Category: Announcements

Hello L2Orkers!

🎶✨ Gala here! I want to share some exciting news with you all. We’ve been performing quite a lot recently, and being a part of the Laptop Orchestra is getting better and better! 🎵💻

We now have 3 new videos on our YouTube channel: two from NYCEMF and one from the ICAD conference. You can check them out below:

🎥 8-bit Petal @ NYCEMF 2024: Watch now

🎥 Territorio Prismatico @ NYCEMF 2024: Watch now

🎥 8-bit Petal and Territorio Prismatico @ ICAD 2024: Watch now

I hope you guys enjoy our latest pieces, Territorio Prismatico and 8-Bit Pedal. We’re now starting to compose our next piece, so… stay tuned! 🎶✨

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After years of development, the Pd-L2Ork developer community is thrilled to announce immediate availability of the WebPdL2Ork open BETA that is capable of running just about any patch created using Pd-L2Ork inside a browser. Simply upload your patch to a Web-accessible location and point your browser to http://pd-l2ork.music.vt.edu:3000?url=<URL-to-your-patch>

All related subpatches and abstractions will be accessible as long as they are in the path. The main patch will be stretched across the browser window. Subpatches may be visible as floating windows as long as their location has been saved within the box of the original patch. Some adjustments may be necessary to the subpatch locations, or they can be even embedded as graph-on-parent-enabled subpatches on the main patch window.

To test out patches already hosted on our page, please use links provided below. Select patches also have hidden shortcuts. For optimal experience, we recommend Google Chrome or Chromium.

VT Waves Project Learning Modules:

  • Autotune (explore how an Adelle solo refrain would sound if sung on a single note;)
  • Distortion (experiment with clipping an audio signal to create a guitar-like distortion)
  • Phase Cancellation (learn how to cancel vocals from just about any mainstream pop tune by subtracting the right channel from the left with an inverted phase, use Shift+(1-3) to enable different sources)
  • Pitch Relationships (explore frequency and pitch relationships; use Shift+A to enable pitch/frequency ratio viewer, and Shift+S to open spectrogram subpatch)
  • Spectral Filtering (the iconic Forbidden Planet and FFT-based vocal filtering)
  • Spectral Filtering Harmonics (explore decomposition and reconstruction of human voice into 10 sine tones; use keys ~ and 1-0 to toggle individual overtones, use Shift+(2-3) to enable other potential sound sources, toggle off a source to “pause” the signal, use Shift+4 to toggle slider that cross-fades betwen the original signal and reconstructed one)

And, if you have a beefy computer, you can also run the entire L2Ork Tweeter inside the browser (currently networking is not supported, so only the offline mode is available). Once loaded, consider opening one of the included saved sessions using the top-right corner session loading option by typing “grapevine-end” (without quotes) inside the “SESSION NAME” text box, pressing enter, and then clicking on the green “LOAD” button positioned immediately to the left of the text box. Please be patient with the loading process, as this is a CPU intensive patch (the pd-l2ork patch itself is in excess of 5MB). Once the session is loaded, it may take up to 10 seconds for the audio engine to catch-up before the audio dropouts stop. If dropouts do not stop, or if loading takes much longer, chances are your CPU is not fast enough to handle the patch running inside the browser (you can always explore the desktop version which is considerably less CPU intensive). Use Shift+(F1-F12) to take control of individual parts. For more info on L2Ork Tweeter, including tutorial videos, visit our Tweeter page.

What does not work: Gem library, networking objects (they load but do not work due to sandboxed nature of a web browser) and a few select (and not commonly used) 3rd-party libraries are not yet supported. Everything else should work out-of-box.

To learn how to build your own HTTPS-enabled web server: Visit the pd-l2ork github and read the emscripten/DOCUMENTATION.md file.

This project is sponsored by the Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research under ONR award number N00014-22-1-2164. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research.

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Hello, L2Orkers!

Gala here, the newest addition to the L2Ork team! 🎉 You’ll be seeing a lot more from me as I dive into sharing all the latest news, events, and exciting developments we’re embarking on.

Mark your calendars! On April 20th and 21st, we’re thrilled to be hosting the very first Pd-L2Ork Hackathon, exclusively for VT students and our HBCU/MSI partners. This event is part of an ICAT & ITCAS Grant award aimed at fostering collaboration between Virginia Tech ICAT projects and HBCU/MSI. We’re focusing on the intersections of art, science, and technology, especially exploring the relationship between music, sound composition, and STEM careers. 🎵💻🔬

Calling all Virginia Tech students! If you’re eager to jump into this unique blend of creativity and innovation, now’s your chance. Register HERE by April 7th to secure your spot—don’t miss out!

