Report on the 1-Bit Groove Box Workshoppe,

Funded in Part by the MIT Council for the Arts.

Noah Vawter

February 13th, 2006

I led the One-Bit Groovebox Workshoppe on January 28th, 2006 in Cambridge, MA. 10 people participated, four of whom had almost no soldering experience.

Noah points out the speaker, buttons and microcontroller.	Rob and Ben from the Berklee School of Music crossed the Charles River to be a part of the workshoppe.	Dan drills holes for the speaker.
Owen solders the 40-pin socket for the Atmega32 microcontroller.	Noah and Owen discuss the fine points.	Roy smiles as he connects the 9 Volt battery holder wires.
Helen demonstrates how to remove unnecessary parts of the videotape box with a Dremel tool. Note hair tied back and safety goggles. (and lefthandedness!)	Dan solders the buttons onto the Chalkroach printed circuit board.	Dan modulates the sound with his hand, while Ben practices yoga.
Noah catches bits flying out of the speakers.	Helen and Ben are a productive duo.	Matt demonstrates fine technique.
All finished!!!

The 1-Bit Groove Box Workshoppe took place on Saturday, January 28th, 2006. The goal was to get a small group of people together to construct their own electronic instruments based on a unique design I developed throughout 2005. About 20 people had expressed interest via e-mail over the last year and since the activity was posted. From these, I selected the first 11 who contacted me. The attendee list shuffled somewhat due to cancellations and the like. In the end, 10 people (9 male, 1 female) took part. We began at 10AM with an introduction to the original 1-Bit Groove Box. Then, I passed out components to everyone and we began construction.

Of the 10 people, four of them had never soldered before, or it had been a long time for them, so I found myself giving a mini-lesson in how to do it. They picked it up pretty quickly. People's construction speeds varied, so I found myself steadily teaching people how to do little parts of it. Some people were able to work by following the examples of others.

We worked steadily until about 1PM, when pizza arrived. We took a break for about half an hour, then resumed. I was impressed with the overall level of concentration of the group. There was some interaction, as people found their connections to the local music scene.

The quickest people finished the electronics shortly after lunch and began constructing the housing for the instrument, which involved drilling and dremeling. The first people completed the entire project around 5PM and left. I continued working with everyone until they were done - The last three stayed until 9PM!

I learned a number of things about the design and running a workshop in this process. First, I hadn't expected it to take so long. There were several things that prolonged it. First, there weren't enough soldering irons. I had originally imagined that half of the group would solder while the others would construct the housing, but that's not really feasible. About 1 soldering iron per person is necessary. Second, the cluster of 10 electric switches that control the Groove Box should really be mounted to a printed circuit board. I instructed people to hand solder individual wires to each switch, and several participants agreed that was one of the most tedious steps. The next time around, an improved PCB will be used to speed this process.

Since the Workshoppe two weeks ago, I have heard several examples of musical works in progress using the 1-Bit Groove Box. In one case, I was pleased to hear someone using it quite differently from myself. He made use of the higher-pitched tones, which I usually avoid. Another pair of participants synchronized loops from the box into a microhouse song.

I was extremely pleased with the results! I would gladly do this again! It was worth all of the preparation. Most of the participants were delighted, too. Several have contacted me since to thank me.

Financially, the project costed about $45 per participant. To reach this cost, I had received a $200 grant from the MIT Council for the Arts. I charged each participant a $20 studio fee, and the cost of the remaining parts was absorbed by me - Parts were taken from my personal supply. To make the $200 grant go as far as possible, I had the money deposited to my research group's account, and I combined the part order with a group order to get volume and shipping discounts. The attached spreadsheet contains the precise details.

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