Music Hackspace

Tweakable: a online programming environment for music and video
2020-05-18 18:30 - 20:00 (Europe/London) | YouTube and Facebook
We cover Max/MSP and Jitter a lot, as it is the most popular visual programming environment, especially if you want to hack audio and video in your own way. But it isn’t the only visual programming language out there. We found out recently about Tweakable, and it turns out to be quite remarkable.
First, it is entirely online. No downloads, no sign-up, the URL above takes you directly to a web page, where Tweakable runs. You might think that you are launching a video when you click on the usual triangle, but in fact you’re turning the engine on, and everything turns out to be editable. And you can build a user interface, too!
I’ve managed to extract an example with Julian’s help, see below. The original patch is available here.
[Update] Julian has added a share option that exports the code of a patch for easy embed. Wow.

Tweakable has a collection of simple examples to get you started, such as the one above, and it can get pretty complex. It’s made for musical applications so it has examples of algorithmic compositions, canon, fugue, jazz etc.
It gets better. It also supports video, through a similar patching system. The possibilities are super interesting. You can design your own audio/video project and encapsulate it onto your webpage, and visitors can also experiment with it.
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The author of this software is Julian Woodward. Based in Britain, Julian (Visual Systems Ltd) began developing Tweakable five years ago as a side project, and is now working on it full time. Julian will join us for a first public discovery of Tweakable on Monday 18th May. Ask questions on the live chat or on the forum.

Introduction to Audio and Video in Max/MSP
2020-05-16 16:00 - 18:00 | Online
In this workshop, we will use Max/MSP to create custom, interactive A/V experiments. We will first get grounded in the concepts and workflows of Max and creative coding by making video programs in Vizzie. Then we will go through the basics of using and manipulating audio in Max through MSP objects. We will connect sound to video and vice versa, and then create custom interfaces for our A/V experiments.
No experience with programming, music, or video is required. Bring audio or video samples you would like to work with!
About the workshop leader
Cassie Tarakajian is a software engineer and educator, who contributes to Cycling’74 and Processing, and teaches at New York University.

Kate Stone: interactive surfaces for music
2020-05-14 18:30 - 20:00 | YouTube and Facebook
Kate Stone is the founder and CEO of Novalia, a UK-based company whose mission is to create “magical” interactions. Magical is the word Kate uses to explain that she aims to hide the technology away, and augment our analog interaction with the world with subtle and meaningful improvements. Imagine a musical instrument, a clarinet, say, equipped with invisible sensors and bluetooth chip, capturing the musician’s gestures to control video, or audio effects. Or a printed piece of paper with conductive ink that triggers sound.
Kate imagines a world that is more like Harry Potter than Minority Report. And although she claims she’s not a musician, most of her work revolves around music. From the McTrax she built for McDonalds to DJ Qbert’s album cover, music interactions seem to be the perfect home for her technologies. And for the past year, she’s been chair of the board of the MIDI Manufacturers Association.
Kate will be live-streaming on May 14th at 6:30pm UK time on our channel on YouTube and Facebook.

Roger Linn: designing instruments
2020-05-11 18:30 - 20:00 | YouTube
In 1980, Roger Linn designed the first drum machine with samples of a drum kit, the LM-1. Along with the LinnDrum and the Linn 900, Roger’s inventions played an important role in the sound of the 1980s, which can be heard on recordings from Michael Jackson to Prince.
40 years on, Roger is still inventing instruments. His latest instrument is the Linnstrument, a fretted surface equipped with pressure sensors. Notes are laid out in a similar way to the guitar, and the sensors capture the pressure and lateral movements to render vibratos and tremolos.
In this talk, Roger will present the Linnstrument and discuss his past inventions, and approach to designing them.
For more information: https://www.rogerlinndesign.com/

Music in times of lockdown, with Jordan Rudess
2020-05-07 18:30 - 19:30 | YouTube
Meet Jordan Rudess, the legendary keyboard of Dream Theater. Jordan is also very well known for embracing technology in any form that allows him to seek more expressivity and performing abilities.
Jordan is at heart a music hacker, who can make music with anything, and his insight has been valued over the years by many musical instrument companies, from KORG to ROLI, XKeys and he was an influential force to extend MIDI with MPE. As a touring musician, Jordan has been affected by the lockdown, and Dream Theater’s concerts have been canceled or postponed.
In this interview, Jordan shares his thoughts on making music from home and his passion for music technology and instrument design.

Ocean: a new online & collaborative sequencer
2020-05-04 18:30 | YouTube and Facebook
In this 8th live-stream, we hosted Robin Hunter who has recently launched a collaborative, online sequencer running in the browser: Ocean.

