The Traktor Kontrol X1 is an exercise in minimalism, reducing the various uses of Traktor to a few encoders and buttons and a compact form factor. But while it supports MIDI for use with any DJ software, its “high-resolution” mode – as with Maschine before it – uses a proprietary protocol. The unit will sell for US$229 when it ships in February of next year.

The control arrangement of the Kontrol X1 fits a selection of essential parameters into its narrow form factor. The controls are divided in right and left into the two decks, with four sets of effects controls each. There are dedicated controls for browsing through tracks, and cueing and tempo controls. The case can be used either horizontally or vertically.

The strategy appears to be to focus on controlling loops and effects, while those who want to work with digital vinyl can view this as a consolidated mixer / browser interface.

There are some nice extras, too. The box itself comes with Traktor LE, meaning someone can get started with digital DJing for about two hundred bucks. And for another $49, you can add a custom stand and case – details too often left out of controllers.

We saw this controller in September, in use in Richie Hawtin’s set. On NI’s promotional site, Richie has something interesting to say about Traktor, which is that it isn’t necessarily getting used by everyone in the same way:

You can put ten people on a stage with Traktor, and each one of them will have a different way to be creative and bring out their personality through it.

My sense is that this hardware will be well-received, because it is focused on some clear functions, it’s compact, it’s cheap, and it can be used in different ways by different people. Those trends have proved successful in controllers of late. On the other hand, it seems that a generation of hardware controllers that could have employed an open, standard, high-resolution control protocol are doing anything but. Ableton has locked certain software features to certain controllers, and in its controllers uses only MIDI. NI uses higher-resolution data, but has not continued to actively develop OSC. That could mean that, while open-source and visual software continues to progress, we may have to wait years before commercial music software comes to support any standard for this kind of communication using anything other than low-resolution MIDI. The big question may be, is there any incentive to commercial makers to do otherwise?

www.native-instruments.com/traktorkontrolx1.info

Novation’s Launchpad, its affordable (<$200) "grid" controller, may have a big Ableton logo on it. But underneath, it's just a MIDI controller. Bi-colored LEDs, containing a red and green element for red, green, and amber output (amber = red+green), can be triggered using simple MIDI note and control messages. That means, whether you're looking forward to Max for Live or you're sequencing in a tracker or writing Processing sketches, you can use the Launchpad just like any other MIDI controller.

One of the things I thought was a major demerit for Akai was the fact that they failed to ship a MIDI implementation for the Akai APC40. MIDI implementations are the charts of MIDI messages we've had since the very first MIDI devices came out in the 80s. They're usually printed in the back pages of the manual, and even the cheapest gear has often had one.

Score: Novation 1, Akai 0. Novation has done the MIDI documentation, and then some. Its MIDI “Programmers Reference” is out even before the official Launchpad ship date. And rather than just doing a MIDI chart and assuming people know how to read it, they’ve taken the care to fully explain the way MIDI messages work, how to calculate the right messages, and how to really use this. Experts will have all the information they need, but newcomers will also find they can spend a little time and learn how to do what they want.

Launchpad Support with Downloads (see Programmer’s Reference at the bottom)
Via: Novation released Launchpad Programming Guide, and Protocol [Nezoomie's Zen Wave Blog - great read]

It’s listed as “for Max/MSP programmers,” but anyone using MIDI will want to have a look; that’s obviously relevant to far more than just Max. (In fact, there’s not a single mention of anything specific to Max in the document.)

What might people do with stuff like this? Well, as of just four hours ago, Matt DiFonzo lets us know he’s written a simple monome emulator. It’s even got a clever name:

nonome – monome emulator for Novation Launchpad

There’s some bad news mixed with the good. Even with something as simple as a grid of buttons, MIDI isn’t as friendly as it could be. I still would like to have a MIDI editor for the Launchpad so you can reassign buttons if you like — that’s a feature, incidentally, available on rival Ohm and Block hardware from Livid Instruments. Also, the documentation reveals that Launchpad uses “a low-speed version of USB,” which runs at a maximum of 400 messages per second, thus taking 200 milliseconds to update a Launchpad’s LEDs. (There are some workarounds, but they’re … more work. Clarification: Once you double up messages, though, you can get this to a more acceptable gap, and that’s for updating all the LEDs, not the latency of input messages.)

