I/O Music Technology and Church of the Friendly Ghost Present...
Modular Synth Build Workshop / Meet & Greet + Performances @ the 2013 New Media Art & Sound Summit Festival
[ Friday - 6.14.2013 ]
[ Salvage Vanguard Theater ]
[ 2803 Manor Rd - Austin, TX ]
[ 5:30pm - 8:30pm ]
Free modular synth Meet & Greet / Show & Tell: bring your modular synth and headphones!
"If you’ve visited our table at a trade show, you’ve probably met Thomas Fang! Ross sat down with Thomas to talk about circuit bent furbies, noise music and his work with Synth Library Portland.
Are you curious about who actually works at 4ms Company? Over the next month we will be sharing interviews with our small team of employees, so stay tuned!"
"Performing 'Hound Dog,' by Elvis Presley. Toy bent by Thomas Fang and Bret Rogers. Gristleizer design by Roy Gwinn, adapted by Chris Carter, adapted by Taylor Livingston, and built by Thomas Fang."
via Dr. Bleep (Bleep Labs) "Sunday, June 19th, 1-5pm, all ages, $10 donation toward supplies requested Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Rd., Austin, TX
New Media Art and Sound Summit and Artificial Music Machine present the fourth installment in a series of circuit bending events titled Get Bent! The afternoon will begin with a short presentation by Artificial Music Machine co-founder and sound artist Thomas Fang on the history and theory of circuit bending, defined as the creative short-circuiting of electronic devices that produce sounds. Background information.
The bulk of the event will consist of a hands-on workshop in which participants will modify electronic devices to produce new sounds. Soldering irons, wire, switches, potentiometers, and some devices will be provided, but attendees are encouraged to bring screwdrivers and inexpensive electronic toys to bend. Examples: small keyboards, Speak & Spell, Furby, Barbie karaoke machine, toy guitars, etc. No previous knowledge of electronics is required.
After the workshop, from 4-5pm, everyone with a device can plug in for an open jam session!
To ensure a space at this event, please RSVP by sending email to: thomas.fang@gmail.com [let them know you saw this on MATRIXSYNTH!]
Church of the Friendly Ghost presents the fifth annual NMASS (New Media Art and Sound Summit) from Thursday, June 13th until Saturday, June 15th, 2013! Concerts! Art Installations! Film screenings! Workshops!
Your contribution to this campaign underwrites the production of NMASS, paying for things such as artist travel, accommodation, equipment rentals, sound engineering, and venue costs. Your support is an investment in a creative summit that contributes to the unique cultural identity of our great city! 100% of admissions proceeds are paid to our featured guest artists and performers. NMASS and COTFG are completely volunteer-run. You can support this campaign even if you're not in Austin or can't attend the festival in person!
This year our festival will feature an entire day of programming and workshops based around modular synthesizers, an evening of cocktails and experimental film, a documentary film brunch and a sample of the most intriguing performers on the local, national and international new music, fringe and electronic scene. Three days all for a reasonable ticket price of $35! This is how the line up is shaping out so far:
Eurorack synth module building workshop with Super Synthesis and Delptronics* Modular synth meet and greet / show and tell, Thomas Fang, Daze of Heaven, Douglas Ferguson, Rick Reed, Atlanta-based sound designer and IDM wizard Richard Devine with visuals by SYMBOL. Experimental Response Cinema will present the films of Dallas artist Michael Morris and a program of local experimental filmakers, Chicago's Coppice will perform new material for prepared pump organ and tape procceses, Nick Hennies in a vibraphone and bass duo, The Austin premier of the film Conlon Nancarrow: Virtuoso of the Player Piano, Red Ox vs. Cinders, master of cassette tape destruction Jason Zeh, Argentinean electronic musician Nicolas Melmann will be presenting a live sound and video performance, a new installation by Sean O'neill and Clay Odom. Plus more artists and events are being added every day!
The day by day schedule is not fully laid out yet, but here's a sketch:
Thursday, June 13th
An evening of cocktails and experimental film projection and performance with artist Michael Morris and the film makers from the Experimental Response Cinema
Friday, June 14th
I/O Music Technology presents a modular synthesizer workshop, meet and greet, and modular synth performances: Thomas Fang, Daze of Heaven, Douglas Ferguson, Rick Reed, Richard Devine. These will be followed by an evening performance by Nicolas Melmann.
Saturday, June 15th
An afternoon brunch with a screening of the documentary Conlon Nancarrow: Virtuoso of the Player Piano, followed by performances by Nick Hennies, Red Ox vs. Cinders, Jason Zeh, Coppice and many more to be added soon!