Online collaboration for music makers has fuelled many dreams over the past 20 years, but many of them have turned into nightmares. From Rocket Networks (acquired by AVID in 2003) to LL Cool J’s Boomdizzle or Ohm Force’s ambitious Ohm Studio, many have tried to make it easy to collaborate online. Bandlab and Soundtrap seem to be doing quite well however and betting on growing large audiences, in particular by targeting education.
Ocean is following on those footsteps with a very simple interface exempt of the jargon and complexity that we see in audio workstations. It’s designed to get people started immediately, and features a fun collaboration approach that makes it a good experience. There are much more features that will be needed before anyone can make a song with Ocean, but it’s a great first step. For those of you in education, or in lockdown with kids, have a try, it’s free!

Online talk #7: Interactive visuals with Jitter, with Rob Ramirez
2020-04-30 18:30 - 19:30 | YouTube
Follow live on YouTube and Facebook.
When performing live with computers, musicians often wonder how to visually entertain the audience. Playing music from behind a laptop gives little cues to how the music is made. The performer could be a virtuoso, or writing e-mails, they wouldn’t behave differently. This is a departure from acoustic instruments, where each note requires physical actions visible to the audience.
When musicians work with visual artists, they can propose a narrative and aesthetic that matches the song, but what if you’re performing on your own? How can you produce entertaining visuals that reflect what you are doing behind the laptop?
In this talk, Rob will give an overview of Jitter, and how it can be used to build visuals that connect to your audio events.

Online talk #6: Yuri Suzuki presents the E Z Record Maker
2020-04-27 18:30 - 19:30 | YouTube
Yuri Suzuki is a sound artist and partner at creative agency Pentagram. Throughout his career, he collaborated with Teenage Engineering, Will.I.Am, Jeff Mills, and designed music hardware and installations such as Ototo or the Pyramidi.
In this talk, Yuri will present his latest invention, the E Z Record Maker, a device allowing you to record vinyls at home from any audio input. As of today, the device is only available in Japan and will ship sometime in 2020 to Europe and the US.
http://www.yurisuzuki.com/

Granurise: A granular synthesizer for MPE instruments
2020-04-23 18:30 - 19:30 | YouTube
Watch the live-stream here, 23rd April 2020, 18:30 BST / 10:30am PT.
Meet Andrej Kobal, from Slovenia. Andrej is an artist and a programmer, who built GranuRise, a rich and complex granular synthesizer for the Seaboard RISE (hence the name, GranuRise). In this live-stream, Andrej presents the vision he worked on for the past 7 years, demonstrate the product, and share how he built it with Max. Join the live stream to ask him questions.
7 years in the making
I first met Andrej Kobal in 2016, when he shared a prototype of his granular synth, which he had built for his own artistic practice. I was blown away by the possibilities that were already available in that version. Andrej turned out to be a perfectionist, and it took him another 4 years to bring Granurise to a version he felt comfortable distributing. In the meanwhile, MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) instruments became more popular, and MPE support in DAWs also became more pervasive, so anyone trying Granurise now should have an easier time than in 2016. Granular synthesis can have many control parameters, and it is a great synthesis technique to use with an MPE controller. You can truly feel how the dimensions of control of the Seaboard have a direct impact on the sound, which you cannot achieve using a normal MIDI keyboard.

Granurise isn’t a typical VST or AU plugin, it’s a Max for Live device. As such, it can be played within Ableton Live, or standalone, but unfortunately not within any other DAW, unless you use Soundflower or similar re-routing software. MPE support in Ableton isn’t there yet, but there are workarounds for Max for Live devices.
The user interface of GranuRise is feature-rich and intuitive. It offers micro-level controls for the grains, and macro-level controls such as sequencing. The preset bank and morphing capacity is great to store experimentations, and morph between them to discover new sounds and smoothly transition from a state to another. Unlike most plug-ins, GranuRise has been built for live performance, and you an use it standalone.
What is granular synthesis?
Over the past 20 years, granular synthesis has become an ubiquitous form of synthesis. Every mainstream plug-in company has released their own version of it, or integrated aspects of it to their suites of plug-ins. It was first coined by Iannis Xenakis, who conceived a music theory based on grains of sounds, (1960). Notable developments in the theory of granular synthesis were brought by Curtis Roads in his book Microsound (2001).
Essentially, granular synthesis proposes that sounds can be formed by the assemblage of smaller sounds, or grains of sounds. These grains can be excerpts of a larger sound (for example the sustained part of a piano note). Each of these grains can be played faster or slower, to increase or decrease their pitch, and be altered independently. These grains are then layered together with variable offsets, frequency, delay lines, feedback, and an overall density parameter that controls the number of sounds layered together. Over time, many more control parameters have been added. Check out Maurizio Giri’s example below for an implementation in Max.

Useful links for Granular Synthesis
List of granular synthesis software
Max tutorial by Cycling’74
Supercollider tutorial by Nick Collins

Physical modeling synthesis with Pat Scandalis
2020-04-20 18:30 - 20:30 | Music Hackspace, Somerset House, West Service Yard, Victoria Embankment, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Join the live stream on 20th April 2020, 6:30pm BST / 10:30am PT, or watch it later.
In music, physical modeling synthesis is a technique aiming to reproduce analog sounds in software. Our guest speaker, Pat Scandalis, along with Julius Smith and Nick Porcaro have worked together since the 90s at CCRMA, Stanford, to create physical models of instruments. It isn’t a very common form of synthesis, due to the complexity of doing it well, and the CPU it requires to run.
Physical modeling synthesis is the key technique used in Pat Scandalis’ app GeoShred, which he built for iOS and iPad with MoForte and Jordan Rudess. Check out the impressive reel below.

