Introduction to Open Source Software for Music Technology
Sunday 4th July
10am – 5pm
cost – £48.00
Tutor: Ryan Jordan http://ryanjordan.org/

1. What will I learn on the course?

• multi-track recording software
• drum machines, samplers, and synthesisers
• editing
• audio editing
• and what Open Source software is.

2. How will I learn?

1. Demonstrations + explanations from Tutor
2. Practical Class exercises, observed by tutor
3. Individual exercises & tasks (each learner will have a music workstation each)
4. Individual work, observed by tutor:

• using and installing a Linux based operating system
• running software such as Ardour, Hydrogen, Jack, ZynAddSubFX Synth, and more
• creating some music and sound compositions with the above software
• saving a taking everything you make away with you at the end of the school.

Introduction: Pure Data (pd)
Saturday 17th July
10am – 5pm
£48.00
Tutor: Ed Kelly http://sharktracks.co.uk/
Pd (aka Pure Data) is a real-time graphical programming environment for audio, video, and graphical processing. This introductory course is aimed at absolute beginners, introducing the core fundamentals of Pd and demonstrating how to make cool sounds quickly!
1. What will I learn on the course?

• Audio, video, and graphical processing via Pure Data software
• The core fundamentals of Pd
• How to make your own sounds quickly

2. How will I learn?

• Demonstrations + explanations from Tutor
• Practical Class exercises, observed by tutor
• Individual exercises & tasks (each learner will have a music workstation each)
• Individual work, observed by tutor

Advanced: Pure Data (pd)
Sunday 18th July
10am – 5pm
£48.00
Tutor: Ed Kelly http://sharktracks.co.uk/
The advanced Pd course is aimed at people who already possess some experience with using the programme and will be tailored to the students’ interests.
1. What will I learn on the course?

• Audio, video, and graphical processing via Pure Data software
• The core fundamentals of Pd
• Advanced Sound Synthesis using Pd.

2. How will I learn?

• Demonstrations + explanations from Tutor
• Practical Class exercises, observed by tutor
• Individual exercises & tasks (each learner will have a music workstation each)
• Individual work, observed by tutor

Introduction: SuperCollider
Saturday 10th July
10am – 5pm
£48.00
Tutor: Thor Magnusson http://www.ixi-audio.net/
SuperCollider is an environment and programming language for real time audio synthesis and algorithmic composition. The introductory course will introduce beginners to the core fundamentals of SC. Previous programming experience may be useful, but not essential.
1. What will I learn on the course?

• The basics of audio synthesis and generative music composition using this
• SuperCollider.
• Object orientated programming language.
• Sensors and physical interfaces

2. How will I learn?

• Demonstrations + explanations from Tutor
• Practical Class exercises, observed by tutor
• Individual exercises & tasks (each learner will have a music workstation each)
• Individual work, observed by tutor
• The course will take the form of a presentation, hands-on development and
• seminars.
• The participant will gain knowledge of how to proceed further with studies of
• SuperCollider.

We’re happy to announce another Introductory Processing workshops plus two shiny new workshops running at the lovely and well-outfitted SPACE Studios, this April to June: one aimed at creating interactive lighting installations using Arduino, LEDs, and DMX, and another where we explore using Processing to visualize data, learning some techniques of data sorting and visualization along the way.

Interactive Lighting With Arduino

First, we’re offering a new workshop from Arduino and interactive design guru Daniel Hirschmann:

With the ubiquity of LED lighting installations, artists and designers are looking at ways of introducing interactive elements to light based works. This class is intended to demonstrate methods and technologies to interface and create one’s own responsive light art works. Using the open source Arduino as our platform, over the course of 5 weeks, participants will learn how to use sensor information to effect their light pieces. By using various electronic components and techniques we will demonstrate how to expand the outputs of the Arduino. We will cover the DMX lighting control standard in depth – offering strategies for building responsive lighting systems with off the shelf DMX controllable fixtures. By the end of the class, participants will produce their own interactive lighting project.

