Software Workshop - Bela + SuperCollider
2017-09-20 18:30 - 21:00 (Europe/London) | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
This hands-on workshop introduces participants to using SuperCollider on Bela, an open source embedded platform for ultra-low latency audio and sensor processing based on the BeagleBone Black. Bela is designed to generate and process audio while connected to the physical world using all sorts of analog and digital sensors.
During the workshop we will show how you can adapt your existing SuperCollider-based instrument to the Bela platform. Also we will show how you can go from developing and testing by executing your code interactively, to a fixed setup where your code runs automatically at startup of the Bela to create an embedded instrument.

Bela is an embedded system for real-time audio processing with ultra-low latency. Based on the BeagleBone Black single-board computer and featuring a custom hardware and software environment, Bela integrates audio processing and sensor connectivity in a single high-performance package. Bela is an ideal platform for musicians, instrument designers, audio enthusiasts and interactive artists.
SuperCollider is a powerful, open-source, cross-platform, audio engine and programming language, used not only to create music, but also for machine learning, audio/music reactive installations, performance, interactive systems, research, live-coding and much more.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.

If you have any questions about this event or any of our workshops please contact workshops@stagingmhs.local.

Workshop – Sketching an Interactive Musical Instrument with Sensors, Arduino and PureData
2017-10-07 12:00 - 2017-10-08 17:30 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
This workshop was developed as a result of the ‘DIY electronics’ Kacper Ziemianin’s class at the Royal Academy of Arts in the Hague. This is a two day workshop taking place over October 7th and 8th, 12:00-17:30.

During the workshop you will be introduced to the basics of working with Arduino micro controller and interfacing it with a computer software in order to generate, control and manipulate sound. We will use open source hardware and software (Arduino / pure data) to create a sound control patch using buttons, switches, potentiometers and sensors. We will start by looking at the basics such as setting up Arduino and running sketches, analog vs digital pins, Arduino programming environment, basic electronic, etc. From there we will get a bit more advanced by looking at the serial communication, connecting various sensors to Arduino, reading and remapping values from sensors, and controlling sound parameters with them. By the end of the workshop every participant will have built a project that they can take home and develop further.
In the meantime we will look at some interesting examples of projects made with Arduino,
where to look for more information and where to go next.
Please note: All participants are required to bring a computer with installed Arduino IDE
and PureData, both of which are available for Windows, Mac and Linux and are free.
Downloads:
arduino: https://www.arduino.cc/
puredata: http://puredata.info/downloads

Here’s an example of what you can do with Arduino and Pure Data if you work hard:

And another video example of where these experiments might take you (especially relevant 0-2:20):
https://vimeo.com/31704855

Artist Talk - Kacper Ziemianin’s LightSeq
2017-10-09 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
LightSeq is an award-winning DIY instrument and performance system for live electronic music. It allows users to program any sequence of lights which are then translated into sound. This combination opens up a lot of possibilities for controlling, structuring and interacting with sound. This instrument tries to addresses an issue of ‚liveness‘ of electronic music performance. How does the audience know if the performance is really live? How can we relate to the actions that the musicians are taking onstage? In case of ‘LighSeq’ every sound is created and manipulated by various light sources. This creates a direct link between the visual and sonic realm. Watch LightSeq in action.

Doors for this event will open at 18:30. The talk will begin at 19:00 with time for Q&A afterwards. Drinks will be available from the bar next to the entrance to the New Wing of Somerset House.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
If you have any questions about this event please contact info@stagingmhs.local.

Workshop – DIY Modular Synth Workshop with Befaco
2017-10-14 11:00 - 2017-10-15 19:00 | Somerset House Studios (G31), Room G31, Somerset House, West Service Yard, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
This workshop is part of Nocturnal City: London – Barcelona. This second event in the Nocturnal City series explores the London – Barcelona interplay with an evening of panels, installations and music performances with a focus on independent creators, DIY practices, breaking down barriers and building new structures. For this event we’ve invited Barcelona based synthesiser designers Befaco to lead two days of workshops where you can build your own modular synthesiser.
If you come to this workshop you’ll receive a discount code giving you 30% off the cost of the main Nocturnal City event.
Full cost: See price list.

When you book your place you will be charged a £20 booking fee.
Please note there will be no refunds of the booking fee in case of cancelling / not showing.
This £20 booking fee will be deducted during the workshop from the price of the kit/s of your choice.On the workshop day please bring cash to pay for your kit/s.
With this item you will be booking a spot in our workshop.
We will email you to find out which module/s you’d like to build.

Join us for a weekend of DIY modular synth making.

Required skills: Interest and patience. No previous experience in electronics is necessary.
Required materials: Fine tip soldering iron less than 25w is recommended (we provide soldering irons and hand tools for participants who don’t have their own).
When: Sat 14th and Sun 15th October 2017, 11am to 7pm.

