We are proud to have had the opportunity to participate in the inaugural run of Synthplex in late March of 2019. It was billed as “All Things Synthesizer” and it really hit the mark! The Burbank Marriott skillfully dealt with a wide range of rock stars, modular folk, tech heads, curious onlookers, dweebs and nerds, vintage synth aficionados, collectors, builders, composers, manufacturers and otherwise very colorful people wearing mostly black.

Yes, the event was in Los Angeles, but the crowd was from all over. We chatted with like-minded folk from Brazil, Japan, Portugal, England, Canada and beyond. The attendees filled exhibit halls that were packed with a tasty blend of synth modules, controllers, stunning vintage synths, production software and tons more.

Synthplex founders, Michael Boddiker and Michael Learmouth, did a great job of designing and creating a fulfilling three-dimensional event, packed with much more than just the exhibits. Educational and technical seminars, Q&A sessions with industry legends, DIY synth building workshop, live synth concerts and the Pop Up Synth Museum where you could actually spend time tweaking the knobs of epic mono and polysynths.

We were honored to be visited by Keith Emerson’s long-term partner, Mari Kawaguchi, who brought us the vertical banner that Keith would use when making personal appearances. We set it up right next to our banner of his legendary Moog synthesizer, it looked great!

But the most exciting part for us was showcasing the Godfather of synths, the Moog Model A Minimoog prototype. Next in line were the Model B, C and the Model D, which finally went into production and became the go-to lead performance synthesizer. Last in line was an enigma of the Minimoog family, what is ultimately a Minimoog with 20 presets. This quintet of tone raised quite a few eyebrows to say the least.

We hope to participate in Synthplex 2020 and hope to see you there!