Move beyond the factory
Ableton Move can become the body of a different instrument. RNBO Takeover and Schwung, formerly Move Everything, offer distinct routes; choose around the performance you want.
Read the study ↗Issue 01 / Instruments with other ideasMake a
Make a
stranger noise.
Leftfield sounds, expressive instruments and useful ways to make machines misbehave.
Open devices. Playable hacks. MPE, small computers and pictures that listen. A journal and a working studio, with room to find your own sound.
FIELD STUDY / 001SIGNAL → GESTURE → SOUND
A DIFFERENT WAY THROUGH THE CIRCUIT23.10.26
Follow a different connection.
Build & hack ↗
Open devices, small computers and useful alterations. Follow the signal, understand the constraint, then make the machine your own.
6 STUDIESMPE ↗
Pitch, slide and pressure as a playing language. Explore responsive patches, controller technique and instruments that keep each gesture independent.
7 STUDIESAudiovisual ↗
Magic, Hydra, TouchDesigner and the space between them. Build images that respond to phrasing, physical movement and silence.
10 STUDIESWeb audio ↗
AudioWorklets, MIDI, recording and the details that make a browser instrument dependable. Small experiments you can understand and take on stage.
11 STUDIESListening ↗
Slow changes, unstable systems, hidden fields and found voices. Close listening becomes a practical way to discover what your own instrument could do.
On the workbench.
Build & hack →FM-1: a small box with an open door
The M-VAVE FM-1 is a useful case study in extending affordable hardware: investigate the firmware, audition the idea, and make one musical change worth keeping.
Read the study ↗The other half of the magazineLess browsing.
Less browsing.
More playing.
Four original instruments. Build a beat with harp, bass, drums, drone and voice, or open a patch, find a gesture, record what happens. Web Audio and MIDI, directly in your browser.
Enter the studio ↗Sound, touch, possibility.
The whole journal →DIY / Standalone instruments
A Raspberry Pi with one job
A convincing standalone instrument begins with a clear role. Choose the audio path and physical controls before turning a small computer into a large unfinished project.
5 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Web Audio / Web MIDI
The browser is an instrument
A web instrument earns trust through a clear signal path, honest connection states and a recording you can take away. The browser is a host; the performance still needs designing.
5 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Audiovisual / Magic
Make the image play
Use Magic Music Visuals to compose relationships between sound, gesture and image. A clear mapping can say more than a screen in constant motion.
5 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Tools / Buying & building
Buy the interface you will play
Choose a hackable instrument by the work you want your hands to do. A board, an integrated kit and a modified finished device buy you different kinds of freedom.
5 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
MPE / Expressive playing
A note is a place to move
MPE becomes musical when each gesture has a clear purpose. Start with one note, a small range and enough time to hear your hand.
5 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Synthesis & gesture
At the edge of a tone
Chaotic synthesis is most revealing in the territory between a stable note and noise. Give that territory a musical purpose before adding more motion.
5 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Sound in another form
Let the picture listen.
Build a visual performance that follows phrasing, pressure and silence. Explore Magic, browser graphics and the space between a musical gesture and its image.
Audiovisual studies ↗Further into the machine.
All studies →
Hardware / RNBOA Move display that helps you play
Build a small performance interface around one audible decision. RNBO User Views make the Move screen available to a patch, but useful information begins with the hands.
MPE / TechniqueMPE intonation without fighting the surface
Separate calibration, pitch correction and musical intention. A short daily study can make slides and vibrato feel deliberate without flattening the character of an expressive controller.
Web Audio / VoiceA vocal channel that tells the truth
Design a browser voice path with clear input, monitoring and recording states. The first effect to understand is the processing that may already be happening before your patch receives audio.
Audiovisual / MagicMagic: three layers, one musical argument
Build a visual set that distinguishes rhythm, texture and structure. With restrained mappings, Magic can reveal a performance’s shape without making every sound trigger the same movement.
See the idea played.
Creator demonstrations of Move, standalone builds and expressive instruments. Context, sources and practical things to listen for.
Open the watch room ↗In performance.
The watch room →Open Eye Signal (Jon Hopkins) on a Modular Synthesizer
Colin Benders interprets Jon Hopkins’s Open Eye Signal on a modular synthesizer. Listen as an arrangement study: repetition can carry a piece while texture and intensity supply movement.
Try this afterwards
Make a four-minute study from one short pattern. Keep its notes unchanged and plan only three large changes: one in register, one in density and one in brightness.
Claude Debussy "Clair de Lune" // a modular reflection
ann annie’s modular reflection on Debussy’s Clair de Lune offers a contrasting study in melodic space and electronic timbre. Listen for the relationship between a recognisable phrase and its surrounding texture.
Try this afterwards
Choose a four-note phrase and play it once with a dry sound, then with a long tail. Leave enough silence for the second version to finish speaking before adding another note.
What did you make of it?
Share a changed device, a patch, a performance or a useful failure. Add your own photograph or a video link and explain what made the difference. Contributions are reviewed before publication.
Add your exploration ↗