A short impression of the installation / live visuals I did last weekend (8. November 2014).

Live-Coding, new tools, visuals, music. Another super-active and rewarding month full of tinkering and joy.

Railscamp
There were lots of smaller things going on in October. For example the Railscamp, an event from Rubyists for Rubyists, where I learned about drawing, Arduino and MIDI, skating and other cool stuff, you would not expect from a developer-conference.

Astropeiler
At Dingfabrik we had another Repair Cafe and made an one-day travel to an old radio-telescope, that is still active, the so called Astropeiler. I wrote a review in the Dingfabrik-Blog.

Sonic Pi
The live-coding environment Sonic Pi was released in this month. What an awesome tool for live-coding music. This is the very first tune I made with Sonic Pi:

Next I made a videocast explaining how to sync threads in Sonic Pi.

Drehbar
The people at Digitac e.V. in Aachen organized another “Drehbar”. This is where handselected people meet to live-improvise music in front of an audience. The session was really good and we recoded it as well. Besides the recording, we had a good debate about playing electronic music live and skills mature as well. Expect more in the future!

Makers-meetup for Kids
At Dingfabrik we had a meetup of makers and pedagogues. We had lots of great talks and project-pitches about, how to get kinds and young grown-ups into the “making of things”, like you do in a FabLab or a Makerspace. It was an awesome day with highly motivated people. The project will continue also in 2015 and we hope to make the first workshops with kids real soon.

Make the game
I became a “technical assistant” at the project “Make the Game“. It’s a media-art project for kids, where they really make a game, involving storytelling, programming and performance.

Connect @nodepond
Connect to get more recent updates on everything I make. Like me on Facebook or follow me on twitter @nodepond.

I got often asked, if you can code music on the fly without stopping the output. The short answer ist: yes. Use use threads to sync single channels and defines to dynamically overwrite single sound-commands.

In fact, you’ll need a little code-overhead, but once you mastered this technique, live improvisation of live-coded music is possible. I made this video-screencast, that shows how to do it! Feel free to share.

Live-Coding, new tools, visuals, music. Another super-active and rewarding month full of tinkering and joy.

Three beamer setup / Live VJing
The month began with a new venue in Cologne, that is still evaluating. I had the great opportunity to setup a 3-videobeamer-VJ night for the very first “hello-world” party (that was connected to the Pirate Summit).

I invited two other VJs and we played almost the whole night together with the DJs. Although we had lots of really small mishaps, this night turned out to be really awesome. The people – the location… still inspiring me today.

Bring your own Beamer (BYOB) at Digital 3mpire gallery
Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf has a new gallery for net- and new media art, called “digital3mpire“. All made possible by the artist Florian Kuhlmann.

To celebrate the opening, we had a “Bring your own beamer”-Event. On total there were about 11 artists, who were showing their works on the beamers.

My work is that one in the corner on the left side

SuperSonic alpha
I released the first alpha-versions of my SuperSonic ruby to pure data live-coding tool.

Here is the link to the supersonic-repository and the releases ready to download.

Now you ask: what can I do with it? Here is a video, introducing the very first features.

PureData Livecoding practise

The September was dominated by my current interesting in LiveCoding. I played a lot with different tools, made patches, exercises and thought lots about “musical” algorithms.

This for example is a mixing-console in PureData, that is able to mix live-coded patches.

And here a made a small improvisation in trying to live-code in PureData from scratch.

Sonic Pi Tutorial
The one or the other has noticed, that there was big release of the Ruby-based music Live-Coding tool “Sonic Pi“. I can encourage everyone to try this tool, because it is just great! I made a video-tutorial, that shows how to make synced-threads in Sonic Pi. Feel free to share!!

MIDI Shields
The Arduino MIDI-shields have arrived and I soldered, tested and programmed the first one. An awesome tool with great possibilities to connect the world of code with professional music hardware.

Pyxel Edit / Pixel Practise
Pyxel Edit is the name of the next “favorite tool” I discovered this month. It is a pixel, tile and sprite-editor that is really well designed and available for all operating systems (because it is build about the Adobe Air virtual machine). Both user interface and features are very balanced.
Here is a small late night sketch I made with Pyxel.

Swift Generative TextPattern
In a “hands-on Swift” minute, I applied things I learned from music-algorithms on generating a text pattern. This is the result: a neat text-pattern generated by a Swift script. I like it a lot!