Physical modeling synthesis has come a long way and is becoming a very attractive method to produce expressive sounds. Think of a physical model as the instrument itself: if it is the model of a violin, then it has 4 strings, a body, it can be played with a bow, staccato, etc. Each of these parts play a role in producing the sound. In a physical model, like with the real instrument, it is possible to alter a few of these parameters at the same time. When connected to a MIDI controller with multiple dimensions of control, a physical model instrument will offer a more reactive and richer response than traditional sampling engines, because of the variety of dimensions that can be controlled at once.
A great way to get started experimenting with physical modeling is to use the Karplus-Strong model, which gives the basics for modeling a plucked or percussion instrument. Sam’s tutorial, below, gives a quick account of how to implement it in Max (it’s nearly 10 years old, but still applies!).

The JUCE library also has a basic implementation of the Karplus-Strong algorithm in its examples, and you can check out the code on GitHub here.

Make Music with the Data Universe
2020-04-16 18:30 - 20:30 | YouTube
Meet Milton Mermikides and Phelan Kane. Two artists on a journey to make music with data. Milton and Phelan’s approach reveals the musicality of the world’s elements. With the support of programming, computer vision and sampling, they identify patterns in images, videos, or abstract data to create rich compositions and sound design. Watch Milton’s TEDx talk below for a moving – yet funny – overview of his work. In our live-stream, Milton and Phelan will explain some of the techniques used to create the compositions you can hear in the talk.

Ever since Pythagoras and the theory of the Music of the Spheres, composers have been inspired to use patterns found in the universe to create music. In the 19th Century, that approach developed across the arts, and not only in music. French poet Stéphane Mallarmé explored the position of words and their relationship with meaning, and his work famously inspired composer Debussy, whose work in turn inspired painter Kandinsky. Each time, the structure found in each work was used and translated to another art medium.
Oskar Fischinger’s 1938 Optical Poem, in turn, offers a visualisation of music, an approach which was then popularised in Walt Disney’s Fantasia.

On Thursday 16th April, we will hear more about this fascinating approach that inspired so many artists, in a way that can inspire today’s artists and engineers to create new materials from the world of data that surrounds us.
Milton is a Reader in Music, Head of Composition and Director of the MMUS Programme at the University of Surrey. He is also a professor of Jazz Guitar at the Royal College of Music in London.
Phelan is a music producer, recording and mix engineer musician, mastering engineer and music programmer. He is based in London and Berlin, and is joining the live-stream from Berlin.

Online talk #2: Create music in Virtual Reality
2020-04-09 18:30 - 19:30 | YouTube
Join the live stream on Thursday 9th April, 6:30pm BST / 10:30am PT.
In the past three decades, Virtual Reality has been a wall onto which many dreams have been projected. From Minority Report to Ready Player One, VR inspires worlds of possibilities. Today’s world seems however far from the film industry’s depiction of a possible future. VR has been successfully adopted by a number of hard core gamers, but despite heavy investment from Facebook, Samsung, Microsoft and many others, it is still unclear how VR will deliver entertaining experiences to the general consumers.
So, how about VR for Music? There are options out there, such as Drum Hero, or Wave Beta. They seem to unanimously release on gaming platforms, such as Steam or Oculus, which is where you can find customers equipped with the necessary headsets. Our guest is no exception to this, having release Tranzient on both platforms.

Jim Simons is the founder of Alive in Tech, the studio that released Tranzient. Jim previously worked at Focusrite and Yamaha, and is an experienced musician. Jim will lead the second session of our weekly online talks with a demo of Tranzient, and will answer live questions. You can watch the stream below when it’s live, or after it has happened!

Max meetup live streamed
2020-04-02 18:30 - 21:00 | St James Hatcham Building, Goldsmiths, 25 St James, London, SE14 6AD, United Kingdom
This Meetup will be live streamed here.
Experienced Max users Valeria Radchenko, JJ Burred, Mike Zbyszynski and Nick Rothwell will share some of their practices and patches during this first online event. You will be able to ask questions in the chat and access the patches on the Music Hackspace forum.
Max is extensively taught here at Goldsmiths University, the new home of the Music Hackspace. and students and academics are doing remarkable things with it. Check out Prof Atau Tanaka’s research on music creation with bio sensors, Dr Mike Zbyszyński’s software experiments and many more in the Computing and Music departments. There even are some short Max courses available to anyone, taught by Daniel Ross, who also runs SEEM.
What is Max?

Max is a music software that allows to build interactive media, by connecting audio, video and gestures in an infinity of combinations. You can download the Max 8 demo here.