Also, here’s a hint to Novation: use a Creative Commons license for that document. That way, your users will be free to document even more ingenious solutions and friendly guides. You win, and your users win. For instance, I have the illustration here, which I should be able to do for purposes of reporting on this story. But can I write my own how-to guide using your guide? Why not make it explicit to encourage me to do so? (They list the PDF as “proprietary,” though there’s no explicit license, and I think they just mean “proprietary” as in “what we’ve done on our hardware.”)

That’s a difference between open hardware and closed hardware, but I don’t even want to belabor the point — CC licenses are something a commercial company like Novation could easily use. In fact, if anyone at Novation or Ableton would like to talk to me about why I think it’s a good idea, I’d like to extend an open invitation. I’m no legal expert, but I can explain what it means to me as a user and developer, and connect you with some of the right people at Creative Commons and the CC-using community.

But those gripes aside, kudos to Novation for getting this documentation out here. I think it’s really good news for people experimenting with grid controllers. And we’ll be looking at how all of these tools, hardware and software, fit together, and how open source development can make them more powerful.

Patchers and coders and hackers: if you’re interested in working on interoperability between all this stuff, let us know.

Compact MIDI controllers for your fingers are plentiful, but tiny foot controllers are far fewer. map~map aka Marcus Fischer decided to build his own by performing a simple but clever mod of the KORG nanoKEY. Now, personally, I find the nanoKEY the one product in the nano series that’s lacking; it feels more like a QWERTY keyboard than anything resembling a MIDI keyboard. But Marcus transforms it into the world’s most compact and portable foot controller. You may have to be somewhat delicate with your toes, but he says the solution works perfectly!

i’ve been wanting a compact usb midi foot pedal for a long time. i built one out of a usb number pad last year but it was less than ideal. tonight i popped all of the keys but five off of my korg nanokey in order to see how it would work as a pedal. it turned out that it worked really well. i cut some small pieces of plywood out to raise the key height and some scrap plexiglass to cover up the missing keys. a little spray paint and double stick tape and it was all finished.
i think it turned out pretty well. not bad for a cheap keyboard and scrap materials.

279 / nanopedal

Those wooden blocks look quite lovely. KORG, you may have inadvertently created a new product.

A monome-like grid controller built for Live, shipping in November for $199 – and I’ve got a first hands-on look with the hardware.

The feature that makes Ableton Live Ableton Live has always been its Session View, an array of Lego-like blocks of music triggering samples and patterns. In the grand tradition of the MPC, mapping hardware controls that make music non-linear has been a major theme of computer music, leading to the monome and the Tenori-On. Usually, consumer gear has only combined these with traditional drum pads, knobs, or faders.

Enter the Novation Launchpad. It’s $199. It’s a grid controller and nothing else, with a set of on/off buttons in an 8×8 array, plus additional shortcut buttons around the sides for switching modes. It’s set up out of the box to integrate with Ableton Live, but it also acts as a generic MIDI controller. It’s bus powered, really lightweight, and compact. Even following Akai’s earlier APC40 this year, there’s something special about the Launchpad: its radical simplicity, and the fact that it is this compact and cheap and plugs in via USB without power, makes this a potential no-brainer for any Live user with a laptop.

I’ve just gotten one of the first Launchpads to arrive (unit “#16″ on the back), so I’ve been playing around with it and can provide some initial impressions and details. I’ve also gotten input from Ableton’s Dave Hill as well as Novation, and I expect to fill in more soon.

monoming the sincerest form of flattery? Of course, one design more than any other championed the radical idea of a minimal grid of buttons — and nothing else. That design statement was the partially open-source, fully-homegrown monome. I’m sure as a result Novation will be accused of ripping off the monome design. I think the opposite: I think the availability of the Launchpad is a huge victory for monome, and an enormous compliment. More than any other design – including the APC40 – the Launchpad really says that an affordable, mass-market device can take on the monome’s radical form. It says grids could become ubiquitous. It’s an enormous validation of what the monome project has done. Furthermore, I think the monome community can continue to reinvent what to do with grids, with software and interaction. There are also many things the monome is – locally produced, sustainably produced, running with open source software, fully community-supported, available in kit form, working with OpenSoundControl, built in a premium form factor – that the Launchpad is not.

