Producer Sessions Live: The Aftermath

Future Music and Computer Music magazine's hi-tech music making event brings the house down.

No one got hurt and nothing caught fire. AKA The mark of any successful gig and a status enjoyed by our very first Producer Sessions Live event that took place over September 25th and 26th 2010.

If you were there, thanks for coming and great to see you. If not, what happened?

Producer Sessions Live allowed music makers to meet the great and good from the world of music production and get hands on with the latest and greatest gear. And the two days of tutorials, gear demos and essential advice for upcoming producers were lapped up by show goers and industry alike.

With gear from the hottest manufacturers lined up over five floors there was no shortage of excitement. Attractions included Moog's Voyager and Taurus shaking the building, likewise Nord's Wave and Propellerheads Record 1.5 and Reason 5 demos were always jammed. The chance to check out the full range of Genelec monitors and take listening tests with the Focal line up in the studio were not to be missed. One the second floor Avid and M-Audio showed off their Axiom kit and - of course - Pro Tools. While sE and Sontronics allowed punters to get up close and personal with their mics.

Meanwhile on the top floor Korg and Roland showed off their complete 2010 ranges while Akai gave beat-making lessons on MPC and APC. And that's just scratching the surface of the gear goodness on offer.

The real highlight of the show however, was our line-up of top producers who showed how their hits were made in a series of intimate lectures in the first floor theatre.

Appearing live were Freemasons, Danny Byrd, Dave Spoon, Sharooz, Nu-Tone, James Hockley of Chicane, Tommy D, Steve Mac and Alex Blanco. Subjects covered ranged from recreating samples to dodge legal worries (Nu-Tone) to insanely complex and thick parallel processing (Freemasons) to a track by track breakdown of the latest single (Sharooz) and everything in between.

All the sessions were packed and the Q&As afterwards - with attendees literally queuing up to ask questions and press CDs into hands - were superb.

James Wiltshire of Freemasons summed it up with "It was bloody brilliant. We didn't leave until we got kicked out! Great selection of gear and people." While FM reader Dan Owusu-Ankomah gave it the thumbs up with "Seeing these professionals breakdown real tracks they had made completely changed how I thought about music production. Can't wait for Producer Sessions Live 2011!"

We'd like to thank all the lecturers, demonstrators and attendees for making 2010's show a huge success. Here's to doing it all again in 2011!

Head to producersessionslive.com for all the details and photos. And follow Future Music on Twitter (@futuremusicmag) for the first word on the next event!

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