Workshop Notes: Eurorack Computer sold out in two days
Plus gigs and workshops and brilliant new program cards
I’m writing from Rotterdam Centraal after from a series of build workshop at the incredible WORM arts centre. March has been an intense and wonderful month in Workshop System Land: Events in multiple continents and London boroughs, a feature-length DivKid video, incredible new community-written program cards and the biggest program card launch yet.
You can now buy a separate Workshop Computer kit for Eurorack Systems. It’s exactly the same as the Computer in the Workshop System and runs the same Program Cards. The first batch sold out in two days, but the Workshop Computer DIY kit is back in stock at Thonk.
If you’re in London or the South East on 25th April you can build a Workshop Computer with me in a Saturday afternoon DIY workshop with SynthShed.
The other big news is the RYK Program Card Pack: Back in June 2025, Mylar Melodies made his epic video about the Workshop System. At 37 minutes, he pulls out prototype card called called 910. It’s a pitch shifting delay based on the Eventide H910, the device that Tony Visconti told David Bowie & Brian Eno “It fucks with the fabric of time.” That card was made by Jake Knight from the incredible RYK Modular, Jake has now released a beautifully programmed, designed and packaged set of cards for the Workshop System. Available at: Thonk £40+vat and Perfect Circuit $69.99.
B77 is an audio recorder: record around 1.5 minutes of mono sound onto two separate tracks. Audio is stored on the card. (I assumed something like this was impossible, turns out it isn’t)
355 is a pitch tracker - turn whistling, singing, or monophonic guitar into a synth controller with V/Oct pitch output, an envelope follower and a built-in oscillator.
350 is a classic 14-band Vocoder with an optional internal 4-note polyphonic carrier synth.
910 is a pitched delay has a continuously variable range of ±1 octave for creating harmonised pitch shifting to wild cascading pitched delays,
I was blown away by this 90-minute video by DivKid full of wonderfully musical demos of a big range of program cards, including: Sheep, RYK 910, RYK 350, Simple MIDI, Reverb+, RYK B77, Backyard Rain and Utility Pair, also known as the GOD LEVEL UBER CARD.
Dyski Sound Maps Residency in Canada was a joy: 18 people in a vast arts centre on Toronto Island in -14° using Workshop Systems, gongs, graphic scores, field recordings, singing, plants and guitars(?). Dune Desormeaux ran a Program Card Masterclass, captured in this video, and created Enhance, one of the most fun cards I’ve yet seen - discord link to try the beta version. Find out about future Dyski events.
New program cards and updates:
Knots is an extremely deep oscillator with multiple ‘engines’: Download it here, or read Jeff’s excellent write up about the AI+human dev process.
Siren is a huge drone oscillator inspired by the extremly hip Forge TME Vhikk X. Download it here.
Discord updates: Inspired by _lucyinthesky and DivKid, the Discord now has a big Tips & Tricks section containing numerous how to guides, from patching feedback to finding the hidden attenuator to coding with AI. There’s also now a discussion area for each program card.
Patch tip: I’m often asked how to use the Voltages section. It’s a tiny sort-of keyboard roughtly the size of my thumb. My favourite patch is this: Create a dense chaotic patch. Send the four voltages to points in that patch. Press one button and tune the whole patch so it sounds good. Then press another button and the whole thing falls apart. Here’s the patch, it’s much more fun than it sounds!
Upcoming events:
London: 5 April: Phil Durrant will be playing his Workshop System at Cafe Oto.
Stockholm: 9-12 April: I’m running a series of workshops and seminars over four days in Stockholm, many of which are free to attend. Full details at EMS.
London 25th April: I’m hosting a Workshop Computer DIY build afternoon with SynthShed in Croydon, a few places still available: Details and booking.
Glasgow: 29th April: I’ll be talking about the Workshop System at Signal Sounds from 7pm: Full details here.
Berlin: 7-9th May: I’ll be at Superbooth with the Thonk gang.
Cornwall: 22-24 May: Jake from RYK is hosting a Dyski Weekend Modular residential workshop (the first one with Loula Yorke looked fantastic), with Workshop Systems on hand to play. Bookings.
Yorkshire: 3–5 July: Mylar Melodies is hosting the first Dyski Weekend Modular workshop in Yorkshire. Bookings.
If you want to borrow a set of Workshop Systems to host your own events, please get in touch.
Music being made with Workshop Systems this month:
I enjoyed this fantastically sinister short film from Pete.
MicroIndie’s rather less sinister EP ‘Knob per Function’.
Ben’s Workshop Feedback Studies album continues to grow.
Femtito, by Klangsemble is drums & self-sampling Workshop System.
The Backyard Rain card continues to inspire, here’s a trip-hop-ish piece by HyperMelody.
A quick Digitakt & Workshop System jam from Rocky.
Finally here’s Thelma Rose singing and jamming with the WS as she prepared for the gig at Spanners in Brixton last week.
If you’re looking for inspiration to record yourself, Chris’s Score Generator looks very promising.
See you next month,
Tom
