Audio Buffer London
Audio Buffer is our monthly meet-up for audio developers and creative technologists—bridging the gap between academic theory and the gritty reality of releasing professional audio products.
Led by Sinan Bokesoy (sonicLAB / sonicPlanet) and hosted by MTUK, Audio Buffer is aimed at anyone developing software-based music tools, be they music tech students, or those working as composers, sound designers, and other creative technologists.
In a world of online isolation, we provide a physical workshop-style environment to build, network, and stress-test ideas. For checking the past events and propose a talk, please reach out https://audiobuffer.co.uk/
"The Body as an Instrument." : Sound in Motion
Session #03 of Audio Buffer London is here. This session explores the technical and philosophical pillars of embodied interaction. Bridging the gap between human physiology and digital synthesis has always been a frontier for electronic music. When we gesture, we are thinking with our bodies—delivering continuous data to the machine to weave a sensate, real-time sonic world.
Today, advancements in bio-mechanical sensors and everyday mobile technology allow us to democratize this process. By translating physical effort into raw sound data, we are turning the human body and our smart devices into living musical instruments, allowing us to physically push sound through 3D space.
The first part of our session welcomes our guest presenters on this topic. We are incredibly honored to be joined by sound artist, researcher, and academic Atau Tanaka (Professor of Media Computing at Goldsmiths, UoL). Atau uses electromyogram (EMG) sensors to capture the electrical impulses of his own muscle tension, transforming corporeal gestures into sonic reality.
Following him, artist and creative technologist Simon East will present Flowfal, an innovative system that allows movement from the sensors on standard smartphones and smartwatches to interface directly with Ableton Live and Max/MSP for immersive spatial audio and visual control.
The second part of our session is dedicated to Student Prototypes: Under the Hood Live "Code & UI" reviews. This is the core of the workshop. This month, Nicolas Arezzano Guzman ( Goldsmiths, University of London ) will present his new synth plugin, Sinesthesia, which promotes creative expression via a multi-modal interface. The project visualizes synth parameters and spectral information in real-time, drawing inspiration from cymatic images and the neurological condition of synesthesia.
In the final part, we'll tackle questions about the skills, tech stacks, and workflows actually required to innovate in embodied human-computer interaction and audio-visual synthesis.