Music Production Expo 2015

I just realised that I hadn't posted up some of the photos from the Music Production Expo that took place last month at the London Emirates Stadium. The show has definitely improved over recent years and now sports two seminar/presentation areas and tons of exhibitors, including Korg, Yamaha, Erebus, Roland, Bitwig...and of course, loads of instruments and gear to play. Here's a look at what you missed from this year's show and a tonne of synth spotting to boot.

In London and want to visit next year? Check out www.musicproductionexpo.co.uk for details of the 2016 expo - this usually starts to get interesting around the Spring time.

On "Fake Synthesis" and more

Something written on Twitter from a synthesist I admire for his in depth demos and rather spiffy narration style stuck with me recently. He was upset that someone had used the term fake synthesis in the context of a comment on Synthtopia when describing the new Roland Boutique synthesisers, which are finally getting some official (ie: not retailer) demo videos.

Android Synthesisers

A few months ago I took a look at mobile music apps on iOS and Android and lamented that high latency on Android’s operating system (at least at the time of writing) was to blame for the lack of decent music apps on the app store. However, the Heat Synthesiser did pave the way forward in this regard and highlighted that with a bit of programming know-how, it is possible to play a decent Android software synthesizer.

It’s now Summer 2013 and the Google Play store has been steadily building up a number of music apps for download, both free and paid-for. In this post, I’m going to cover a few of the free options that are available and will highlight some of the best (and worst) the platform currently has to offer.

The importance of MIDI

I wasn't aware that Dave Smith of DSI was the man responsible for developing and convincing music makers to adopt Music Instrument Digital Interface for controlling synthesisers and drum machines, so this little article courtesy of Auntie Beeb makes for a good (if short) read. They even make comparisons with the open/free software movement as Smith was more interested in industry adoption of the technology than making money with it, although in hindsight I feel it was better to have a standardizing technology like MIDI rather than unreliable and variable voltage control technology.

Nice to see Alex DR Patterson of The Orb making a sound byte as well!

Full article available at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20425376

Listening to music at work.

A good, albeit short, article on Business Week caught my eye this week - looking at how music affects your mental state while at work. I personally like the way that it focuses my attention by blocking outside noise / stupid questions / requests for information etc. But as most of my day is spent communicating with people, I can't exactly listen to much anyway!

For those of you who are lucky enough to listen to music at work, enjoy!

Original article at:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-08/how-music-at-the-office-affects-your-work-life