This hands-on workshop introduces participants to using SuperCollider on Bela, an open source embedded platform for ultra-low latency audio and sensor processing based on the BeagleBone Black. Bela is designed to generate and process audio while connected to the physical world using all sorts of analog and digital sensors.

During the workshop we will show how you can adapt your existing SuperCollider-based instrument to the Bela platform. Also we will show how you can go from developing and testing by executing your code interactively, to a fixed setup where your code runs automatically at startup of the Bela to create an embedded instrument.

For this workshop you will need to bring a laptop. We will provide Bela kits to use during the workshop, which can be purchased after the workshop. Of course, if you already have a Bela kit, then you can bring that too to use during the workshop.

Participation to the event is free of charge. Given the limited number of places available, please make sure you cancel your ticket if you can no longer make the event.

Facilitators

The workshop will be led by Marije Baalman and Jonathan Reus in collaboration with the Augmented Instruments Lab and the Centre for Digital Music.

Last year, the Augmented Instruments Lab and Marije worked, along with other collaborators, in porting SuperCollider to Bela, to allow access to easy, expressive gestural and sonic interaction using SuperCollider on an embedded board.

What do I need to know?

We will assume you have a basic familiarity with SuperCollider. If you are a complete novice, make sure you go through some of the Supercollider tutorial pages ahead of the workshop, in order to familiarize yourself with the basic concepts.

No previous knowledege of Bela is required for this workshop.

What do I need to bring?

• a set of headphones (with a 3.5mm connector)
• Bring your own laptop. Mac OS, Linux, Windows (7 upwards) are all fine. Versions 10.11.1 to 10.11.4 of Mac OS X have known problems with the drivers for the board, so they should upgrade to 10.11.5 at least.
• Make sure you have one USB host port available on your computer (yes, MacBook users: bring your collection of adapters!)
• Make sure you have the SuperCollider IDE and Google Chrome installed

How do I get there?

The workshop will take place in Queen Mary University of London's Francis Bancroft bulding, in Library Square, on the Mile End campus. This is building 31 on the campus map. We will be on the first floor, in room 1.15.

Call Giulio (07596 506587) or Andrew (07738 141349) on the day if you struggle to find the venue.