Boston synth culture?

[Gino]

Hypothetically, if I were to move to the Boston area, is there a good synth culture there?

Looking for good shops, social events, etc.

[rockpapergoat]

wish i could tell you. there’s a lot of music happening up here, especially with berklee and all the other colleges. some of the clubs haven’t survived the pandemic. i don’t know much about the scene or good shops, since i’m just a middle aged dude getting into this stuff pretty late. if you hear anything, post up.

[slinky]

I moved out of Boston before the pandemic, but yes there was quite a lot of synth stuff going on. Lots of MIT Media lab synth nerds, Berklee music synth department stuff, mass art SIM program stuff, basement shows, meetups. For a while there was a place called MMMMaven that would teach DJ classes. Theres the MIT swap meet that you used to find obscure synth stuff at. There is a long running drum n bass night called Elements at Pheonix Landing (its sort of a dive but the vibe is good if your into that kind of thing). No shops that I remember, but lots of events. Boston is a strange city though, It’s generally sort of lacking in “unmediated by some institution” culture.

[rockpapergoat]

this seems cool, though i just learned about it, and it’s this coming weekend.

Connect 2022: EDI Summit | Berklee College of Music

elektron and ableton reps will be there. the syntakt features prominently in sessions.

[tentakill]

See my post in the East Coast Elektronauts thread.

US East Coast Elektronauts, (NJ, NYC, PHL, etc.)

I’m going to preface this by saying that I barely go out these days and have really never found a connection with the local electronic music scene, but these are some local options I’m aware of. Content Brakes has been organizing events at O’Brien’s with some regularity. The Infra crew hosts touring techno DJs and locals at Lower Level, The Phoenix Landing, and other locations. You could try to connect with the local Modular on the Spot folks if that’s your jam. Corrosion Boston was a monthly …

[lowph]

@slinky

There is a long running drum n bass night called Elements at Pheonix Landing

Just here to give Elements a shout out! They’ve had non-stop drum n bass ever Thursday for like 2 decades! I started going there in 2006 or so. I’ve seen top notch artists there from around the world… Too many to list actually. I don’t live in Boston anymore, but when they started streaming it over twitch during the pandemic, I started listening in. Elements is the one music-related event I miss the most about Boston (Cambridge, but close enough).

I can’t say much about synth culture there though. It probably exists, but I don’t know any people at Berklee anymore.

[tentakill]

You’ll find that most of the indie musical instrument shops in Boston are very guitar-focused. There are two Guitar Center locations, so if you need to try out the new Roland workstation or whatever you’re covered there. The only place I can think of that deals in modular is SynthCube out in Waltham, and they’re very focused on DIY modules.