A Human-Data Interaction workshop on Music and AI
2019-09-20 14:00 - 19:00 | Somerset House Studios, River Rooms, New Wing, Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Will AI generated music one day replace human composed music? Can machine learning help us model listening habits or instrumentalist gesture? Can deep learning model musical style or create novel forms of sound synthesis?
We seek to separate the fantasy from reality, and identify realistic research challenges in the midst of all the hype by organising a half day event at Somerset House. On Friday September 20, 2019, from 2:00pm-6:00pm, we will organise a workshop on Music and Artificial Intelligence. It takes place as part of a UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) funded research network, HDI Human-Data Interaction: Legibility, Agency, Negotiability.
The event will bring together leading researchers, musicians, and social commentators to discuss concrete challenges and opportunities that technologies of information processing bring to music and the creative industries.

The discussions will help to shape a subsequent Call for Proposals to fund projects that will put academics into partnership with artists and industry to create new systems and critical studies that look at the deployment of AI and machine learning technologies in creative acts of music making, performing, and listening.
The workshop is organised by Prof Atau Tanaka of the Embodied Audiovisual Interaction (EAVI) unit at Goldsmiths in collaboration with Music Hackspace.
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 credit: John Hersey

Spatial Sound Meetup #4 with BBC R&D
2019-09-04 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios (G18), Somerset House Studios, Lancaster Place, London, United Kingdom
A new series of monthly meetups taking place at Somerset House Studios, focusing on new spatial sound technologies, with talks and discussions around creative uses of spatial and AR audio.
The meetups will take place on the following dates, you can register here:
12th June – Professor Zoran Cvetkovic from King’s College
3rd July – Contributors TBA
7th August- Contributors TBA
4th September – Contributors TBA
Each session will be hosted by BBC R&D and will feature a presentation by invited guests.
BBC R&D has been at the forefront of innovation in media technology since the founding of public service broadcasting in the UK.
Based in Research Labs in the North and South of the UK, the department is comprised of just over 200 highly specialist research engineers, scientists, ethnographers, designers, producers and innovation professionals working on every aspect of the broadcast chain, from Audiences, Production and Distribution right through to the Programmes themselves.
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.

Creative Electronics Laboratory with XNAME
2019-08-31 11:00 - 18:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
This workshop guides participants in the construction of a small robot animated by sunlight. After a brief introduction to the rudiments of electronics, the focus is on building a small oscillator soldering all components directly on the microchip. When hit by lights, the robots emit sound. When connected to a speaker they turn into a synthesisers that can be modulated with intermittent and coloured lamps. According to the components selected and the creativity of each participant, every bot will be unique in sound and appearance.
All the necessary components will be distributed at the beginning of the workshop, and every participant can keep the synth built. No previous experience in electronics is necessary to take part in this workshop.

XNAME is a musician and instrument designer. You can find out more at her website (contains flashing lights).
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.

Ritual Laboratory #6; a technology to transform consciousness
2019-08-30 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
We continue our series of participatory rituals throughout summer. Based on the 12 mythic Labours of Herakles. Forming part of an ongoing research and development project, each event considers the relationship between sound and movement performance, and altered states of consciousness.
Each session of the laboratory focuses on balancing a sequential zodiacal energy. We begin with Aries – The Head (Thoughts) and work down to Pisces – The Feet (Deeds). The summer series includes:
28th May – Gemini (Polarity)
25th June – Cancer (Intuition)
31st July – Leo (Expression)
30th August – Virgo (Cultivation)
In each session we will utilise a variety of techniques that function as rites of passage.

The embodiment of each myth functions as an interface, to construct the components of ritual form, and to explore the subjective impact of trance inducing use of sound, movement, light, scent, and embodied narrative.
Each Labour of Herakles as narrative score, catalyses a dialogue between musicians and performers, facilitating an immersive experience of the myth. These 12 Labours share significant parallels with the astronomical movement of the Sun, projected through the symbolism of the zodiacal constellations in a calendar year. Harnessing the cyclical changes in our natural environment as a basis for structure and objectivity, we aim to fall into rhythm with the cycles of the natural world.
An experimental laboratory of 12 events. No prior knowledge required. Everyone welcome!
We will begin each session by sharing a discussion regarding the symbolism of the myth, and how the Labour will play out. Secondly we explore features of trance induction, hypnotic phenomena and their role in creative practice. Lastly we will perform the myth together, and share feedback afterwards.
Instrumentation will vary as we explore the intersection of traditional trance instruments and contemporary production tools.
This series is organised by Nicole Bettencourt Coelho. Nicole is a qualified Hypnotherapist, practicing Sound Therapist and member at Music Hackspace / Somerset House Studios. Presently working with the composition of improvised choreographic score by drawing from her experience as a touring session musician, to foster an interdisciplinary approach. Conducting an investigation at the intersection of traditional therapeutic instruments and modern production tools, she is investigating the ability of sound and ritual form to support and direct the transformative power of performance. As well as generating dialogue around the sociological impact of evolving tools on culture and fulfilling creative practice. Current studies focus on communal performance in the context of astronomical myth, as a technology to transform consciousness. Combining archetypal symbols and storytelling with therapeutic and artistic applications of intuitive sound and movement, to induce and support inward journeys within a collective experience. Using a variety of techniques to consciously compose and utilise alternate states of awareness, she seeks to create opportunities to foster a healthy relationship with the creative impulse on an individual and collective level.
Forming part of her therapeutic practice CURVE ASC, she is currently exploring the interplay of energies moving through the body and the cyclic rhythms of the environment in the context of herbalism. Hosting a series of seasonal sound baths with local herbs. This being an embodied study of the natural rhythms of the dialogue between body and eco-system. A reciprocal dance through time. These are opportunities for reconnection, restoration and reflection.
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.

