From synths the size of a pocket-calculator to fully stacked Euroracks; modular synthesizers are quickly gaining popularity. More and more musicians are creating their own hardware nowadays, in a quest for more creativity and authenticity, and a unique live experience.
This year Incubate will organise a Do It Yourself synth fair in the centre of Tilburg. A place where synth geeks from around the world show and demonstrate the fruits of their labor and teach you how to create your own. An instrument fair meets pop-up store where one can buy ánd build the most original, creative modular synths. Next to the fair there will be workshops, presentations and a panel discussion.
DIY Synth Convention is a celebration of the DIY synth phenomena. It allows festival-goers, artists and passers-by to experience the creativity, beauty and fun of DIY electronics. More than 20 small companies and individual synth-builders will partake in the fair.
DIY Synth Convention
Pieter Vreedeplein 169, Tilburg
Thursday September 17th – Sunday September 20th 2015
Opening hours: 14:00 – 21:00h
000 is about aberrant analog distortion and percussion devices for stand-alone – and Eurorack format. The Spanish/German øpen-hardware team will debut their new set of analog tools at the DIY Synth Convention, followed by a DIY workshop where participants can build their complete stand-alone – or Eurorack-compatible kit.
4MS Company has been designing and building innovative audio electronics for musicians since 1996. From poly-rhythmic clock modules to chaotic noise generators that never sound the same way twice, to routing matrices that are played like an instrument, to DIY kits and parts: they offer alternatives to the traditional musician-instrument relationship.
A dynamic and community driven company from Czech Republic, producing hand-made electronic musical instruments. The products range from tabletop instruments and utilities to modules for Eurorack modular systems. They also run a small shop called noise.kitchen.
Befaco
Befaco is an open hardware platform focusing on professional DIY musical hardware, based on electronic, musical and artistic research. They develop and publish their own modular synthesizer system that’s compatible with the Eurorack Modular Synth format. Befaco offers people the possibility to build all models through workshops in Barcelona, Madrid or Berlin, or by themselves.
Daan Johan
Daan Johan is an artist who explores the technology from the past to create new instruments. Exploring the guts of analogue synthesizers, lab equipment and hi-fi equipment to create unique and often unexplored forms of sound creation. Meanwhile he tries to blur the boundaries between engineers and artists.
Dirty Electronics
John Richards focuses on shared experiences, ritual, gesture, touch and social interaction. In Dirty Electronics process and performance are inseparably bound. The ‘performance’ begins on the workbench devising instruments and is extended onto the stage through playing and exploring these instruments.
The Dirty Electronics Ensemble is a large group that explore these ideas, whose members are often made-up of workshop participants. The workshop is central to the Ensemble in that all of the musicians have to build their own instrument for performance.
Error Instruments
Paul Tas distributes unique instruments for special artists. Strange noisy synths, noise makers, lo-fi – and hi-fi instruments to enjoy on their own or to play as a secondary instrument. Acoustic, electronic, handmade or manufactured from all over the world.
Ewa Justka
Ewa Justka is a Polish electronic noise artist, instrument builder and electronics teacher. Her research is based on exploring the materiality of objects and ontological systems (like human bodies, plants and electronic circuits) and investigating modes of quasi-direct perception through noise performance actions, DIY electronics, hardware hacking, deconstructing and collaborating.
Gijs Gieskes is a typical whizz kid with a fascination for electronics that goes back to his childhood. As a gameboy musician and circuit-bender he regularly crosses the borders between music, art and science.
Ginko Synthese
Jan Willem Hagenbeek is the driving force behind Ginko Synthese. He wants to close the gap between the feel of playing live on stage and the more controlled environment in the studio. All his products are designed with a focus on the immediacy of live performance, but can be easily integrated into a studio environment.
KOMA Elektronik
KOMA Elektronik wants to put the mere fun of creating and playing around with notes and tones back into music, by making analogue gear that gives the musician the power and possibilities to create and develop unique sounds. Their equipment challenges users to give that extra something to make the music more creative, powerful and most of all: more fun!
Mayhem Machine
Mayhem Machine, designed by Marieke Verbiesen, is an interactive instrument that produces synchronised sound, light and animation compositions, controlled by the audience via a custom-made interface. The audience can use its playful tools to invoke ‘mayhem’. Verbiesen blends obsolete technology like old computer hardware and Super 8 film with new technologies such as interactive interfaces and motion tracking.
MEEBLiP
MeeBlip is a line of musical instrument hardware from CDM and Blipsonic Inc. engineer James Grahame. CDM builds ready-to-play, friendly, fully open source hardware for anyone. MeeBlip is an electronic instrument that gives you complete freedom for the future.
Rebel Technology
Rebel Technology is a tech collective based in London. They produce open source, open hardware technology from stuff that excites and inspires them.
Reverse Landfill
Martijn Verhallen is the brain behind Reverse Landfill. His is a noise synthesizer that produces not only noise, but a whole range of beeps and squeeks. The synth can be expanded into a modular system.
SnazzyFX
For Dan Snazelle of Snazzy FX it’s not the format that matters, it’s the ethos. From Rackmount to Desktop, from Floormount to Clear Sky, Modular and in between. Snazzy FX is excited to bring the world more instruments born from a passion; from a desire to mess with stuff, knock things over and create beautiful clouds.
Sonar traffic
Ben Spaander and Allert Aalders are synth freaks; they love everything about synths and both started their collections at an early age. They decided to put those together and open them up for you to use.
Soulsby Sythesizers
Soulsby Synthesizers is a synthesizer manufacturing company run by its founder Paul Soulsby that focuses on developing the Atmegatron. Soulsby has been using synthesizers since he was a kid and is a member of the electronic band Trademark. He studied Music Technology at the University of York and went on to work as sound engineer or computer programmer. The Atmegatron is his debut synthesizer.
Victor Mazon Gardoqui
Through actions, objects and electronic devices between sound materiality and dislocated information, Mazon Gardoqui´s work questions perception, altered state and vulnerability through (un)stable arrangements.
Underbelly
Underbelly introduces you to serious sounds and funny noises, avant-garde films and crazy movies, fancy art books and handmade zines. For those curious about underground and avant-garde music, film, sound art, media art, DIY, activism and philosophy.
Supported by Soldeerclub ‘Het Hete Pookje’
Just your random local solder club from Tilburg: building, fixing, modding, bending and socializing.