BENCH NOTES

If you can believe it, February marks one full year of Bench Notes! Thank you all for reading, sharing, and commenting your thoughts. It’s been fun for us to reflect on all the changes at the shop, and share some of the inner workings of this strange industry.

For our clients in Toronto, we hope you’ve all been doing well amidst the heavy snow and cold! Despite the weather and some slight shipping delays, we’ve kept our noses to the grindstone through February getting as many instruments back in your hands as possible.

A LOOK INSIDE THE SHOP

Our new video gives an inside view to the origins of the shop.

“What keeps it going is when it works and you hand it back to the customer and they’re happy as hell and you hear the record they recorded it on. That’s the joy of it, that’s what it is. It’s making sure everyone’s working, everyone’s happy.”

At the end of the day, for everyone at Synths When, it’s about the music. Thanks for always trusting us with your gear; as players and appreciators, we never take it for granted.

OUR PARTNERS

While we usually tend to work on older instruments, over the years we’ve become repair partners with a handful of modern brands! They’ve all been a pleasure to work with so far, so we felt a proper shout out is long overdue.

Rossum Electro-Music

After decades of innovation through E-mu Systems, Dave Rossum and his team continue to create powerful tools for the modern electronic musician, including their faithful reissue of the legendary SP-1200 sampler. We’re proud to be their Canadian warranty partner!

Teenage Engineering

Through their playfully minimalist product design and branding, TE has become an electronic instrument juggernaut since the NAMM debut back in 2010. We’ve been a TE authorized repair centre for original OP-1’s and OP-Z’s since 2018.

SOMA Laboratory

Self-described “romantic engineers”, the team at SOMA produce some of the most unique and mysterious instruments that come through our shop! As a warranty partner, we always get a kick out of their weirdly wonderful noise-makers.

UDO Audio

UK-based company UDO made a big splash with their 12-voice binaural Super 6, and they’ve continued to deliver impressive instruments with their Super 8 and Super Gemini. We’ve been a proud warranty partner of theirs since just last year. 

Sequentix

Colin Fraser and his team at Sequentix have been pursuing the dream of the perfect hardware sequencer since the late nineties, and with 2020’s Cirklon 2, they may have cracked it. We’re an authorized repair centre for the Cirklon 2.

We’re grateful to be able to help keep these modern classics running as designed. We’re currently working on adding more warranty partners to our roster in the next while. If there’s any manufacturer you’d love to see us working with, let us know!

THE JUNK DRAWER

Some other tidbits from last month worth sharing:

• After years of fueling our caffeine needs, we got the chance to help out our neighbours at Propeller Coffee with a faulty power switch in their QSC power amplifier! #propeller4ever

• Try as we might, none of us were able to top our shop dog London’s staggering performance (in both efficiency and tail-wagging), bequeathing her title of “Employee of the Month” once more.

LOCAL EVENTS

Synth and synth-adjacent happenings in the GTA.

Monday, March 10th | Toronto Electronic Music Open Mic

On the second Monday of each month, our friends at TEMOM hold an electronic music open mic night at Handlebar. 15 minute sets. All live. All musical styles. Drop by at 8pm and enjoy!

Wednesday, March 12th + 26th | Render File

You can often catch our talented tech Sam making noise at Render File on Wednesdays. This casual event stars a different video game playthrough each week with an improvised score by a live band. Check it out at Wenona Craft Beer Lodge every Wednesday at 8pm.

Saturday, March 15th | Frequency Freaks

Frequency Freaks Synthesizer Workshops are free educational synth events that encourage sharing gear info and sound-design techniques in the Toronto synth community. They’re held in association with Arraymusic at 155 Walnut Avenue.

Got any suggestions for local events we can add here? We’d love to hear about them! Just reach out and let us know.

If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading Bench Notes! Feel free to let us know what you think, share it with a friend, or suggest new topics you’re curious about.

—The Team at Synths When