Taking place on 4 consecutive Monday nights from 6:30-9:30PM at SPACE from April 26 to May 17 inclusive, with a final open workshop session on June 7.  The cost will be £160, paid upfront, unless you make other arrangements with us.  The cost includes a custom circuit board and electronic components necessary for the workshop.
[more details]

Intermediate Processing: Visualizing Data

Dry as the title may sound, this workshop will be an inspiring tour of projects using data in art and design, and the techniques behind them.  Visualizing data is a great way to learn more about Processing and what’s possible with software and visuals, because let’s face it, most of what we do in the digital world is taking data from one source (e.g. temperature, twitter messages, the daily length of your toenails) and converting it to another form (e.g. a bar graph).  In a scant 4 weeks, you will learn:

1. How to use data to create interesting visual imagery
2. What XML is and why it is useful
3. How to load and save data files (in a variety of formats)
4. How to represent data as code (object-oriented programming)
5. Basic math skills for dealing with data (mean, mode, median, etc)

Taking place on 3 consecutive Thursday nights from 7:15-9:15PM at SPACE from April 29 to May 20.  For those who have taken the introductory Processing course, or with basic exposure to programming (loops, variables, arrays).  You will need to bring a laptop, preferably with Processing installed (free download).   The cost will be £75, paid upfront, unless you make other arrangements with us.

Introductory Processing for Everyone

The course itself will be a relaxed but project-focused introduction to Processing and interactive art and design in general.  We will spend the bulk of the first three sessions on basic methods of working with code, general workflow, and feeling your way around the Processing environment, along the way building some small projects and gaining inspiration from art, design, and technologies such as Wii remotes, RFID, OSC, video, and more.  The material is flexible, based on the needs and wishes of the people attending.

Taking place on 5 consecutive Thursday nights from 7:15 – 9:15PM at SPACE from May 27 until June 24.

This will be a small workshop, so please reserve soon!   The cost will be £125 for the entire 5-week course, paid upfront, unless you make other arrangements with us.

Finally…

Please email reserve@openlabworkshops.org to reserve spot in any workshop!

All workshops take place at SPACE Studios, in Hackney, at 129 – 131 Mare St, Hackney E8 3RH

Nearest transport: London Fields (5 mins by rail from Liverpool St.), Bethnal Green (tube), various buses – please see http://www.spacestudios.org.uk/contact/SPACE/ for full details

This 2-day workshop will take place on Tuesday 6 & 13 April at The Flea Pit (Columbia Rd nr. Old Street, Shoreditch).
Cost: £40 (for two 2-hour sessions)
To reserve please email reserve@openlabworkshops.org – space is limited.

Are you new to programming and interactive electronics? Have you ever been interested in a crash course in connecting real world sensors with your computer?

This is the class for you! We start with a gentle introduction to programming using Processing, a free tool for digital art and design. Following that is a basic introduction to electronics and sensors using the Arduino platform. Finally, we demonstrate how you can connect the two together! Use a distance sensor to control the strength of a man-made wind, or use a mouse click to start a vibrating motor under someone’s chair… At the end of this class you will have the tools to do exactly these things and more.

Suitable for beginners. No previous experience necessary.

Day 1 – Processing

• Introduction to the Processing application – installing and basic use
• Drawing to the screen
• Basic programming concepts such as decisions (logic) and syntax
• Basic animation concepts
• Resources and where to find help

Day 2 – Arduino

• Introduction to the Arduino platform (hardware and software) – installing and basic use
• Programming the Arduino (syntax)
• Digital input / output, analog input / output, and Serial Communication
• Demonstrating how to get Processing and Arduinos to communicate.
• Resources and where to find help

Doodle 3 by Martin Schneider

Hi gang,

Our last Processing course was so successful that we have been scrambling to schedule another one to accommodate all of you who couldn’t get into the current run.  Now, we’re happy to announce that we will be running another 5-week introductory Processing workshop at the lovely organic pub, gallery, and performance space called The Flea Pit, on Columbia Rd. near Shoreditch and the top of Brick Lane.  Workshops will take place on 5 Tuesday nights from 7-9PM, starting March 9th Tues March 2nd and ending April 13th (skipping April 6th) March 30th.

The course itself will be a relaxed but project-focused introduction to Processing and interactive art and design in general.  We will spend the bulk of the first two sessions on basic methods of working with code, general workflow, and feeling your way around the Processing environment, then focus more on project ideas and specific technologies such as sensors, 3D, OSC, and video.  We will be flexible based on the needs of the people attending.