Connect @nodepond
That’s all for the September. If you like that stuff, connect to get more recent updates on everything. Like me on Facebook or follow me on twitter @nodepond.

UPDATE: Mogamett was renamed and developed further to “fuccboiGDX”. I released an updated version of this parser.

***

Today I wrote a little parser, that converts tilemap-data from the Pyxel-Pixeleditor (http://pyxeledit.com) to Mogamett (a work-in-progress game engine, build upon Love2d).

This could be useful for anyone, so I share! Here is the stuff:
https://gist.github.com/nodepond/5e71171ffbe2ec09aa03

Usage:

• Run this script in the same folder, where you have exported the ’tilemap.json’ from Pyxel
• The tilemap is named ‘Layer 0’
• The collisionmap is named ‘Layer Collide’

It generates lua-code ready to c&p paste. There is an more accurate usage example in the ruby-file itself.

Let’s name it… It was a music month!

(Please like the Nodepond-Facebook-Page if you haven’t already!)

Evoke
Demoparty Evoke in Cologne was a blast again! I made a DJ-set in front of really open-minded people. Enjoyable! I was able to play some brillant and some weird vinyls as well. Had also my videobeamer at hand made some wildbeamin’ in the hall.

Gamescom
It was Gamescom again in Cologne. This year with another new big number of visitors. My highlights this year were indie-games i.e. indie mega-booth and the huge, renewed retro-game part of the fair. Indie games really get better and better.

C3S
The C3S – the fair alternative to the GEMA – made a barcamp and their annual “Generalvollversammlung”, where we could all vote about ongoing things about the C3S. The people and the atmosphere was open and very constructive. Awesome people who make this thing. Be a part of it and join the C3S. It is really worth to support the goals of the C3S.

Micro Nord
I obtained a new interesting piece of hardware: the Nord Micro Modular. Small, compact, easy to transport, lots of sound-design possibilities and excellent sound. It is from the mid 90iers, but still a very good piece of hardware. It took me some time, to get the vintage programming-software up- and running, but I made it and here is the first patch I made. A chiptunes adventure. I am very curious about new wired sounds coming up – since I am into algorithmic music right now – all possible with the modular design of this piece of hardware!

Drehkommando

We are still debating about progressing the “Drehkommando” (our little concept of pulling together some MIDI-gear and making live-improvisation from scratch). Current thoughts develop into the direction of trying sound-installations and live-coding as well. The next staging will be on the 8th November 2014. Maybe there will be some more (open) studio sessions before as well.

Own projects
Small increments on own projects. Next week notes we will have content to show!

A work-in-progress sketch of SuperSonic

Some pixelart-sketches…

vvvv-Stammtisch
vvvv-UserGroup meeting again at the Dingfabrik. This time I learned deeper insights of shader-coding. Awesome!

Drehbar
The Digitac e.V. – a digital art culture space in Aachen – tried a new format. The so called “Drehbar”. It is a little bit like “Drehkommando” meets “Demoscene” and I am very curious into what sort of event this one will develop. I was invited the live-improvise that night with others – and the night turned out to be awesome! We made in parts the live-score to the movie Metropolis. We jammed five hours of very nice electronic music from scratch. Just like I said: in Aachen you sometimes experience surprises. The next Drehbar is scheduled for the 27. September 2014.

…and much much more
There was still more stuff, but this article is already this long. If you want to get more accurate updates on my activities, connect via Twitter: @nodepond.

Here is a very early demo of my live-coding sequencer “SuperSonic”. It demonstrates to most basic functionality. The Ruby-console (irb) connects to the SuperSonic-pd-patch via a socket. You can then use your keyboard to program sequences – the will be much more high-level commands following!

The sequences are then routed to MIDI-channels. In this case I use Ableton Live to make some noise, but you are not limited to this workflow. You can also route the sequences to other PureData patches or even to hardware via MIDI!

There are still some small issues with handling the velocities, but I guess the “minimum viable product” will be released within the next weeks.

A lot of in-progress. No too much stuff to show off, but some. Worshipping Kanban again, made some changes in my own Kanban-process, getting more focused and productive.

