The commercial products would include low end toy/dabblers segment up to the existing high end market. Most people want something that “just works” in a reliable and understandable way. It’s the complexity of the options that distinguish the professional from the retail segments.

However, it’s always going to be that experimental edge that leads the way - which has clearly been the open source/diy end - even in this example.

Now that open source in code and even hardware is a well publicized concept, I think you’ll see the proliferation of such musical devices and instruments explode - much like Linux.

MIDI has had it’s turn, but it’s decades old. OSC might not stick as the next standard, but something that allows much more flexibility and cooperation surely will.

I suspect that, increasingly, people who are both musicians by training and comfortable with software development will be the leaders in the field. Open software, by it’s nature, is synergistic in promoting creativity.

One final note: there are a LOT more people who are both talented musicians and programmers than you might think. As a programmer, I know. I work with some in a small company right now.

I think that alone means that most of the innovation will occur in the non-commercial space. The combination with open source pretty much guarantees it.

I wasn’t intending to compare the Korg with the Tenori-On directly. On the contrary, what’s interesting to me is you can take a similar interface concept and do something very different. And I think what will matter to potential buyers is musical utility, so to them, this could be a reasonable choice — between apples and oranges, but a choice they might make, nonetheless.

The closest feeling I had using it was more like some hardware version of a Reaktor or MAx Msp ensamble.

The cells can be assigned in different way,i.e. controlling a reverb on a XY axis,as a step sequencer and so on.

But then again, look at the Nintendo Wii. Maybe I missed something, but was it “officially” positioned to be used for anything except gaming?

And look how “accidentally” open-ended it seems to be (all these well documented and easy-to-reproduce “hacks” to use the wii remote as a music controller – nothing is perfect yet, but you get the idea of the potential…).

Been thinking more about the MIDI assignment issue; I wonder if they went with 16 MIDI channels, one for each row? Then you could assign buttons to MIDI note, and on/off state to velocity. It’d be a little more complex than that, but MIDI may work fine … depends on how they set it up. I still love OSC; just want to make sure I’m not suggesting MIDI won’t work here.

If I demoed a tb 303 for a couple minutes I would present a musical context in which it can be used (a bassline)and then present the ways that the machine can manipulate and transform that musical idea. Tweak the sound and manipulate the musical notes.

These videos seem kind of disjointed and random. At one point there are a couple parts of a drum pattern being sequenced and then there’s this bouncing ball thing with the lights. Neither sound good together, connect, or really go anywhere. Its like they haven’t quite got it figured out themselves. Maybe there are just too many possibilities without actually seeing any through yet?

Is it just me or was anyone else wanting them to show how the bouncing ball screen, scrolling screen, or dispersion screen could be played to trigger and mangle some chopped up beats or even a simple bassline?

I want to use this like an MPC on acid and a lemur connected to a sequencer. I’m not so interested in the weak onboard preset sounds and showing an audience that I can get a bouncy ball sound with corresponding low resolution light show.

Can I use this thing as a multiband EQed crossfader (upper squares as high freq) and use the different patterns for strange and innovative crossfades and scratches?

Show me that bouncing ball shit actually doing something useful in terms of notes being played or articulating a sequenced pattern.

I’m sure you guys have much more interesting ideas and I’d love to see some of those followed through instead of these poorly presented demos.

http://opensoundcontrol.org/

… but the short answer is that OSC is an open protocol that, unlike MIDI which is structured as a legacy serial protocol, is designed as a networking protocol. It’s faster, far more flexible in how it assigns data (using variable names instead of rigid, often meaningless messages as with MIDI Control Change messages), and plays nicer with networks. It’s especially easy to plug in via Ethernet and using standard IP addresses. Depending on implementation, it can be as easy or easier than MIDI, but the bad news — and the reason you haven’t heard more about it — is that virtually no *hardware* has added support. Software widely supports OSC, from Flash and Director to Max/MSP to Traktor DJ and Reaktor, but this functionality is often via third parties or poorly documented. And MIDI is better for certain tasks just because it’s a pre-existing standard — though not necessarily tasks like this. So, it’s become another example of a superior technology that hasn’t yet caught on.

OSC is supported in the Monome, however, and can be translated to MIDI. So sometimes just one device can be reason enough to use something.

I should actually put my money where my mouth is and do a demo / instructions on this. ;)