This will be a small workshop, so please reserve soon!   The cost will be £130 for the entire 5-week course, paid upfront.  You  will need to bring a laptop, preferably with Processing installed (very easy to do!).  Please email reserve@openlabworkshops.org to reserve spot.

The class will be taught by resident Processing guru Evan Raskob and a few special guest lecturers.

Happy coding!

Processing for Visual Artists

Openlab Workshops presents a 5-week long introductory course in Processing and interactive art.  From 28 January until mid-March, take two Thursdays each month and learn some generative visual art chops.  Learn Processing from the ground up, exploring ActionScript and Arduino in the process.  This will be a project-led course with a relaxed atmosphere and small class size.  We will invite special guest lecturers, in addition to the regular staff, taking you through creating basic sketches up to creating videos, interactive art, and games.  At the end of the course, you will have a working project (game, installation, video piece) of your own design, and some knowledge and inspiration for future projects!  Compare with the V&A’s £240 Processing class for 6 weeks.  Main instructor: Processing guru and lecturer Evan Raskob.

Cost and Reservations
Reservations are limited.  The cost (before January 15th) will be £125 for 5, 2-hour-long sessions (£150 after Jan. 15th).  Sessions will take place on two Thursdays each month, form 7:30-9:30PM at Space Studios, Hackney.  (It’s easy to get to Space! Hackney Central is easily accessible from most stations, and various buses serve the area.  The Bethnal Green Tube station is about a 10-minute walk. We will provide you with more information).  Please email reserve@openlabworkshops.org to reserve a spot!

More Information
We will start from the beginning and cover the basics of Processing and interactive art – drawing to the screen, creating sketches for the web, some basic programming practices.  Then, since the workshop is project-focused, we will work with participants on more specific topics, including some of the following:  creating and analyzing sound; working with and saving to video; webcams; network communications using OSC (including communicating with SuperCollider).

If you have any questions at all, please email us and ask at info@openlabworkshops.org !!

Private sessions are also available – please email for details.

(By the way, the header image was generated in Processing)

Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/openlabworkshop

Last one of the year! Going out with a bang.  Third Thursdays workshops return to Space Studios in January, keep your eyes peeled for upcoming events!  Thanks for all your support this year, we couldn’t do this without you.  You are the sunshine in our lives, the wind beneath our wings, the spark in our step, the heat in our fire, the evil metal heart in our bloody-minded killer robot.  See you soon!

http://openlabworkshops.org

When: Thursday 19 November, from 6pm-10:00pm

Where: Space Studios, 129 – 131 Mare St, Hackney E8 3RH

Nearest transport: Bethnal Green (tube), London Fields (Overground), Buses – see http://www.spacestudios.org.uk/contact/SPACE/

Cost: £15 for the entire night, or per workshop (see below).
How to pay: At the door, or via Paypal to be guaranteed a space (limited to 30 people per workshop).  Please email or Paypal reserve@openlabworkshops.org to reserve a space in any workshop.

~=~ SCHEDULE ~=~

6PM – Graphic Design Using Inkscape with Jake Rayson

Graphic design for the masses!  You know that you need to do that flow chart, wireframe, presentation, or cute portrait of your cat using vector graphics (so you can blow it up to wall size and scare the fur off her back), but you don’t want to plunk down £1000+ for Adobe CS5.  That’s where open source vector graphics program Inkscape comes in.  Jake will take you through the basics, and was nice enough to provide a detailed list of them:

1. Welcome to Inkscape v0.47!
2. Creating images: Bitmap vs. Vector
3. Using images: Print vs. Web
4. Shapes: fill, stroke, transform.
5. The wonder of Bezier Curves.
6. Creating type.
7. Crack Compound Paths.
8. Combining bitmap & vector.
9. Export for Web!

Please download Inkscape from http://inkscape.org/ before the workshop, but if you can’t, then we’ll have some copies laying about.

7:45PM – Animation in Processing with Alias

So you know Processing and/or Flash, now how do you make your pretty graphics move around the screen in ways more interesting than left-to-right and then right-to-left?  Cue Alias and “Animation in Processing.”  In this workshop, we will cover the basics of getting things moving in Processing, starting with simple 2D sprites, moving on to more complex concepts like using tween equations, and finally touching on 3D animation using OpenGL.  This is an intermediate level workshop – a little knowledge of Processing is advisable, but you should be able to pick things up if you are reasonably familiar with the basic concepts.

