About PAW 2020, November 21, Online

A FULL day devoted to modular audio synthesis and programming!

• Discover various interactive solutions for modular environments with Max Bruckert
• Build a simple prototype Poly Synth with Making Sound Machines
• Learn how to build and program the Gramophone with Romain Michon
• Design Faust DSPs using a Web-based Graph Editor with Shihong Ren
• Program you own VCV Rack modules using Faust with Stéphane Letz
• Create embedded programs for the Daisy Patch Eurorack module with Andrew Ikenberry

PAW is completely free, but the number of participants is limited to 90 persons. Register as soon as possible at PAW 2020 REGISTRATION .

Event Location

PAW 2020 will take place online, at Paris Time (UTC+1)
A Google Meet URL will be provided to all registred participants.

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Program Overview

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Program Details

09:15-09:30, Welcome

Yann Orlarey (GRAME-CNCM -- Lyon, France)

09:30-10:25, Exploring Various Interactive Solutions for Modular Environments

Max Bruckert (Artist -- Lyon, France)

In this short talk we will explore various conditions of interacting, playing and composing music with software and physical modular synthesizers or programs. In a complex setup the various protocols of communication are often chains to creativity. What could be the best solutions to clarify these problematics accordingly to specific artistic needs?

10:30-11:25, Making Faust run on Hardware - Building a simple prototype Poly Synth with Faust DSP, Arduino, Teensy 4.0 and Modular

Enrica Gissel & Roland Nebe (Making Sound Machines -- Düsseldorf, Germany)

Arduino has always been a powerful platform to create hardware prototypes at an incredible pace. However, due to MCU speed and memory constraints, running real-time DSP code has been a challenge that required heavily optimized code. Teensy 4.0 and Faust finally deliver a platform to easily achieve great-sounding, versatile sound synthesis that allows for prototyping DSP based module ideas without the need of designing a dedicated PCB for every project. In our talk, we guide you through building a simple prototype Poly Synth with Faust DSP, Arduino, Teensy 4.0 and Modular.

11:30-12:25, Building and Using the Gramophone

Romain Michon (GRAME-CNCM -- Lyon, France)

The Gramophone (https://www.amstramgrame.fr/gramophone/about/) is a versatile embedded musical instrument programmable with Faust that was designed as part of the Amstramgrame project (https://www.amstramgrame.fr/english/). It provides a wide range of sensors (e.g., buttons, potentiometers, motion sensors, etc.) to interact with the generated sound. During this workshop, we will demonstrate how to build the Gramophone from scratch and how to use it.

12:30-14:00, Lunch Break

14:00-14:55, Design Faust DSPs with a Web-based Graph Editor

Shihong Ren (UJM -- Saint-Etienne, France)

JSPatcher is a web application in development that can be used to design and edit DSP algorithms graphically with the Faust compiler, and test them directly in the web browser. The author will firstly present the motivation and the development approach of the application, then a demonstration will be made to clarify some usage details in order to design a DSP, generate its Faust code and test it within the editor. Finally, a workshop is proposed to let the participants create DSPs using the editor through various examples.

15:00-15:55, Using Faust with VCV Rack

Stéphane Letz (GRAME-CNCM -- Lyon, France)

VCV Rack is virtual modular synthesizer, allowing thousands of separated developed modules to be connected in patches to synthesize and process sounds. A new faust2vcvrack script has been added in the Faust ecosystem to easily generate ready-to-use monophonic and polyphonic modules, controlled by VCV and MIDI signals using the appropriate metadata. The programmable VCV Prototype module has recently been extended so that Faust DSP programs can be edited and compiled on the fly. Various examples showing the 2 approaches will be demonstrated.

[Workshop Instructions]

16:00-16:55, Embedded Programming with the Daisy Patch

Andrew Ikenberry (Electrosmith, USA)

This workshop will walk through the process of creating programs for the Daisy Patch Eurorack module. We will make a Karplus-Strong physical-modeling voice, map knobs and CV inputs within our code, and flash the program to the Daisy Patch hardware for musical exploration. Firmware will be written in C++ using Electrosmith's libDaisy and DaisySP open source libraries, and flashed over USB using the Chrome web browser.

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Speakers

Max Bruckert

Electronic musician, computer music designer and sound engineer, Max Bruckert writes musics and softwares for contemporary music and live performances (dance and modern circus). He uses object-oriented softwares such as MaxMsp or Reaktor associated to home-made instruments, modular synthesizers and various sensors to elaborate his ideas or help others achieve theirs. He also teaches signal processing and sound-design in university and art schools. He has been collaborating with Grame CNCM for several years now as a technical and artistic actor.

Andrew Ikenberry

Andrew Ikenberry is an electronic instrument designer. As founder of the music tech companies 2hp, Qu-Bit, and Electrosmith he has been responsible for the release of more than 100 synthesizer products which continue to be used by some of the top composers and sound designers in the industry. Prior to this role, he studied Electronic Production and Design at the Berklee College of Music.

Stéphane Letz

Stéphane Letz is a full-time researcher at GRAME -- Centre National de Création Musicale in Lyon (France). He is the author and co-author of many music software, in particular the Jack2 low latency audio server. His current research work focuses on the Faust compiler and its eco-system.

Making Sound Machines: Enrica Gissel & Roland Nebe

Making Sound Machines, Enrica Gissel and Roland Nebe, are a duo of makers from Düsseldorf. They build kits, modules and DIY projects as well as their own circuitry, and use the projects they have built to make music.
Enrica studied Audio Engineering in Düsseldorf and holds a Masters degree in Electronic Engineering. She develops music hardware as a day job and tinkers with her own designs by night. Roland is an artist, musician and composer from Düsseldorf, with an academic background as a classical performer and media producer. Working with HAUSCHKA Volker Bertelmann, he has contributed to numerous motion picture soundtracks including the Academy Award-nominated score for Lion. Together with Andreas Huck, he runs WARPED TYPE, a group of graphic moving imagemakers creating live visuals and producing artistic video content for symphonic orchestras, classical ensembles and composers all over Europe.

Romain Michon

Romain Michon is a full-time researcher at GRAME -- Centre National de Création Musicale in Lyon (France). He has been involved in the development of the Faust programming language since 2008 and he's now part of the core Faust development team at GRAME. Beside that, Romain's research interests involve embedded systems for real-time audio processing, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), and physical modeling of musical instruments.

Yann Orlarey

Yann Orlarey is currently the scientific director of GRAME -- Centre National de Création Musicale in Lyon (France). His research work focuses on the design and implementation of programming languages for musical and sound creation, with a particular interest in lambda-calculus, functional programming, and real-time and compilation techniques. Yann Orlarey and his colleagues at Grame are the designers of Faust (Functional Audio Stream), a functional programming language for sound synthesis and audio processing with a strong focus on the design of synthesizers, musical instruments, audio effects, etc.

Shihong Ren

Shihong Ren is a composer/researcher in computer music. He entered the Conservatoire national supérieur musique et danse de Lyon in 2011 in the electroacoustic composition class and graduated in 2016 as the youngest DNSPM and Master Degree owner in the composition major. He got the Artist Diploma in 2018 and followed the cursus of composition in IRCAM in the same year. He attended an internship at GRAME-CNCM (Lyon, France) in 2019.

Registration/Contact

Participants must register online: PAW 2020 REGISTRATION . Registration is free in the limit of 90 participants.

Feel free to write your questions to paw_at_grame_dot_fr.