Modular Polyphony with the Make Noise NUSS System
Michael Bierylo
12:30 pm
Modular synthesizers offer composers and producers a flexible approach to working with electronic sound. While individual modules used in a system have evolved from the designs of the 1960s and 70s, the overall monophonic architecture of a modular system has largely stayed the same. While polyphony in a synthesizer has traditionally been connected to keyboard control, the Make Noise NUSS system offers a uniquely modular approach to integrating polyphony into a Eurorack system.
Michael Bierylo is an electronic musician, guitarist, composer, sound designer, and a faculty member since 1995 at Berklee College of Music, where he is Chair Emeritus of the Electronic Production and Design Department. He has organized residencies with leading electronic artists and has performed internationally as a solo artist with laptop computers and modular synthesizers.
Beyond the Drone: Practical Tools for Adding Movement to Longform Ambient
Thorny (JD Ryan)
1:10 pm
Using my 44-minute piece A Long Dusk as a guide, we’ll look at how to keep long ambient tracks moving so they never feel stuck or repetitive. I’ll share the simple ‘hinge points’ and layering tricks I use to tell a story with sound, showing how you can guide a listener through a long musical journey using the gear you already have. To hear the piece, look for “Thorny: A Long Dusk” on your preferred music service.
Thorny (JD Ryan) is a Vermont synthesist and bassist whose ambient project Thorny creates slowly evolving soundscapes using hardware synthesizers and processed fretless bass; his 2025 longform A Long Dusk received a Schallwelle Award nomination for Best Ambient Album.
Using Ableton Link in the studio and on stage
Luke Stark
On behalf of Ed Guild / Circuit Happy
1:50 pm (Jam Room)
Ableton Link is an amazing synchronization tool that is at the core of Circuit Happy’s Missing Link devices. See how Ed Guild’s Missing Link devices make it easier to improvise, record, and collaborate with other musicians.
Ed Guild has been performing and collaborating with bands and DJs since the early 2000s. In 2018 Guild formed his own company, Circuit Happy, to create hardware devices to help others collaborate and connect musically.
Spatial Anthropology of Sound: Tokyo, Boston, Berlin
Ian Condry aka Leftroman
2:30 pm
Spatial sound offers new ways of thinking about the social possibilities for musical performances and experiences. What can we learn from some different approaches to sound and space in Tokyo, Boston, and Berlin?
Ian Condry is a cultural anthropologist and professor at MIT since 2002, and author of two books: “Hip-Hop Japan” and “The Soul of Anime.” He is founder of the MIT Spatial Sound Lab, a community studio for workshops, seminars, listening sessions. He makes multichannel music as Leftroman and hosts a monthly radio show “Near & Far” on WMBR, 88.1 FM.
Aesthetic Dimensions & Relationships in Electronic Music Creation
Donnie Martin
3:10 pm
Electronic music instruments enable creators to organize and manipulate the fundamental dimensions of sound unlike their traditional counterparts. This lecture will discuss Edgard Varèse’s philosophy of organized sound, the dimensions of sound and change, and strategies to achieve cohesive movement within a modular context.
Donnie Martin is an electronic musician and synthesist from Newton, Massachusetts that currently teaches electronic music synthesis fundamentals and advanced modular synthesis courses in the Music Technology Program at New York University Steinhardt. Outside the classroom, he composes and performs avant garde styles as EHMN and techno music as DOHMA in the New England and New York scenes using Eurorack modular systems, effects pedals, hardware samplers and MIDI controllers.
Remix Fundamentals
Robert Galbraith
3:50 pm
In this presentation we will go over the basics of remixing as well as tips and tricks to improve workflow. While focused on Ableton, the processes are applicable to all DAWs.
Robert Galbraith is an electronic artist, mastering engineer, remixer, and label head of Component Recordings. He records as Snowbeasts, Obscure Formats, and Codec.
Reverse Engineering the Motown EQ
Kurt James Werner
4:30 pm
Several classic graphic equalizers, such as the Altec 9062A and the exceedingly rare “Motown EQ,” have stepped gain controls and “proportional bandwidth” and use passive, constant-resistance, RLC circuit designs. These are related to bridged-T-network EQs, with several differences that cause important practical improvements, also affecting their sound. I detail my process of reverse-engineering these filters, revealing their circuit topologies, design principles, and design equations, which were perhaps known to nobody but their creators. I then built a digital model (based on Wave Digital Filters) which can model either device, to which we can add various new extensions and features. Full technical details appear in the DAFx paper “Graphic Equalizers Based on Limited Action Networks,” freely available online.
Kurt James Werner (Somerville, MA) is a Senior Research Scientist at Soundtoys, Inc., where he develops new audio effect algorithms (especially virtual analog, which was the subject of his PhD at Stanford University’s CCRMA). He is an avid clawhammer banjo player and folk tune composer and is currently editing a tune book collection of original instrumental folk tunes of the Greater Boston Area.
Berlin School: An Uncomplicated Approach
Luke Stark
5:10 pm (Jam Room)
Join us for a light-hearted and fun lecture where everyone can walk away with a fantastically simple recipe for making Berlin-School style music on your Computer or Hardware synthesizer!
An electronic musician and synthesis educator whose YouTube channel “Synth Seeker” focuses on Berlin School, ambient, progressive rock, and film music. He also writes essays on synthesizer culture and creative practice.