Music Hackspace

Artist Talk – Chagall
2017-05-08 18:30 - 21:30 (Europe/London) | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Chagall is a London-based, Dutch electronic music producer, songwriter and vocalist who has been using the gestural mi.mu gloves interface since early 2015. Her performances are a physical manifestation of her electronic music productions, using the movement of her body to directly render the music live to audiences. During an intensive R&D project at Somerset House and Westminster University she will work with a team of artists to further explore the interaction between music, technology, choreography, visuals and lights and develop an immersive live performance to be toured through the UK and Europe in 2017/2018.
In this artist talk Chagall will present the outcome of her recent Arts Council R&D grant to produce new work exploring the interaction between music, technology, choreography, visuals and lights in live performance.

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 or any of our talks please contact info@stagingmhs.local.

Artist Talk – Nonclassical with Tom Richards and George Percy
2017-05-15 18:30 - 21:30 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Nonclassical are a label and club night that put on classical music well outside of its traditional context. Bypassing classical venues and concert halls, Nonclassical present live classical music alongside live electronic music and DJs in pubs and clubs around London. The collective consists of a number of performers and ensembles who play at the nights and release recorded music through Nonclassical as a label.
Tom Richards, a member of the collective and artist in his own right, will be coming in to discuss Nonclassical and provide some demos of what it’s all about.
George Percy is the label and artist development manager at Nonclassical.

Artist talks at Music Hackspace are very open in format, often incorporating demos and short performances. 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 or any of our talks please contact info@stagingmhs.local.

Workshop – Build a Synthesizer (16 - 19 years old), with V&A's Samsung Digital Classroom and Tara Pattenden
2017-05-20 - 2017-05-21 | Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd, Knightsbridge, London , SW7 2R, United Kingdom
Learn how to build your own electronic synthesizer with London’s Music Hackspace and Tara Pattenden and visit The Pink Floyd exhibition: Their Mortal Remains show to see how the synth changed music. The workshop will get you hands on with electronics, teaching you the basics of building a music machine and also experiment to create a sound your unique sound.
Over two days you will learn about electronics while building your very own Lerango Drone machine. This workshop is suitable for beginners and anyone interested in electronics.
The Lerango Drone is an electronic instrument that produces drones and atonal rhythms. It features three oscillators each with their own pitch and volume control.
• 3 Oscillators.
• Pitch control for each oscillator.
• Volume control for each oscillator.
• 6.5″ jack output.
Building it yourself will give you the opportunity to tune and experiment with the sound making your own unique instrument. You will learn to solder, read schematics and gain an understanding of basic electronics.
The V&A Samsung Digital Classroom is a series of workshops for 16 – 19 year olds which give practical skills and career insight in emerging areas of digital art and design. All workshops are led by expert artists and designers and give you a unique opportunity to find out more about working in the creative sectors.

When: Saturday, 20 – Sunday, 21 May 2017 @ 10.30 – 17.00
Where: Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd, Knightsbridge, London SW7 2RL, Seminar Room 4
TARA PATTENDEN is an artist, instrument maker and educator who has been working in sound and electronic media for the past 20 years. She performs with Goodiepal and Pals, the fckn bstrds and solo as Phantom Chips.
With her Phantom Chips project she makes her own wearable synthesizers that can be stretched and squeezed to create sound, and in this workshop she will be presenting her lerando drone machine.
www.phantomchips.com

Software Workshop - Make music with code, with Alex McLean AKA Yaxu
2017-06-07 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Learn about making music with code using TidalCycles. Tidal has been developed by Alex over many years, initially for making broken dance music at events now known as “Algoraves,” as well as free Jazz improv, although it is now a free/open source software project with a growing community of users applying it to diverse musics. This is an introductory workshop appropriate for anyone, including those with no programming and/or music-making experience. It’ll introduce Tidal’s notation of polyrhythmic rhythm, its library of pattern transformations, how to combine these simple parts into complex results, and how to use them in performance, culminating in an algorithmic drum circle.
Requirements: You will need your own computer (OSX / Windows/ Linux), and a pair of headphones.
Alex Mclean makes music under the name Yaxu, along with collaborations under the names Canute and Slub.

