WHAT DO I NEED TO BRING?
As most workshops are software based, delegates will need to bring along:
- Their own laptop.
- A pair of headphones.
Specialist software requirements for each session will be shared to registered delegates in advance of each workshop, to enable you to pre-install the required outside of the scheduled workshop time.
Any other specialist requirements will be listed in the sign-up sheet.
WHAT, WHERE, WHEN?
Sessions will run from the beginning of an allocated two-hour slot, with the approximate duration cited on the sign-up sheet.
Day Two: Friday 8 November
Studio 2, Bathway Theatre
| 10am-12pm | Workshop 1 John Gibson – Rapid Sound Design in Max using Auzzie Anyone using Max is familiar with both its great flexibility and its obligation for extensive programming before you can hear useable sound. I appreciate what the software offers for a composer developing idiosyncratic sound ideas, but sometimes I just want some sound now! That’s true especially when I want to focus on methods of control. Cycling ’74 recognized this difficulty for Jitter, their video-processing subsystem for Max, and introduced Vizzie, a set of video objects that beginners can learn to combine productively within a half hour. For audio, they offer Berklee’s BEAP, a set of audio objects designed around a monophonic analog synthesis paradigm. While useful, BEAP’s analog synth orientation presents its own challenges and limitations. Auzzie, based on the model of Vizzie, lets users produce engaging sound without having to build algorithms from the ground up. A user simply drops modules into their canvas and connects them with audio cables. As with Vizzie, most parameters in Auzzie accept a normalized 0-1 range of values, allowing the use of Vizzie data generators as inputs to Auzzie modules. Auzzie presents a strictly stereo sound patch throughout, implemented using two-channel MC patch cables. Auzzie has a limited number of modules, but they cover some of the commonly used electroacoustic music techniques, which are not well represented in most DAWs: pitch-tunable filter banks and resonator banks — for imposing pitch on noisy sounds — as well as granulation and spectral delay. Auzzie also provides several simple polyphonic synthesizers that make up for the lack of implicit polyphony in Max. While I developed Auzzie to use with my students, I realized that it was a valuable tool for rapid prototyping of sound. It lets me quickly hear how a sound source behaves when subjected to common processes. It is not difficult to expand an Auzzie sound idea to multichannel configurations. I will give a demonstration of Auzzie and show my ideas for using it as a rapid prototyping tool. I will discuss the pros and cons of an opinionated software approach, which Auzzie represents, as compared with the blank slate that Max aspires to be. Auzzie is available in the Max Package Manager. |
Studio 2, Bathway Theatre
| 2-4pm | Workshop 2 Yoshi Kosaka – Ableton / Max Jitter / AudioVisual Workshop This workshop will demonstrate an AV production pipeline using Ableton and Max Jitter and alternative tools like Touch Designer using OSC. |
Day Three: Saturday 9 November
Room 11_2014, Stockwell Street Academic Building
| 10am-12pm | Workshop 3 Dominic Thibault – Mosaïque: A New Tool for Visual Composition and Performance of the Timbre This workshop presents Mosaïque, a software instrument designed to democratize access to corpus-based concatenative synthesis (CBCS). CBCS, a sampling technique, involves analyzing and organizing sound samples based on their timbral characteristics, allowing for intricate sound manipulation and exploration. |
Room 11_2014, Stockwell Street Academic Building
| 2-4pm | Workshop 4 Beccy Abraham – Tiny Touch Instruments Beccy has been creating a set of Tiny Touch Instruments (TTIs), touch-controlled musical instruments that run on a mobile web browser. The instruments have simple interfaces and are designed for intuitive interaction. TTIs give people easy access to communal music-making among audiences with mixed musical backgrounds. They recontextualize smartphones, which often foster disengagement, into tools for connection and creativity. In this sonic play and group improvisation workshop, we will explore communal listening and interaction while we respond to one another and an evocative animated graphic score. |
Day Four: Sunday 10 November
Room 11_1006, Stockwell Street Academic Building
| 10am-12pm | Workshop 5 Camry Ivory – Coloratura: Analog Audiovisual Art Coloratura is an innovative musical interface that uses paintbrushes as MIDI controllers, allowing users to create physical art and electronic music simultaneously. In this workshop, Camry Ivory, the creator of Coloratura, will introduce the inspiration and technology behind Coloratura, demonstrate its capabilities, and offer attendees the chance to create their own synesthetic soundscapes. |
Room 11_2014, Stockwell Street Academic Building
| 2-4pm | Workshop 6 Jon Weinel and Chris Speed – Game Audio with Unreal Engine and Metasound This hands-on workshop will provide an introduction to working with sound design in Unreal Engine 5. Topics we will explore will include: – Introduction to sound in Unreal Engine 5 – Editor basics – Implementing 3D sound sources – Playing and triggering sounds – Sound occulusion- Randomisation – Audio programming, music and synthesis with Metasound This workshop is introductory level, meaning we assume no prior knowledge or experience with Unreal Engine. Participants will need to bring their own laptops to take part, and they should install Unreal Engine 5 (latest version) beforehand to take part in the session. Mac users should also install XCode as this is needed to use Unreal Engine on Mac. |