For all the nitty-gritty details about the Hackathon, including what to expect, how to get involved, and who to contact with your burning questions, make sure to visit the Hackathon Page.

Can’t wait to see the amazing ideas and collaborations that will come to life! See you there! 🙂

 

2024 L2Ork Tweeter Hackathon

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Manu Delago

Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts in collaboration with the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology, the West Ambler Johnston Residential College, Digital Interactive Sound & Intermedia Studio (DISIS), and the Linux Laptop Orchestra (L2Ork) are pleased to announce a guest performance by the world-renown Hang player, percussionist, producer and composer Manu Delago. Manu’s performance will also feature internationally accomplished multi-instrumentalist artist Isa Kurz, as well as Virginia Tech’s Linux Laptop Orchestra (L2Ork). A part of a larger US tour, the concert is scheduled for April 20th @ 730p in the Virginia Tech Cube. Tickets are $15 adults, $12 seniors, and $7 students. Click here to purchase tickets. Please note Cube has a capacity of approximately 100 to 120 seats.

 

As part of Manu’s 3-day Virginia Tech’s residence, in addition to rehearsing with L2Ork, Manu Delago will also present a talk and a master class for students, faculty, as well as community members. Below is the schedule breakdown:

  • April 18th 130-220pm Lecture and Master Class in DISIS (Newman 121)
  • April 19th 1-3pm Presentation in the West Ambler Johnston Residential College Great Hall
  • April 20th 730pm Performance in the Moss Arts Center Cube (buy tickets)

 

What others have said about Manu:

“Amazing percussionist and Hang player” – Björk
“Intriguingly beautiful… A mercurial sound indeed” – DJ Mag
“A man with a head full of ideas”
– Songlines
“Captivating and compelling… truly mesmerising”
– i-D
“An incredible musician in everything he plays”
– Nitin Sawhney
“A masterful and sensitive musician”
– The Telegraph

Stay tuned for more details regarding Manu’s visit and additional opportunities for engagement. In the meantime, check out Manu’s recent music video below:

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Welcome to 2013

Following a rocky server migration that took longer than anticipated, L2Ork is now ready for another exciting semester. As part of the server migration our website has gotten a face-lift and a lot of behind-the-curtain systems have been updated and cleaned up. Hope you like our new design :-)

I am also thrilled to report that L2Ork has now become one of the signature initiatives of the newfound Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) and its Integrative Mind & Performance through the Arts, Creativty, and Technology (IMPACT) studio. With the grand opening of the new Center for the Arts less than nine months away… things do not get any more exciting than this.

L2Orkists spent the bulk of the fall 2012 semester helping with the infrastructure overhaul, namely laptop refresh (more about that soon), and a rigorous beta-testing of pd-l2ork software. As a result, we now have a formidable and ultra-stable platform we can continue building upon. Pd-l2ork is now leaner and meaner than ever. As a matter of fact, just a couple days ago we released our first officially stable snapshot (version 20130111). Enhancements are listed on the git page. The new builds now also support debian binaries for both 32-bit and 64- bit installs and the installers have been overhauled to make compiling from source easier than ever. For more info on this and a myriad of other cool features (like universal preset system) go to our Software page and download the latest version. As always, your comments and feedback are most welcome and appreciated–so, please consider joining us on our l2ork-dev mailing list.

This past fall, we’ve continued working with the Boys & Girls Club of Southwestern Virginia and consequently improving on the pd-l2ork K12 module. The result is a robust tool with a growing body of documentation linking it to K12 education.

This past fall, I was contacted by an old friend Michael Barnhart, who expressed interest in starting a K12 satellite laptop orchestra based on L2Ork’s K12 framework. I am pleased to report that Shawnee State in Ohio is now a home of yet another K12 satelllite laptop orchestra :-) Around the same time, we’ve had another inquiry from Florida about a possibility of organizing a similar K12 initiative in the Orange state. This opportunity is currently pending. I cannot get excited enough about the prospect of growing number of K12 programs like the one we started here at Virginia Tech a couple years ago.

With the infrastructure now being as solid as it gets and our education-based outreach growing, it’s finally time to shift our attention back to music, which is a good thing as I’ve been itching for some time to write another piece for the ensemble. If any of you out there are interested in writing for the ensemble, do not hesitate to contact us–there has never been a better time than now to write for us! And as we look forward to this next semester and all the opportunities it may bring, I guess this is as good time as any to remind all VT students to consider enrolling in the L2Ork ensemble. L2Ork is always on a lookout for a new talent, so please do not hesitate to contact us!

As always, we have some exciting new announcements to make in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for more updates soon!

And so begins the fourth year of L2Ork’s journey…

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