Encanti's Premier Electronic Music Production Retreat in the mystical Scottish Highlands
APPLY NOWBeat Retreat is a 10-night, 9-day electronic music production retreat in the breathtakingly beautiful luxury eco-lodge, Eagle Rock in Applecross, Scotland.
Friday, May 3 - Sunday May 12, 2024
Imagine how much you can achieve:
Totally immerse in your music with world-class music professor Ben “Encanti” Cantil of Zebbler Encanti Experience, sharing incredible studio and living spaces with a select group of music production peers - all the while wrapped in a landscape and local culture tuned into the silence from which all music emerges. Your retreat in the mystical Scottish Highlands is built on the site of a Viking watchfire in the oldest standing stone sanctuary in the UK.
We offer an all-inclusive program, accommodation, daily group workshops, private instruction, production time, structured peer review and exchange, and a lot more.
Before you arrive, Encanti will help you structure your goals and personal focus for the week: Whether you’d like to focus on mainly artistic development, or really drill down to some hardcore new sound design tricks, it’s all about tailoring the experience to grow and succeed in whatever aspect of the music world matters most to you, now.
Get away from your daily grind, tap into your true creativity and potential, and accelerate your musical growth to the next level.
APPLY NOWAbout Encanti:
Ben “Encanti” Cantil is a pioneer of electronic music production and education. As an educator, creator of seven accredited courses at Berklee College of Music, including sound design, performance, and music production courses for Music Production, Technology, and Innovation Masters Program at Berklee Valencia. His main musical project Zebbler Encanti Experience (ZEE) brings an audio/visual odyssey of visually stunning projections and bass music to an international audience, touring 90-120 days per year and releasing music on Gravitas Recordings and Wakaan Records.
This year, on sabbatical from Berklee College of Music, Ben has partnered with the eco-luxury lodge Eagle Rock Applecross to offer mystically inspiring workspaces for a limited series of electronic music production retreats.
What will you learn?
Beat Retreat is an immersive learning experience that approaches sound design, composition, and mixing as a unified art form. You will develop a palette of sound design packs and toolkits, while applying creative workflow techniques to capture your sound ideas— elevating your production, engineering, and writing to the next level.
Topics Covered
- How to “Sound Like Yourself” as an Electronic Music Producer
- Flow State in Music Production
- Complex Bass Sounds and FX-Based Synthesis
- Creating Sound Design “Mud Pies” and Templates
- Analog Polyphonic Synthesis
- Inside-The-Box Subtractive, Wavetable, FM Synthesis
- Frequency-Domain Composite Sound Design
- Time-Domain Composite Sound Design
- Sampling, Convolution, FFT Resynthesis, Granular Synthesis
- Build Your Own Kicks, Snares, and Glitch Percussion
- Mix-Down and Mastering
Intensive Creative Program Includes:
- 18 hours of Daily Workshops on Sound Design, Mixing, and Composition
- 5+ hours of One-on-One private lessons (one hour online per person to establish goals, three scheduled hours spread over the retreat, and one hour online follow up online after retreat)
- 25 hours of Scheduled Productive Creative Output Time
- Daily Peer Listening and Feedback Sessions
About Eagle Rock:
Eagle Rock was designed by award-winning architects and Tibetan monks to optimise comfort, energetic flow and sustainable living. The lodge is built on the site of a Viking watchfire in the oldest standing stone sanctuary in the UK.
- Accommodation for 10, in shared luxury rooms
- Two outside Loud Studios (24 hour use)
- At least 7 headphone production nooks with sea views around the house
- Kitchen and Bar with Beverages and Snacks available throughout day
- Private Hot Tub on the Shoreside
- Downstairs nest used as daytime gathering/workshop space - whiteboard, speakers, huge table with plenty power points, etc
- Evening Gathering Living Room with Fireplace
- Amazing landscape views and walks
Retreat Schedule:
Day 0
- If you want to arrive a day early to acclimate, no problem, this is free.