Hands on workshop: build your own synth modules in eurorack format. We provide all the necessary components to build your device from scratch. Each participant builds her/his own machine during the workshop.
Befaco is a Synth DIY/open hardware platform focused on designing modules and organizing modular synth workshops regularly in Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin and London. You can read Befaco Workshops FAQ’s for more details.
Befaco modules available:

Spring reverb …………………..150 GBP
Even VCO ………………………130 GBP
BF22 VCF……………………….140 GBP
VC ADSR……………………….125 GBP
Rampage……………………………. 170 GBP
Instrument Interface………………125 GBP
Output module………………….. 70 GBP
Mixer……………………………..55 GBP
Crush Delay…………………….. 130 GBP
Power bus…………………………60 GBP
Switching power supply………… 30 GBP
Dual Atenuverter…………………55 GBP
Joysitck controller……………….120 GBP
Slew Limiter ………………………….60 GBP
Sampling modulator…………….130 GBP
Chopping Kinky……………………130 GBP
A*B+C………………………………….95GBP
MIDI Thing…………………………..125GBP
Jumpskiff……………………………. 195 GBP NEW!!
Hexa VCA……………………….180 GBP NEW!!

We also have the 4ms Quad Pingable LFO available to build at this workshop for 195 GBP. If you are interested please let us know in advance.

If you have any questions about this event or any of our workshops please contact workshops@stagingmhs.local.

Artist Talk & Performance - Maria Chavez
2017-10-16 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Born in Lima, Peru, Maria Chávez is an abstract turntablist, sound artist and DJ. Accidents, coincidence and failures are themes that unite her sound sculptures, installations and other works with her solo turntable performance practice.
Maria will be performing a solo turntable show, followed by Q&A from the audience and the chance to try out Maria’s methods yourself.
Maria is the author of OF TECHNIQUE: Chance Procedures on Turntable, a book of essays and illustrations that guide the novice turntablist to explore the world of needles and vinyl through the lens of deterioration, destruction and the unexpected.

Doors for this event will open at 18:30.The performance will begin at 19:00. Drinks will be available from the bar next to the entrance to the New Wing of Somerset House.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
If you have any questions about this event please contact info@stagingmhs.local.

TidalCycles Meetup
2017-10-23 18:30 - 21:00, 2017-11-13 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Our TidalCycles meetups are a series of informal, participatory meetups focusing on Alex Mclean’s open source, accessible livecoding platform. They are loosely structured around talks and performance, with various livecoding celebrities in attendance.
No programming experience is necessary for these meetups. They are open to all abilities and are an excellent opportunity to learn how to start making music with code. We encourage you to bring a laptop and headphones to make the most of the meetup. There’s no need to have come to the previous meetups to come to this one.

TidalCycles (or Tidal for short) is a programming language for live coding pattern. It allows you to make musical patterns with text, describing sequences and ways of transforming and combining them, exploring complex interactions between simple parts.
Tidal is open source and can be downloaded for free here. If you have any problems with installation we’d be happy to help out in the meetup. If you’re keen to develop your Tidal knowledge beforehand, there are plenty of great resources available. See our document of resources for independent learning here.
The meetup is organised by Music Hackspace.
Drinks will be available from the bar next to the entrance to the New Wing of Somerset House.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
If you have any questions about this event please contact info@stagingmhs.local.
Photo by Antonio Roberts (http://www.hellocatfood.com/)

Artist Talk - Tom White
2017-10-30 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Tom White is a London-based artist. His multidisciplinary practice spreads across sound, moving image, installation and live performance.
Past projects include commissions from South London Gallery, Radiophrenia, Arnolfini, LUX Moving image, MK Gallery & Spill Festival of Performance. He won the British Composer Award 2014 (Sonic Art) for Public Address, commissioned by South London Gallery.
For this talk he will touch on various strands of his work such as collaboration, performance, process and curating the Apologies in Advance series, founded in 2016, a platform for live works in progress.

Doors for this event will open at 18:30. The talk will begin at 19:00 with time for Q&A afterwards. Drinks will be available from the bar next to the entrance to the New Wing of Somerset House.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
If you have any questions about this event please contact info@stagingmhs.local.

Workshop – Percussion and Distortion modules + Signum device with Victor Mazon/000
2017-11-04 10:00 - 2017-11-05 18:00 | Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London, E1 6QL
This workshop is part of We Are Robots Festival at The Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, E1 6Q London, on 4th and 5th November.
DIY workshop about percussion and distortion modules led by øpen-hardware team “000” + Signum device with Victor Mazon!
Modules are both stand-alone and Eurorack. The workshop will cover both theory and practice about analogue circuit design, percussion and noise. No previous experience in electronics is needed but interest and patience is mandatory.
In this workshop participants can also build and take home their own Signum device, which is designed to experiment with hidden signals and usually un-hearable sounds. The device includes a transducer, optical, coil, germanium diode and small loop antenna that will allow you to both to listen to and record the sounds hidden in the electromagnetic spectrum. The workshop will also cover the use of the electromagnetic spectrum in art practice. With Victor Mazon Gardoqui.
Full cost: See price list.

When you book your place you will be charged a £20 booking fee.
Please note there will be no refunds of the booking fee in case of cancelling / not showing.
This £20 booking fee will be deducted during the workshop from the price of the kit/s of your choice.On the workshop day please bring cash to pay for your kit/s.
With this item you will be booking a spot in our workshop.
Please send an email to workshops@stagingmhs.local indicating which module/s you’d like to build.