Livecoding Meetup
2019-08-22 18:30 - 21:00 | DIY Space For London, DIY Space For London, 96-108 Ormside St, London, SE15 1TF
Our Livecoding meetups are a series of informal, participatory meetups focusing making music with code. While these meetups are open to any language that can be used for livecoding, the host primarily holds expertise with TidalCycles. TidalCycles is an open source, accessible livecoding platform. These events are very loosely structured, with occasional short talks and performances.

No programming experience is necessary for these meetups. They are free to attend, 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.
Livecoding, in this context, refers to using code as a means to make music or produce generative visuals.
TidalCycles 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.
If you have any questions about this event please contact info@stagingmhs.local.
Photo by Antonio Roberts (http://www.hellocatfood.com/)

Make music with code, with Joanne Armitage
2019-08-21 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios (G18), Somerset House Studios, Lancaster Place, London, United Kingdom
In this workshop, Joanne Armitage will show participants how to get started making music with code in SuperCollider, with specific reference to her own creative practice. SuperCollider is a powerful open-source platform for audio synthesis and algorithmic composition, used by musicians, artists, and researchers working with sound. It is free and open source software available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Requirements: Participants should bring a laptop (masOS/Windows/Linux), and a pair of headphones. Please install SuperCollider in advance. It can be downloaded for free here. This workshop requires no prior experience with either Supercollider or music production.

Joanne is an internationally recognised live coder and contributes to groups including laptop ensemble, OFFAL and algo-pop duo ALGOBABEZ. In 2019 she curated SXSW’s first Algorave supported by Lush, PRS Foundation and British Underground. Recent projects include a coding cultural exchange between Yorkshire and Tokyo funded by Arts Council England, British Council, Daiwa Foundation and Sasakawa Foundation. As part of British Council’s Amplify programme she gave a workshop-performance at Mutek Argentina. In 2018 she was recipient of Sound and Music’s Composer-Curator fund and is a resident at Somerset House Studios.
In the day time (mostly), Joanne is interested in the relationship between digital technologies and our everyday lives. Her work covers areas such as physical computing, digital methods, sensory data and critical computing. As a researcher at Cambridge University, she is part of the Citizen Sense project investigating environmental sensing technologies and citizen engagement. She also lectures in digital media at the School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds. In 2017 she was awarded the British Science Association’s Daphne Oram award for digital innovation.
Outside of academia she regularly leads community workshops in physical computing, live coding and experimental music making. This includes the hackathon and workshop series ‘Automation and Me’ as part of Leeds International Festival 2019, facilitating activities for artists, academics, technologists and publics to explore issues around algorithms and bodies.
We can offer a student discount of 10% off this workshop. Please email us for a discount code (workshops@stagingmhs.local).
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.

DMLab London Meetup
2019-08-14 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
DMLab London is a meeting place for makers & disabled musicians, a space to explore musical potential and get hands on with kit. It is a partnership between Drake Music, Graeae and Music Hackspace to bring together disabled musicians with technologists, to imagine, hack, design and build new accessible instruments and technology. This could be redesigning a traditional instrument, hacking recording kit to make it more accessible or creating something ground-breaking that we can’t even imagine yet. Big or small, a fully-formed idea or just a glimmer, all are welcome…the floor is yours and the doors are open.

This relaxed social event will give you the chance to pitch your idea or request – however big or small – for a new accessible musical instrument or piece of kit, to meet up with other musicians and makers, and to listen to talks by two inspirational women.
Our two speakers, Jo-anne Cox and Dani Clode will open up their practice and share their ideas and challenges – one is a technologist advancing new ideas for artificial limbs and one is a musician imagining new ways for audiences to interact.
Jo-anne Cox
In April 2019 Jo-anne Cox held the first scratch performance of her show Defiant Journey – the sonic saga of a musician and her electric ally, navigating the highs and lows of life as a neurodivergent artist.
The show involves interaction with bespoke designed audio to light and music technology, designed by creative technologist Charles Matthews. The audience can also get hands-on with Vibrotactile technology designed by VibraFusionLab and made by disabled artists from Together! 2012 in East London.
In this presentation Jo-anne will talk about the process of developing Defiant Journey, from initial ideas to first performance. The presentation will cover the Aesthetics of Access, the benefits of multi-sensory engagement and discovering audio to light, music tech and vibrotactile tech as a tool for:

communicating hidden disability
challenging recovery mode and austerity politics
involving audience as equals in immersive and interactive storytelling.

