First speaker was Gavin Burke from Galway based Future Audio Workshop who spoke about the physics of sound, how synth technology can reproduce these and his companies virtual synth product 'Circle'. Two years in development, Circle functions as a standalone instrument, a vst or a pro tools plugin and combines synth modeling with an interface that doesn't try to reproduce the look of a hardware synths control panel but instead uses the full visual and control affordances the computer offers.

Next up Peter Kirn from CreateDigitalMusic examined the common metaphors that are used in music software, like the piano roll, the linear timeline and tape splicing and the possibilities for breaking out beyond these conventions. He cited current examples like the Ableton Live interface, the Tenori-on and many of the new touchscreen music apps for the iPhone like Brian Eno's 'Bloom' and RJDJ. The possibilities of using Processing to make experimental music interfaces was also explored, one example shown was a circular sequencer that took inspiration from Balinese Gong circles.

We then viewed Niamh Ahern's 'Totally Wired', a documentary centering around Analog Synth store Schneiders Büro in Berlin, the musicians who buy their equipment there, the hardware manufacturers (many of which are based around Germany and are small family run businesses) and provides a great look into what motivates people to pursue Analog Synth hardware in this age of digital everything. Afterwards there was a Q+A with Niamh and Andreas Schneider. Andreas also presented an improv session on a patch cable controlled synth, and was so in the zone that afterwards he started talking to the audience in German :)

The final session was delivered by Mark Jenkins and Dave Vorhaus of White Noise and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Mark has wrote a book detailing the evolution of synth technology from analog through to virtual analog and took us on an audio journey through this development and his use of all forms of synths in his compositions.

Dave spoke of his experience recording the first ever electronic album 'Electric Storm' in 1968 while working at the BBC. The process was painstakingly laborious, the synth was tuned to play a note, this was recorded to tape. Then the oscillator was retuned, and the next note recorded... and so on. Interestingly he said this pioneering 'cut and paste' production method was inspired by the tape editing techniques of his father who was a blacklisted film director. Dave also said how he really doesn't like keyboards because that their scale imposes limitations on how the instrument can be played, limitations he has sought to overcome with his double bass like Kaleidophon controller.

There were a couple of common themes through all these presentations. First was that all agreed (apart from one dissenting voice in the 'Totally Wired' documentary) that synth software along with regular computer hardware have finally reached the level of exactly modeling the sound qualities of analog hardware.

The other theme was the importance of the musician to instrument connection through the interface development, whether its through the cutting edge control and visual feedback of Circle or the visceral musician to hardware relationship that ensures the continued sales of analog gear at Schneiders Büro.

Either way the new language of electronic music control and notation is still under development and is going to keep evolving in new directions, not just due to commercial concerns but also due to the new found ease of access to software and hardware creation tools for the traditional end-user group, now able to undertake authorship of their own instruments and interfaces to create a new generation of music performance technologies.

CDs and MP3s are fine and all, but Vinyl has a charm all of its own, both soundwise and from it's tangible form and it doesn't look like it's going to die out any day soon. This article from Wired suggests that vinyl will outlive cds commercially... and if there's a power cut you could always listen to your records on this, though perhaps not at audiophile levels :)

The teachers were Glomag and BubblyFish from New York and 'Yes, Robot' and Rabato from Barcelona. These guys are big names in the chiptune scene and over the course of two days provided great hands on training making tracks on the oldschool Nintendo Gameboy using Little Sound DJ and Nanoloop.

LSDJ uses a text based tracker interface, you adjust the sound parameters by changing binary values. Nanoloop is more visual and you create sounds and sequences through by selecting icons and applying them to a 4 x 4 grid of squares. Both have their pros and cons but ultimately do the same job, directly controlling the Gameboy's unique 4 channel sound sound chip.

The 8bit maestros also performed live on stage at LABoral backed up by Barcelona VJ duo Entter, who complemented all the music by syncing up pixel graphic visuals through their own custom built flash applications. A news reporter from Madrid described the show as "Beautiful" and I've got to agree. I've been into 8bit video game sounds and graphics since I was a child, but hearing this style of music blasting through a concert PA while watching huge pixel graphic projections was on another level of greatness altogether.

Both the workshop and live show were filmed for an upcoming documentary by Lionel Brouet, who made 8 Bit Generation, so that's going to be very interesting to see. Anyway's I'm back home now and starting to mess with the special cartridges, the Gameboy is plugged into my Micro Cube amp and I'm beginning to make some simple loops, will post whatever happens on my myspace page. Bleep!

More info on reacTABLE here and here.

“Everyone has been bombarded with media. We’ve almost been forced to use it as an art form. It’s like anything. If people were handing out paint for free on the streets, I’m sure there would be a lot more painters right now.” Gregg Gillis - DJ (Girl Talk)

Check out www.goodcopybadcopy.net for more information and to download it for free (in the true spirit of this film's file sharing message).

The APC name was coined by Kaustic Machines who based the circuit on a schematic by Forest Mims III. It has been built into many different forms as seen >> here <<. Mine needs a casing, will most likely be a mini-lunchbox!

The figure will be MF in his Madvillain guise, all masked up with trenchcoat and hat. Check out the classic All Caps video to see the animated Madvillain.