~=~=~=~For More Information~=~=~=~

Please reply and tell us if you don’t want to receive more of these emails at this address. We’re not into spamming people…

Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/openlabworkshop

Sign up to our events announcements list!

You can also keep up with all general Openlab events, performances, workshops, etc. on our low-traffic email list: http://lists.pawfal.org/listinfo.cgi/openlab-announce-pawfal.org

The jack-tuner program is ready for download here:

http://jack-tuner.googlecode.com/files/jack_tuner-1.0.tar.gz

and the jack-tuner website is:

http://code.google.com/p/jack-tuner.

If you have a gmail account, add yourself to the project. This will let you checkout the code, contribute bug fixes, new features etc.  You could also subscribe to the project feed to see changes we make to the project.

When: Tuesday 3 Nov from 6pm-10:00pm
Where: The Roebuck pub (upstairs room), 50 Great Dover Street, SE1 4YG
Nearest transport: 5, 133, 343, 21 buses, Borough Tube (Northern line)
About 8 minute walk from London Bridge Station (Northern and Jubilee tube, rail, and bus station: 48, 47, 149 buses)

Cost: £15 for the entire night, or per workshop (see below).
How to pay: At the door, or via Paypal to be guaranteed a space (limited to 30 people per workshop).  There will be a few spaces for people who show up on the night.  Please email reserve@openlabworkshops.org to reserve a space in any workshop.

Schedule:

6PM: Hardware Noise Hacking with Ryan Jordan – £10

In this session of Hardware Noise Hacking you will be making some PSYCHEDELIC SQUARE WAVE TOILET GOGGLES!!!! Yes indeed, your very own hallucinogenic, drug free goggles!

Aside from that, the workshop will teach you simple circuit and electronics building to make your own square wave synth and stroboscopic lights, both with controllable frequency.

No programming skill is required.
No electronics skill is required.
No musical skill is required.
Only your body and brain are required.
This is an open workshop for anyone interested in DIY punk noise machines.

There is an additional £15 charge for the kit, if you wish to take it home with you and scare your friends and impress your enemies!

The kit includes:

1. 555 timer circuit
2. capacitors
3. resistors
4. small speaker
5. breadboard
6. 9v battery and clip
7. potentiometer
8. LED’s
9. Instruction and reference booklet.

What you will need to bring to the workshop!!!:::

• 2 x inner tubes from toilet rolls
• a pair of goggles or glasses
• a sense of sonic adventure

7:45PM: Understanding Sound and Music by Programming Computers with S. Jagannathan – £10

Session 2 (of 2): Synthesis From Scratch

Part 2 of audio enthusiast and professional computational motivational speaker Jag’s 2 part series on making sound from basic computer code. About 50% of the workshop/talk will have computer sound & music ideas – these will be programming language agnostic – in a format that people without any prior programming background but with an interest in computer music can understand. PD, max/msp, SuperCollider, etc. users will benefit from looking into that primal black box of sound generators!

Requirements:

• Basic knowledge of programming – variables, loops, conditionals, basic pointers. (if you have done programming in the past it should be fairly straightforward.)
• A computer with a C++ compiler (Linux, XCode, etc.)

~=~=~=~For More Information~=~=~=~
See our entire Fall / Winter schedule on http://openlabworkshops.org

Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/openlabworkshop

You can also keep up with all Openlab events, performances, workshops, etc. on our low-traffic email list: http://lists.pawfal.org/listinfo.cgi/openlab-announce-pawfal.org

If you’re on linux, you can install jack through your favorite package manager, then install svn (subversion) and get Jag’s code and instructions from his project page.

If you’re an OS X version of some sort, please read on.

First, go get JackPilot and Jack: http://www.jackosx.com/download.html (download the version for your version of OS X).  Install it, and restart the computer.  We’ll wait here while you do that…

Next, run JackPilot (from your /Applications folder).

Now we need to set up our sound device.  The odd thing about the Mac laptops is that they have different sound drivers for input and output, which is a pain for Jack to deal with.  We’ll need to create an “Aggregate Device” which smushes together the inputs and outputs into a single, virtual device.  Luckily, this is easy to do.