All technology on the project was designed with access in mind and there will be opportunities for you to try it out …. that is if you dare to play the bed bug ipad!
Dani Clode
Dani Clode is a product designer from New Zealand and a MA graduate from the Royal College of Art in London.
Her main project, the Third Thumb explores human augmentation and prosthetic extension. Dani is currently developing the project further with neuroscientists from the Plasticity Lab in the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL, exploring the boundaries of neuroplasticity – seeing how it can be harnessed to improve the usability and control of prosthetic devices, and how our bodies and brains adapt to material change.
Dani also collaborates with The Alternative Limb Project, designing sculptural prosthetic arms that challenge the perception and boundaries of prosthetic design, incorporating new materials and design processes to extend the human form.
She is interested in exploring how she can work with Disabled musicians in the future and will talk about these projects and open up discussions on ideas and inspirations for collaborations.

This will be a relaxed event and there will be a quiet space available with comfortable seats. There is step-free access to the venue which is located on the ground floor of Somerset House. It is fully wheelchair accessible, with an accessible toilet (no hoist). There will be BSL interpretation provided for the two speakers. To book a ticket for an assistant or access support person then please use the ‘Pay What You Can – £0’ option.
This meetup is brought to you by Music Hackspace and Drake Music.
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.

Spatial Sound Meetup #3 with BBC R&D
2019-08-07 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios (G18), Somerset House Studios, Lancaster Place, London, United Kingdom
A new series of monthly meetups taking place at Somerset House Studios, focusing on new spatial sound technologies, with talks and discussions around creative uses of spatial and AR audio.

The meetups will take place on the following dates, you can register here:
12th June – Professor Zoran Cvetkovic from King’s College
3rd July – Contributors TBA
7th August- Call and Response & Jon Francombe
4th September – Contributors TBA
Each session will be hosted by BBC R&D and will feature a presentation by invited guests.
BBC R&D has been at the forefront of innovation in media technology since the founding of public service broadcasting in the UK.
Based in Research Labs in the North and South of the UK, the department is comprised of just over 200 highly specialist research engineers, scientists, ethnographers, designers, producers and innovation professionals working on every aspect of the broadcast chain, from Audiences, Production and Distribution right through to the Programmes themselves.
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.

Ritual Laboratory #5; a technology to transform consciousness
2019-07-31 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios (G18), Somerset House Studios, Lancaster Place, London, United Kingdom

Grim Beeper workshop, with Tara Pattenden (13-16 year olds)
2019-07-28 11:00 - 18:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
In this workshop you will learn about electronics and electromagnetic frequencies and build your own EMF detector. The Grim Beeper picks up electromagnetic frequencies which light an LED that controls the sound.

It is believed by some people that a ghostly presence can be associated with a fluctuation in temperature and electromagnetic energy. This has not been proven however an EMF detector is a common tool used by ghost hunters.
Here’s an example – the grim beeper does react differently in different environments and
times of day due to changes in EMF.

The Grim Beeper is made of two parts. An EMF detector which lights an LED when
Electromagnetic frequencies are detected. This light controls the sound of a square wave
oscillator.
In this workshop, you will experiment with electronics and build your own Grim Beeper. You will learn to solder and about basic audio electronics. No experience in electronics is
required.
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 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.
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.
For 13 – 16 year olds accompanied by a parent or adult.
You will learn to solder, read schematics and gain an understanding of basic electronics. No previous knowledge required, inductions to soldering will undertake.
If you have any questions about this event or any of our workshops please contact workshops@stagingmhs.local.

Spatial Sound Meetup #2 with BBC R&D
2019-07-03 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios (G18), Somerset House Studios, Lancaster Place, London, United Kingdom
A new series of monthly meetups taking place at Somerset House Studios, focusing on new spatial sound technologies, with talks and discussions around creative uses of spatial and AR audio.

This meetup will run as a participatory workshop aimed at getting everyone started with the basics of producing spatial sound mixes and rendering them as binaural stereo – using Reaper and the Ambisonic Toolkit.
This will cover using mono, stereo, and ambisonic sound sources, applying spatial effects and panning and moving sound sources with automation.
No experience with Reaper or ATK is necessary but it’d be useful if you’ve at least a little familiarity with working with digital audio.
Bring a laptop and headphones if you have them! If you don’t, we’ll pair you up with someone who has the equipment.
In addition, there’ll be a little time for announcements, presentations and requests for feedback/discussion on your own projects. If you’d like a 5-minute slot to present something or start a discussion, please let us know!
Throughout the evenings, attendees are welcome to ask questions and interact with both the speaker and one another.
Each session will be hosted by BBC R&D and will feature a presentation by invited guests.
BBC R&D has been at the forefront of innovation in media technology since the founding of public service broadcasting in the UK.
Based in Research Labs in the North and South of the UK, the department is comprised of just over 200 highly specialist research engineers, scientists, ethnographers, designers, producers and innovation professionals working on every aspect of the broadcast chain, from Audiences, Production and Distribution right through to the Programmes themselves.
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 Modular Synthesiser Workshop with T37
2019-06-29 11:00 - 2019-06-30 19:00 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Madrid based synthesiser collective T37 will 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. All modules are Eurorack format.
No previous experience in electronics is necessary to take part in this workshop.
Please see the price list below for the full cost of what you’d like to build.

