SoundLab Play Space: The Amazing AlphaSphere

One of my favourite instruments from the SoundLab has been the AlphaSphere. Apart from being a truly beautiful piece of hardware it is also an amazing device for getting people to try out making a sound. It really is astoundingly good at getting people who have never played any kind of musical instrument ever, to try out making music.

For musicians it is a joy to use. It is amazingly configurable and really straightforward. But of course there's more coming. You knew I was going to say that right? I can't say what, but there are good things coming to AlphaSphere soon and I'm excited about them. As soon as I can tell you about what's coming, of course I will, but for now I'll say that it'll fit well with the kinds of things that get covered on Palm Sounds.

More soon ...

Mr Concretedog posts about the SoundLab Play Space

A nice post from good friend Mr Concretedog about our SoundLab Play Space at NESTA last week. It was pretty awesome, and so is this post from Jo.

SoundLab Play Space: Ototo

You probably already know that I'm a big fan of Dentaku's Ototo board. I've been using the Ototo since I got mine from their Kickstarter campaign. I think it's a really interesting way of making music. It's versatile and simple to use, and it's battery powered!

Whilst you'll often see an Ototo used with fruit (a bit like we have it set up here), that really doesn't do justice to the hardware. The board can be connected to a wide variety of things, but in my view where it excels is in the use of its sensors.

I've got most, if not all the sensors that Ototo comes with now, but I have to say that using these makes it a really interesting device for trying out ideas.

Sadly we didn't have any sensors to use at the Play Space, but even so it went down very well indeed.

SoundLab Play Space: School of Noise

School of Noise were a real find. I only met them about a fortnight before the Play Space event but they were so awesome we had to have them along for the day, and luckily, they could make it.

They brought a huge array of equipment with them from littleBits to Ototo to pedals and more. They're stuff was brilliant and what they do is incredible.

It's strange as I missed seeing School of Noise at WOMAD this year. They ran a workshop for kids using some of the gear you can see above. I wish I'd got a chance to be at that. But even so, it was great to have them at the Play Space.

From what I could see, and the brief feedback I got, they went down a storm. I'm looking forward to working with them a bit more in the future. Stay tuned for that!

If you want to know more about the School of Noise then check their web site here.

SoundLab Play Space: LoopTree

I asked LoopTree to come along to the SoundLab Play Space and was so happy that they said yes. I'd never met Ed from Coding Cod Ltd (the makers of LoopTree), but now that I have I can tell you that he's an awesome guy and was a real star at the Play Space.

LoopTree seemed to have a constant stream of people having a play with looping, including Chris who came back 5 times I think!

Ed and LoopTree were a part of our App Zone, which we had to slightly rename the Apple App Zone as it turns out that there are no promo codes for Google Android apps! I only found that out recently and was quite surprised to be honest. That's probably a discussion for a different day anyway.

The App Zone ended up being a very busy space in the end, and we managed to give out a huge number of promo codes for apps which were very generously given to us by kind developers. I'll be thanking each of you in separate posts.

However, for now, I'd like to say a big thank you to Ed for his app, for coming along to SoundLab's Play Space and for being awesome. I really hope that both I and Heart n Soul get the chance to work with you again.

If you don't know LoopTree, then check it out on the app store. Think of it as a combination between Samplr and Loopy. What's more, it's on sale at the moment, and down from $11.99 to $6.99.

SoundLab Play Space: So, Why NESTA?

It occurred to me not everyone would know either who NESTA are, nor why it was a good place for the SoundLab Project to be.

Well the SoundLab project itself was made up of a number of organisations and was funded by NESTA (The National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts). So it made a lot of sense to have our event right there.

SoundLab Play Space: Making Sure that everyone knows what everything is

Not only was it a big day overall, but it we had a lot of people, staff, volunteers and people from all the technology companies we'd invited for the day. So it was important to make sure that everyone knew who was where and what needed doing where etc.

This was our chat space where Justin had a series of interesting talks with a wide range of people including NESTA's Tim Plyming, an Tim Exile as well.

This was our serious play space which was where you could come up and play on instruments in a band that sounded great irrespective of your musical experience or expertise. It took a long time to get the pop up band (as we call it) working the way we wanted it, but now that it is it's a great way to get almost anyone up and enjoying making a sound very quickly.

Getting set up for the SoundLab Play Space

The Play Space was a big event. We had a lot of different technology companies there and a lot of different performances talks and more. It was big. Big and complicated too, but it was worth it.

Just above you can see School of Noise (expect to hear a lot about them from me in the coming weeks) getting set up. They had some amazing gear with them, from littleBits to Ototo to MFOS, to coconuts (yes you read that correctly). More of them soon enough though.

This was our tech zone or market place, depending on who you were talking to, and, you might remember the gentlemen from Studio Amplify who were at the event and showing NOiZE.

And here's Mr Concretedog who came down to help on the day with Bare Conductive Pads and lots more besides.

On the other side of that space we had SubPac with their awesome speaker systems. Again, more of them soon enough.

Expect some stuff about the SoundLab Play Space

I mentioned yesterday that I was going to start posting a load of stuff about the SoundLab Play Space event that happened on Wednesday of this week, but I didn't get around to it and so it didn't happen.

