Students rejoice! Richie Hawtin is bringing his CNTRL tour back on the road for 2015, and SUBPAC will be along for the ride on this innovative and immersive campus tour experience!
Continuing his journey to educate fans of EDM on the origins of the music they love and the power and possibilities afforded by the technology that fuels this global movement, Richie and the CNTRL team are hosting an exciting schedule of daytime lectures focusing on the intersection between music and technology that will allow students unprecedented access to their favourite DJ’s and producers.
The daytime seminars will culminate in an hour long masterclass moderated by Richie Hawtin and performance DJ pioneer and founder and owner of DJ Tech Tools, Ean Golden. They will be joined by DJ’s performing later that evening and will offer students a chance to gain valuable insight into the working lives of their favourite acts.
In addition to this each stop will host a technology marketplace hosted by Moog Audio in the Canada and Guitar Centre in the USA respectively, with companies such as Traktor, AIAIAI, Roland, Native Instruments, Livid, Little Bits and of course SubPac offering discounts and unveiling new wares on each stop of the tour.
Following the daytime seminars an all-star roster of DJ talent will be putting all of that that knowledge into practice in a series of special and exclusive night time performances!
The theme for this year’s tour is “Individuality & Creativity In Technology-Based Music” and will feature talks and performances from Richie Hawtin, Ean Golden, Francois Kevorkian, Grimes, Matrixxman, Matthew Dear, Chris Liebing, Dubfire and more.
SubPac will be providing you with an insight into CNTRL 2015 through our exclusive tour diary. We will be documenting this historic campus tour and hope you’ll join us on this journey!
Day One – Boston, Berklee College of Music
Day 2 – Pennsylvania, Penn State
Day 2 kicked off at Penn State in Pennsylvania in the Eisenhower Performance Center. The CNTRL marketplace was located in the entrance to the theater where the panels and Master Class took place. It was wonderful taking our new technology to a school in an area that is not normally inundated with underground electronic music culture and knowledge. We saw a lot of surprised, inspired faces pass through the marketplace, and showing the students the SUBPACs was a fun experience as many of them have not been exposed to our utilization of bass before.
Matador was the guest speaker in the Master Class hosted by Point Blank Music School and spoke about his Live set up.
The club portion of the tour took place at a venue called Levels in the town right outside of the University. That stop was the last performance for both Matador and Mathew Dear on the tour. Ean Golden opened and Richie Hawtin closed the club. There were a lot of students who were there experiencing this kind of music for the first time after demoing all of the technology hosted by SUBPAC, Pioneer, Splice, Little Bits (Korg), Native Instruments, and Roland during the day.
Day Three – New York City, NYU
Day 3 of the tour landed the CNTRL crew in the Big Apple. We were hosted by New School in NYC, and got the opportunity to work with a couple hundred of their students, faculty, and guests. The students at New School and out of NYU had a lot of ideas for the SUBPAC, including live acoustic bass performance, drumming, and, of course, different ways to utilize the SUBPACs in a city where people live very closely together and cannot create much noise. The Master Class featured Dantiez Saunderson.
The club side of the tour was hosted by Webster Hall and was played by Ean Golden, Francois K, n-sound, Dantiez Saunderson, and Richie Hawtin.
Day Four – Montreal, Concordia University
Today we arrived in Montreal to Concordia University for Day 4 of the CNTRL Tour. Our Marketplace was set up in the same auditorium as the Master Class and panels, it was a wonderful way to integrate the two groups. During the breaks in discussion, students were able to demo the products that were being discussed by many of the artists. Students in Canada were very excited to test the SUBPAC, as many of them live in apartment and dorm studios.
Mateo Murphy gave a fantastic Master Class about his experience making a track every week for a year, and how to avoid over thinking and overworking a track in progress.
The club portion of the tour was held at New City Gas, an amazing refurnished warehouse and was played by Richie Hawtin, Marc Houle (LIVE), Mateo Murphy, and Ean Golden. Marc Houle played a crowd killing live set!
Day Five – Toronto, University of Toronto
Day 5 found the crew arriving bright and early in Toronto. We set up at the University of Toronto for the Marketplace, got a taste of Canadian coffee, and welcomed the students into the auditorium. It was fantastic being in one of SUBPAC’s home bases and having a big support group come out to represent.
Justin James delivered a Master Class discussing the Roland ARIA series, discussing the practical use and the history of all of the products. He also discussed how everything can be integrated by the MX-1 in Ableton Live.
The club portion was played by Marc Houle (LIVE), Richie Hawtin, Justin James, and Ean Golden.