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

Meetup - TidalCycles with Calum Gunn
2017-06-19 18:30 - 21:30 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Following our first TidalCycles meetup in April, we’re pleased to be bringing this back for round 2 on June 19th.
This one will be more hands on than last time so we encourage you to bring a laptop if you’d like to make some noise. Headphones might be a good idea too. This meetup should be suitable for anyone whether you’re an experienced Tidal user or have never programmed before.
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. In particular, the official website, the Github and previous Meetup performer PixelPusher’s Github.
The meetup is organised by Calum Gunn and Music Hackspace. Calum makes computer music and runs Conditional, a label, radio show and night based in London. Further celebrity Tidal users to be announced soon.

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.

Artist Talk - Martin & Lucia of SM-LL
2017-06-26 18:30 - 21:30 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Martin Thompson and Lucia H Chung run the label SM-LL. Martin makes music under the name Pokk! And Typeface, and Lucia as en creux. Together they produce under the name Reloc. Both their music and label share a minimal, reductionist aesthetic. There is never excess, no clutter. A single musical phrase may be extrapolated over a whole 12”, given far more attention and space than it’d receive elsewhere. No one else is giving music space to breath like this.
Lucia and Martin will be coming in for a public conversation with Tom Mudd, a close friend of the two. They’ll be playing demos and chatting about their minimal approach to music and running a label, and also digging into Lucia’s event series, Happened, which has played host to various friends of Music Hackspace, including Ewa Justka, Graham Dunning, and Aa3_Tzt.[RN500].

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.

Workshop – Build a synthesizer with Tara Pattenden
2017-07-01 11:00 - 18:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Music Hackspace present a one day workshop on Sat 1 July, 11am to 6pm.
Build your own Lerango drone machine with Tara Pattenden
Price is £95 per person, 12 people max.

This workshop is suitable for beginners and anyone interested in electronics and DIY instrument design.
The Lerango Drone is an electronic instrument that produces drones and atonal rhythms. It features three oscillators each with their own pitch and volume control.
• 3 Oscillators.
• Pitch control for each oscillator.
• Volume control for each oscillator.
• 6.5″ jack output.
Building it yourself will give you the opportunity to tune and experiment with the sound making your own unique instrument. You will learn to solder, read schematics and gain an understanding of basic electronics.
The workshop will be lead by Tara Pattenden. Tara is an artist and instrument maker and educator who has been working in sound and electronic media for the past 20 years. She performs with Goodiepal and Pals, the fckn bstrds and solo as Phantom Chips.
With her Phantom Chips project she makes her own wearable synthesizers that can be stretched and squeezed to create sound, and in this workshop she will be presenting her Lerango drone machine.

Artist Talk – CRISAP Panel with Jennifer Lucy Allan, Kevin Logan and Mark Peter Wright
2017-07-03 18:30 - 21:30 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Join us for a panel on sonic art practices with CRISAP members Jennifer Lucy Allan, Mark Peter Wright and Kevin Logan. Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice (CRiSAP) is a research centre of the University of the Arts London dedicated to the exploration of the rich complexities of sound as an artistic practice.
Jennifer Lucy Allan is a writer and researcher looking at the links between sound, weather and landscape. Jennifer co-runs the label Arc Light Editions, and has hosted shows on Resonance FM. She has a weekly slot in the Guardian’s Guide and has written for Wire, The Quietus and others.
Kevin Logan is a Manchester born artist based in London, UK. His work embraces cross-disciplinary fields and incorporates installation, sound, moving-image and performance. He has exhibited and performed internationally, had audio-visual works screened in festivals worldwide, and had sound works on compilation CDs.
Mark Peter Wright is an artist and researcher working with experimental approaches to sound and listening. His practice explores the relationship between humans, animals, environments and their associated technologies of capture: critically and playfully generating debate through exhibitions, performance and collaborative events. Questions that drive his projects pivot around how agency is performed between humans and animals; how technology and media are part of an ecological approach; and how listening can become an ethico-aesthetic arts practice.

