If anyone ever needs justification for a school STE(A)M program (integrating the arts with science, technology, engineering & mathematics), you could do a lot worse than the latest video from Caitlin, in which she demonstrates using data from the International Space Station to create a sick bassline with a modular synth.

The Code Club at the school that Caitlin attends has entered the Astro Pi competition, a program designed to raise awareness of space science with young people. The Club has assembled a Eurorack modular system in a hacked Ikea dresser,The Mad Music Machine, and is now using it to create sound waves – and basslines – from data. 

Video Summary:

As part of their research we have been looking at historic data collected on board the ISS. Here Caitlin explains how she extracted cyclic data from it and used it to create wavetables for the E352 Cloud Terrarium.

Once she had created the .wav file she imported into the Synthesis Technology Waveedit program to create the wavetables (see one of her previews videos for details on how to use this program).

She then explains how she modulates the wavetables with MATHS before having a quick jam with her newly created wavetables!

Caitlin demos this with The Mad Music Machine – a Eurorack modular synth, created as a STE(A)M project at a UK primary school’s Code Club.