Brighton Music Conference 2015 - Pics and show floor

Now that the dust has settled, here's a quick look at the offerings in and around the show floor at this year's Brighton Music conference on the Friday. While the size of the exhibition area is not as big as some of the larger exhibitions in Germany or the US, the exhibition area was split in two areas: one dedicated to music production (including synthesisers, keyboard controllers and the like) and the other half looking at club furniture (such as lasers, booths and DJ equipment), with lots of other organisations like the PRS, Loopmasters and music schools in attendance. 

Korg's Volca Grooveboxes

Whilst Clavia and Novation made the world aware of what they were going to exhibit at Musikmesse this year a few days ahead of the show, Korg kept their mouths shut right up until the morning of the 10th April whereupon they unleased their Volcas on the world.

Funnily enough, Matrixsynth and other sites got a chance to publicise the above image a few days ahead of Musikmesse as a kind of teaser of things to come from Korg. In the case of Matrixsynth, they interpreted this photo as a high quality render and treated the whole idea with a great deal of scepticism - even linking to Korg press releases to say that it was an unofficial render or possible hoax. In hindsight we know that they were mislead, but disbelief is a good way to go with these things in case they end up being just a photo and not a proper product for release.

Photos from Music Production Show 2012

Moogs at Source Direct

I took a day off on Friday to go visit the Emirates Stadium (home to Arsenal Football Club), which was playing host to the Music Production Show 2012. Strangely enough, this is the only event in the UK devoted to music production and I think it was definitely a step in the right direction, focusing on dance and electronic music as well as guitars and traditional gear.

Amongst the exhibitors were Source Direct (pretty much the UK's number one supplier of all American and import synthesiser equipment), Yamaha, Steinberg, Music Tech, Sound On Sound, Novation, KVR and lots of microphone and studio equipment suppliers, so there was plenty to catch and have a play around with.

Steinberg's Cubase 7 Stand

As the Friday (it was also on on the Saturday) had much more of a student focus, there were a couple of decent tutorial seminars from Yamaha / Erb n Dubs on drum and bass production and Steinberg who were presenting the new Cubase 7 DAW. Lots of exciting new stuff coming up and interesting to get a new perspective on things; in particular, Erb N Dubs had a nice sample CD of drums and kits for all attendees, which I was able to grab a copy of as there were loads of students vying for copies as well. I haven't had a good look around it yet but there's plenty there plus Rex files and Massive presets as well, if you are so inclined. Either way, free stuff is free stuff and I am sure I will find a use for it at some point. 

I also got to meet Nick from Sonic Lab as well, which was a pleasant surprise, who says that he's already gearing up for NAMM 2013 coverage early next year. It just reminds me of quite how ridiculously busy we've all been this year and how 2012 is going to be 2013 in a matter of weeks. Anyway, a thoroughly nice bloke and I'm sure that his website will contain some nice video coverage of the show as well.
 
Hopefully the successes of the MPS 2012 will translate into the organisers returning to London next year for a repeat show and with any luck, making it bigger and better.

More photos after the jump!