[edited for clarification] I think the Launchpad is unlikely to dissuade a person who wants a monome from getting a monome. But what’s significant here is that the design of musical instruments and controllers can adopt new forms. The monome was seen as radical when introduced. It seemed as though the music tech industry wouldn’t produce anything without slapping on some arbitrary knobs somewhere. The Launchpad really does follow the monome’s design cue, and maps control in Live in some new ways. That gives me hope that other designs could likewise tread in new direction, both from independent and larger designers.

Onto the details… The big picture aside, here’s a first look at how the operation of the Launchpad works. I’ll have a short video a little later on today.

Control Modes

The Launchpad has a series of modes that act allow the single 8×8 grid to perform multiple duties. Different modes and shortcuts bring up different visual feedback (by lighting up the buttons) and allow you to control different parameters.

Session mode

In Session mode, the Launchpad does exactly what Akai’s APC40 does. You can trigger clips and view clip state (playing, recording, ready, empty) by color (green, red, amber, and off). You can trigger scenes. You also get the red rectangle that highlights which bank of clips is active.

Unlike the APC40, though, the Launchpad is cheaper, smaller, thinner, lighter, and bus-powered. You can pick it up like a tablet, or squeeze it into a small club space. You can also easily chain multiple Launchpads together (or Launchpads and APC40s), so long as you have enough ports or a USB hub.

Multiple units can simultaneously access integrated control surface functions and clip triggering in Session View. So, for instance, you could have two Launchpads controlling clips, or one controlling the mixer and one controlling clips, or… you get the idea.

Mixer mode + parameter pages

Hit “mixer,” and you see an overview of all your tracks, eight at a time. (You can navigate through your set using the “page” buttons.)

Each row has a different function:

• Volume
• Pan
• Sends A + B
• Stop clips
• Track on
• Solo
• Arm

The “stop” row allows you to either stop an individual track or stop all clips by hitting the “stop” button itself on the right. Solo, arm, and track enable are self-explanatory.

Where things get a bit cooler is if you press the “snd A,” “snd B,” “pan,” and “vol” controls. These allow you to use each column to set parameters. So, for instance, if you want to adjust the send level on your second track, you’d hit “mixer,” then “snd A,” then use the second column to adjust the send up or down. You can fake a “fade” by dragging your finger up or down the column. Now, this doesn’t give you the continuous control a knob or fader would; there’s no interpolation between values. On the other hand, if you’re trying to create stepped, rhythmic changes, that could make the Launchpad (or any grid controller, including the monome) more interesting.

User mode

“User modes” provide open access to the pads for use as MIDI inputs. By default, “user 1″ sends MIDI note messages, and “user 2″ sends control change values.

In the video, you’ll see these modes used for some crazy things, like programming in a sequence and having it continue to light up as you add other layers. In my test – keeping in mind launch date is still over a month away – I couldn’t replicate any of these behaviors. Some of this interaction may require the upcoming Max for Live; I’m awaiting confirmation on details.

In the meantime, you can at least use the Launchpad as a MIDI input in Live or any other software.

Use with other software

Every single button on the Launchpad sends MIDI; I opened a MIDI Monitor session on my MacBook while testing it. There’s not a single menu key that doesn’t send a message. Also interesting: each sends both an on and an off value, which makes it more useful as a button.

It should also be possible, as with the APC40, to use MIDI to light up the Launchpad, complete with color and limited dim levels. I’m assuming the mappings may even be identical to the APC40. I don’t know yet how to do this, however.

Another big selling point for Novation, of course, is Automap support. Along the top, there are alternative labels for the buttons: learn, view, page, instrument, fx, user, and mixer. These will work with Automap and Automap Pro, in case you want to use another host or map to third-party instruments and effects. I didn’t get a chance to test this functionality yet, however.

Physical form factor

The Launchpad feels really good. It’s thin, it’s light, it’s easy to toss in a backpack (as I did today), and yet the plastic case feels very solid. The pads feel good, though I find the throw a little long, making them rock slightly if you don’t hit them dead-center. Angled pads indicate the center, and four pads around them have slight nubs on the surface for additional tactile feedback.

Rubber strips underneath the unit help grip surfaces.

One possibly unfortunate decision was to put the USB port on the side rather than the top, which means you can’t easily put two Launchpads side by side.

Software

The Launchpad ships with a copy of Ableton Live Launchpad edition (aka Live Lite), version 8.0.6. On both my Mac and Windows boxes, I simply installed that version and it automatically found my full Live license. I expect that the 8.0.6 build will get pushed to everyone else in time for launch.

