hey all - I’ve been hosting a bi-monthly synth meet up this year and each event has been a lot of fun. the third is taking place this Thursday. if you’re in the area - would love to have you! I’ll bump this thread for each meetup.
this time around we will have 3 excellent performers and I’ll bring my Make Noise semi modular trio for anyone to mess with.
event details here: synths! & friends #03 · Luma
doing another one of these tonight!
event details here: synths! & friends #04 · Luma
I’ll be playing something like this: pure phase on Instagram: "playing a last minute drifting set with @visualwitchcraft at synths! & friends 04 tonight! free rsvp at link in bio. #synth #synthesizers #ambient #udosuper6 #linnstrument #digitakt2"
I love the artwork.
@mbillz how did it go last year? love the poster design, thats a vibe…
and - is there a thread on elektronauts for bay area shows? i used to live there and love to visit…
i’ll be back and bringing a (nonmodular, but very hybrid) liveset on friday march 14th if you’re around and interested! If you’re into genrebending livesets, this is gonna be a really fun and colorful evening…
I’m visiting SF today, about to move here. Any scene? I’d like to find some collaborators or just see what people are doing.
This poster rules.
I would be down for a meetup in the bay
yo! the meetups were great. we did 4 of them (I think) with varying degrees of success regarding turnout. I met some people I’ve stayed in touch with.
life has gotten in the way a bit and I’m actually moving to the east bay the day after your show so probably can’t swing it this time. a friend of a friend of a friend of mine has a space in the east bay so we were hoping on getting an event kicked off there in the next few months.
at the very least, it sounds like people are interested in meeting up / hanging out! my findings after putting a few of these on is there a ton of people interested in synths / electronic music / etc but the “scene” is a bit all over the place.
I’ve still somehow never stopped by Mission Synths but it seems like they have a decent amount of things going on.
I’ll update this thread title and we can turn it into a general bay area meetup thread! after I’m done moving I’m happy to organize a less formal meetup at a coffee shop or bar somewhere.
as a fellow east bay synth head who has no friends in the space, please keep me posted on any meet ups. I need new friends 
appreciate the poster comments as well - I’ll be honest and say these were my preliminary experiments with Dall-E. I made these about a year ago and my relationship has definitely changed with generative AI - it’s less likely I’d use it for poster art these days. maybe more so due to societal shame. but that’s a whole other topic.
Tonight there will be a great show called iDP at SF Underground. Great people and music. One of the acts Beyond the Black Hole is two guys on Elektron boxes. I’ll be there.
I’d be happy to meet up with any of you Bay Area folks!
I recently joined the Bay Area Modular Synth Group, have been to a couple meetings and it’s a great crew. Here’s a ModWiggler thread with some more info for anyone interested.
Will keep an eye on this thread if we want to organize anything of our own. I’m in Marin but happy to travel to wherever my fellow synth heads may be.
The show last night was a ton of fun and Elektrons were well represented! First act was on Octatrack, second act had digitone+ableton, third act was on mpc but he sampled his Elektron boxes into it and the headliner had A4 Rytm and OT.
thats rad! glad to hear it went well.
you should link up with these folks: https://studiocollective.xyz/
i think Ashu/Tosh is also based in east bay. Friend of mine.
i go to mission synths like every time i visit, they’re super nice there and it’s nice to be surrounded by gear in such an independently owned space. can def recommend. they also sell gear on commission i think!
good luck with the move!!
iDP is great! Think it used to be called intelligent dance party when IDM was still a term? Underground SF is the perfect venue for that
Last plug, i promise;) BUT i forgot to mention there will also be Elektron in my rig at our public works show on the 14th! this time just an Octatrack, I wont be bringing my Digitone.
It’ll be hybrid, but only using Ableton to host VSTs and do some routing, bus processing, FX, and multitrack recording. Aiming to not even have to look at my laptop at all during the show;)
TR8s on drums (of course:)
Oxi One sequencing Arturia V Collection (instead of my usual hardware synths)
Octatrack stems, vocal samples, looper, and percussion loops on CUE outs into Ableton
Ableton for VSTs, FX sends, bus processing including sidechaining, and mastering chain, back into Octatrack
+iPad as ableton device controller via Knobbler app, because faders
+Faderfox EC4 as ableton device controller, because knobs
Octatrack MAIN as master FX, transition looper > PA
Yeah, still is called that, but they just use the abbreviation. I miss when they used to have it at Hyde St Studios
Thanks for the shoutout @your_lamp!
The next Bay Area Modular Synth Group meet up will be on Sunday, 16 March @ noon at the Emeryville Public Market. We’re always looking for new folks to join!
nice, i’ll definitely be there with my partner! is it cool if i bring my modular? (seems obvious, but didn’t see anything about it in the details).
i’m in oakland off 12th & clay st. if anyone happens to live close. always looking for more modular friends in the area
also - some friends of mine are throwing a techno show next weekend (hardware/modular + vinyl sets as well) if anyone wants to come through. ill be running sound for the evening
Good question! I think people generally don’t bring gear to these meet-n-greet events, just because they’re held at public places and probably will be food/drinks around. I haven’t spent too much time at Emeryville Public Market but I think it’s kind of a big cafeteria vibe, not sure if there are good places to plug in.
After you attend one of these public meet-n-greet events, you get invited to the private hardware-focused events that are held at someone’s house or studio, and that’s where folks tend to bring out the gear. I think there’s usually a theme for each hardware event — last one was a challenge using either 3 modules or 10 patch cables max.
So yeah, I would never want to discourage someone from showing me their modular, but would just caution that this might be more a lunch gathering more than a gear hang. Looking forward to seeing you there!
