for the French magazine Audiofanzine.

Some last impressions of the successful SuperBooth19. We look forward to that event again next year … !!!


 

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“Es genügt, einen Ton schön zu spielen” sagte der Komponist Arvo Pärt im Jahre 2005. Diese Aussage ist ebenso einfach wie ich auch exzellent: Es braucht kein Meer an Tönen, denn entscheidend ist der Klang. Dass so mancher Vintage-Synthesizer der 70er und 80er Jahre teils unerreicht hochwertige Klänge liefert, steht außer Frage. Doch tatsächlich leben wir “heute” in einer nahezu perfekten Zeit. Einerseits hat man – mehr oder weniger – noch Zugriff auf die Vintage Analogen, andererseits wird auch bei Neugeräten die wichtige Komponente des hochwertigen Klanges wieder zunehmend berücksichtigt. Doepfer, Cwejman, Synthesizers.com, MacBeth, Moog, GRP, Studio Electronics, COTK, John Bowen und andere Hersteller bauen hervorragende Synthesizer, die den “Klassikern” in nichts nachstehen. All diesen (alten wie neuen) “großartigen” Instrumenten ist Great Synthesizers gewidmet. _________________________________________________________ In 2005 composer Arvo Pärt said: “Playing one tone really well is enough”. In other words, it is sufficient to play one tone 'beautifully'. I agree with that. All musical efforts are focused on the sound itself. Although I studied classical music (piano and drums), it’s the electronic sound that inspires me. Synthesizers are the epitome of new sounds and exciting tonal spheres. Today, many companies produce high-quality - excellent! - synthesizers: Doepfer, Cwejman, MacBeth, Moog, GRP, Synthesizers.com, COTK, Studio Electronics, John Bowen and others. It's their products I'm really interested in ... apart from Vintage Synthesizers, which I have been collecting for 20 years. Subsequent to our former websites Bluesynths and Blogasys, Peter Mahr and I have now created GreatSynthesizers. We hope you like it.

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