Pure Data Synthesizer workshop: Copy paste your own Minimoog model D!

DATE: October 27th–30th, 5–8pm
DURATION: 12 hours
MENTOR: Servando Barreiro
LOCATION: Ljudmila, Rimska 8, Ljubljana

About the workshop

In this workshop, among other more advanced things, the attendants are going to learn the basic building blocks of classic synthesizers, in our case that will be a Minimoog model D, and interconnect between them in a modular fashion.

The first of this series of cloned synths was the beautiful and simple Moog Werkstatt desktop portable synth, which is an experimental limited edition kit. As its name indicates, this is a perfect synth to hack, improve, modify and also to learn about basic "clean" analogue subtractive synthesis. This synth it´s simple yet quite powerful and has a very nice sound, it also has many many different possibilities of ¨hacks¨ which I will suggest or explain under request during the workshop.

Additional possibilities of this workshop are to build a physical interface using an arduino board and/or making a totally stand- alone hardware synth using a Raspberry Pi model B or greater embedded computer (like Odroid, Udoo, etc..) and a midi interface or a DIY interface. Also we could use any touch OSC enabled tablet/phone to tweak the parameters of the synth, create a collaborative networked performance or use a USB joystick to create a playful sonic controller. Just choose your tools and be ready to oscillate!!

Workshop structure:

• Day 1: Basics of PD // Ready made synth and abstractions presentation - examples // Cloning the synth
• Day 2: More cloning - we proceed to analyse/recreate the block diagram of the synth, writing it together step-by-step in Pd while commenting, asking, suggesting and joking about it
• Day 3: Hacking the patch // Integrating the patch into a sequencer/mixer // ~ We will integrate the synth in a ready made environment called serquence where it's possible to sequence the synth, play it using the computer keys, apply effects, use as many instances of the synth as your computer can manage, mix that sound with other sounds, convert a monosynth into a polysynth and also record anything you want with awesome quality
• Day 4: Troubleshooting // Q&A // Playing together // More hacking // Optional: Wireless remote control - hack the patches and make them run in a Raspberry Pi or on other platforms

Registration & Requirements

Bring your laptop with already installed Pd-extended & headphones. Optionally you can also bring OSC enabled tablet/phones, small Midi controllers, DIY controllers or even an USB joystick/ wiimote, leapmotion, RaspPi etc..

Contribution for 4-day workshop (12 hours) is 10 €. Workshop will be in English language, the number of participants is limited to 12, so please apply/announce yourself to: delavnica@ljudmila.org. Newbies are welcome.