Hardware / RNBO
A 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.
4 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
The journal / An expanding field of possibilitiesWhat else can
What else can
this thing do?
A device is a starting point. These are ways to change its behaviour, find your sound and take the result into a performance.
Hardware / Performance
Schwung: resampling as arrangement
Turn an exploratory Move session into playable material. The useful question is not how many modules can run, but which decisions deserve to become audio.
4 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Firmware / FM synthesis
FM-1: a bank with a performance plan
Build a compact palette that survives a change of project. Sample length, voice storage and track roles become musical decisions when the set has a clear shape.
4 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Firmware / Making
FM-1: change one thing in the browser
Use the open application and its web preview to investigate a musical idea before building firmware. A small, reversible change teaches more than an unexamined collection of features.
4 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
DIY / RNBO
A Pi that boots into the piece
Move beyond a patch that works while the editor is open. Build a predictable startup state, a playable set of variations and a recovery route for a Raspberry Pi instrument.
4 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
MPE / Technique
MPE 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.
4 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
MPE / Sound design
MPE: the note after you let go
Release stages and effect tails are part of the performance. Learn what happens when a finger leaves the surface, a voice is reused and a shared delay keeps speaking.
4 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Web Audio / Making
A browser sequencer that keeps its time
Separate the audio clock from the moving lights. A small look-ahead scheduler is the start of a playable sequencer, and its behaviour during edits matters as much as its steady beat.
4 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Web Audio / Voice
A 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.
4 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Audiovisual / Magic
Magic: 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.
4 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
DIY / Standalone instruments
Daisy: two knobs and a real instrument
Use Daisy Pod and plugdata as a practical route from a patch to a physical synthesizer. Keep the first build small enough that every control earns its place.
4 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Web Audio / RNBO
RNBO: from patch to web instrument
An exported engine is the beginning of a browser instrument. Build the loading, control and recovery experience around it so another musician can understand what is ready to play.
4 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Hardware / RNBO
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.
5 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Firmware / FM synthesis
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.
5 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
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
MPE / Recording
Keep the expression in the recording
The notes are only part of an expressive performance. Preserve the relationship between each note and its movement, then verify the result by listening.
5 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
MPE / Sound design
Design an expressive preset
MPE support is a connection feature. An expressive preset is an instrument design: its ranges, curves and shared effects must make sense under the fingers.
5 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Listening practice
Before the first note
Pauline Oliveros offers a useful starting point for electronic music: attention is something you practise, before it becomes something you record.
5 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Tape & transformation
A small sound is enough
Delia Derbyshire’s work suggests a productive constraint: begin with a modest source, then make the relationships precise.
5 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Composition
Drawing a sound in time
Daphne Oram’s drawn-sound work invites a useful change of approach: imagine the behaviour of a sound before choosing its preset.
5 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Feedback & space
The room writes back
Alvin Lucier’s I am sitting in a room makes a process audible. What happens when a sound repeatedly meets the same conditions?
5 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Dub & arrangement
Make space perform
A delay can do more than fill an empty bar. Treat its entrance, persistence and disappearance as part of the performance.
5 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Instrument studies
Eight voices, one relationship
The LYRA-8 is a useful reference for an instrument that asks you to attend to interactions. Start with a pair of voices and learn what one changes in the other.
5 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Listening / Duration
Radigue: listen for the change you cannot name
A sustained sound can contain more events than a busy arrangement. Use Éliane Radigue’s work as a point of departure for hearing slow change without demanding a new note.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Listening / Hidden sound
Kubisch: a map made by listening
Christina Kubisch’s Electrical Walks make the familiar city strange through induction listening. Take the underlying question seriously: what changes when a place is organised by sound?
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Listening / Field recording
Winderen: listening without naming too soon
Jana Winderen’s underwater work invites attention to sounds whose sources may be unfamiliar. Keep curiosity and uncertainty together when turning a recording into music.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Listening / Repetition
Jelinek: a loop without a leading edge
Use Jan Jelinek’s Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records as a listening prompt for texture, repetition and uncertain beginnings. Then build a loop whose identity comes from what happens inside it.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Listening / Rhythm and perception
Ikeda: hearing the boundary of a pattern
Ryoji Ikeda’s test pattern links data, image and sound. Use it to ask when separate events become a texture, and how a pattern’s organisation changes what you perceive.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
AV / Magic
Magic: one control, three related changes
Build a visual macro that has a recognisable musical purpose. A single well-shaped control can make a scene more playable than a panel of unrelated reactive parameters.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
AV / Hydra
Hydra: feedback with an exit
Treat video feedback as a material with memory. Build an entrance, a stable region and a deliberate ending before increasing the complexity of a live-coded image.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
AV / TouchDesigner
TouchDesigner: measure before you map
An audio-reactive patch needs a useful control signal before it needs a complex image. Inspect the measurement, shape its response and then decide what visual behaviour it deserves.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
AV / Projection
Projection: compose for the surface
A projection patch becomes part of a room. Start with physical geometry and audience position, then decide what the image should do on that particular surface.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
AV / MPE and gesture
Gesture visuals that remember the note
A visual response to MPE should know which gesture belongs to which note. Decide what remains independent and what becomes a shared image before connecting pressure to a parameter.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Web audio / Routing
Browser routing: a send you can hear
Build a parallel effects route whose level and purpose remain clear. A dry path, a send and a return give different kinds of control, and confusing them makes an instrument harder to play.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Web audio / Web MIDI
MIDI learn that survives the next session
A useful MIDI-learn system remembers more than a controller number. It also makes device identity, channel, range and takeover behaviour visible to the musician.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Web audio / DSP
AudioWorklet: first build a transparent path
Before a custom processor becomes a distinctive effect, make it pass sound predictably. Channel handling, parameter changes and silence are part of the instrument’s design.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Web audio / Diagnosis
Latency: find the delay before changing everything
A slow-feeling browser instrument can have several causes. Separate event arrival, audio processing, output and display before trying to improve the whole system at once.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Web audio / Performance
Browser performance: rehearse the worst phrase
A browser instrument should be tested where the music is most demanding. Build a realistic stress phrase, observe the failure and simplify the work that actually causes it.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
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