April 2015 – soundmachines

Now that we have some spare time (?!?) we just want to put down some thoughts, pictures and impressions from the MM2015 in Frankfurt…

This was our first participation in one of the two big worldwide trade fairs that shows the present and the future of musical instruments… As many other expositor, we really got zero time to wander around and so, apart from the huge Schneider’s booth (You Like Synths?) , I really don’t have a clue where acoustic pianos, oboes or tubas are going in the near future…. 🙂

First of all a shout out to Andreas and the guys at Schneider’s that made this possible! I don’t really think there could be another way of gathering 30/40 modular manufacturers in the same spot, inside the same european fair! Other than that the support was flawless, from tons of screwdrivers to pints of (not always harmless) beverages. Caffeine and Absynth were the norm…

Herr Schneider building the booth!

Normal traffic

I described the mega-booth as a “sound and noise breathing monster”, pulsating with leds, lasers, miles of patch cables and a continuous flow of curious poeple or just plain nerds like us in search of the ultimate ‘hands on’ experience with those fascinating instruments that are getting more and more interest!

We met some old friends and a lot of new people! I personally had the pleasure to chat with the most part of the modular manufacturer designers and all of them have this particular light in the eyes, it’s called Passion, or Love, I reckon. As a pretty young brand, soundmachines is already well-known in the modular market and we are getting more and more recognised for our innovative take on modules!

This year the Musik Messe has been a blast for the modular scene… Small and (very) big manufacturers joined the bandwagon and unveiled lots and lots of modules! The biggest news probably came from Roland that not only presented its eurorack-compatible range of digital AIRA branded cv-able effects but also a line of system100 inspired full analog modules manufactured by Malekko nonetheless!! I had the pleasure to talk about this with Joshua and the details of the very secretive process were very interesting and entertaining!

This is also a recognition of the ’boutique’ builders from the big guys… and it’s not something that everyone expected! You can see here a picture of the AIRA modular stuff with our BI1brainterface as a sparring partner in the Roland/Aira booth!!!!!!!!!!

pic of aira and brainterface

Soundmachines had a very interesting setup that captured the attention of everyone! we decided to show the potential of our new cases (the FMJ3) by using a multiple VESA mount so the cases were actually floating above the table surface and could be moved around easily and showed to the people. Many considered this a great change of ergonomics for the performing musician, normally hunched on a table full of gear!

We presented a couple of prototypes that made the press rounds quickly! The first is an heartrate to clock/cv interface. Called the HB1heartbeat, using a standard POLAR chest strap we detect the heart rate of the person wearing it and generate a GATE/CLOCK signal with the BPM of his/her heart! The module is currently under final development and we expect to start selling it in the summer!

The second one, the BA1breathalyzer, born as a joke more than a real product, got so much attention that will gain the market soon! We are developing a Breathalyzer to CV interface for eurorack!! I would like to elaborate a little on this. The quantity of people blown (pun intended) away by the sheer absurdity and fun-factor of the BA1 was impressive and we basically tested-out all of our colleagues in the modular scene. I obviously won’t publicize the result as there could be shame involved! :)))))