RCM Laptop Orchestra

First Networked Rehearsal

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:41:34 +0000

Rehearsal began with the excellent organisation of gear by Michael Oliva who has prepared a flight case of Laptop Orchestra gear for the concert. 1 router, 1 network switch, 2 mixers, a PA, everyone’s laptops, hundreds of mini-jack adaptors and one million network cables later we had Tim Yates’ networked laptop instrument up and running on almost all computers (a slight network port miscalculation but this will be rectified for next week).

Concerts and patches!

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:25:10 +0000

Laptop Orchestral rehearsal was again a fun and productive session. Following a meeting with Michael Oliva, Area Leader for Electroacoustic Music, we have confirmed a concert in collaboration with the RCM Centre for Music and Multimedia (CMM) to include various exciting pieces for instruments and electronics. We have also penciled in a date for the RCM Laptop Orchestra main concert which will feature more pieces after the Easter holiday. The proposed dates are currently

March 17th - CMM Forum + RCM Laptops

May 19th - RCM Laptops in Concert

Rehearsal this week allowed us to plan our rehearsal schedule in preparation for the concert and we discovered some new and exciting ideas for the gig. This included the potential for an performance using 4-5 iPhones/iPod Touch units, practice using Adam Scott Neal’s ‘FreqOut’ and ‘Presets’ Laptop Orchestra pieces, and the further development of our improvisation techniques using ‘open software’.

A piece by Tim - current member

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:17:25 +0000

Current member of Laptop Orchestra, Tim Yates, is a composer and guitarist at the RCM and has made significant progress on his networked laptop piece. We had a small technical session to test his new instrument designed specifically for the RCM Laptop Orchestra using 3 sound generators and 9 laptop performers all vying for control of the sounds basic waveforms and frequency ratios among other effects such as phasing and distortion.

Laptops go Online and Acapella! + video

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:15:51 +0000

Laptop Orchestra goes Acapella! Check out this short video made during the last rehearsal (and certainly one of the most exciting!)

Open Software Day

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 22:53:34 +0000

Tonight was RCM Laptop Orchestra’s first ‘open software’ day. This is less about open source, and more like the equivalent of bring-your-own-sausages to rehearsal evening and the results were really productive! Members of the orchestra brought in software including the likes of

+ Max/MSP
+ MOTU Digital Performer
+ Native Instruments Battery/Cubase
+ Apple GarageBand
+ Apple Logic Pro
+ Ableton Live
+ Renoise
+ MSN Messenger
+ Skype