Unfortunately, we must postpone NEEMFest 2020 indefinitely. It was a difficult decision to make (and is even more difficult to communicate) because there was no single overwhelming reason for it. Rather I -- and the rest of the group that you’ve entrusted with planning and arranging it -- felt that there are numerous obstacles standing in the way of a successful and satisfying experience for the community, enough of them to make postponement the wisest plan. A complete list would take a while, but there are three I’ll mention here.
First, a virtual conference requires a huge effort from presenters and performers, and because much of that involves learning and experimentation, it must be done well in advance. Many of us, through no fault of our own, are not very far down that road. Even though we were ready to assist everyone with both documentation and in-person support, we did not feel that NEEMFest would be able to maintain its inclusiveness, the one thing that all of us value the most.
Second, those of us who had done streaming events realized that audience attention is far harder to capture and maintain with a multi-day virtual event. That, and the need to provide technical support, had already led to a decision to reduce the number of performance slots from our normal 40+ to around 16. At that point, we had entered a world where it was not at all clear that the rewards for the performers (or for the technical volunteers) would justify the effort.
The third reason is the most difficult to describe and at the same time the most compelling. The entire community is stressed and distracted now. There is a pandemic raging in the United States and it is going to get worse, even as the rest of the developed world is slowly returning to normal. Some of us face financial insecurity. Those who have children in school, or who work in schools and colleges, are experiencing worrisome risk and real uncertainty about what will happen in just a few weeks (my own city of 30,000 is about to face an influx of tens of thousands of college students who will, of course, maintain social distancing and other safe practices at all times). NEEMFest was scheduled for the week after the public schools reopen -- a peak time for either anxiety or relief, and either way a time when people will be most focused on family and friends. It seemed that our chances of capturing the attention of performers and audience at that point in the calendar were, if anything, substantially worse than they would be at other times.
We concluded that we should, as one of us put it, “do NEEM when we can really do NEEM”. In the meantime, we can all raise our game, and continue working on virtual events in a paced, deliberate way. We’re making all of the technical-support materials we prepared available on the NEEM website (at https://neemfest.com/?post_type=encyclopedia&p=7771&preview=true ]). All of us are available to help people who want to get going. There are any number of good ideas for Zoom presentations and online tours floating around; over the coming weeks, we’ll be putting those forward here in the hope that some educational events and virtual tours might spring up. There is a lot for all of us to work on, and I hope that as many of you as possible will join us.
Speaking now only for myself (and maybe for some of my bandmates), virtual collaboration and performance have been a real godsend for me over the last few months. This is a resilient and adventurous community, and I’m confident that NEEM will come back in the form of a hundred micro-NEEMs before we are all able to meet together in person again -- and that there will be some new things, uniquely possible in cyberspace, that will astonish and delight all of us.
A final, personal word: I am immensely grateful to the volunteer crew of organizers: Rebekkah, Mike, Steve, Ken, Rob S., Jim, and Chris. This has been a rocky road, and I have pitched a few of the rocks. All of us are even more grateful to those of you who have made financial contributions to support NEEM. Fortunately, we have spent very little if any money so far, and your contributions remain to be used exactly as you intended -- to make the next NEEM the most inclusive, fee-free event it can possibly be. All of us are in your debt.
We close with a musical selection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdZXQHa9rv0"
We'll Meet Again - Vera Lynn, Drag Queens in Quarantine (DiQ)
Cheddar Gorgeous
"26 drag queens from 5 different countries are asking you to help us raise money for Age UK."
"-CALC- looks at the Novation Components software, and how to get the most out of it with Summit. Components is our powerful sound library and hardware management system that allows you to save and store all of your patches, and provides 1000s of free sounds.
With its multitimbral architecture and 16 voices of polyphony, Summit is like two Peaks in one instrument, enabling two completely independent patches to be split or layered across the keyboard, or switched between on the fly. And, that’s not the end of it: the addition of dual filters, greatly extended front panel controls, audio input and the same premium-quality five-octave keyboard introduced with our SL MkIII MIDI controller, put Summit in a creative league of its own.
"A brief comparison of the frequencies controlled by the CGS202 Serge Resonant Equalizer and the Yusynth Fixed Filter bank pro from Lower West Side Studio
One of the most sought after modules ever produced the Serge Resonant Equalizer is now available in classic MU format! The CGS202 Serge Resonant Equalizer offers the unique major-seventh band equalization setting itself apart from standard graphic equalizers and opening the door for interesting sonic possibilities.
The CGS202 Serge Resonant Equalizer is available in 1U and 2U widths offering the exact same features in different sizes to suit your modular system’s requirements."
While most modular systems contain different types of filters many tend to omit the precision sound sculpting tool, the Fixed Filter Bank. The reference standard for Fixed Filter Banks is the 914 module by Moog and while this module is both expensive and difficult to obtain the Yusynth Fixed Filter Bank Pro is an outstanding option based on the same sonic principals.
In addition to all the features of our standard edition Fixed Filter Bank the Fixed Filter Bank Pro offers individual outputs for each frequency in the filter as well as attenuators for each input.
The Vermona DRM-1 is a wonderful, all-analogue, 8 voice drum synth with a wonderfully unashamed raw, electronic tone and a startling versatility. In this sample pack I have captured 113 samples, and processed them 4 different ways: raw; a punchy in-the-box plugin chain; processed through a gritty characterful germanium pre-amp on low and then high gain.
The samples cover the standard kick, snare, clap, cymbals and "other" drum sounds, but also takes advantage of the fantastic "multi" voice on the Vermona for metallic plinks, zaps and techno chord stabs. Additionally, as many of the voices allow you to remove the "drummy-ness" from the sounds, there are a range of "tone" samples which showcase the raw synth sounds and are great for melodic and harmonic parts."
"We are happy to announce an update to Lié, the companion software for Touché & Touché SE controllers. As of version 1.5, Lié now comes with a new sound expansion called “Carbon,” a revamped interface, a reworked firmware for Touché, and minor bug fixes. Carbon is also a free add-on for anyone who owns the MPE Collection, the sound collection Expressive E created for everyone who uses controllers with MIDI Polyphonic Expression capabilities.
Carbon sound expansion
From deep pads and gnarly basses to colorful plucks, Carbon is a new, free sound expansion for all Touché, Touché SE, and MPE Collection owners. Carbon will inspire you with 60 new, fresh, and expressive sounds, ranging across several sound categories and suitable for all kinds of genres.
How to get the sounds:
Owners of Touché & Touché SE: the 60 new sounds from the Carbon sound expansion are included as only one part of the Lié 1.5 update. It expands the number of factory sounds to now more than 250.
Owners of MPE Collection need to redownload and install MPE Collection from their customer account to obtain the fully MPE-compatible Carbon sound expansion."
Spotted this one on discchord. That's actually Tim Webb of discchord in the video.
"Audio Evolution Mobile Studio features a virtual analog synthesizer 'Evolution One' based on the very popular Synth One from AudioKit! Featuring morphing oscillators, FM, Sub Osc, Noise, Portamento, 2 LFO's that can be routed to 12 targets, Moog type filtering, effects, ARP, sequencer and more.
Presets are compatible with Synth One and it comes with licensed presets from Electronisounds and Red Sky Lullaby, giving a large number of presets to play with. Because Synth One is very CPU hungry, a lot of optimisations were performed to have it run decently on Android in a DAW environment, but a fast/recent Android device is still recommended. There is also an option to play in a lower quality mode, but when freezing a track or performing mix-down, the high quality setting is always used."
