Acclaim x MESS producer series

Client
Ableton

Agency
Archetype

Production
Posterboy

Publication
Acclaim

Contributions
Concept
Creative direction

Acclaim is a voice for rising Australian musicians.

A lot of those musicians are producers and the majority of them use Ableton Live. They often produce music entirely on a laptop. Every instrument and sample living inside a Macbook Pro. Outside of the occasional MIDI controller, the way they make music is totally mediated by a screen.

On the other end of the spectrum and down an unassuming laneway in North Melbourne, you can find the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio (MESS) and their world-class collection of phsical electronic instruments. If it’s an important synthesiser in the history of electronic music, it’s at MESS. But MESS is more than a mere museum, they’re dedicated to teaching and propagating the creation of electronic sound through workshops, courses and community.

The idea pretty much suggests itself: take some of Australia’s best rising producers and put them in front of analog equipment for the first time guided by one of MESS’s educators and captured by Ableton Live.

Videos featuring Vetta Borne (above), Hamley and Hugh Lake were published to Acclaim’s YouTube and supported by website editorial and social media posts. The final tracks were also uploaded to Soundcloud and a Live-native sample pack from each session was made available for download.