Friday 21 May 2010

Scribble New Media Orchestra


The Scribble New Media Orchestra has been put together by Music Links in Kendal, Cumbria. Using a whole range of musical instruments, sessions are open to 13 to 18 year olds with the aim to have fun and make music. The Orchestra includes an Apollo Ensemble kit including the Ensemble16 and a range of switches, helping make music accessible to all abilities.

The project also makes use of the Mobile Interactive Lighting and Sound system designed in collaboration with KidsOut.

The picture (courtesy of the Westmorland Gazette) shows students from Sandgate School playing with the equipment - you can read the full story in this news article from the Westmorland Gazette.

Friday 14 May 2010

IET Music Technology - Webcast


Music Technology Now and in the Future

David M Howard

Any arbitrary sound can be created using technology and of course, electronically created sounds can be used to make music. "Connecting" the player, composer or user into the sound creation system involves the provision of an interface with which a musician can make music in a performance situation. This lecture will consider the needs of the musician in terms of both sound creation, sound modification and sound real-time control and it will illustrate this with interfaces from the past and present as well as some that might well be seen in the future.

Update
You can see the Ensemble in action at the following points during the lecture:
  • 29min - Use of the Dice 
  • 31min - Ensemble connect with four switches used to play drum sounds
  • 33min - Dice playing chords with a slider connected to the Ensemble Hub
  • 41min - Dice used to control a Digitech Vocalist over MIDI
  • 43min - Single switch playing chords in a sequence, controlling the Digitech 

Tuesday 11 May 2010

Music Technology now and in the future

The Apollo Ensemble will be making a guest appearance in the IET Young Professionals Event in London tomorrow night, as part of Professor David Howard's lecture 'Music technology now and in the future'.

David will be using the new EnsembleHub, together with an Ensemble Connect and Dice sensor, to allow the audience to join in with some demonstrations.

This marks the beginning of a long term collaboration with the University of York Department of Electronics, which will the see the Ensemble being introduced into the new BSc Music Technology course from September 2010.

The event kicks off at 6pm at Imperial College, London with a live webcast taking place on the IET website.