Both days are independent so participants can choose when to join the workshop.
Modules available are:
Signum Device (Workshop price: £95)
The new Signum updated for We are Robots Festival includes a light and laser transmission on the board, infra/ultraviolet sensor, 2 extra op-amps low drift, matched components, lower signal2noise ratio, bigger size (Ø10cm) and easy to assembly.

BSDM Bareback Kick (Workshop price: £135)
Now includes CV for pitch, kick (attack potentiometer), envelope out cv, new custom fully aluminum knobs and a soft clipping output distortion on the module!
SCAT 0-logical distortion (Workshop price: £95)
Smaller size, easier to build and full aluminum knobs.
Snore Fist Drum (Workshop price: £135)
Now includes CV for pitch, kick (attack potentiometer), external sound source, new custom fully aluminum knobs and a soft clipping output distortion on the module!
WHIP MIDI to trigger interface (Workshop price: £130)
TOMS of Finland *NEW* (Workshop price: £165)
Now includes CV for both VCO´s, external sound source input, kick (attack potentiometer), new custom fully aluminum knobs.

HeilHats (Workshop price: £155)
Open and closed hats with independent control of decay and trigger and summed output. Band pass filter, White/pink noise / metal sound selector / External source In
Control: Pitch, BP Filter, Noise/metal, Volume and independent decay for CH/OH
Button: White/pink Noise, Cut of OH with CH, Trigger OH, Trigger CH
Inputs: External Audio In, Trigger OH, Trigger CH, Accent
Output: Summed Output
10HP

Premiere of these modules / Presented in MHS We are robots festival:

Eq69 Semiparametric Baxandall Equaliser. Workshop price- Special offer £95

British Heritage 3 band (Baxandall). Hi Shelf +/-15dB. Lo Shelf +/-15dB. Presence +/-12dB. Mid: 150Hz-7KHz
by 000 | November 2017

8ct8 AC/DC Signal mixer. Price£165

AC/DC Signal mixer. 8 Ch. / 2 Bus (2×4 Ch.). Master control. Bi-color led Signal level indication.
Mute / Light Push Button. Inverting / Non Inv out. 25mm travel Light Sliders by 000 | November 2017

YKINMKATO Distortion Lab Interface £165
This new module started in our workbench as a platform to develop all the 000 effect modules, and now has become one of the favorite 000 modules for the audience, a 000 distortion laboratory interface featuring:
– VCA In/Out and dry/wet, all 3 CV controllable.
– True Bypass and 3 parameters (X/Y/Z) for different “shield distortions” that will be produced during 2018
The module comes with a 000 version of the famous Proco-Rat bass distortion, with some extras and mods to work nicely for drone and percussive sounds, adapted modular impedance and eurorack (10v) audio levels.
The kit also includes a 000 perforated board where to design your own distortion. On the following months we will develop and upload more distortion designs, as shields, to be used by the community and attached at the back of the module.
Control: Att IN, Att OUT, Dry/wet, X/Y/Z
Button: Bypass, Diode Clipping
CV: CV Input Audio IN, CV Audio Output, CV Dry/wet
Inputs: Audio In
Output: Audio Out
RAT Distrotion: X Texture, Y Distortion and Z volume
10 HP

Herstories: Rewriting Music History Edit-a-thon
2017-11-06 18:30 - 20:30 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Join Music Hackspace and Sound and Music at this free edit-a-thon event, raising the profile of women in the British Music Collection – the UK’s national archive for new music – as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.

The British Music Collection is a constantly growing resource, but still not representative of UK society, and this needs to change! Come and join us, chat and make new friends, celebrate women composers and sound artists who should be featured and help us (at least partially) set the world to rights.
The evening will consist of an introductory talk by special guest Cathy Lane (Co-Director at CRiSAP), with further guests (tbc) acting as facilitators, before we crack on using our shared knowledge and the internet to create new composer profiles and add more information to the British Music Collection website. Free drinks, snacks, new music and social justice! No prior knowledge or experience necessary. Please bring your own laptop.
Generously supported by the Ambache Trust.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with widened doors and an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, whatever they may be, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
Doors for this event will open at 18:30. The talk will begin at 19:00 with time for Q&A afterwards. Drinks will be available from the bar next to the entrance to the New Wing of Somerset House.
If you have any questions about this event please contact info@stagingmhs.local.

Software Workshop - Make music with code, with Joanne Armitage
2017-11-15 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios (G20), New Wing, Room G20, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
In this workshop we’ll be exploring SuperCollider and its use with MIDI for interfacing both hardware and software synths.
SuperCollider is a powerful, open-source, cross-platform, audio engine and programming language, used not only to create music, but also for machine learning, audio/music reactive installations, performance, interactive systems, research, live-coding and much more.

