{"id":22022,"date":"2015-06-19T01:06:10","date_gmt":"2015-06-19T05:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/?p=22022"},"modified":"2015-06-19T01:06:10","modified_gmt":"2015-06-19T05:06:10","slug":"why-musicians-from-all-over-the-world-are-attending-gearfest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/2015\/06\/19\/why-musicians-from-all-over-the-world-are-attending-gearfest\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Musicians from all over the world are attending Gearfest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>If you\u2019ve ever driven through the mid-west, you know there\u2019s not a lot happening in between the cities that you encounter during the ride.\u00a0 That is, unless, you happen to be driving just north of Fort Wayne, IN during the early summer month of June.\u00a0 In this case, you are sure to find your way to one of the fastest growing music events in the country \u2013 Gearfest!<\/a><\/p>\n

Cakewalk had the privilege to take part in Gearfest again this year, and I was fortunate enough to make my first trip to what is quickly becoming known as a mini Namm in the mid-west. The event is put on by a great company called Sweetwater which is basically the end-all-be-all of anything you need for gear in the cyber world.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t find it in a store, or you simply just \"\"<\/a>want more choices for purchasing, you can bet that you will find it at www.sweetwater.com<\/a>. \u00a0Sweetwater is also known for having one of the most knowledgeable staffs in the industry, and if you just give them a call with a question you are sure to have an answer quickly by someone at their facility.<\/p>\n

The first thing notable about Gearfest is the size of the event.\u00a0 What started out \u00a0not to long ago as an idea to bring local people together for the community, has turned into a 10,000+ strong conference which now spans over 2 days and includes an interesting and unpretentious concoction of artists, industry professionals, music fans and gear-head-musicians from literally all over the globe.\u00a0 The second thing to note is that it has its own vibe and culture very unique to itself.\u00a0 Many music oriented conferences and\/or festivals for that matter sometimes turn into promotional spectacles for those trying to gain an edge on their profile; Gearfest is the opposite.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There was no shortage of artists and music industry professionals roaming the halls and tents, but there was an absence of any preconceived superiorities for which some conference have become to be known.\u00a0 Now I am not saying that all music conferences are based around egotism so please don\u2019t get me wrong, I am simply stating that Gearfest is really about community, family, and people \"\"<\/a>coming together for the love of making music and learning about how to better their craft \u2013 on any level. \u00a0A great example was me having the privilege to meet and chat with Rapture Pro user (and general Cakewalk fan) Peter Kontor<\/a> who is an electronic musician\/producer\/DJ making some great tracks out of Chicago. Peter makes the trip down from Chicago every year just like many others from that area. \u00a0I also had a great experience of attending a panel put on by Gibson Executive (and Cakewalk advocate) Craig Anderton, where he explained in detail what really goes down when you master inside your DAW. On the rare occasion these days that I do create music, I find myself mastering my work more and more when I am delivering something for a film, or for something else with a low budget.\u00a0 In just one hour Craig got into some great tips, tricks and advice that had me rethinking my approach to mastering inside the box.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>On day 2 (Saturday), I had the privilege to be a guest presenter at the conference where I interviewed rising EDM star and SONAR user iLan Bluestone<\/a>.\u00a0 The interview, which also turned into a technical demonstration on our Surface Pro 3<\/a> (Intel Core i7<\/a>,) gave the crowd a lot of insight into this gigantic sector or the \u201cmusic business\u201d now known to the masses as EDM.\u00a0 One of the \"\"<\/a>most interesting points the articulate Bluestone made was on how creating music for his fans is different than writing a song in other genres \u2013 which is something I never really thought about.\u00a0 \u201cThe industry really is about the live performance and how the music translates into the vibe of those shows,\u201d iLan told the crowd.\u00a0 \u201cWhen I write a track, I combine what\u2019s in my head with how I think fans in an audience are going to receive the music.\u00a0 I almost have to remove myself, from myself, and put my brain into the perspective of the fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>iLan also went on to talk about the importance of social media, as well his procedure for getting mixes that translate to the clubs.\u00a0 Another snippet that was great to hear was his explanation of why he chooses SONAR<\/a> as his DAW.\u00a0 Of course I knew the answer to this question already, but tohear him explain it to the crowd in his own words made a lot of sense.\u00a0 According to iLan, SONAR gives him more options to continuously create fresh new sounds and tracks. \u201cThere are so many different ways to approach music in SONAR, \"\"<\/a>so I am able to constantly design new sounds.\u00a0 That combined with how fast the workflow is gives me more options than other platforms to stay ahead of the game with new sounds. In terms of the sound quality, SONAR simply sounds the best.\u00a0 I play many stages where there is a lot of music made in other DAWs, and depth I get out of SONAR is simply incomparable.\u201d<\/p>\n

A video of iLan\u2019s Gearfest panel will be posted soon, but in the meantime you can catch more of his approach to music creation in this post-panel interview on the Gibson tour bus hosted by Electronic Musician Magazine:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever driven through the mid-west, you know there\u2019s not a lot happening in between the cities that you encounter during the ride.\u00a0 That is, unless, you happen to be driving just north of Fort Wayne, IN during the early summer month of June.\u00a0 In this case, you are sure to find your way … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Why Musicians from all over the world are attending Gearfest”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,808,225,2567,2130,2280,1],"tags":[55,12,212,617,2558,94,95,1978],"class_list":["post-22022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artist-news","category-cakewalk-pro-user-spotlight","category-edm-music-production","category-gearfest","category-interviews","category-mastering-tips","category-uncategorized","tag-artist-news","tag-cakewalk","tag-craig-anderton","tag-jimmy-landry","tag-rapture-pro","tag-recording","tag-sonar-platinum","tag-sonar-x3-producer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22022\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}