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 or any of our talks please contact info@stagingmhs.local.

Software Workshop – Make music with code, with Alo Allik
2017-07-05 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
In this workshop we will explore many different ways to create sounds from scratch, manipulate recorded sounds and compose these into music. Since computers are used virtually in almost any piece of recorded music in some way, it becomes useful to have an insight into how music technology works behind the user interface or perhaps how it can be even more liberating and powerful without it. The SuperCollider programming environment provides an opportunity to explore sounds synthesis and algorithmic composition on a detailed level in real-time. The particular emphasis in this workshop will be on creating intelligent musical machines including interactive synthesizers with machine listening techniques and machine learning algorithms to aid the composition process.
We will be exploring 4 main topics:
– introduction to sound synthesis including modulation, filtering, sampling and granular synthesis
– making musical structures by scheduling and timing the synthesizers
– building reactive synthesisers with triggers and machine listening
– introduction to composition with machine learning

For any queries please contact workshops@stagingmhs.local
Alo Allik is a sound artist who has performed his audiovisual works, electroacoustic compositions, eclectic DJ sets and live electronic music throughout the world at a number of festivals, including Transmediale, Piksel, ISEA, TodaysArt, ShinyToys, Pluto, NIME, etc.. His aesthetically and geographically restless lifestyle has enabled him to traverse a diverse range of musical worlds including DJ-ing electronic dance music, live electronic jam sessions, electroacoustic composition, free improvisation and audiovisual performances. In recent years he has been actively participating in the Algorave movement developing a style he describes as noisefunk which combines traditional rhythm patterns with evolutionary synthesis algorithms. Currently, Alo works as a researcher at the Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London, while continuing to perform his visuals and music to audiences worldwide.
http://tehis.net
https://soundcloud.com/tehis
https://soundcloud.com/user-665948413

Meetup - TidalCycles with Calum Gunn
2017-07-10 18:30 - 21:30 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Our third TidalCycles meetup will continue the informal, participatory trajectory of the second, but with a little bit more structure. In attendance for your aid will be Evan Raskob (PixelPusher), who’ll be talking about scales and musicality in Tidal, Jack Armitage (Lil Data), who’ll be talking about the evolution of his Tidal code, and Guy John (Rumblesan), Haskell guru and co-founder and developer of LiveCodeLab.
We’d encourage you to bring a laptop and headphones to make the most of the meetup, which should be suitable for anyone whether you’re an experienced Tidal user or have never programmed before. 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 Calum Gunn and Music Hackspace. Calum makes computer music and runs Conditional, a label, radio show and night based in London.

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.
Image credit to Antonio Roberts.

Artist Talk – Bishi
2017-07-17 18:30 - 21:30 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Musician, Artist, Multimedia Performer and Curator, Bishi was born in London of Bengali heritage. Bishi received musical training in both Hindustani and Western Classical styles, including study of the sitar under Gaurav Mazumdar a senior disciple of Ravi Shankar. She has recorded two albums , with long time collaborator Matthew Hardern: Albion Voice and Nights at The Circus. Her live performances explore interactive multimedia and video projection.
Bishi has co-founded WITCiH: The Women in Technology Creative Industries Hub, an umbrella to celebrate Women at The Intersection of The Arts & STEM. WITCiH is an online and real world platform for re- search, creation, performance and networking. WITCiH aims to explore & expand our knowledge of women in tech, past, present & future.
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.

Workshop – DIY Modular Synth Workshop with Befaco
2017-07-22 - 2017-07-23 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
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.

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 22nd and Sun 23rd July 2017, 11am to 7 pm.

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 - Anna Meredith
2017-09-04 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Anna Meredith is a composer and musician. She uses a mix of electronic and acoustic instruments and is frequently referred to as being “genre-defying” or “uncategorisable.” Her music sits somewhere between classical, techno, rock and pop. One of her recent projects, Anno, embodied this indefinability. Here she collaborated with The Scottish Ensemble to combine electronic music with a classical rendition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

We’ve invited Anna to talk about her approach and methods when it comes to making music, previous projects and what she’s working on now.