Today is going to be different, and, at the very least I'll be posting a few things about the day and how it went.

The first couple of pictures above were just the entry space to where we were holding the event at NESTA's offices. In fact they're pretty nice offices and a very good location, so we were lucky to be able to use the venue.

This was our signage directing people around the space itself.

So that's just a starter, there'll be more on here today showing how the event went and also who was there and what they were showing.

SoundLab Play Space Shout Out: Bare Conductive

I've been a fan of Bare Conductive's TouchBoard for a long time, even though I'm not sure that a lot of people get how it can be used in a musical context. I think it has a really interesting set of possibilities for use in all kinds of musical contexts, and hopefully we'll be showing some of these at the SoundLab Play Space on Wednesday.

So if you're coming along to the Play Space on Wednesday then take a look at what's possible using the TouchBoard.

SoundLab Play Space Shout Out: Coding Cod

Many of you will already know the excellent LoopTree from Coding Cod, but what you won't know is that Coding Cod will be joining me at the SoundLab Play Space this Wednesday to show off their app to a wide and diverse audience of musicians and educators.

It's great to have people like these guys who are happy to help out at important events like the play space. I'm really looking forward to it and to meeting them for the first time too.

SoundLab Play Space Shout Out: Dentaku

I'm a big fan of Dentaku since I first of them and they started their Kickstarter campaign. We've had them work with us before at Heart n Soul at the 2014 Beautiful Octopus Club, so it's great to have them back for next week's SoundLab Play Space.

The Ototo is such a useful device and so much fun to play with. You can do pretty much anything with it. So if you're coming along on the 25th then you've got a real treat in store for you with Ototo from Dentaku.

SoundLab Play Space Shout Out: Audanika

I wanted to take a little opportunity to say a thank you to some of the firms who are supporting the SoundLab Play Space next week.

Audanika have been really generous in providing us with codes for our App Space. Audanika have given us codes for SoundPrism Pro, SoundPrism Electro, and SoundPrism Electro Mini, all of which are excellent apps to help people to start to make music and so they fit really well with a project like SoundLab.

I've been a fan of SoundPrism Pro since the day it came out, and I still am, it's such an expressive instrument, and you can really loose hours just playing with it. So I'm looking forward to sharing it with the audience at the SoundLab Play Space next week, and once again, a massive thank you to Audanika for supporting us.

If you're looking for something to do today ...

And also if you're in London then it would be worth taking a look at Music Production Expo. Which I went to last year and plan to go again this year (probably tomorrow though).

There are some really good seminars and a load of very good companies exhibiting there too. If it's anything like last year I expect there'll be some good deals to be had at the event too.

Here's a reminder for the SoundLab Play Space on the 25th of November ...

SoundLab is going a massive event at NESTA on the 25th of November. You can find the full details here.

If you're involved in music making, teaching, facilitating, or involved with people with learning disabilities and you're around London on the 25th of November, then sign up for the event here.

Let me know if you're going to be there.

You remember SoundLab? Well now we're doing this ...

SoundLab is going a massive event at NESTA on the 25th of November. You can find the full details here.

If you're involved in music making, teaching, facilitating, or involved with people with learning disabilities and you're around London on the 25th of November, then sign up for the event here.

Let me know if you're going to be there.

SoundLab will be back at the Beautiful Octopus Club this Friday

You might remember the project I've been involved with for some time, SoundLab. Well we're going to be back at the Royal Festival Hall this Friday as a part of the Beautiful Octopus Club.

If you're around in London this Friday then please come along and say hello. If you're wondering what SoundLab is about, then take a look at this ...



You can find photos of last year's BOC here. Details of the event are here at the Heart n Soul web site.

If you'd like to know more about Heart n Soul, then take a look at this video ...



And if you like all of that then you might want to take a look at this post too.

What are we expecting on the 9th of September?

The other day I mentioned the news that Apple are having their autumn event on the 9th of September. Just over a week away from now. So what are we expecting? What good stuff is going to come out? Will it be earth shattering or simply more of the same?

There have been lots of rumours about what the event will bring. Namely ...

• A new Apple TV
• An app store for Apple TV
• Siri for Apple TV
• iOS9
• iPhone 6S and 6S+
• Force touch on the new iPhones

Did I miss anything? For me, the only really interesting thing for me would be force touch on the new iPhone. I think that could be really interesting for music making. I think it could bring a lot of possibilities for apps and expressivity.

As for iOS9, that brings us the possibility of audio units for our mobile DAW hosts. I'm not convinced as yet that this is a good thing. My concern is that we'll just be flooded with loads of little effects apps that won't make a big difference. Time will tell.

Finally, and not related to mobile music I'd be interested to see where the Apple TV goes, if indeed that is something that does come about. I never found the existing Apple TV too much use, so it would be good to see a bit of hardware that was a bit more worthwhile.

MIDI HACK 2 coming to Berlin

Looks like fun if the last one was anything to go by. Details here.

Save the date ... E&C Mini Maker Faire returns this year

Save the date: Saturday, 19th September 2015, 10:00-18:00 Elephant & Castle Mini Maker Faire returns for its 3rd year.
— E&C Mini Maker Faire (@MakerFaireEC) February 27, 2015