*Friday's modular synthesizer workshop! Participants can choose to build one of several module kits offered by Delptronics and Super Synthesis, designed for the Eurorack format. There will be a fee for PCBs, panels, and components, but soldering stations and supplies will be provided, along with hands-on instruction, and you'll leave with a working synth module. Fee, available kits and RSVP information coming soon!
Church of the Friendly Ghost is a 100% volunteer-run nonprofit cultural arts organization headquartered in Austin, and founded in 2003. We operate under the sponsorship of Salvage Vanguard Theater, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with support from the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin, and the Texas Commission on the Arts. All contributions, other than ticket purchases, are federal tax deductible. Tax exempt status information available on request.
The full 3 day festival pass is just $35.00!
You can purchase that right here, right now by backing us at that level!"
A video overview of the Bradley Telcom Jitter and Hit Synthesizer: a semi modular piece of test equipment from the early 1970s. It was originally used by phone companies to test line impairments. Special thanks to Thomas Fang for providing both units and doing the overview for the video! Check out Fang's music here:
"The Bleep Drum + MIDI controlled by an Electribe EMX-1
Get your own MIDI controllable rad-fi drum machine at bleeplabs.com
Available fully built or as a kit.
The above is a playlist of performances for the event. You can find the full list below. You can use the player controls to skip around.
"13-16/11/2025
Gearing Space in 798 Art District, Beijing, China
Modular synthesizer live performance
Photographer: 包子
Camera operator: Tabriss, 千两道化,翰海, 孙太阳, Moy
Recording/Mastering: Ocicat
Video edit: @tamiX-tamiX
1st video features TONYLIGHT with the following:
'I’ve used a lot of synths over the years but this one is something different… it’s a strange instrument. It’s small, much smaller than it appears in photos: it is part synth, part drum machine, part multi-track sequencer. I’m still figuring it all out but initial impressions are that it’s very unpredictable and slightly unstable… but in a good way.'"
1. TONYLIGHT - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
2. Tatsuya Takahashi & Layne - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
3. Solar Bird - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
4. Ninando - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
5. Masayoshi Sakaguchi - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
6. HATAKEN - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
7. Linear Straight / Radical G - - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
8. Nagelluck - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
9. espinoza - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
10. Crystal Dolls aka Manuel - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
11. bunyi - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
12. お化け学 obakegaku & ÉON - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
13. Toyota Vangelis - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
14. Thomas Fang - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
15. Tangie - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
16. Randombrothers - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
17. Paul Tas - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
18. Melting - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
19. Alpha Decay - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
20. Ninando - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
21. Oykni - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
22. Making Sound Machines - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
23. Eric Schlappi - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
24. Ëgg - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
25. [Trailer] Modular Commune Festival Beijing 25
26. 隽皓 (CS_Star) - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
27. 泻火 - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
28. 昌平电 X 研究所 - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
29. 刘博雍 - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
30. Gia Wang - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
31. Jarrod Radnich - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
32. Huzz - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
33. Eddie Chen - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
34. Seven 九 - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
35. MCV - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
36. Nian YongXin - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
37. 王凯文 - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
38. 88pluto and Jah Young - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
39. Ayshém 艾闪 - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
40. Black Potion - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
41. acid.T - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
42. GUOFEI aka OSCPLLEX - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
43. daftcat & 于舒洋 - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
44. Erdna - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
45. Juju - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
46. Loop Fighter - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
47. 阿拉坦怪怪 - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
48. 周揚 - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
49. Li Yanzeng 李言增 - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
50. 呆呆鸟 - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
51. Noby_Owl 鸮鸣 - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
52. 肖雄文、张子博、凌诚、刘子汶 - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
53. Alan Ip - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
54. GXM - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
55. thruoutin - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
56. WEN LIANG 文亮 & Clouded5000郭大为 - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
57. GUAN - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
58. Vehement - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
59. Immortal Manifestation 遊仙 - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
60. J Stone - Modular Commune Festival Beijing 2025 (Vol.22)
No your eyes are not deceiving you, that is a blow torch. There was glass blowing at the event. I wish I could have been there in person, but I was there in spirit. I captured a few pics below, but be sure to see the full gallery here.
Pictured in order:
The ladies of East Side Glass Studio giving us a demo — at East Side Glass Studio.
MATRIXSYNTH ala The PACKRAT (those of you that have "the PAKRAT sampler" will understand).
