Organizers have announced details and the schedule for the Knobcon V synth convention, scheduled for Sept 9-11 at the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg near Chicago.
The event will feature over 60 exhibitors, live performances and workshops. The keynote speaker will be Bill Hemsath, who was RA Moog’s Chief Engineer from 1969 to 1971. During that time, Hemsworth was responsible for the development of the Minimoog, among other things.
Multiple exhibit halls will be open to the public at 10 AM Saturday and Sunday, featuring synths from Roland, Korg, Yamaha, and Moog; boutique modular and pedal companies; and classic gear from collectors.
Behringer’s new analog polysynth DeepMind 12 will be making its North American debut at the event. Also appearing will be the new Minimoog Model D from Moog, and the Arturia Matrixbrute.
Knobcon V Schedule:
Friday, September 9 – Knobcon begins, with an opening reception with live performances by Allerian, Entanglement, Studio Dummies, and Suit & Tie Guy.
Saturday and Sunday, the exhibit halls will be open and a variety of workshops are scheduled, including:
- Syntheizer Basics and Synthesizer Myths presented by Marc Doty
- History and Theory of Additive Synthesis presented by Jon Sonnenberg
- Birth of the Prophet VS presented by Chris Meyer
- Tomita: A Voyage Through His Greatest Techniques presented by Nicholas D. Kent
- Experimental Music: Composition with an Arduino MIDI Controller presented by Elliott Inma
- MIDI: What’s it All About? presented by Amos Gayne
- BeatPPL – Live Podcast Recordin
- SynthSummitShow – Live Podcast Recordin
- Learn to solder SMT with synthCube building a Buffered Mult and Cable Tester Modul
- Build an AstroNoise Euro Module or Standalone Circuit with Synthrote
- Build a Dual Passive Low Pass Gate Euro Module with Modular Addict
Saturday evening features multiple events, including the annual Knobcon Banquet with a keynote address by guest of honor, Bill Hemsath.
1The entertainment continues Saturday night with multiple live music events. The Knobcon Big Room – a house and techno party with projections by Lorenzo Vektor and Dennis Stein. Big Room performers include Glacial 23, Introvert, Low-Gain, Komprezzor and Oliver Dodd. If that’s not your thing, head over to the International Players Club – a live music and jam session with The SynthFreq & Friends.
Knobcon registration is now open, priced at US $35 for all three days of the event. The Saturday banquet is optional, priced at $50. Full details and schedule are available at the Knobcon site.
Battle of the Synths !!!
Behringer vs Roland vs Arturia
I’ll show up there for sure.
Oh boy. Some purchasing decisions (by me) will be made at that show. I hope we can get hands on.
If someone reading this attended last year, what are your thoughts on it? Worth attending?
Yes! It’s a lot of fun!
Yeah, it’s not huge like NAMM but a lot more personable. If you don’t have to fly then I would say definitely go. But flight/hotel is about the same as buying a DPO.
You do get a lot of sale prices from the retailers, I bought some used modules as well, you’ll meet a lot of people and get some new ideas. This year will be extra cool because of the Arturia/Behringer synths.
The Friday night shows will reveal the best, and sometimes worst, of the modular live experience. I personally couldn’t pull off a live gig on my modular, but others do so with varying degrees of success. STG is great live but I didn’t see him listed as playing this year…too bad, he’s great at it.