Knobcon 2013, aka Knobcon The 13th Part II: The Final Friday will be held this weekend, Sept 13-14 2013 in the Chicago area.

Knobcon is a ‘fully immersive experience’, offering performances, workshops and vendors. Attendees can get their hands on an incredible amount of equipment and talk directly with designers of some of today’s most innovative synthesizer products.

Here are five reasons to attend Knobcon 2013:

• You don’t need to know a lot about synths to enjoy Knobcon – According to organizers, ‘the diversity and passion of those at Knobcon make it enjoyable for all experience levels’. There will be a variety of live performances and workshops for synthesists of all levels. You can even attend a workshop to build a synth!
• Friday Night is a party – meet other synth fans, have a drink and catch gear-centric performances by Todd Barton, The Synth Freq, Suit & Tie Guy, Cory Flanigan; enjoy live visuals by brownshoesonly; and more.
• Two words: real knobs – Saturday’s synth meet will let you get up close and personal with monosynths, polysynths, modulars and even the freaky stuff.
• You can meet the people that make your synths – Companies that plan to be on site include:
  • Company of Quail
  • Detachment 3
  • Five12
  • Flight of Harmony
  • Foxtone Music
  • GetLoFi.com
  • Grove Audio
  • The Harvestman
  • hexinverter.net
  • KVgear
  • Low-Gain Electronics
  • Livewire Electronics
  • Make Noise
  • MegaOhm Audio
  • Monorocket
  • Nerd Audio
  • Old Crow’s Synth Shop
  • soundmachines
  • Steady State Fate
  • STG Soundlabs
  • Unatronics
  • WMD
• It will be a synth geek’s paradise – in addition to the livetronica, piles of awesome gear and dozens of synth manufacturers – there will be electronic music workshops throughout the day Saturday. Workshop topics include: New Approaches To Step Sequencing: The New Buchla Music Easel; and Numerology and Voltage Control.

See the Knobcon site for more info.