I know I say this every month, but it’s been an amazing and inspiring month.
Mylar Melodies released his 50-minute Workshop System demo video. Making this was a long and surprisingly emotional process for both of us. It is by far the best introduction to the Workshop System (yet). And with 20k views and hundreds of nice comments, it’s out in the world. Thank you, Mr Mylar. (And yes, the 910 pitch/delay card he uses is coming, but no, I’m not sure when.)
Next week in London: White Noise have borrowed the loan set of Workshop Systems for their first-ever workshop series: “You will explore sound in a creative way. This is not a technical course, but an experiment… a safe, friendly, and supportive environment. No pressure to succeed—just the freedom to fail.” The workshops are on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th July, £25 for each full day, at the beautiful Brompton Cemetery Chapel, co-hosted by Dyski alumni Georgie West, Sonnie Carlebach and Ronnie Deleen. Full details of the workshops are here - please pass this on to a friend who might enjoy it.
I made a joke about Teenage Engineering and people took it very seriously.
Beta test request: If you have a Workshop System, and you use Windows and MIDI, please drop me a line and I’ll send you a new version of the MIDI card which might solve problems some people have had with Windows.
Last month I spent two phenomenal days at the BRIT School in South London (alumni: Amy Winehouse, Imogen Heap, FKA Twigs, Black Midi, Kae Tempest, etc etc). Day 1 was a miniature Dyski workshop - blind sketching, sine wave exercises, collaboration, noise, lots of laughter. Everyone went extremely deep extremely fast. Day 2 was listening to tracks they’d made with the systems: UK Garage, Eno-esque ambient, gritty breaks. Such a thrill to see the Workshop Systems being used like this. Thanks to David, Chris and Drew for your support. If you’d like to do something like this, get in touch.
Patch The Random is a 200+ page ring bound book of completely random patches for the Workshop System, designed and produced by Oliver / Divmod. These random patches are a surprisingly mind-bending way to escape habits and loops, helping you reconsider assumptions you have about how the system should or could be used. The Second Edition is out now, with an improved (slightly less silly) randomisation system. It’s available worldwide in print here, or as a PDF from the Discord server (login required).
The first Workshop Discord online Meetup happened last week organised by BenjaminReily: “Around 10 people turned up from all over the world, we chatted about programming, music and projects. A work-in-progress card was demoed, music was played and new ideas bounced around. It was a wonderful opportunity to put faces to names and get to know other Workshop users. Hopefully it can be a regular thing, maybe monthly. Meetups will be posted in the general discord channel and the events tab. All are welcome, so keep an eye out if you're interested and join us next time.” If you’re not yet on the Discord you can join here.
The first Workshop Workshop: five brave souls came to Thonk HQ, some with no soldering experience at all. They all left with fully working systems, only a few hours later than we’d expected. If you’re part of a local modular meetup and can find 5-10 people who want to buy Workshop Systems, I’ll come down to help you build them.
Finally, more radio experiments: Prep for the Radio Music: Field recording from the ether workshop in Cornwall on November 2-6, 2025 continues. I’m delighted that Shortwave Collective will be joining us to build open wave-receivers, and I’ve been trying to make my Workshop System sound like an AM Radio (it ended up sounding like a Star Wars communication droid).
Thanks for reading, see you next month,
Tom