Requirements: You will need your own computer (OSX / Windows/ Linux), a pair of headphones, MIDI interface, MIDI cable and if possible a synth that accepts MIDI signals. We will have a few midi/synth setups available for use in the workshop. Please email us ahead of booking if you will need to use one of ours.
Joanne is a creative technologist and artist working with sound, physical computing, digital media and interaction design. Her current practice-based research explores how digital sound can connect with the body through haptic feedback. She is part of livecoding duo Algobabez with Shelly Knotts.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
If you have any questions about this event or any of our workshops please contact workshops@stagingmhs.local.
Photo by Antonio Roberts (http://www.hellocatfood.com/)

A weekend of DIY synth workshops with Ewa Justka
2017-11-18 - 2017-11-19 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Music Hackspace presents a weekend of workshops with Ewa Justka.
Saturday 18 Nov, 11am to 5pm
Build your own MotherFucker 2 DIY Delay/Reverb with built-in VCO
Price per person: £125
Sunday 19 Nov, 11am to 5pm
Build your own Melodic 8 Step Patchable Sequencer (8 pots)
Price per person: £125

Discounted price if you book both workshops: £240

The MotherFucker 2
The MotherFucker 2 is super versatile audio synth or effect pedal, perfect for noise musicians as well as doomcore lovers AS WELL AS FOR NORMAL PEOPLE. It is a developed version of the Motherfucker1 Delay/Reverb pedal.
It contains double PT2399 (double delay, double reverb), you can choose how much delay/reverb you want (basically wet/dry) and you can decide if you want to use both delays or one. it also contains built in VCO with a clock also built in, you can choose if you want to use the internal clock but you can also use an external trigger/cv signal to control vco, which than can be fed into delay units. it also contains noise push button for extra feedback amount.

Melodic 8 step Sequencer
This is a melodic and patchable 8 step sequencer. Depending on the patches you make you can get different melodic sequences. Each pitch on each step can be controlled via potentiometers. In this workshop we will use potentiometers instead of fruit to build a stable, finished, albeit chaotic sequencer.

Ewa Justka is a polish electronic noise artist, self taught instruments builder and electronics teacher based in London. She currently studies MA Computational Arts at Goldsmiths College.
Her Acid Smut cassette was recently released through Graham Dunning’s Fractal Meat Cuts.
Justka’s main field of research is based on exploration of materiality of objects, vibrant, ontological systems (human bodies, plants’ bodies, electronic circuits: varied range of micro and macro environments and relations between them) and an investigation of modes of quasi-direct perception through noise performance actions, interactive installation, DIY electronics, hardware hacking, plant-molesting, breaking, deconstructing and collaborating. In her artistic work Ewa attempts to explore the concept of materiality of the hidden.
Ewa has performed and led workshops at festivals and venues including: Loop Festival, Sonic Acts Academy, Supernormal Festival, Club Transmediale, STEIM, Colour out of Space, Beam Festival, Cafe Oto, Norberg Festival and more.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
If you have any questions about this event or any of our workshops please contact workshops@stagingmhs.local.

Artist Talk - Ray Lee
2017-11-20 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Ray Lee is an award-winning sound artist and composer. He creates spinning, whirling, and pendulous sound installations and performances that explore “circles of ether,” the invisible forces that surround us.
His immersive and mesmerising works such as the world-wide hit Siren, Ethometric Museum and his monumental outdoor work Chorus aim to make contemporary music accessible and engaging for a wide audience. Siren toured the world with significant British Council support.

Ethometric Museum won him the 2012 British Composer of the Year for Sonic Art. Force Field was awarded an honorary mention in the 2008 Prix Ars Electronica. He is a Professor of Sound Art at Oxford Brookes University. Ray is an associate artist of OCM (Oxford Contemporary Music).
“As an artist I explore my fascinations with the world. I am fascinated by themes that include the emergence of the scientific method, the development of technology, and the way science represents our view of the universe. I have a childlike fascination with radios, radio waves, magnetism. There is a magic in the act of turning on a radio and receiving signals through the Ether or in holding two magnets in your hands and feeling this invisible force pulling your hands together or pushing them apart.
Physicality is essential to the work and it is inherent in both the structures I build and the sound that is created. I build machines that make sound. The fact that they often move means that the sound itself is being modulated by the movement. In my approach, it is not possible for me to have the sound in any way separate to the physical structure, object, or machine that produces the sound.
Live performance is an important part of what I do. I am intrigued by the relationship that emerges between the performers as operators and workers of the machine and the machines themselves. As humans, we relate to other humans more than we relate to machines, but we also want to breathe life into inanimate objects. Combining kinetic machines with performers who work with, look after, monitor, control these devices enables the audience to start creating their own narrative about the work.”
Doors for this event will open at 18:30. The talk will begin at 19:00 with time for Q&A afterwards. Drinks will be available from the bar next to the entrance to the New Wing of Somerset House.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
If you have any questions about this event please contact info@stagingmhs.local

Artist Talk - Tony Nwachukwu (CDR)
2017-11-27 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Tony Nwachukwu is a prolific producer, Dj, lecturer and music consultant based in London. He is founder of CDR the night of ideas and tracks in the making, an event and community where the main focus is on producers having a platform to listen to their own works in progress, carefully curated and weaved together by Tony throughout the night. Started in the early 2000s, CDR is an open, participatory club night, a co-production of its organisers and its attendees, and gave rise to artists like Floating Points, SBTRKT and Maya Jane Coles to name a few. For many years, CDR took place at our favourite Shoreditch basement, Plastic People, and Dance Tunnel in Dalston. Since the club’s closure, the event is now resident at Miranda, Ace Hotel and Rye Wax with other projects and initiatives created in throughout the year. Tony will be taking us through CDR, his research and his productions.

