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Oslo Laptop Orchestra

Wiki for the fourMs/olo repository.

• Play: fourms.github.io/olo
• Official project page: RITMO — OLO
• Sister ensemble: Oslo Mobile Orchestra (OMO) · omo project page

What is OLO?

Oslo Laptop Orchestra (OLO) is an ad-hoc ensemble of students and faculty from the University of Oslo and the Norwegian Academy of Music. The main idea is to explore the laptop as a musical instrument in a collaborative setting. The orchestra performs the standard repertoire for laptop orchestras and develops its own pieces for different setups and constellations.

OLO follows the tradition of PLOrk, where each performer has a laptop, speakers, and controllers.

The three rules

• We think of our laptops as any other type of instrument, and perform with them as if we had been playing clarinets, trumpets, etc.
• We embrace the new possibilities that digital instruments allow for, and the social aspects of playing together.
• We only rely on sound coming from the extended instrument; we never use an external PA system.

These rules can be seen as limitations, but they are also liberating and give the ensemble a clear aesthetic, visual, and musical appearance.

Wiki pages

Page	Topic
Web instruments	Browser apps on GitHub Pages
Legacy patches	Max/MSP and ChucK archive in patches/
Workshop guide	Running an OLO session in the room
History & members	Timeline and ensemble pool

Repository layout

Folder	Role
web/	Web Audio instruments (deployed to GitHub Pages)
patches/	Historical performance software (2007–2009)
.github/workflows/	Pages deploy on push to main

In every web app

• Learn — how to play this instrument
• Audio on/off — unlock the Web Audio context (required in some browsers until the first click)
• Volume — master level (50–150%)