Chicagoland means Schaumburg, 30 miles from downtown.
Friday is evening only. Think more like September 9th and 10th.
Exhibitors
4ms company
1010 Music
After Later Audio
AI Synthesis
Analogue Solutions
Ashton Instruments
Bastl Instruments
Bjooks
Black Corporation
Boredbrain Music
bubblesound
Buchla USA
Catalyst Audio
Circuit Happy
Conductive Labs
Dreadbox
EarthQuaker Devices
Entropy & Sons
Erogenous Tones
Five12
Foxing Hour
Future Retro
Hive Mind Synthesis
Industrial Music Electronics
Infrasonic Audio
JoMoX
Karltron
Kilpatrick Audio
KVGear
Landscape
LoBlast
LZX Industries
Madisynths
Melbourne Instruments
MFOS
Midiverse Modular
Modbap Modular
Muse Electronic Instruments
Mordax Systems
Music for the Masses
MuSonics
Mysitc Circuits
New Systems Instruments
Niio Analog
Noise Engineering
Novation
omiindustriies
Pet Rock
Physical Synthesis
Pluton Modular
Point and Click Systems
PWM
Rides in the Storm
Rogan Corporation
Sequential | Oberheim
Schlappi Engineering
SetonixSynth
Sleepy Circuits
Small Bear Electronics
Sonocurrent
Steady State Fate
STG Soundlabs
Studio Electronics
Tangible Waves
Therevox
this.is.NOISE inc.
Tidbit Audio
Tone Charm Audio
VCV
Vondle Synths
Wildwood Soundworks
Weston Precision Audio
WMD/AMMT
Not the largest of shows, but definitely an important show for electronic music gear at this time of the year. New products often make a first appearance at Knobcon, in time for holiday sales.
For instance Sequential Trigon-6 desktop module ( thread ) is making it’s public showing there this year.
There is always a good combination of larger makers and many smaller companies and startups. Looking over the list i see this year is the same. There are also workshops as a part of this show.
New exhibitors get added and removed all the time. ( For instance Zlob Modular got added. ) That’s part of the reason, i put a static list up, with a live link, to track this,
I’ve watched that in the past for other shows. Both additions and last minute cancellations are interesting.
I was worried I’d waited too long to book a hotel, as it showed no availability for the dates when I checked yesterday. Fortunately, I checked again a bit later and one showed up, so I grabbed it.
It looks like they actually just extended the deadline for the reservations block – it was the 18th, but now it says the 25th.
Let’s preview a cool product, that will be showing at Knobcon.
It’s been around a few years, but for some reason, it hasn’t caught fire with sales … yet. It’s a small all in one video generator, so you can concentrate on doing the music, and still do nice visuals.
The Hypno from Sleepy Circuits.
Here’s a video from MylarMelodies queued to a spot where CV control is shown. Flashing images warning.
Note : They were looking to hire a demonstrator for the show a few weeks back. Especially Hypno users.
I noticed ASM ( the Hydrasynth people ) was not on the list.
That was striking to me as they have been at every Knobcon back to the beginning of ASM, and had announced every one of their new products at Knobcon.
OK, so they’re not going to be there this year. So big deal ( sarcasm ), right. They decided to do Machina Bristronica 2023 ( thread ) instead this year. And i notice not a lot of companies are doing both shows.
BUT ---- Now i see ASM is touring and going to four stores in the Northeast USA. ( post ). And they end up in Detroit on September 6th, and then Chicago on September 7th. If they’re in town, why aren’t they going to show up at Knobcon???
So i immediately jump to the confusion ( i’m standing up for a time honored Elektronaut tradition ) that ASM is planning a surprise appearance at Knobcon, with a big announcement. ( Well they are way overdue and it has been established ( by Glen himself ) that they have had some undisclosed thing in the works. )
If it is a Not-a-Hydrasynth i hereby am claiming the very first one shipped.
ASM PolyTouch™ series of high-quality yet affordable MPE MIDI controller keyboards. No frills, just the same great keybed from the HydraSynth family in a compact package for your DAW or standalone MPE gear like Push 3.
I am waiting for footage of ASM personnel casually strolling in, all wearing fake nose and mustache, and gradually moving into formation in the main open space before whipping them off just as the music starts
At first when i started this thread i looked at the list quickly and thought Ashton Instruments, was Ashun.
I’ve looked up “Ashton Instruments”, trying to find what they make.
There is an Ashton Music who makes brightly colored cheap guitars and drums. ( website ) Somehow i don’t think this is them, though it’s the closest fit.
And their is Ashton Instruments who is “a Cambridge-based startup that builds next-generation cycling power meters for bicycles.” ( article ) Don’t think it is them.
So i don’t know who Ashton Instruments is for sure.
A nom de guerre ? ( nom de synth ? ) Hey what do you want i did the original Syntakt speculation thread, and you see where that ended up.
I’m torn between “this sounds like way too much trouble for a company to go to just to announce some new gear and Ashton Instruments is probably a new, one-person operation that doesn’t have a website yet” versus “the rest of this matches up too much to be a coincidence.”
The new owner said they intended to bring the whole FR back-catalog back into production. Chatting them up on that at Knobcon would certainly be a good topic.