You select the Launchpad as other control surfaces, by looking for “Launchpad” in the Control Surface menu. This presumably means that, like the APC40, a software handshake is used to enable the red clip selection box. I’d still like to see a universal solution from Ableton, one resizable to other controllers. Why not plug in a 4×4 drum pad and bank through clips in a 4×4 rectangle instead of an 8×8 one? The red rectangle is also limited in that it’s tough to see which tracks are selected. (It’s also kind of tough to see, period.) That’s really become an Ableton complaint, though. I’m sure we’ll be working on Max for Live and Live API solutions for heads-up displays that replace all of this soon.

Questions and Initial Impressions

I like the Launchpad a whole lot. Sure, it doesn’t have knobs or faders – but you could throw the Launchpad into your backpack alongside a KORG nanoKONTROL, using the Korg for your fader and knob tasks while the Launchpad launches clips, triggers drum pads, and gets used for live sequencing and playing instruments.

I am a little disappointed that there doesn’t seem to be a way to control Devices. I’d like to be able to take the User Mode and use my eight columns to control the eight macro knobs on any active Device. Sure, you only get 8 values of resolution, but you could set up a Device so that those eight values were musically interesting. I’m investigating whether this is possible; if not, I may look into hacking a solution.

I still think there’s a big place for open tools. The Launchpad is already touting forthcoming use with Max for Live, but that’s only because it sends MIDI messages – and anything else that can send MIDI (or OSC, via work from the Live community to use it) will do the same. I think those of us working on open interaction, though, can find ways of building stuff that works in open tools and closed tools (Java, Pd, and the like are open, Max is not), and open and closed hardware (monome, Livid’s Ohm on the open side, things like the cheap-and-light Launchpad on the proprietary side). Having lots of grids could be a good thing. If everyone has the same thing, the pressure is on to make your performance different from everyone else’s.

But the bottom line is, I think this is going to be a huge hit with the Live user base. And even more than the APC40, I think it’s cheap, an easy impulse-buy, extremely compact, and complements other hardware. It also looks like it’ll be a terrific live visual controller for people who moonlight between music and visual sets.

Since I do have this Launchpad here well over a month prior to launch, and some folks at Ableton and Novation ready to share, if you’ve got questions or concerns, please don’t be shy.

It’s Richie Hawtin Watch time! The latest: NI teases an upcoming DJ controller by sharing video of Richie playing it in a club. The surprise: it’s actually what he’s doing with Maschine that seems most interesting to me. And if you recall the Twitter DJ app that he promised in the spring, it’s here, ready to use so long as you have Traktor and a Mac. (If you’re reading, Richie, do let me know if I’ve gotten my facts straight…)

Native Instruments yesterday pointed me to a video they’ve posted of Richie Hawtin DJing at Berlin’s lovely Saturday Adventure Club. The point of this is, of course, to tease an upcoming DJ controller they intend to announce in detail in November. You can already tell a lot from watching the video: it’s a hardware controller (or two chained together) that focuses on the Traktor working method. That is, there appears to be an emphasis on control of multiple effects, and cue and loop points, and it seems you can control Traktor’s full four decks. (At least, that’s what I get from squinting at the video; I could be wrong.) Regular Traktor users may be able to tell more, so … um, squint away.

To me, actually, it’s what Richie is doing with Maschine that looks most cool. He’s using NI’s drum machine to program in live beats and loop those, and it appears he’s then using Traktor as a sort of software DJ mixer / DJ source / effects unit. This shouldn’t be a big deal; in an ideal world, we’d have lots of DJs getting crazy playing their own beats atop their mixes and really mixing up the stuff they’re playing. Sadly, too often what you get is people playing tracks straight, which means you could just stay home and drink and dance in your living room. Richie’s sets do a lot more than that – and of course, what a lot of us are looking forward to is a rebirth of his original Plastikman stuff on tour, expected some time in the near future. If you’re interested in what he’s doing in his live sets, and his fellow minus mates, let me know and I can find out.

Before anyone complains about his line-up of gear, Richie was involved in the development of all these products, including the Allen & Heath mixer. So I would expect him to use the stuff!

