What about a 'Linnfest'?

[randybrown]

Continuum players have organized a yearly gathering in Asheville titled 'Continucon'. Why not a similar event for the Linnstrument players? There's only something like 12 Continuum players wordwide. Surely Linnstrument players would like to come out once a year to attend seminars, hear concerts and mingle. I would attend.

Has this ever been discussed?

[BobDog]

First I have heard of this idea, sounds like a good one though.

[randybrown]

Google ContinuCon to see what they've been doing.

[Roger_Linn]

I was thinking about that recently, something simple at my Berkeley home if the crowd isn't too big or a bigger place if needed, with a minimal cost to cover food, etc. Berkeley has reasonably-priced hotels.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[gbevin]

Well I'm making the trip for this for sure!

Here's just a brain dump of what I'm thinking of for LinnFest:

I could give a presentation on how to customize LinnStrument in user firmware mode, and another one to give an overview of the Arduino code if there are enough people interested. In any case, we can record these on video and have them available on YouTube for others.

It would be cool to have a session or multiple sessions on setting up sound sources. Depending on how deep we want these to be, I could explain from simply listing a few iPad synths with basic configs, to explaining and walking through an entire iPad live performance setup, I could do this also for some hardware synths that I can take along (Mother-32, Parva, 0-coast).

I would be nice to have people demonstrate and highlight their playing techniques, arrangements, music and technical setups.

I think it would also be cool to have a sharing workshop where we can experiment with each-other's LinnStrument setups and gear, to try out new sound sources and different ways of approaching the playing itself.

Maybe we can also have a couple of small concerts?

Finally, maybe we can take some time to split off in a few groups and align our mind for a live improvisation, which we'll record and edit together for others to see.

Any other ideas?

[randybrown]

Geert' suggestions are just the type I feel most Linnstrument players would be interested in.

The Continucon folks charge $150-ish for their event. Not sure what the fee does/does not cover. They hold it at a university, so there is likely a charge for the space rental.

Roger's suggestion to hold an event at his place is great, but you might want to gauge interest level. Maybe pick a date and see what the numbers look like. Roger could possibly include this in an upcoming newsletter.

[Roger_Linn]

I'll check out the costs and ask about it in the next or following newsletter. When do you think is the best time of year? Summer?

[randybrown]

I'd say 6 to 8 months from when you announce it to give folks time to decide and plan.

[Roger_Linn]

I was wondering more about what time of year most people would prefer. I'm guessing summer is easiest for most. Also, I'm guessing a weekend is best. At some point I'll send an email asking owners for their opinions.

[docsunset]

I agree that summer weekend would be ideal.

I would love to attend such an event, and would be especially interested in getting a tour of the Arduino firmware and having concerts and show and tell / sharing sessions.

!