Superbooth ’21 Recap
After missing last year due to the pandemic, Berlin’s famous Superbooth synth expo returned last week, from Wednesday September 15th, through Saturday the 18th. The exposition coincided nicely with several other music tech goings-on in Germany and greater Europe this week, including the announcement of the lineup for November’s Audio Developer Conference (ADC) in London, as well as the Reeperbahn festival, which kicked off in Hamburg yesterday. Although Superbooth wasn’t quite as crowded or widely publicized as it has been in previous years, there was still a general sense of excitement in the music tech community for the return of this beloved 4-day event. And for the most part, it delivered!
Once again located at FEZ, a children’s science and aeronautics museum located deep in a forest on the edge of Berlin, attendees braved rain and cold to walk through the woods to get there. Most of the event was held indoors, although there were some outdoor tents for certain brands and some special DIY workshops. All guests were screened for negative tests, proof of vaccination or recovery, and masks were required in all indoor spaces (including tents). There was hand sanitizer located everywhere, and notices saying that staff would regularly santize all instruments and headphones.
Some brands took advantage of increased sanitation measures and were able to use it as a clever branding opportunity. Korg’s station for instance, had 1/8 to ¼ inch adapters for all their instruments, but instead of having everyone share headphones, they gave out free Korg-branded earbuds so that everyone could use (and take home) their own set. Their booth included some cool new toys, including the new SQ 64 digital sequencer, which was released late last year. Pretty much every instrument in their booth had an SQ 64 sitting in front of it, so you could experiment with sequencing some of their classic synths such as the MS-20, as well as newer digital models like an updated Minilogue. As in past years, their popular Volca portable synths were one of the biggest drawing points for guests, and they seemed to have some upgrades (at least since I’ve last checked). I got to play around with the new version of the Volca Drum, which seemed to be a significant upgrade from the model that I used to have. I also got to play the “Nubass” Volca, which includes Korg’s patented vacuum tube synth technology, capable of producing juicy bass tones that are pretty impressive for a €175 battery-powered box.
Some of the other major brands that have had a big presence in the past were noticeably absent this year. Teenage Engineering, who had a massive booth in 2019, were nowhere to be found, which was quite disappointing. Superbooth is a perfect environment for fans of the Swedish company, and they used the event in 2019 to hype up their self-container “modular” synth, as well as hosting several events in town as part of the lead up to the expo. Considering they released the Ob-4, their new “magic radio” in 2020, I hoped to be able to test it out this year. Alas, it was not to be.
Still, you could see the influence of Teenage Engineering’s toy-like aesthetic’s on many of the smaller European brands, such as the Dato DUO — a colorful device that is meant to be played by two people at once. Dato was set up right next to Berlin-based Playtronica, who were premiering their new Orbita gadget, where players can construct analog musical patterns by physically placing magnets on a rotating circle, rather than the classic digital piano roll grid. Playtronica has become quite well-known in geeky internet music circles for their viral video demonstrations of their Touch and Playtron midi controllers, which allow substances like vegetables and even human skin to become playable surfaces.
There were a few other smaller brands from Germany or neighboring countries that caught my attention with some interesting gear. Nonlinear Labs had a really cool digital keyboard with a ton of customizable presets and an assignable touch sensitive bar running along the top of the keys. I spent a good amount of time talking to the gentleman who ran a company called RetroKits that produced a tiny device called the RK008, which is capable of real time midi recording, as well as midi-syncing to analog gear. I’m honestly very tempted to get one as an upgrade to the Kenton Midi-USB host that I use to sync my Teenage Engineering Op-1 to my Korg Volca Sample. In the same area as the Retrokits booth, there was a very friendly guy named Henrik Langer from Instruments of Things showing off his new device, the SOMI-1, which started its Kickstarter run the day after the exposition ended. The device me and my friend tested out was a wearable wristwatch-style device that could control all kinds of midi parameters through motion, with shockingly good response time.
As much as seeing the new and less popular creations are always fun, I have to say that my two favorite booths were actually bigger brands that I’m already quite fond of. French hardware and software manufacturer Arturia gets points for not only giving away awesome free T-shirts, but for having a glistening retro-futuristic silver camping trailer (or maybe converted food truck?) that was filled with all the latest versions of their gear, with each individual setup running through a 1010 Bluebox digital mixer/effects unit. But the absolute best presentation that I was able to see in the meager 4-hour time slot alloted to me was the Moog tent, which was a literal circus tent filled with all kinds of gear at individual listening stations, each decked out with incredible hand drawn pieces of art. In the center of the colorfully lit tent there were performances by artists using Moog gear throughout the day, and although I went on the last day of the expo, I was still able to snag one of their last free posters.
Overall it was a really fun day, and I was happy to see it come back to Berlin, even though there was some degree of inescapable gloom hanging over the event. Not only was the weather crappy, but the synth conference part of Amsterdam Dance Event had just been cancelled due to COVID restrictions, which left a spectre in the air. I went in the first half of the day, so it was hard to tell if it wasn’t very crowded because it was the morning, or because people simply weren’t willing to be part of a large crowd. Many manufacturers small and large had new gear that they were excited about, but couldn’t distribute yet because of pandemic-related supply chain issues. Even with all the masks and vaccine checks, it was hard not to be a bit paranoid at an event that centers around everyone all touching the same instruments for four days. So I do have to applaud the extra effort taken by brands like Korg to make things even more sanitary for folks. I also want to give a big shoutout to Matthias Strobel, the president of Music Tech Germany, who hosted the first in-person Berlin Music Tech meetup since the pandemic began a few days before, which was a nice sort of homecoming party for Berlin’s robust music tech community. Strobel also took the show on the road for Reeprbahn and hosted a mini-meetup in Hamburg this week, which looked like a blast as well.
Be sure to follow @Origin_Audio_LLC on Instagram, where you can see a good selection of photos I took at the conference, featuring many of the brands I mentioned here. You can also look forward to Origin Audio covering some of ADC in November, which will also have an online component for those who would rather watch from home rather than visit London. Stay safe out there and continue to support your local musicians and instrument manufacturers!