Doors for this event will open at 18:30. The talk will begin at 19:00 with time for Q&A afterwards. Drinks will be available from the bar next to the entrance to the New Wing of Somerset House.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
If you have any questions about this event please contact info@stagingmhs.local.

Music Hackspace presents an Algorave workshop with Alex Mclean
2017-12-02 11:30 - 18:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Music Hackspace present an Algorave workshop with Alex McLean. Algoraves are about dancing to live music made with code, and over the last few years have become a global night-time phenomena shaping club culture. This day-long workshop will focus on livecoding music using TidalCycles, a free/open source software project instigated by Alex.
TidalCycles (or Tidal for short) is a programming language for live coding pattern. It allows you to make musical patterns with text, describing sequences and ways of transforming and combining them, exploring complex interactions between simple parts. It runs on macOS, Windows and Linux, and can be installed for free here.
This workshop will be inclusive, assuming a basic familiarity with Tidal, but no other experience with coding is required. If you’re a complete beginner, but would like to attend, we’d recommend coming to our free TidalCycles meetup on November 13th, which should be a suitable primer for the workshop. We can also help with installation here. Alternatively, the Tidal website has a lot of resources, and spending a couple of hours going through these should get you up to speed. If you have any questions about this workshop, feel free to get in touch. It will be necessary to bring headphones, and a laptop with Tidal installed, to take part.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
We can offer a student discount of 10% off this workshop. Please email us for a discount code.
If you have any questions about this event please contact info@stagingmhs.local.

TidalCycles Meetup with Lucy Cheesman (women and nonbinary only)
2017-12-04 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Our TidalCycles meetups are a series of informal, participatory meetups focusing on Alex Mclean’s open source, accessible livecoding platform. They are loosely structured around talks and performance, with various livecoding celebrities in attendance.
This meetup is for any self identifying women and nonbinary people, and will be hosted by Lucy Cheesman. Lucy Cheesman makes music under the name Heavy Lifting in Tidal and Foxdot, and co-runs Tidal Club Sheffield with Alex McLean.
No programming experience is necessary for these meetups. They are open to all abilities and are an excellent opportunity to learn how to start making music with code. We encourage you to bring a laptop and headphones to make the most of the meetup. There’s no need to have come to the previous meetups to come to this one.
TidalCycles (or Tidal for short) is a programming language for live coding pattern. It allows you to make musical patterns with text, describing sequences and ways of transforming and combining them, exploring complex interactions between simple parts.
Tidal is open source and can be downloaded for free here. If you have any problems with installation we’d be happy to help out in the meetup. If you’re keen to develop your Tidal knowledge beforehand, there are plenty of great resources available. See our document of resources for independent learning here.
The meetup is organised by Music Hackspace.
Drinks will be available from the bar next to the entrance to the New Wing of Somerset House.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
If you have any questions about this event please contact info@stagingmhs.local.

Image by MindAperture.

Music Hackspace Workshop at the Zabludowicz Collection - Build your own DIY Sequencing machine with Ewa Justka
2017-12-09 11:00 - 18:00 | Zabludowicz Collection, 176 Prince of Wales Rd, Belsize Park, London, London, NW5 3PT
Join us for this workshop to build your own sequencing machine for you to take home. The Sequencing Machine is a pseudo modular DIY synth. Depending on the patch you make you can create different sequences. This simple yet versatile synth is capable of producing a wide range of weird sounds from watery, noisy rhythms to 8-bit melodies.

This Music Hackspace workshop will be led by polish electronic noise artist Ewa Justka, a self taught instrument builder, designer and electronics teacher based in London. In her artistic work Ewa attempts to explore the concept of materiality of the hidden. Ewa has performed and led workshops at festivals and venues like: Loop Festival, Sonic Acts Academy, Supernormal Festival, Club Transmediale, STEIM, Colour out of Space, Beam Festival, Norberg Festival, Cafe Oto, and more.
Music Hackspace is a London based community for artists, musicians, innovators and hobbyists passionate about music technology and sound art. They run a programme of DIY workshops and events and are residents at the Somerset House Studios.
This workshop is programmed at the Zabludowicz Collection, to coincide with the exhibition HRM199 / HAROON MIRZA : FOR A PARTNERSHIP SOCIETY. Haroon Mirza is famous for his use of electricity as a material with which he orchestrates light, sound and video to produce kinetic sculptures, performances and immersive installations.
Zabludowicz Collection‘s London project space presents a varied programme of self-initiated group and solo exhibitions, commissions and residencies, drawing on works from the collection or new works by artists linked to the collection. A public programme of performances, talks, screenings and workshops accompanies every show.

The relationship between music and technology with Tim Exile
2017-12-11 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Tim Exile will be reflecting on the intersections between music and technology, and how they’ve shaped his own work both as a musician and within his current software projects. Tim Exile has released music on Warp, Planet Mu and others, and has released plugins and standalone software with Native Instruments and through his independent shop.