In other news, the TwitterDJ app is now freely available, for Twittering tracks live from Traktor. The bad news is, the installation and setup is pretty involved, and it’s Mac-only. I like the idea – part of the vision of TwitterDJ is getting DJs reporting tracks they’re playing, so producers get paid when their music is played. And letting clubgoers discover tracks they’re hearing is also a great thing. I suppose the advantage of it being on Twitter is that it’s accessible to people at clubs with cell phones. But you do wonder if a Web-based format wouldn’t be better, and given that underneath is the cross-platform Icecast streaming server, it seems too bad to me that the app is Mac-only. Building networked apps is a perfect application for platforms like Java and Python. But don’t get me wrong: it’s great to see someone who plays out as much as Richie does experimenting, and sharing the tool he built. I’d like to know if the tool is open enough that other people could take it and adapt the idea to other platforms and servers / communication media.

There’s a curious distinction in hardware keyboards. You’ll find plenty of keyboards geared for performance with software at the low-end to mid-range. But if you want a keyboard with uncompromising durability and action – and you’re willing to pay more and lift more weight – those choices suddenly disappear. Suddenly, you have to buy a workstation keyboard or something with built-in sounds or even built-in speakers. What if you want a really uncompromising keyboard to use with software and nothing else?

It’s almost as though manufacturers assume “serious” musicians want to gig with built-in sounds on a standalone keyboard. That’s a pretty stunning assumption in the year 2009, given the versatility, reliability, and unmatched sound quality and diversity of software instruments. If you’re looking for a controller alone, your options are limited. M-Audio, Novation, and others have some great affordable options, but nothing really high-end. Roland, Yamaha, and Casio have some nice controllers, but the higher-end models aren’t dedicated to the task, and therefore there’s no way to dedicate all your dollars to the controller itself. (Dig deeper, and there’s still more sacrifices to make – yes, you can have x, but then we take away y…) My short list would probably be Doepfer’s lovely keyboard in a road case and Studiologic – and that’s about it.

Studiologic’s new Numa Nero, therefore, looks like the serious controller a lot of us have been waiting for. It’s a full, 88-note keyboard made for serious musicians. Yes, part of it is plastic, but plastic doesn’t necessarily mean “cheap” – good-quality plastic can be more durable than other materials. And the design itself finally focuses on getting you the best-possible keybed and action, assuming your software will take care of the sound generation.

• Graded hammer action (essential for piano players, as it makes the lower end heavier than the higher end)
• The last key mechanism design by late Fatar founder/designer Lino Ragni
• Double-dipped, “full-body” solid black keys – not hollow black keys. (The press release points out that most digital pianos have hollow keys, which is something I can verify. Unless you play in C major all the time, this is a major problem.)
• 20 dynamic curve settings which “sense” playing in real-time and respond accordingly. It sounds like the piano action equivalent of anti-lock brakes; I have to try it to understand what they mean!
• 4 zones with independent velocity curves, MIDI, program, pedal, and control settings
• Two pedal inputs, plus an illuminated side wheel controller. (The side is an unusual place for a wheel, but I could still see being able to reach it live.)

Now, what’s missing from all of this is a control surface, which bothered me initially – you don’t, for instance, get faders to use as drawbars. Upon reflection, though, I actually think having all that empty space is a huge advantage. If you’re an organ player, you can add a drawbar controller. If you’re controlling unusual instruments, you could add a touchscreen-equipped laptop. Or add a monome. You get the idea.

And the best feature of all may be this: “An aluminum back piece slides out to support another keyboard, sound module, or laptop, without the need for another stand.”

No, my only remaining gripe is that, while the keyboard supports aftertouch, it’s monophonic aftertouch, not polyphonic. Poly aftertouch seems to be a dying breed, but it would certainly have qualified this keyboard as “ultimate.” I’m nonetheless dying to play the Numa Nero. I’ve been waiting a long time for a worthy controller that doesn’t try to make sounds or arrange beats for you or do anything other than talk to your software setup, and this could be it.

US$1274, which goes to prove my point – focus entirely on the controller, and you can keep the cost low without compromise. Weight: 57.3 ponds.

There’s also a 22-pound Numa Nano coming at winter NAMM; keep your eyes out for that one – if it could be just as brilliantly-designed but more liftable, it could be the perfect companion, a nano on the road and a Nero back in the studio (or when you’ve got transport).

