I just got back from SHARE, which was wonderful. Their setup is really sweet: 12 flatscreens on the wall, a projector pointed at a translucent plastic waterfall, and a serious sound system. I got to mix some of my vids live (using GRID, which is very easy to learn) and check out some other people’s rigs. Eric Redlinger, who’d emailed me the invite via the PIMAtalk list, was very friendly and informative. He showed me the ins and outs of Keyworx, which I’m excited to try. There was one guy with a crazy analog setup: a bunch of effects boxes, a microphone, and something homemade, consisting of a board with a spring stretched on one side, played with a violin bow. He was doing some great stuff sampling his voice. A couple other audio guys were there as long as I was: one had a really nifty MAX/MSP setup and the other was playing a software synth. Pretty trancey, that last. I also met a photographer named Joe who just moved here from California, and his friend, Martin (‘Synapz’ — see update below), who is visiting, played some great drum ‘n’ bass. Just as I was about to leave a bunch of people showed up, so I got another Crif veggie dog and stayed a bit longer. Another guy with a big analog rig stuck a contact microphone on the waterfall. Three people did some really intense white noise stuff in AudioMulch. After a while, I put on my noise-cancelling headphones to cut out some of it. It was good when it started — they used some great vocal samples, including some standard Bush quotes — but the white noise was fatiguing. Plus I’d been there there for 5+ hours (!). Keiko (who seemed to be the organizer) was very sweet and made sure I was coming next week, when it will be doubling as a CD release party for her new CD (update: available from Cronica Electronica).

This place was like liquid crack to me: the perfect playground. Eric said that you learn really quickly from SHARE — I’m looking forward to it.

note: AND there’s a live video/audio feed from SHARE every Sunday night! I’ve got it running now! It’s amazing! The white noise people finally stopped!

Update: Martin’s website is SIAS Records. No songs available for download at the moment, unfortunately.