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.
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 device(s) you’d like to build.

The workshop takes place 11:00-19:00 on June 29th and 30th 2019. You can attend either or both of these days.

T37 modules available:
The Gender Bender: A 7 channel trigger sequencer performance oriented plenty o generative patterns, each
channel has 5 independent parameters density, division, fill, velocity and duration.
Price: £210, Size: 28hp, Difficulty: Advanced, small SMD components.

Ardcore: Based on Darwin Grosse , 20 objects ardcore its an arduino tool meant for exploration and learning Arduino coding. It can be used as drum sampler, LFO, VCO, clock divider and so on. Available in SMD and through hole versions.
Price: £85, Size: 8hp (SMD) or 10hp (through hole), Difficulty: Medium (SMD) or easy (through hole).

Sequential Squanch: It’s a bidirectional 4-to-1 switch sequencer. It can connect in both ways any signal is send (audio, cv). It has a clock input to move the connected channel. Available in banana and minijack.
Price: £55, Size: 4hp, Difficulty: Medium, SMD components.

Stompbox: A dual channel interface to change levels from modular to line, and vice versa enabling the use of external processors like pedals or other musical instruments, equipments. Available in banana and minijack.
Price: £55, Size: 5hp, Difficulty: Medium, SMD components.

Mixer: An 8 channel mixer.
Price: £60, Size: 8hp, Difficulty: Easy, through-hole .

4Send: A quad send, useful to buffer signals and with attenuation control for performance.
Price: £35, Size: 4hp, Difficulty: Medium, 0805 SMD components.

ADfesio: 4 channel Pattern generator, but instead of gates/triggers it outputs 4 independent slopes. Each slope has dedicated attack and decay control, and can be triggered independently without using the pattern
generator engine.
Price: £100, Size: 10hp, Difficulty: Medium, 0805 SMD components.

BleepDrum: Inspired in the BleepDrum by BleepLabs its a 4 channel drum sample player, with independent inputs and pitch controls. Additionally you can punch-press patterns in a tap-tempo mode to record on the fly your tune. 4 Buttons allow for independent manual trigger of the sounds.
Price: £85, Size: 10hp, Difficulty: Medium, SMD components.

Standalone Devices
CHA/VES – Cheap Hacky Audio/Video Synth: The CHA/V is an simple and cheap VGA video synth with 6 VCO based on schmitt triggers, that glitches an VGA tester board to produce patterns and sound. It has two vactrols to further modulate and its patcheable with breadboard cables. It has 3 minijacks that can be used as outputs to hear the Oscillators, or inputs to create reactive glitch compositions. This is a standalone device.
Price: £80, Difficulty: Easy, through-hole components.

MIDI TO SOLENOIDS: A standalone device with a programmable microcontroller based on Arduino, that converts midi messages to triggers. It has 12 triggers outputs that can drive solenoids, dc motors or electromagnets and was conceived to create an electro acoustic instruments controlled via MIDI messages.
Price: £120, Difficulty: Easy, through-hole components.

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.

Ritual Laboratory #4; a technology to transform consciousness
2019-06-25 18:30 - 21:30 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
We continue our series of participatory rituals throughout summer. Based on the 12 mythic Labours of Herakles. Forming part of an ongoing research and development project, each event considers the relationship between sound and movement performance, and altered states of consciousness.
Each session of the laboratory focuses on balancing a sequential zodiacal energy. We begin with Aries – The Head (Thoughts) and work down to Pisces – The Feet (Deeds). The summer series includes:
28th May – Gemini (Polarity)
25th June – Cancer (Intuition)
24th July – Leo (Expression)
15th August – Virgo (Cultivation)
In each session we will utilise a variety of techniques that function as rites of passage.

