Youtube video of Circle begin controlled via a touch screen. Circle provides the bass line alongside various hardware and software.

Our webstore is back online and also the webcert is working correctly.

Gavin.

As of last Thursday (19/01/2013), we have been experiencing an issue with our webstore and thus it is currently offline while we work on upgrading it.

In the meantime if you would like to purchase Circle you can do so via Paypal, just send a request through to support@futureaudioworkshop.com and we will process your order…

Gavin.

2013 is almost upon us! Celebrate with a free sound bank for Circle from Japanese sound designer Takahiro Sone.

http://bit.ly/WZlfTu

We have been working on the Circle OS X 64 bit beta, with both the VST and Audio Unit plug-ins now available for testing. If you would like to help out, then send an email through to support@futureaudioworkshop.com and we will give you access to the private beta testing forum.

For our readers who are not familiar with you yet, can you tell us a bit about what you do?

I’m a researcher at University College Galway, on the wet and windy west coast of Ireland. My work is in medical imaging (X-ray/CT) and computer vision. I also DJ a little on the side and lately I’ve tried my hand at production. Also there are some random parties and radio shows.

What inspired you first to start making electronic music?

Well I have always had an interest in technology, so as I became more involved in the music side of things it seemed like a logical progression. I have a love for acoustic instruments, orchestras and all that, so I was intrigued at the concept of introducing synthesisers into that space and seeing (hearing?) how the two can coexist.

You are from Ireland, which is known for its rich traditions of song in music. How does this translate to your music, is it an influence?

My friend and I were laughing about this recently, about how nearly everyone in Ireland is making music! Maybe it’s the bad weather. I think the sounds you hear as you grow up are always an influence - maybe not directly, but indirectly. Like you won’t hear traditional Irish music in my music really, but maybe it can manifest itself in a sample I would be open to using.

Tell us about your studio setup?

I work mainly with Ableton Live. I have some drum machines from Korg, MFB and Yamaha. The Yamaha thing I haven’t touched really but it looks good on the shelf. I use Alesis Mk2 Active monitors, one of which I recently blew at an after-party in my house. It was worth it though. I have a MOTU Ultralite as a soundcard and some guitar pedals. I work a lot on headphones as my gear is set up in a space with less than ideal acoustics. I use samples a lot, I have lots. For VSTs, I use all the default Ableton stuff, Circle of course, and some Fabfilter/D16/SPL stuff to make some polished sounds. I also have a Juno 106 and Logic 8 - it’s good to know.

When writing a track, what is your process? ( do you program drums first? Do you sit down at a set time and say "Now I’m making a track" or spontaneously rush to a your studio…)

I try not to force it really and leave it up to the subconscious. I don’t think I’ve ever had a strict method, although over time you start to notice patterns. I’ll make myself arrange and bounce whatever I have done at the end of a session and from the mixdowns I’ll get a feel for where the track is going. I like to keep coming back and listening to the mixdowns. When I finally return to the track in edit mode, I’ll have some focus. If inspiration isn’t coming from the laptop I’ll turn to the outboard gear, or the microphone…

Do you follow the latest developments in music technology?

I enjoy reading about the latest developments, but I don’t lose myself in them. All the new technology is great, but knowing yourself as an artist is far more important. I am however very excited to get my hands on Bitwig!

What are the biggest issues you have with music technology (if any)?

I think I need more limitations than possibilities. With so many digital products available in the last few years, it’s easy to feel lost with all the possibilities. You have to pick your palette, learn what colours you can create, and paint with what you have.

When Microsoft first released the Kinect, Matt Webb, CEO of Berg London, captured the sense of possibility that had so many programmers, hardware hackers and engineers excited: “WW II and ballistics gave us digital computers. Cold War decentralization gave us the Internet. Terrorism and mass surveillance: Kinect”. In the first part of a new tutorial series exporing the musical performance and interaction posibilities of the Kinect, we begin with a short intro to the Kinect and an easy setup guide on how to control Circle using some basic gestures and arm movements.

Step 1.
Download the Kinect arm tracker software by Theo Watson and Emily Emily Gobeille from here:

http://theo.tw/deliver/eyeo/design_io-armTrackerApp.zip

Step 2.
In order to map the OSC messages from the arm tracker software to Circle’s controls, you will need to install OSCulator, available from here:

http://www.osculator.net/download/

Step 3.
Plug your Kinect into your computer and launch the ArmTracker application. If your Kinect is plugged in, the app will capture your arm position data as in the image at the top of the page, if not it will play a test video.

Step 4.
The ArmTracker app is tuned for following your left hand and for puppet like motion. The video linked below shows a demo of how and what motions are captured:

http://design-io.com/site_docs/work.php?id=15

Step 5.
As the app tracks your arm, you will want this data to be sent to Circle so it can be assigned to a parameter such as the filter cut off or the speed of an LFO. To do this launch OSCulator, next set the OSC input port to 9555. The armTracker transmitted values should then be automatically learned as in the picture below.

Under ‘Value’ set the midi cc value you would like armTracker values to be mapped to and under ‘Chan.’ the midi channel the mapped values will be transmitted on.

Step 6.
The next step is to set the range that you will transform the armTracker input values into, so that they will work with values expected by Circle’s midi cc inputs. To do this, select ‘View’ and then ‘Flip to Mappings Page’. For each OSC message transmitted from armTracker then set the range as shown in the image below. Again experiment with different range values until you find ones that work best.

Step 7.
Everything is now set up, all that is left to do is to start Circle. So, launch Circle and under the ‘Options’ menu item select ‘Audio & Midi Settings’ then under “active midi inputs” select ‘OSCulator Out’
OSCulator is seen by Circle in the same way as a hardware midi input device.

Step 8.
The last step now is to assign each armTracker parameter to a desired knob or control in Circle. To do this, follow the standard way of assigning any midi controller by selecting “Midi Learn”, clicking on the highlighted knob you want under control and in this case, begin waving your arm up and down!

Also you can download the OSCulator settings used in this tutorial from here:
Circle_armTracker_OSCulatorSettings.zip

The next part in the tutorial will be how to setup a custom control space for Circle using the Processing programming language.

“Circle has got to be the most intuitive synth ever created”…a user on the KVR forum.

User video from YouTube, using Circle like an analog modular synthesizer doing real time live sound design….

We are now accepting beta testers for Circle OS X Lion 64 Bit. Please send through a mail to support@futureaudioworkshop.com requesting access to the program.