Doors for this event will open at 18:30. The talk will begin at 19:00 with time for Q&A afterwards. Drinks will be available from the bar next to the entrance to the New Wing of Somerset House.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
If you have any questions about this event please contact info@stagingmhs.local.

Hardware workshop - Wormed Voice with Martin Howse
2017-12-16 11:00 - 2017-12-17 17:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
This workshop will run 11:00 till 17:00 on December 16th & 17th.

Build your own unique touch-based speech synthesizer and explore the theory and technique of animal and human voice synthesis.
Wormed Voice is a two day practical workshop exploring the physical, electronic and software simulated creation of non-human voices and vocalisations. The history of speech synthesis stresses the mundane, the military and the spectacular, commencing with Van Kempelen’s 18th century rubber squeaking or speaking machine. The basic principle of simulating the vocal tract through electronic and physical means was submitted to the military demands of compression and encryption, segmenting out parts of the speech process and reducing redundancy.
In the process communication becomes the business of circuit-bent human-worms, opening human and animal speech to the cut-up, to stammerings, stutterings and tics; to an extra-human, outer-word terrain of numbers burrowed and nibbled by the earthworms.
The workshop will feast on this electronic legacy. Participants will learn the basic principles of voice synthesis and produce a custom-designed touch-speech synthesizer which they can expand at will.
This workshop is led by Martin Howse. Martin Howse is occupied with an investigation of the links between the earth (geophysical phenomena), software and the human psyche (psychogeophysics) through the construction of experimental situations (performance, laboratories, walks, and workshops), material art works and texts. He is equally the creator of the skin-driven audio divination noise module, The Dark Interpreter, and the ERD modular synthesizer series.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
If you have any questions about this event or any of our workshops please contact workshops@stagingmhs.local.
Image by Ioana Vreme Moser

Artist talk - Martin Howse
2017-12-18 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Martin Howse is occupied with an investigation of the links between the earth (geophysical phenomena), software and the human psyche (psychogeophysics) through the construction of experimental situations (performance, laboratories, walks, and workshops), material art works and texts. He is equally the creator of the skin-driven audio divination noise module, The Dark Interpreter, and the ERD modular synthesizer series.

Doors for this event will open at 18:30. The talk will begin at 19:00 with time for Q&A afterwards. Drinks will be available from the bar next to the entrance to the New Wing of Somerset House.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
If you have any questions about this event please contact info@stagingmhs.local.

January TidalCycles Meetup
2018-01-23 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom

February TidalCycles Meetup
2018-02-21 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios (Lancaster Rooms), New Wing, Lancaster Rooms, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA

Ewa Justka presents a six week synth DIY and PCB etching course
2018-03-16 18:00 - 21:30 | Music Hackspace, Somerset House, West Service Yard, Victoria Embankment, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
During this 6 week long course, you will learn about the whole process of electronic circuit production: from prototyping circuits on breadboards to etching your own PCBs and learning KiCad! This course is part of Ewa Justka’s residency with Music Hackspace from March to May 2018.
The course is for beginners as well as for people interested in learning how to become more creative in CMOS circuit design as well as in basics of sound synthesis. It will provide participants with the knowledge and experience to start designing, building and manufacturing their own circuits from the ground up.
Depending on what you design, the course may require participants to do additional work at home, since we will only have around 3h per week. Reading material will also be provided by Ewa for participants who’d like to further develop their knowledge and understanding of synthesis and electronics.

The course will take place over 6 Friday evenings, weekly from March 16th, in our vault at Somerset House Studios. The £100 fee covers all material costs. All tools will be provided.

Week 1:
→ Introduction to electronic circuits (reading schematics, components’ symbols, understanding basic mechanisms of digital circuits)
→ Prototyping your first circuit – square wave oscillators and fm synthesis
→ Prototyping simple diode based VCA

Week 2:
→ Introduction to more CMOS ICs: VCOS, filters and drums (from notch filters to resonant filters; phased lock loops) – more breadboarding

Week 3:
→ CMOS sequencers: counters, dividers, random sequencers, bidirectional – more breadboarding!

Week 4:
→ Putting it all together – soldering your final circuit on vero board (you need to decide what are you gonna design!!! – this is the creative bit )

Week 5:
→ What is PCB and how does it work?
→ Intro to KiCad – translating your circuit board onto the Echeema, creating your first PCB!
→ Creating your own footprints if needed, adding libraries, adding images
→ How to be creative in PCB design without using crazy complicated tools?

Week 6:
Michael Page will join us this week to show some of his PCBs and share techniques.
→ Etching your first every PCB! Introduction to different techniques
→ Hand drawn PCBs – experiments, examples
→ Printing garbers made in KiCad; etching it onto the copper board
→ Soldering and troubleshooting

Please note that the etching process in week 6 uses corrosive chemicals. We will provide suitable goggles and gloves for this, but participants are ultimately responsible for their own safety using these chemicals. If you have any questions about this, please email info@stagingmhs.local.
We can offer a 10% concession for students or people who are unemployed or benefit recipients. If eligible, please email info@stagingmhs.local and we can send you a code.

