I was invited to Sarm Studios in Notting hill for the Nokia Loop Workshop, A studio full of mentally fun musically equipment and noise making things. The studios are pretty amazing - as plush and comfortable as you would expect and more knobs, cables and lights than you can possibly imagine.
We spent the day (with breaks for pizza) playing instruments from the traditional guitars/drums etc. to the way out electronic keyboards and sound pads and my favourite the theremin , mixing these into the nokia loop app to create incredible ‘loops’.
There was even a rendition of the nokia ringtone on a sitar guitar, and a 5 minute jam session that didnt sound too bad. No one was what you would call a musician - though a couple of us could strum a chord or two.
We had Aaron on hand from the studios to help us use all the equipment, but we were left our own devices to make up loops. At the end of the day a bunch of nokia staff arrived and we all played back our favourite loop, they all sounded amazing - especially though the bass-tastic studio monitors.
The Organisers went of to judge and to my amazement my loop won!!
its called toiletloop / LooFi - it’s a mix of acoustic guitar, tambourine, theremin, coke can percussion and well a toilet flush! and the prize - a gold plated N8 - seriously I was surprised indeed!
Loo Fi Loop ( #ToiletLoop ) by maclondon
The joy of loop is you can keep on adding layer on layer on layer of loops. creating simple or depth filled sounds. lots of the loops are at http://www.loopapp.net
You can get the loop app for Nokia C7 or N8 by visiting the ovi store on you handset or via the web store here.
There’s a great write up from 2nd place looper @itsnoel here.
Overall a really enjoyable day with some great friendly people.