Day 1: Friday, May 3
- Arrive at Inverness Airport to be driven by Mercedes 9 seater to Applecross (2 hr drive with photo stops)
- Drive over the highest mountain pass in Britain: National Geographic rated it in the 10 drives to do before you die
- Quick hot tub, drinks and dinner: Local beer and local seafood/veggie option
- Welcome evening hangout with a wee whisky tasting (included)
Day 2
- 8-10 Cooked Breakfast (Open breakfast/snack access all day)
- 10-1 Workshop
- 1-2 Lunch
- 2-6:30 Creative Retreat / Private Lessons
- 6:30 drinks on the deck - make your own Bloody Mary night (included)
- 8pm Dinner
Day 3
- 8-10 Cooked Breakfast (Open breakfast/snack access all day)
- 10-12 Workshop
- 12-1 Lunch
- 1-5 Creative Retreat / Private Lessons
- 5:30-7 Peer Review
- 8pm Dinner at Applecross Inn (not included in cost, with option to stay in)
Day 4
- 8-10 Cooked breakfast (Open breakfast/snack access all day)
- 10-12 Workshop
- 12-1:30 Botanical Walk: Relationship between plants and people in the highlands
- 1:30-3:00 Foragers Lunch at the Walled Garden (included in cost)
- 3-7 Creative Retreat / Private Lessons
- 7-8:30 Peer Review
- 8:30pm Dinner
Day 5
- 7:30am Coffee, Egg, and Toast
- 8am Leave Eagle Rock for Skye Decompression Day (included!)
- 10am Eilean Donan Castle
- 12pm Whisky Tour or Dunvegan Castle
- 2pm Depending on weather, Fairy Pools or other TBA
- 8pm Return to Eagle Rock for Dinner
Day 6
- 8-10 Cooked Breakfast / Creative Retreat
- 10-1 Workshop
- 1-2 Lunch
- 2-4:30 Ard Dubh (Where the Veil is Thin) Walk with Cath
- 5-8 Creative Retreat / Private Lessons
- 8pm Dinner
Day 7
- 8-10 Cooked Breakfast
- 10-1 Workshop
- 1-2 Lunch
- 3-8 Creative Retreat / Private Lessons
- 8pm Dinner
Day 8
- 8-10 Cooked Breakfast
- 10-1 Creative Retreat / Private Lessons
- 1-2:30 Bealach Walk with Cath
- 2:30 Lunch
- 3-8 Creative Retreat / Private Lessons
- 8pm Drinks and Final Dinner: Open Mic night
Day 9
- 8-10 Breakfast / Creative Retreat
- 10-1 Workshop
- 1-2 Lunch
- 2-4 Creative Retreat / Private Lessons
- 4pm Heritage Walk: Standing Stones, a surfing saint, a neolithic broch, and learn to spin wool into yarn at the Heritage Centre
- 6-8 Creative Retreat / Private Lessons
- 8pm Drinks and Dinner
Day 10: Sunday, May 12: Exodus
- Breakfast
- 7:30am Depart for Inverness Airport (most flights leave at 11:35)
*Exodus options for Monday available upon request, might include taking a train.
All enrollees of Beat Retreat Eagle Rock will receive a huge bundle (over $700 retail) of audio samples, loops, and presets by our sponsors, Gravitas Recordings and Black Octopus Sound.
Pricing: $3400 per person
Includes:
10 nights of accommodation in Eagle Rock Applecross with panoramic mountain and sea views
(Shared accommodation in en suite rooms)
Professional cleaning of all accommodations
Catering included, with on-site professional chef.
All meals & snacks except one dinner at the famous Applecross Inn (i.e. daily cooked breakfast, lunch, dinners and snacks)
Complimentary non-alcoholic beverages and select alcoholic beverages.
(There is an additional, limited honesty bar)
Transportation
- Private airport pick-up and drop-off
- Included full-day trip to the Isle of Skye
- Transport to daily activities
*Cost does not include flights in/out of Inverness Airport