March TidalCycles Meetup
2018-03-20 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios (G31), Room G31, Somerset House, West Service Yard, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Our TidalCycles meetups are a series of informal, participatory meetups focusing on Alex Mclean’s open source, accessible livecoding platform. They’re very loosely structured, with occasional short talks and performances.
No programming experience is necessary for these meetups. They are open to all abilities and are an excellent opportunity to learn how to start making music with code. We encourage you to bring a laptop and headphones to make the most of the meetup. There’s no need to have come to the previous meetups to come to this one.

TidalCycles is a programming language for live coding pattern. It allows you to make musical patterns with text, describing sequences and ways of transforming and combining them, exploring complex interactions between simple parts.
Tidal is open source and can be downloaded for free here. If you have any problems with installation we’d be happy to help out in the meetup. If you’re keen to develop your Tidal knowledge beforehand, there are plenty of great resources available. See our document of resources for independent learning here.
The meetup is organised by Music Hackspace.
Drinks will be available from the bar next to the entrance to the New Wing of Somerset House.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
If you have any questions about this event please contact info@stagingmhs.local.
Photo by Antonio Roberts (http://www.hellocatfood.com/)

April TidalCycles Meetup
2018-04-24 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom

Artist Talk: Folds and Folding with Roc Jimenez de Cisneros
2018-04-26 18:30 - 20:30 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Folds and Folding: a lecture exploring the grey area between art and symmetry, intuitive topology and metaphorical origami. A collection of very different examples, from science fiction to music, art, video games, philosophy, cinema and biology, of the very notion of fold and the act of folding as an analogy for the deformation of everyday reality (and our perception of it).

Roc Jiménez de Cisneros is a member of EVOL with Stephen Sharp. They make mentasmic computer music and deformed techno objects.
Keywords: chronodyslexia, rave, synthesis, elasticity, time dilation, chronesthesia, goo, hoover-stretching, hyperobject, slime, psychedelia, fractal, upward spiral, downward spiral, warping, hooliganism, horns, horny, tetrafluoroethane, acid, freeze-frame, climax, recursive, poing, non-anthem, strobe, party boobytrap, fold-in, continuum, squashed, monolith, asymmetry, homeomorphic, recurrence, fluorescence, psy-donk, superflatness, superdeformation.
Doors for this event will open at 18:30. The talk will begin at 19:00 with time for Q&A afterwards. Drinks will be available from the bar next to the entrance to the New Wing of Somerset House.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.

Ewa Justka Presents Acid Studies with EVOL
2018-04-27 18:30 - 2018-04-29 18:30 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Acid studies workshop is a 3 day mini course where you will build Oi Kant, a strange sounding drum-ish machine from Ewa Justka, as well as learn how to make weird acid lines using SuperCollider with Roc Jimenez de Cisneros//EVOL. This workshop is part of Ewa Justka’s residency with Music Hackspace from March to May 2018.
Price:
Day 1 (SuperCollider with EVOL): £30

Days 2 & 3 (Oi, Kant!): £200

All three days: £220

The price includes materials and tools.

Day 1 (with Roc Jimenez de Cisneros//EVOL) – 27th April, 18:30 – 21:30
→ Introduction to SuperCollider and sound synthesis (especially 303 sound synthesis)
→ building your own sequences, as well as Control Voltage generators (in order to sequence “Oi, Kant!” hardware synthesiser, which will be built during the next two days
→ synthesising acid lines – building LFOs, resonance filters, envelope generators
→ ?

Day 2 (with Ewa Justka) – 28th April, 11:00 – 18:00
→ introduction to history of drum machines
→ introduction to analog sound synthesis
→ soldering “Oi, Kant!”

Day 3 (with Ewa Justka) – 29th April, 11:00 – 18:00
→ finishing the synthesiser and triggering it with SuperCollider (synth also works standalone)

“Oi, Kant!”
Have you ever wanted to become gabber producer but couldn’t be bothered with all that dutch darkness round it? Well then this machine is for you. “Oi, kant!” isn’t a usual drum machine, in fact, it isn’t a drum machine at all! What is it then? Well it’s a strange patchable synthesiser, which consists of:
– drum voice (high and low pass filter, decay)
– weird (really weird ) bassline with CV control
– resonance filter
– cowbell with simple VCA and decay mode
-4 separate sequencers (8 step sequencer, bidirectional sequencer, 2x looping sequencers)
– each voice can be triggered with all of the above sequencers, separately. You can also use external sequencers.
– it has separate outputs for each voice
– clock in
-you can use resonance filter separately and filter any external input through it
– with extra 10 pounds you can obtain 4 mono mini jack cables that are required for patching the machine, otherwise you should bring your own cables
You can read the immanual here.
The synth is quite advanced, so it would be good if you have some experience in soldering since we will be using SMD technology. This is a newly developed synth from Ewa and this will be your first chance to get your hands on one.
We can offer a 10% concession for students or people who are unemployed or benefit recipients. If eligible, please email info@stagingmhs.local and we can send you a code.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.

DIY Hardware Meetup with Tom Richards
2018-05-16 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios (G31), Room G31, Somerset House, West Service Yard, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
These meetups focus on hardware and DIY electronics for musical applications. They are informal and loosely structured, and we encourage those with ongoing projects or a backlog of devices to build to come down and work on them, as well as those with little to no experience to come down to learn and get involved. This is a space to meet like minded people working on diverse electronics projects. We’ve invited Tom Richards to host these meetups and provide technical support and advice.

