Techno for Luddites

Linux Audio Mini-Conf @ LCA2005
Tuesday 19 April

The highlight of my week was attending the Linux Audio Mini-Conf in Canberra on Tuesday. I wasn't really sure whether we'd make it till the last minute. The car died a few days ago, the plane fare was too high, and bus or train seemed too painful. Luckily, in a friend's borrowed car, we made it onto the F5 Freeway.

We arrived at ANU campus, wandering around for a while asking directions. Running late after stopping for a greasy service station breakfast en route, we caught the tail-end of the Linux audio demos outlining software like JACK, Ardour and Hydrogen. Cause the lecture theatre was packed, I loitered around the main building, noticing a throng of Linux enthusiasts hacking away on their laptops. I carried mine around as some form of validation I think, even though I didn't use it because I'd forgotten to get a wireless card.

The next speaker was Erik de Castro Lopo, telling us about his sample rate converter - Secret Rabbit Code. Having worked at Fairlight on the Fairlight MFX, Erik now applies his talents to the open source world - and we can all afford to use his algorithms.

Dave Robillard demonstrated his Om modular synth, which showed a lot of potential as a live tool, and I'll definitely be looking into getting it going - now that I know the Nord too well. I need something unexpected where sounds can be built from scratch.

One of the main reasons I wanted to come along was to see Simon Burton show his Hypersense technology - these USB sensors that fit on your fingers, allowing you to control SuperCollider, opening up the performance avenues for computer music. I've been looking for some new laptop interfaces, to get away from using the synth and mouse live. According to Simon, the kits are quite cheap to assemble. I was lost for the rest of the lecture and was wishing I new a bit more programming terminology, given that I rely on graphical interfaces to get around Linux audio.

After a mentally challenging day, we played at the Toast Bar with Paul Wayper, Alex, Simon and Chris McCormick. Thanks to Simon for organising this, as it's the most fun gig we've had in a while. Meeting and observing all these great performers and developers has inspired me to get back in the studio and keep chipping away at the album I started when? Almost 2 years ago.

posted by deprogram @ 10:09 AM

I recently came across a bit of spam that sparked my interest with the words 'Croatian keyboardist.' I followed the link to Belinda Bedekovic's site. Her performances are described as electric, sometimes even leading to states of audience euphoria. Described as "the fastest finger on the remote keyboard in the field of pop music", Belinda's site cannot be overlooked;

http://www.belindabedekovic.com/

As I watched a video of her stage show, it got me thinking; had my parents not migrated to Australia all those many years ago, and I had been born and reared in my ancestral homeland, could I have turned out like this?

posted by deprogram @ 12:24 PM