Open Audio Midi Setup (an application in your Applications/Utilities folder on your Mac) and then we’ll create the aggregate device.  Note that from the JackPilot menu you can also get to your Sound Preferences at the click of a button (we’ll need this soon enough).

In Audio Midi Setup choose “Open Aggregate Device Editor” from the top menu as below:

Next, click the + sign to add a new aggregate device, and make it look the way it does in this screenshot:

Now click “done” and you’ve got a brand new audio device that you can use with Jack. Go grab a coffee, or a biscuit, and pat yourself on the back because we’re almost done.

Close Audio Midi Setup and go back to JackPilot.  Now, choose “Open Sound Preferences” from the top menu that you chose “Open Audio Midi setup” from before.  In Sound Preferences, choose your “Aggregate Device” as your audio output:

Do the same for the input (under the “input” tab).  Now we’re ready to use Jack! One thing to note is that your volume keys won’t work with this Aggregate Device, you’ll need to control all your volume via software.  A pain, I know, but such is life.

Go back to JackPilot and hit the “start” button to start the Jack server.

Now you need to download the handy disk image containing the XCode project file and supporting files.

Open the disk image and copy the files to a safe place on your computer, like the Documents folder.  Double-click the project file.  Oh, make sure that XCode (part of the Developer tools) is installed – if not, you can install it off the OS X disk that came with your computer, or (better yet) download it from Apple’s Developer website (free registration) which will give you a newer version with better support.

Once you have the project open in XCode, go to the top menu and click Run and then Console or press SHIFT+CMD+R.  You should see the a console window pop-up, where you can type in commands and get some textual feedback from the program.  Now click the “Build and Go” button on the top bar of any window, which has a little green play arrow, and the program should run (you’ll see some text in the console window).

We need to connect our jack-tuner program to Jack, now, so go back to JackPilot and hit the “routing” button.  you’ll see a window of connections pop up, like so:

Click on the “out” under jack-tuner (our client) and then double-click “playback_1″ under “System” as above to make a connection.  (Double-click it again to break the connection.)  Now you should hear some sound!  Go back to XCode and type in commands into the Console and play with your tuner!

When: Tuesday 20 October, from 6pm-10:00pm
Where: The Roebuck pub (upstairs room), 50 Great Dover Street, SE1 4YG
Nearest transport: 5, 133, 343, 21 buses, Borough Tube (Northern line)
About 8 minute walk from London Bridge Station (Northern and Jubilee tube, rail, and bus station: 48, 47, 149 buses)

Cost: £15 for the entire night, or per workshop (see below).
How to pay: At the door, or via Paypal to be guaranteed a space (limited to 30 people per workshop).  There will be a few spaces for people who show up on the night.  Please email reserve@openlabworkshops.org to reserve a space in any workshop.

Schedule:

6PM: Processing Beginners’ Workshop with Evan Raskob – £10

You’ve heard Evan’s intro workshops and been slightly terrified by the advanced stuff (it’s ok to admit it).  So bring your basic questions and project ideas, and Evan will work thorough them to everyone’s benefit.  Or, if people are feeling quiet, he will go through some of his endless bag o’ tricks, including OSC and MIDI.

7:45PM: Understanding Sound and Music by Programming Computers with S. Jagannathan – £10

Session 1 (of 2): Building a music tuner program.

Your very own accurate musical instrument tuner spanning the entire audio range to tune any instrument.  Several tuning schemes supported including roll your own.  About 50% of the workshop/talk will have computer sound & music ideas – these will be programming language agnostic – in a format that musicians without any prior programming background but with an interest in computer music can understand. PD, max/msp, SuperCollider, etc. users will benefit from looking into that primal black box of sound generators!

Requirements:

• Basic knowledge of programming – variables, loops, conditionals, basic pointers. (if you have done programming in the past it should be fairly straightforward.)
• Computer with the ability to compile and run C++ programs linked to portaudio libraries.

~=~=~=~For More Information~=~=~=~
See our entire Fall / Winter schedule on http://openlabworkshops.org

Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/openlabworkshop

You can also keep up with all Openlab events, performances, workshops, etc. on our low-traffic email list: http://lists.pawfal.org/listinfo.cgi/openlab-announce-pawfal.org