Level: Beginner

By turning off the quantize function on his MPC  J Dilla ushered a new era of groove in electronic music production. Composing beats using both rushing and dragging feels while also making sure that notes remained musically coherent. This workshop intends to equip you with the skills to program hip hop beats and music ideas with a drunk drummerfeel inspired by producers and musicians such as J Dilla, Questlove, Flying Lotus, or Kaytranada.

Session Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session a successful student will be able to:

• Develop an understanding of pulse, subdivision and polyrhythms

• Acquire an understanding of the Groove

• Using the Groove Pool and Warping to program beats with both MIDI and audio content

• Identify & apply the right quantization values to apply to your programming

Session Study Topics

• Drum rack for composition

• Audio & MIDI warping for rhythm programming

• The groove pool and timing features

• Audio effects for enhancing rhythms

Requirements

• A computer and internet connection

• A web cam and mic

• A Zoom account

• Access to a copy of Live Suite or Standard (i.e. trial or full license)

About the workshop leader: 

Simone Tanda is a musician, producer, multi-media artist, tech consultant, and educator.

Based across London & Berlin he is currently creating music for his own project, as well as multidisciplinary artists, film, and commercials.

Level: Beginner +

Brian Eno used arranged tape loops for composition in the 1970 Discreet Music and Music For Airports. This M4L device takes those ideas and uses them for a simple but effective loop playback device. In this workshop you’ll learn how to work with audio file playback objects like buffer~ & groove~ along with send & receive concepts and sub-patches.

By the end of this session a successful student will be able to:

• Build a basic audio file playback device.

• Explore signal routings using send & return objects.

• Use sub-patch encapsulations in M4L.

• Describe the signal flow in a M4L device.

Session Study Topics

• Max objects for audio playback.

• Audio signal flow.

• Encapsulations in Max.

Requirements

• A computer and internet connection

• A web cam and mic

• A Zoom account

• Access to a copy of Max 8 (i.e. trial or full license)

About the workshop leader

Johan Englund is a music producer based in St Leonards East Sussex and an educator for Tileyard Education (London) and Bimm (London). He has been engaged as a professional in the music industry since the early 1990s and as a lecturer since 2005.

Level: Beginner

Programmed rhythms can lack the expression of real players. This is particularly evident when sequencing drums. In this workshop you will learn to program a variety of drum patterns, utilising a range of expressive techniques in Ableton Live. This workshop aims to provide you with transferable skills to enable you to breathe life into your MIDI programming.

Session Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session a successful student will be able to:

• Program at least one drum pattern with variations;

• Understand groove and learn how to implement it;

• Use MIDI devices (such as random and velocity and MaxforLive) to humanise parts;

• Utilise the Convert to MIDI function to analyse existing patterns and provide inspiration.

Session Study Topics

• Drum sequencing in session view

• Applying groove and swing

• MIDI effects, LFO device

• Converting audio to MIDI

Requirements

• A computer and internet connection

• A web cam and mic

• A Zoom account

• Ableton Live 11 Suite – if not, participants should be advised to download the trial version

About the workshop leader

Mel is a London based music producer, vocalist and educator. 

She spends most of her time teaching people how to make music with Ableton Live and Push. When she’s not doing any of the above, she makes educational content and helps music teachers and schools integrate technology into their classrooms. She is particularly interested in training and supporting female and non-binary people to succeed in the music world.

Level: Intermediate

In this workshop you will build an experimental audio FX device that utilizes buffers to create a novel delay line. Experimental processing will be added to the signal path to provide unique sound design possibilities. This workshop aims to provide you with suitable skills to begin exploring building unique, novel and experimental audio FX devices in the Max MSP environment.

Session Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session a successful student will be able to:

• Identify MSP objects for building delay FX devices
• Build delay line audio FX devices via buffer, record and groove
• Build feedback and processing networks
• Explore UI concepts and design

Requirements

• A computer and internet connection
• A good working knowledge of computer systems
• An basic awareness of audio processing
• Good familiarity with MSP
• Access to a copy of Max 8 (i.e. trial or full license)

About the workshop leader

Ned Rush aka Duncan Wilson is a musician, producer and performer. He’s known best for his YouTube channel, which features a rich and vast quantity of videos including tutorials, software development, visual art, sound design, internet comedy, and of course music.