A trade fair dedicated to music gear
Last week, we were back at Superbooth at FEZ-Berlin in Berlin for the annual three-day trade show showcasing the latest musical gadgets and electronics.
History of Superbooth
Superbooth all started 20 years ago at Musikmesse in Frankfurt when a group of friends came together to create a unique spot for synth fans.
The event was brought together by Herr Schneider (owner of Schneiders Buero) and went on to travel to Poland and London before Herr Schneiger in 2015 decided to take it out of Frankfurt and transform the event into a new format.
In 2016, Superbooth held its first standalone event in Berlin and has continued to grow every year since.
One of the things I love about this trade show is not only do you get to speak to the designers/manufacturers but you will also see a range of new products which are also available for attendees to play around with.
There was a real buzz in the air this year with lots of excited people gathered round the different set-ups to see what was on offer and of course, to have a go.
The list of exhibitors this year was extensive with Ableton, Native Instruments, Moog, AKAI, Polyend, Dreadbox, Korg, UDO, Rhodes, Erica Synths, Arturia and Novation all ready & waiting to share their gear but sadly no Roland.
First stop was the Korg tent in the main hall which was surprisingly small but I managed to get my hands on the opsix synth which was released back in December 2020.
The opsix is a 6-operator FM synth which is part of the Korg digital synthesizer family. This synth has a lot in common with the Wavstate but I found the opsix to be a beautiful yet, very underrated FM synth.
The instrument is very user friendly with a hands-on and accessible interface which gives a nice easy experience to create cool sounds.
After a short wander, I arrived at Ableton and was excited to see the EboSuite set-up.
For those of you who might not have come across or heard of the program. EboSuite is a growing set of plug-ins (currently 54) that turns Ableton Live into an audio-visual production suite.
The team at Superbooth were showing off the latest version, 2.0 which has had a major update to include live video sampling and the interface has also been restyled and tidied up.
The tutorial being given was great fun and I was able to see how it all works in Ableton Live. The developers explained that since EboSuite was introduced to the market, they have expanded the number of plugins from 6 to 54 and they also described the collection ‘the most advanced software to generate, play, manipulate and mix visuals in Ableton Live.’
EboSuite is available to buy now, priced at €159 but is currently only for MacOS users.
After a short stroll I wandered into a room by the Auditorium that was filled with various guitar companies, traditional ones alongside new innovative takes on the instrument.
Just Music had also set up an amp room that allowed people to jam and enjoy the full guitar experience with supplied speakers available from their store. I caught myself getting a bit lost in the sounds at the time, inspiring.
Check out the YouTube demo
Great few days at Fez-Berlin, see you next year.
