Musikmesse 2012 in Frankfurt

Thanks to support from our Turku Music School  (Turun seudun musiikkiopisto)  me and my two colleagues were able to visit Musikmesse 2012 in Frankfurt (March 22 to 24). This kind of huge happening gives you a great general idea what's happening in the music business and in the music technology at the moment. Here are some pictures from our nice trip and my personal impressions of this big music happening. As a keyboard player my point of view is naturally very much about keyboards.

Frankfurt as modern city 

Friday morning in Frankfurt - weather is perfect for a walk from our hotel to Messe area.

Agora Stage - the main arena for live gigs

Musikmesse has a constant flow of live gigs. The main "menu" was served in Agora Stage, a big tent in the middle of Messe area.

Here we are listening to JoJo Mayer, a highly acclaimed Swiss drummer.

Future of the midi controller? This keyboard looks quite normal but in fact every key has a touch sensitive surface, something like a trackpad we use in laptops. Sliding your finger(s) on this surface gives you a new way to control practically anything (pitch, filter etc.).





Another common thing to notice: where and whenever you see high music technology, there's also a mac involved. In music are we already living in a post-pc world (provocative term from Apple chief Tim Cook)? In Frankfurt there was another Apple device which seems to be there more or less permanently: iPad. There are countless new products which physically integrate to iPad: midi controllers, mixers, effect processors, multitrack recording systems etc. It seems reasonable to many companies: instead of developing completely own touch screen products, they simply put this already high tech product into their own product. For example Alesis seems to have taken this approach seriously. Check their new i-products to see what I mean: http://www.alesis.com/content200001

Akai MAX49 midi controller

Speaking about touch pads or panels, this brand new Akai MAX49 has nice virtual drawbars which are made with touchpad technology. In my opinion this was the most promising new MIDI controller of all those brands I tested (Novation, M-audio, Cakewalk etc.). MAX49 feels sturdy and keyboard action is nicely semiweighted.

Of course, my very short meeting with MAX49 did not give an idea how well it integrates to computer environment or different live setups.

And only thing I don't really like is its color, it's different red than my Nords so they won't go well together...
More info here: http://www.akaipro.com/max49

Hammond Sk1

Nord C2D

We can clearly see that there's an ongoing battle  who makes the best digital organ. I had a chance to play new Nord Electro 4d (with real drawbars), Hammond Sk1 and Studiologic Numa Organ. From these three Nord is a winner to me.




Clavia's flagship organ model, Nord C2d presented by swedish organist Pierre Swärd.

"Good Old Times meet the present"

One of the most memorable things at the Messe to myself was a chance to play those old vintage analog synths in Synthesizer Magazin's booth:

Old vintage synths booth

Korg Mono/Poly from 1981

Arturia Minibrute (shipping on April 2012)

As a long time Arturia user, to me this brand new fully analog synth was one of the most interesting products. But to be honest, I don't know what to think about it: sound was maybe too aggressive or brute to meet my aesthetics. Also, keyboard action was a disappointment: it was far too loose to my fingers.

Waldorf Zarenbourg in two colours

From all those new products, one deserves a special mention here: Waldorf Zarenbourg. It looks something like a real Rhodes or Wurlizer and so it's big and heavy. My first question to guy who represented it was to ask, why it's so big. Answer is that Zarenborough has a three-way speaker system with subwoofer inside the case. This system simply needs space. Of course this setup has good and not so good consequences: it has quite nice and powerful sound itself, but it's clearly not the most portable digital piano.


How about the sound and playability? This was the best part of it. Unfortunately I had not too much time with this product, but its e-piano (Rhodes & Wurly) was just amazing playing experience. I was told that those e-pianos are completely modeled, so that is a quite achievement. At home I have two modeled software e-pianos, Lounge Lizard and Pianoteq, but Waldorf plays in completely another league. I might say that this was the best digital Rhodes I've ever played including all those sampled and modeled products. I certainly hope I can sometime spend little more time with this beast. If I had to say something critical about it, maybe it did not have the best overdrive. This can be a minus for trying to make it rock. Also, I have no clear opinion its other sounds - especially sampled acoustic piano. Maybe it was quite average quality, I don't know (I was too much excited about those marvellous e-pianos).

More info about Waldorf Zarenbourg here: http://www.waldorfmusic.de/en/zarenbourg.html

HK audio Elements line array PA-system

Future seems to be world of small and portable line array PA-systems. Bose has their L1 series, but there are also HK audio's Elements -series (picture) and some other companies too. When I listened to these PA demos, two things came to my mind: First, they sound very good. Period. Second, how do these small systems perform in bigger spaces and with bigger groups? Can those systems meet bigger challenges than a duo...?

...and finally, you cannot say you were there in Frankfurt without seeing river Maine...

Johan and I having "AfterMesse" on Friday evening
(Picture by Tarmo, 3rd member of our delegation)

...and also having beer or two in a local Trink House.