Numa Nero Product Page

And yes, it’s worth considering the entire Studiologic range. Ironically, the line they call “vintage” is the one with lots of added controls. They’re absurdly cheap for the quality, have action that can beat most of the pricier options out there, and immensely logical designs that pack maximum playability into the weight and form factor. The designs are, charitably, “workmanlike,” but if it’s more playable, who cares? I also understand they’re easy to service. Now, the only remaining question is why the Italian-based Studiologic seems to be so alone in getting this area right.

KORG has other new product announcements, and I think both are going to be big hits for them.

The SV-1 stage piano falls well into the category of “why didn’t anyone else do this first?” First, it looks beautiful – finally, a keyboard designed for the stage that actually looks good onstage. (I don’t know, maybe manufacturers assume us keyboardists are ugly?) Second, it combines all the sounds many gigging keyboardists need, instead of an odd assortment that covers some bases but not all, or overkill workstation keyboards that do too much and get too complex. Third, it’s finally a hardware keyboard that learns some recent lessons from software – you need to model the characteristics of the real thing, and people expect good amp models, and the like. Fourth, it’s… okay, it’s just really, really pretty, which I expect will change how everyone feels about the whole package.

Updated: Yes, in fairness, Nord has potent competition waiting for the KORG, and available first. I think either the Nord Stage or Nord Combo win handily if organ sounds are important, and both are designed to double as external controllers if you do like software. The Nord also has more bells and whistles for editing and sound control. On the other hand, the KORG will clearly appeal to people who are in it mainly for the electric piano side of the coin. And pretty as the Nord is – as much as they’re both shades of red – I think the KORG is still pretty darned sexy-looking.

In addition to all the specs and such, KORG has the manual online, so you can get into the details.

SV1 Support

Oh, yeah, just one gripe – I always think it’s silly when you put a window in front of the tube. But I won’t knock it; I expect it helps on the sales floor. At least the side that faces the audience looks like a racecar.

Now, I have just one request for the whole industry: some of us really do like our computers. Can we please, please have one top-flight software keyboard controller that’s worth spending extra dollars on and looks like it means business? Unfortunately, the industry has decided the “pros” want nice hardware keyboards, and anyone using software is probably a basement producer – which is why you see the pros, when they want a software controller, using hardware like the Yamaha Motif for the job even when there’s no actual sound coming out of it.

The other announcement is a redesigned WAVEDRUM. For those of you who haven’t discovered the Cult of Wavedrum (and the rival Roland Handsonic), this may be a bigger deal than you think. As it happens, the electronic music world often wants stuff that doesn’t fall in a predictable category. Digital virtual bongo head? Why, yes, people want that – to play virtual conga or tabla, or just as a controller for other sounds. The new Wavedrum is built with more sounds, more effects, and more sensors for a wider sonic palette, including newer features like physically-modeled sounds and the ability to apply different effects to different parts of the surface. I’m guessing it’s still no match for boutique controllers, but it could give the Handsonic a serious run for its money – not least because it looks a heck of a lot better. (Hey, it matters.)

WAVEDRUM Product Page

Let us know if either of these items strike your fancy and I can dig up more from my Long Island neighbors at KORG.

Having full control of a complete mix and session from your MIDI keyboard – without having to move your hands to the mouse or shift your focus to your computer screen – can be an addictive, if elusive feeling. Here’s a look at one way to accomplish that objective using the new Axiom Pro keyboards from M-Audio and CDM reader favorite Ableton Live, thanks to a first-look video provided to CDM first.

We’ve seen efforts to make this happen before, notably including the Korg Kontrol keyboard series working together with Propellerhead Reason and Novation’s Automap with software like Ableton Live. M-Audio’s Axiom Pro line has a new twist on the idea with what Avid calls “HyperControl.” Several details make HyperControl unique. For one, it doesn’t require any intervening software or drivers; the keyboard is USB class-compliant and plug-and-play, and you don’t have an additional software layer as with Automap. Also, the Axiom Pro is natively capable of sending keyboard commands, and even has a numeric keypad on the front panel of the unit. But most importantly, the Axiom Pro has its own workflow for different editing and performance functions. My suspicion is whether you love or hate HyperControl will probably hinge on how you adapt this feature.

Avid has been kind enough to give CDM an exclusive scoop on an extensive video they produced walking you through the process of setting up HyperControl with Ableton Live, step by step. Now, normally many of the videos from hardware makers make me cringe. John here has done a really terrific job, however. It’s really a tutorial and not a sales pitch, and while I’m a fan of writing and reading, this would be really confusing without the video.

