Comments (1)

By evan, 18 May 2010 9:01 pm

Openlab Workshops presents summer workshops at Morley College! Please email reserve@openlabworkshops.org to reserve a spot.

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.

Comments (1)

By evan, 29 October 2009 7:12 pm

~=~=~=~~=~=~=~~=~=~=~~=~=~=~~=~=
~= Workshop #8: Make Some Noise ~=~=~=

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

Comments (2)

By evan, 23 October 2009 5:13 pm

Hi gang, here is a short how-to for using the Jack audio server and compiling and using Jag’s examples form his workshop on OS X.

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!