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.
Image credit: Anna Victoria Best

TidalCycles Meetup with Miri Kat (women and nonbinary only)
2017-09-11 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 Miri Kat. Miri Kat is an AV artist, hacker and designer working with algorithmic, open source environments to create immersive 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 (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/)

Workshop – Complete Circuit Bending and DIY synth making led by Tasos Stamou
2017-09-16 11:00 - 2017-09-23 17:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Music Hackspace presents three days of workshops introducing the art and techniques of circuit bending with instrument and toy hacker, Tasos Stamou. These workshops, which can be attended independently or in unison to make an intense circuit bending course, will introduce participants to musical circuits and how to hack them, with all materials provided and no prior experience with electronics necessary. A great opportunity to learn, design, recycle old toys and instruments, and leave with a bespoke instrument.
The workshops aim to lead the participants along different stages of DIY electronic music instrument construction. Research, hack, design and make your own DIY synth interface and own a unique piece of circuit bent art. The workshop will be completed in three meetings, although it is not obligatory to attend all, since each day will focus in different parameters of the circuit bending process. Although it is not necessary to follow all, it is highly recommended to attend the complete course in case you wish to have a COMPLETE CIRCUIT BENDING EXPERIENCE.
Days 1 and 2 will be held at Music Hackspace at Somerset house Studios on the 16th and 17th of September. Day 3 will be held on September 23rd at London College of Communication in Elephant and Castle as part of Design Weekend. You can read descriptions of each day and purchase either a one day, two day or three day pass below. If you buy a one or two day pass, we’ll be in touch to confirm which day(s) you want to attend.
One day pass (£65)(only day 3 still available):
Two day pass (£110):
Three day pass (£150):

DAY 1

Participants will be introduced in the art of circuit bending, including all necessary tricks, tips and techniques to hack simple sound electronics.
The workshop provides an introduction to modifying techniques and alternative electronic instrument designs. It is suitable for beginners as well as to more experienced hackers and sound explorers to push forward their ideas and projects of innovative sound interfaces.
– Learn the necessary techniques to turn hackable sound toys into useful sound devices and electronic instruments
– Practical, hands-on workshop, including all tips to the most easy and effective modifications, also presenting musicians who utilize handmade and hacked instruments.
– Everyone is welcome to bring their own electronic devices for bending, otherwise hackable toys will be provided from a large selection. Please contact us with any questions regarding “hackability” of your own

DAY 2

This workshop will focus on adding external controls to the hacked instruments. Participants will learn how to control their instruments with a variety of different possibilities, using passive or active components.
Descriptions will be given in adding filters, sensors, LEDs, analogue video applications, connections with USB interfaces (Arduino), adding voltage controls for connecting with modular synthesizers, etc.
All materials and instruments included. There will be a variety of different devices and enclosures to select from.

DAY 3

As part of the Design Weekend held at the LCC, this workshop will focus in designing interfaces for circuit bent, hacked and other sorts of DIY electronic music projects (and beyond sound). Using mainly enclosures from recycled gear and other materials, the participants will learn how to design, to make and to use electronic interfaces. The workshop will present and explain all the mechanical pats of an electronic instrument and will lead the participants into simple but effective solutions to built their own devices. An eclectic selection of enclosures and other material will be included

Tasos Stamou is an electroacoustic music composer and performer, alternative electronic music instrument maker, tutor and sound technologist. He has been collaborating with music/tech communities (Hackspace London & Music Hackspace, Watermans Art Centre, STPLN in Malmö, etc.) and has been leading workshops in various organizations and festivals across Europe (Green Man Festival, Athens Digital Arts Festival, CologneOFF VIII, Digital Performance Weekender etc). https://www.tasosstamou.com/workshops

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.

Software Workshop - Bela + SuperCollider
2017-09-20 18:30 - 21:00 | 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.