0. Please like the Nodepond-Facebook-Page if you haven’t already!

1. Flying Orlov
Our media sculpture form Flying Orlov left Cologne and is on its way to St. Petersburg. We wish our “tiny” little guy a good journey – may he array St. Petersburg save and in a good mood!

2. Light-Up Lehmbruck
I helped getting a videobeamer-related events for kids at the Lehmbruck-Museum in Duisburg rollin’. The event was called “Light-up Lehmbruck” (Link at jfc). It was a four day workshop, where kids learned how to use new media “videobeamers” to modify their surroundings. The workshop was organized by the jfc Medienzentrum (Cologne) and I gave them an initial tool- and technology-consulting: what is possible and what not – what can be expected.

3. E-Gitarren-Workshop Dingfabrik
At Dingfabrik we had a nice talk by Arne Rick. He gave insight into his experiences in building an own electric bass. We learned a lot about the art of manufacturing with wood, how tone-generation in electric guitars work and why (or why not) to roll your own pick-ups. An inspiring evening. Since then I think about building own speakers this fall.

4. Squirrel und Bär – Android
I played a role in getting the game “Squirrel & Bär” (by The Good Evil) available on Android and the Google Play store (Link). Now you have no more excuses to not get this awesome game!

5. Own Game
The work on my own game processed as well. Designed some conceptional groundwork, made technology decisions, lots of doodles and sketches…

The first month after the highly intense work on the Orlovact just felt like… nothing. But if you take a look back with me, you will notice, that there is much stuff going on. New paths that are going to get explored.

0. Please like the Nodepond-Facebook-Page if you haven’t already!

1. Wildbeaming Summer Season
Due to Soccer Championship, I thought, we could make something more original, than just take public viewings. In the preselection-rounds of the game I tries to make as many “wild-beamings” as possible. In the end just people sharing their places for this project ran dry. I guess, I have to think about a mobile power solution for the future. This project gave me many insights so far and golden moments as well.

2. Started to make a game again!
Still on a mission to make two games a year since early 2014. The first one was my entry at the Global Game Jam 2014 – the famous Rock, Paper, Scissors Textadventure called Sea of Rock, Paper and Scissors.

The game I currently started to work on will be suited for tables first – it will have some cool and unique characters and will be a little inspired by platformers, but there is also space for new things going on. It should be good playable on tablets and does not have a name yet!

3. Music
Months ago I started to get into music-creation process again. This month some music-sketch leaked into the web. Have a listen to “The Silent Orchestra”.

4. Nodepond Stickers
YES!! Just come and get one – or put me a line if you want one.

5. PureData User-Group Cologne
I finally managed to get the PureData User-Group Cologne up- and running. Dates are posted on the Dingfabrik-Calendar – and the dedicated pdCologne website. A 10 minute work made by own hands. That means, that the Dingfabrik currently hosts the vvvv and the PureData user groups – yay!

6. Agile Games Lab
There is a new meetup-group in Cologne. They are about agile methods and how to use games to teach and/or reach out for better agility. Some of the “Cologne Independent Game Developers Network (CIGDN)” were also present, and I bet this wasn’t the last time we met!

7. Unwetter
Last but not least, we had that nature-event just right in front of our doors. The sky looked in parts like in those science fiction movies. It was just incredible!

0. Please like the Nodepond-Facebook-Page if you haven’t already!

1. This month in easy to sum up: Orlov, orlov, orlov! We build the Orlov, we made one vernissage, got covered by the daily newspaper Express and the Droid-Boy Podcast. Then we unbuild the Orlov again, made some corrections, build it again. Another small vernissage. Unbuilding it again, which is still ongoing. A successful month and really hard work as well! But the work was worth it: the media-art sculpture just looks totally amazing in the scale 1:1. The next station for the #orlovact will be the St. Petersburg airport!!

2. There was also the Interactive Cologne 2014 event all over Cologne. It is a Creativity meets Business event, where I contributed with two things:

2a. I curated an game-exhibition at the Interactive Clubnight. It was a game-room, right next to the main-party event. And it was a success: the people had hell of joy at this game floor. Here is a cool review at nerd-gold summing up the experience. By the way, I also showcased my game “Hello Snakey” at this event as well.

(Picture by Nerd-gold.de)

2b. I made a talk about Live-Coding at the Interactive Cologne developers conference. All (including me) were satisfied about the goodness, that live-coding can bring to us.