LEME IN REVIEW

London producer Michael Jansons visited the London Electronic Music Event for DJ Mag. Here is what he thought:

I popped into Sample Magic’s London Electronic Music Event (LEME) to get a feel for why LEME should be an event that every producer should mark into his or her diary. The format for LEME is based around a weekend of production workshops, business sessions, keynote panels and networking events bringing together artists, labels, entrepreneurs and like-minded electronic music lovers from around the world. It’s a place where attendees really get to mix it up in a really cool and inspiring environment, and is designed to give an insight into the dance music world and the industry as a whole.

I was pretty impressed with the overall set-up and it seemed to feel bigger than 2012 due partly to the fact that this year the event had moved venue to the Rich Mix Studios — a state-of-the-art creative space in the heart of Shoreditch. Speakers included legendary drum & bass figure Goldie, Radio Slave, SoundCloud, Andi Durrant (Capital FM), promo service Your Army, Mr Bongo, Sharooz and more.

SATURDAY
The team behind LEME run a great organised event, covering a good mix of sessions for producer nerds, to networking and marketing talks to help the eager attendee along in their goals of achieving success in the crazy world of the music industry. Being a producer, I based my weekend’s timetable around the production masterclasses, which were more up my street.

Session 1 was MAKING YOUR MIX SLAM with Sharooz, in which he demonstrated techniques on a number of semi mixed stems to get that extra bit of energy out of your mix. This was a good general session for anyone looking into how to make their tracks sound more dynamic.

Session 2 was DRUM LAYERING with Bruce Asher, a very good speaker, especially when it came to demonstrating the practical elements that he was discussing. In this session he gave his insight into various ways of making your drums fatter and more interesting, by layering samples and applying processing techniques such as EQ.

Session 3 was PERFECT GROOVES — HOUSE. The tutor Marc Adamo showed many grooves he had programmed using Native Instruments Battery, manipulating the plug-ins, envelopes and Logic's swing options.

Session 4 was GOING LIVE, which was an interesting talk about making more of your performance, whether using live instruments, crazy light shows like Daft Punk or having a gimmick like Deadmau5 or Steve Aoki. This was a very interesting talk that focused on the next step after you’ve recorded your tracks.

The highlight of Saturday was definitely GOLDIE IN CONVERSATION. His enthusiasm, history and experience in the world of electronic music was simply inspiring. Having a bar and a chance to network is also another great feature of LEME and it was good to discuss the day’s events with a well-deserved beer.

SUNDAY
Session 1 was with Marc Adamo EQ WHAT GOES WHERE? Marc presented this class very well, with diagrams and examples of how to use EQing effectively to bring space into your mix. Another well put-together session — nothing too heavy, just some good, clever hints and tips.

Session 2 THE PERFECT BOTTOM END, also with Marc, was pretty similar to the EQ session, but focused more on how to get really good bass. This session was basically the same as the previous EQ session, so I suppose would have been more useful if I hadn’t been to the first session.

Session 3 was MASTERING LIVE with Matt Colton. This was my favourite talk of the weekend. Matt — recognised as Mastering Engineer of the Year by the Music Producers Guild — really passed on his extensive knowledge in a friendly manner, and the way he described things was really useful. It was a great insight into the world of mastering. This was a very popular session.

The final session. RUNNING A LABEL: THE REKIDS STORY was another great talk. Label owners Radio Slave and James Masters, with their knowledge of running a successful label, explained all the good times and tough times they’ve had building their brand and keeping it running, and staying fresh.

LEME is a great weekend to meet likeminded people and pick up tips from knowledgeable, experienced talkers. I think for next year, to expand on this growing event it may be good to introduce beginner and advanced classes. Other than that, I can see the event growing from strength-to-strength.

Dont for get to check londonelectronicmusicevent.com for more info