The Workshop System launched at the very end of November 2024. Since then, many exciting things have happened.
Suren played a short set with a Workshop System and an old Kaoss Pad KP3 at Factory Setting in South East London. I loved it, even if I found the live card swapping moment slightly terrifying.
If you bought a Workshop System Kit but haven’t put it together yet, do get in touch if you need any advice, support or help. I might run an online build workshop if that would be useful.
Every day during December Chris created a new program card with his extraordinary Utility Pair project, which Peter wrote up on Create Digital Music. It’s an incredible collection of new ways to use the Computer. Here’s an hour of my abstract Delay+Delay noodling. If you have a Workshop System but need more blank program cards, there are a few still left here.
Sound Maps is back. The Workshop System was designed for this musical retreat (graphic scores + field recording + great food), in Cornwall last April, and I’ll be back at Calamansac House at the end of April. I think there are still a couple of places left, you can find more here.
Sound Maps alumni Sara Wolff has scored her first short film, Carrot Cake, using “field recordings, strings, synths (including the Workshop System) and lots of vocals”. The world premiere is at my local cinema in South East London, but is already sold out.
Backyard Rain is the coziest program card yet, developed by Brian Dorsey: The card plays ambience which was recorded in Brian’s backyard in Seattle on a rainy night in June 2023, seamlessly crossfading between different intensities. This is exactly the kind of thing I hoped people would make for Computer, here’s a quick demo.
Goldfish is a fantastic looper / sequencer card for the Workshop System, designed in a very modular or patchy way. It turns the WS into a different instrument - a fresh core that suggests new uses for the analogue bits. (Another nice demo from Al)
The Random Patch Generator. While developing the Workshop System I wrote a random patch generator in Python with very simple rules: It understands inputs and outputs, and that modules have to be patched to the output mixer. Beyond that it has no preconceptions about audio vs CV, filters vs oscillators. I talk about it more here. The code is on the Discord, and people seem to enjoy working with it; here’s a series of random patches being played by StoneWare, and Divmod is now developing a physical book of 200 random patches to try.
Finally, if you have a long journey to fill, there is lots of Workshop System chat and philosophy (!) in the latest Why We Bleep podcast with Mylar Melodies.
I’m travelling for most of February, but will post again in late March, with dates and details of Workshop System Batch 2. Please get in touch if you have anything you’d like to share.
Download work in progress program cards here at the Workshop Computer Github.
Join the waitlist for the next batch of Workshop Systems here.