Workshop System × 64 Speakers × Lasers
Huddersfield, Krell, field recordings, magic and another talking mega-card
I’m writing from Toronto, where it’s -10°C outside. Sound Maps 3 starts tomorrow, five days of Workshop Systems, graphic scores and field recordings on an island in Lake Ontario. Last week I was in Huddersfield for the Electric Spring festival, watching an ensemble of eight systems played through a 64-loudspeaker immersive sound system and joining Chris Johnson to talk at the Creative Coding Symposium. Videos soon. Chris’s talk was a reminder how much inspiring and mind-bending work is happening on the coding side, with new program cards appearing every few days.
BUY a system: Kits from Thonk, Exploding Shed, Perfect Circuit: Assembled from Thonk, Perfect Circuit, Signal Sounds, SchenidersLaden, SchneidersKeller.
TRY a system: Free amazing virtual Workshop System in your browser, or in person at SchneidersKeller in London and Perfect Circuit in LA.
I love that John T made a clear acrylic panel for his Workshop System with LED edge lighting that will (of course) eventually be sound responsive. If you want to try something like this, I’m always happy to share the necessary design files.
New program cards and updates:
If you haven’t yet used your blank card yet, this little video explains the process (but keep reading for an even easier way to do it).
Krell from Benjamin Reily is a great helper for recreating the 1950s sci-fi inspired Krell patch by Todd Barton. Nice YouTube demo from Benjamin. This patch was developed using Dune’s Blackbird system, which lets you create complete cards using Lua, which most people find simpler than C++. Download Krell here.
Chord Organ, by Josh, is a recreation / reinvention of my old Chord Organ module, with loads more features. Here’s a quick hotel room clip of it in action. Download Chord Organ here.
Resonator by Johan got a huge update with a new web editor to set chord progressions. Download Resonator here.
The default cards all got minor updates this month - you can overwrite these like any other card:
Reverb+: Slightly improved sound, MIDI hosting, lots of small fixes. Worth it if you haven’t upgraded for a few months. Download v1.4
MIDI: Small bugfixes to calibration, only really necessary if you’d had any troubles with tuning. Download v0.6.
Turing Machine. Small tuning fixes this time, but a big upgrade (clock in!) if you got your system six months ago and haven’t yet upgraded. Download v1.5.3
The other way to write Program Cards. Try this if you don’t like taking off the knob on Computer (it can be fiddly). While connected by USB, remove the program card and press reset or cycle power with an empty slot. You’ll see an RPI-RP2 folder appear on your desktop. Now, insert the card you want to write. Do not press the little button! Drop the .uf2 file onto the folder, and it should write as normal. Magic. (Thanks Dune for discovering this)
The new Why We Bleep is out, talking about Synclaviers, vibe coding, a mysterious new touchplate object, small speakers, Workshop Workshops and church organs with Mylar Melodies and Tim Exile.
Workshop System × Lasers: planet-safe shared this lovely hypnotic clip of a WS running Ruiyang Wang’s wonderful Trace card driving a multi-coloured laser.
A minimal tracker thing: tracker.musicthing.co.uk works in your browser and is maybe a cross between live coding and a tracker, with an FM sound engine. It can send out USB MIDI that will work on the Workshop System. I spent a couple of days vibe coding this as a way to think about different types of sequencers (the kind of thing that a synthesiser designer is supposed to do, I think). I won’t say much more to see if it’s at all intuitive. Let me know what you think. The help system is reasonably useful - try tutorial or euclid help.
Flux is a work in progress mega-card from Vincent Maurer, with polyphonic midi synth engines and effects. And, like utility pair, it talks. You can follow his development in the Discord, or download a recent version here.
Upcoming events:
Cornwall: 13–15th March: There’s still a place left at Loula Yorke’s Weekend Modular residency, which will have a set of Workshop Systems available for use.
Online: 15th March: The date isn’t confirmed, but follow the Meetups channel in Discord to find out about the next voice/video meetup.
London: 21st March: As part of the amazing Sun at Night festival, David Henckel will be leading a Workshop System Workshop at 4pm at St Giles Church in Camberwell.
London: 21-22nd March: Meanwhile, I’ll be across town at the London Synth & Pedal Expo (where I first met David a year ago) showing Workshop Systems and maybe some other things.
London: 27th March: Half-day Workshop System mini-festival at Spanners in Loughborough Junction, led by the brilliant Zheng Hao. Hands-on workshop (£5 entry) in the afternoon with a concert in the evening, including the excellent Thelma Rose. Details and tickets here.
Rotterdam: 28th March: I’ll be leading a full day build workshop at WORM — come, build, take away a working system, open to people with any level of soldering experience (including no experience). There are two €565 tickets left as I’m writing.
Den Bosch: 29th March: I’ll be at SynthForum Meeting 2026 at Willem Twee Studios in scenic s-Hertogenbosch, talking about my design process. Full details.
Stockholm: 9-12 April: I’ll be running a series of workshops at Elektronmusikstudion EMS, KMH Royal College of Music and KTH Royal Institute of Technology. More details to come.
Glasgow: 29th April: I’m doing a Workshop Workshop at Signal Sounds, keep an eye on their blog for details and tickets.
Berlin: 7-9th May: I’ll be at Superbooth with the Thonk gang,
If you want to borrow a set of Workshop Systems to host your own events (probably UK only), please get in touch.
Music being made with Workshop Systems this month:
Phil Durrant will playing WS a Cafe Oto twice this month. Here’s a great clip of him playing noisebox + Sheep. YouTube.
Really enjoying Bert Van A’s use of the new Flux program card here, randomness in an interesting way. YouTube
Klangsemble’s new piece Ett inre rum is “two takes from the WS - a guitar loop through Reverb+ and a cassette tape/flea market find through the ring mod” BandCamp.
On the subject of Krell patches, here’s Till Bovermann’s particularly itchy and noisy version for WS and MakeNoise 0-Coast. YouTube
That was quite a month, see you next time,
Tom