Tom Richards is an artist, musician, DJ, researcher and instrument designer working in London UK. He has walked the line between sonic art, sculpture and music since graduating with an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art in 2004. Richards has built his own idiosyncratic modular electronic music system, with which he creates slowly evolving and heavily textured polyrhythmic improvisations. He has performed and exhibited widely in the UK, as well as internationally in the US, Germany, Peru, Japan and Sweden.
Selected works and live performances have taken place at Tate Britain, The Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Science Museum, Spike Island, Cafe Oto, MK Gallery, Bold Tendencies, and Camden Arts Centre.
He has recently submitted his PhD (Goldsmiths/Science Museum) on the work of Daphne Oram: electronic music pioneer, and founder member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. This research included the re-design and construction of Oram’s Mini Oramics synthesizer, a project that has since gained worldwide attention.
The meetup is organised by Music Hackspace.
Drinks will be available from the bar next to the entrance to the New Wing of Somerset House.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
Image by Mind The Film.
If you have any questions about this event please contact info@stagingmhs.local.

DIY Modular Synth Workshop with Befaco
2018-05-19 11:00 - 2018-05-20 19:00 | Somerset House Studios (G31), Room G31, Somerset House, West Service Yard, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Barcelona based synthesiser designers Befaco to lead two days of workshops where you can build their DIY modular synth kits. We provide all the necessary components to build your device from scratch. Befaco is a Synth DIY/open hardware platform focused on designing modules and organizing modular synth workshops regularly in Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin and London. You can read Befaco Workshops FAQ’s for more details. All modules are Eurorack format.
The workshop takes place 11:00-19:00 on May 19th and 20th.
Required skills: Interest and patience. No previous experience in electronics is necessary.
Full cost: See price list.

When you book your place you will be charged a £20 booking fee. With this item you will be booking a spot in our workshop.
Please note there will be no refunds of the booking fee in case of cancelling / not showing.
This £20 booking fee will be deducted during the workshop from the price of the kit(s) of your choice. On the workshop day please bring cash to pay for your kit(s).
We’ll email you to find out which module(s) you’d like to build.

Befaco modules available:
Spring reverb …………………..150 GBP
Even VCO ………………………130 GBP
BF22 VCF……………………….140 GBP
VC ADSR……………………….125 GBP
Rampage……………………………. 170 GBP
Instrument Interface………………125 GBP
Output module………………….. 70 GBP
Mixer……………………………..55 GBP
Crush Delay…………………….. 130 GBP
Power bus…………………………60 GBP
Switching power supply………… 30 GBP
Dual Atenuverter…………………55 GBP
Joysitck controller……………….120 GBP
Slew Limiter ………………………….60 GBP
Sampling modulator…………….130 GBP
Chopping Kinky……………………130 GBP
A*B+C………………………………….95GBP
MIDI Thing…………………………..125GBP
Jumpskiff……………………………. 195 GBP
Hexa VCA……………………….180 GBP
Hexmix……………………………. 300 GBP
Hexpander……………………….260 GBP

Other Kits:
Patching Panda:
Grabal8……………………………140 GBP
Petit Mix……………………………60 GBP
Transient:
2M…………………………………86GBP
8S………………………………….100GBP
1F…………………………………..70GBP
GinkoSynthese
Grains…………………….55 GBP

If you have any questions about this event or any of our workshops please contact workshops@stagingmhs.local.
We can offer a student discount of 10% off this workshop. Please email us for a discount code.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.

May TidalCycles Meetup with Blue Maignien & Hazel Ryan (women & nonbinary only)
2018-05-22 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios (G31), Room G31, Somerset House, West Service Yard, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Our TidalCycles meetups are a series of informal, participatory meetups focusing on Alex Mclean’s open source, accessible livecoding platform. They’re very loosely structured, with occasional short talks and performances.
This meetup is for any self identifying women and nonbinary people, and will be hosted by Blue Maignien and Hazel Ryan. Blue makes music with Tidal under the name Hortense and Hazel under the name Deep Vain. They learned tidal without any electronic music or computing background and encourage all abilities to join in.

No programming experience is necessary for these meetups. They are open to all abilities and are an excellent opportunity to learn how to start making music with code. We encourage you to bring a laptop and headphones to make the most of the meetup. There’s no need to have come to previous meetups to come to this one.
TidalCycles is a programming language for live coding pattern. It allows you to make musical patterns with text, describing sequences and ways of transforming and combining them, exploring complex interactions between simple parts.
Tidal is open source and can be downloaded for free here. If you have any problems with installation we’d be happy to help out in the meetup. If you’re keen to develop your Tidal knowledge beforehand, there are plenty of great resources available. See our document of resources for independent learning here.
The meetup is organised by Music Hackspace.
Drinks will be available from the bar next to the entrance to the New Wing of Somerset House.
The venue is located on the ground floor of Somerset House and is fully wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
If you have any questions about this event please contact info@stagingmhs.local.
Image by Sixtyseven collective.
