BENCH NOTES

Welcome back to Bench Notes!

If your March was anything like ours, you would agree that it completely flew by! It’s been a busy month with a lot of moving parts, and despite a very even mix of instruments swarming in and out of the shop, things became fairly Roland-centric around here in other ways.

PARTNERSHIP UPDATE

We're proud to announce that we're now an authorized Roland repair centre for warranty and non-warranty issues!

We've always worked on Roland gear - from TR-77's to Jupiter 8's and the ever-popular Juno 106, they are by far the most popular manufacturer we see in the shop (they account for about 40% of our work here). Our head tech's hands have been in every type of vintage Roland out there. And now we are officially supporting modern gear with the support of Roland themselves!

Our new status kicked in while Jay and Lori were abroad, so they celebrated by stopping by the Roland Store in London, England. Hello to our friends across the pond!

GEAR(Y) FEST

Gear(y) Fest is this weekend and we’ll be there!

Drop by our table to "Ask a Synth Repair Tech" and get answers to all those weird and whacky questions you've been forum-diving to find out.

And it doesn’t end there. With over 35 brands participating (and a bunch of individuals ready to swap gear!), you’ll probably find something you like, between mics, outboard gear, custom built guitar pedals, synths, software, and more.

Make new friends and meet old ones - we're sure you'll see someone you know!

If you like gear, come on down to Gear(y) Fest!

NEW RELEASES

It’s our job to keep instruments up and running. But as much as we love the nerdy, tech side of gear, we do it for the music. It’s been a while since we shared some new releases through Bench Notes, so we’d like to do another round!

If we’ve tinkered in your gear and helped enable some new music, please let us know! We’d love to put it on display.

Send us an email with a link to the single, EP, or album along with a short blurb about the artist and/or music. We want to help share as much as possible, so don’t be shy!

LOCAL EVENTS

Synth and synth-adjacent happenings in the GTA.

Monday, April 14th | 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, April 9th + 23rd | 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, April 19th | 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