The embodiment of each myth functions as an interface, to construct the components of ritual form, and to explore the subjective impact of trance inducing use of sound, movement, light, scent, and embodied narrative.
Each Labour of Herakles as narrative score, catalyses a dialogue between musicians and performers, facilitating an immersive experience of the myth. These 12 Labours share significant parallels with the astronomical movement of the Sun, projected through the symbolism of the zodiacal constellations in a calendar year. Harnessing the cyclical changes in our natural environment as a basis for structure and objectivity, we aim to fall into rhythm with the cycles of the natural world.
An experimental laboratory of 12 events. No prior knowledge required. Everyone welcome!
We will begin each session by sharing a discussion regarding the symbolism of the myth, and how the Labour will play out. Secondly we explore features of trance induction, hypnotic phenomena and their role in creative practice. Lastly we will perform the myth together, and share feedback afterwards.
Instrumentation will vary as we explore the intersection of traditional trance instruments and contemporary production tools.
This series is organised by Nicole Bettencourt Coelho. Nicole is a qualified Hypnotherapist, practicing Sound Therapist and member at Music Hackspace / Somerset House Studios. Presently working with the composition of improvised choreographic score by drawing from her experience as a touring session musician, to foster an interdisciplinary approach. Conducting an investigation at the intersection of traditional therapeutic instruments and modern production tools, she is investigating the ability of sound and ritual form to support and direct the transformative power of performance. As well as generating dialogue around the sociological impact of evolving tools on culture and fulfilling creative practice. Current studies focus on communal performance in the context of astronomical myth, as a technology to transform consciousness. Combining archetypal symbols and storytelling with therapeutic and artistic applications of intuitive sound and movement, to induce and support inward journeys within a collective experience. Using a variety of techniques to consciously compose and utilise alternate states of awareness, she seeks to create opportunities to foster a healthy relationship with the creative impulse on an individual and collective level.
Forming part of her therapeutic practice CURVE ASC, she is currently exploring the interplay of energies moving through the body and the cyclic rhythms of the environment in the context of herbalism. Hosting a series of seasonal sound baths with local herbs. This being an embodied study of the natural rhythms of the dialogue between body and eco-system. A reciprocal dance through time. These are opportunities for reconnection, restoration and reflection.
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.

Make music with code, with Lucy Cheesman
2019-06-19 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios (G20), New Wing, Room G20, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
Learn to make music with code using Foxdot, taught by Lucy Cheesman. FoxDot was created in 2015 to try and open the pathways to Live Coding for users who may be new to programming and want to use it create music quickly and easily. FoxDot is an easy-to-use Python library that creates an interactive programming environment and talks to the powerful sound synthesis engine, called SuperCollider to make music. FoxDot schedules musical events in a user-friendly and easy-to-grasp manner that makes live coding easy and fun for both programming newcomers and veterans alike.
Requirements: Participants should bring a laptop (OSX / Windows/ Linux), and a pair of headphones. Please install FoxDot in advance. You can find details on how to install here. This workshop requires no prior experience with either Foxdot or music production.

Lucy Cheesman makes sound installations as part of creative collective SONA and performs live coded music using open source software solo as Heavy Lifting and in collaboration as TYPE. She also runs a record label called Pickled Discs which is dedicated to promoting experimental electronic sounds.
She is a board member at Access Space, a charity for the promotion of arts and technology and is a founder member of SONA, an organisation which supports women in music technology through creative projects. She organises and facilitates inclusive workshops and events and recently acted as project lead on a year-long initiative to build a community of practice for women in sound and music technology. Lucy was part of the 2018 cohort of the Sound and Music Composer-Curator programme, and has also received project funding from Arts Council England and Sheffield Hallam University.
Through her interest in engaging marginalised groups with creative technology, she has contributed to research showing how community building approaches can have a significant impact on redressing inequalities in digital arts.
We can offer a student discount of 10% off this workshop. Please email us for a discount code (workshops@stagingmhs.local).
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.

Spatial Sound Meetup #1 with BBC R&D
2019-06-12 18:30 - 21:00 | Somerset House Studios (G20), New Wing, Room G20, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom

Ritual Laboratory #3; a technology to transform consciousness
2019-05-28 18:30 - 21:30 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom

Ritual Laboratory #2; a technology to transform consciousness
2019-04-23 18:30 - 21:30 | Somerset House Studios, New Wing, Room G16, Entrance via Lancaster Place, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
The second instalment in a series of participatory rituals, based on the 12 mythic Labours of Herakleos. Forming part of an ongoing research & development project considering the relationship between sound & movement performance & altered states of consciousness.
Each session of the laboratory focuses on balancing a sequential zodiacal energy. We begin with Aries – The Head (Thoughts) and work down to Pisces – The Feet (Deeds). This month we continue with Taurus (Desire), utilising a variety of techniques that function as rites of passage.
The embodiment of each myth functions as an interface, to construct the components of ritual form, and to explore the subjective impact of trance inducing use of sound, movement, light, scent, and embodied narrative.
Each Labour of Herakleos as narrative score, catalyses a dialogue between musicians and performers, facilitating an immersive experience of the myth. These 12 Labours share significant parallels with the astronomical movement of the Sun, projected through the symbolism of the zodiacal constellations in a calendar year. Harnessing the cyclical changes in our natural environment as a basis for structure and objectivity, we aim to fall into rhythm with the cycles of the natural world.

Please email curators@stagingmhs.local for any questions.
……………………………………………………
An experimental laboratory of 12 events. No prior knowledge required. Everyone welcome!
We will begin each session by sharing a discussion regarding the symbolism of the myth, and how the Labour will play out. Secondly we explore features of trance induction, hypnotic phenomena and their role in creative practice. Lastly we will perform the myth together, and share feedback afterwards.
Instrumentation will vary as we explore the intersection of traditional trance instruments and contemporary production tools.