Much of the working method focuses here on controlling the whole session rather than performance parameters. If that doesn’t appeal to you, skip to about seven minutes in for a discussion of “Device Mode,” which is when you finally map those eight encoders to the eight macro parameters for Device Racks so you can tweak your live synth sound. What’s nice here, though, is that you could couple that technique with the tips on recording clips, so you can play, record those clips, play back lips, and tweak all at once, one-man-band/one-woman-band style.

Have a look at the video, and let me know what else you might like to know. What isn’t covered? What other ways might you want to use a keyboard-and-software rig like this?

And don’t worry, while this week is becoming Controller Week (like shark week for MIDI nuts?), it doesn’t have to be The Ableton Live 24 Hour News Network. HyperControl also supports other software, including Avid’s own Pro Tools. Apple just released support in Logic Studio 9 and MainStage which I’m researching now. And while HyperControl is a slick moniker, I’m also researching more conventional control methods, which can even support Linux thanks to the fact that the hardware (unlike Novation’s) is class-compliant. So let us know your priorities in comments, and I’ll see if we can make them happen.

Axiom Family at M-Audio (now Avid

I Want My CDM TV

We’ll be putting more videos onto CDM TV very soon, and now you can subscribe to videos easily via iTunes, Miro, and RSS. Transcoding is fixed, too, so you can load up this video on your iPhone / iPod touch and balance it on the end of the Axiom Pro while you practice these techniques, if you like!

Subscribe to CDM TV with iTunes
Subscribe to CDM TV with RSS
Subscribe to CDM TV with Miro

Still a little thinner than we’d like, but expect this channel to heat up for the …um, fall season.

The market is clear: guitarists (and other instrumentalists) want to plug in a piece of hardware, fire up their Mac, and start playing with GarageBand right away. The announcement of Apple’s new Logic Studio 9 last week coincided with the release of new hardware from Apogee, the audio vendor that has gone Mac-only and Apple-centric. Today during a meeting with Apple, I got my first in-person look at the GiO (pronounced “Geo,” like the compact car, not G.I.O. as would rhyme with G.I. Joe).

A number of impressions that I didn’t get from the press announcement:

The hardware looks great. It’s tough to describe until you see in person, but while it seems to look almost cheap or toy-like in photos, the hardware is quite substantial, solid, and attractive. It’s also nice to see a pedalboard that’s fairly simple, with ample clearance between controls – essential for playing with your feet.

It has awesome colored lights. No, really. Not only do the lights change color, but they’re actually color coded. So you can see, for instance, which stompboxes you’re using based on the color.

It uses MIDI. Let’s get this out of the way. Apogee made such a big deal of saying this was compatible with GarageBand and Logic that I began to wonder if they’d somehow found a way to make something as simple as a pedalboard incompatible with everything else! Not so – the GiO just sends standard MIDI over USB. I’ll have to ask Apogee how this maps, and you may still be Mac-only assuming they wrote their own drivers. But I would imagine at the very least, if you want to swap between Logic and AmpliTube or Logic, you should be okay.

GiO [Apogee Digital]

If you’re in love with Logic and GarageBand, GiO looks quite nice. $399 would be steep for a few buttons for your feet, but in a nice housing with an audio interface, if you get heavy use out of it, you may feel differently. You get integrated control, low-latency audio (instrument in + line out), 5 stompbox buttons + 5 transport controls + next/previous controls, and expression control. Of course, this is not news if you’re happy with similar solutions from IK Multimedia, Line6, Native Instruments, and WAVES – all of which also have impressive software and integrated hardware. And there’s nothing stopping you from using that hardware, or other MIDI pedalboards, even with Logic. And I’ll just keep dreaming of a thin-but-large magical pedalboard that I can toss in a bag with a laptop. My feet need more to do.

When software has “Live” as its name, you know control will be everything. So it’s great that many control surfaces will behave intelligently out of the box with Ableton Live, including devices like the Akai APC40 and Novation ReMOTE SL. If you’ve used one of these products, you’ve no doubt been able to click a device rack in Live and have a blue hand icon appear in the title bar, automatically assigning, say, the first eight macro knobs in a drum rack to your eight hardware encoders.

But what if you have hardware that isn’t covered by this functionality that you want to use? The easiest solution is something called MIDI Remote Scripting. It’s been available since Live 6, but it seems not many people know that it’s there or how to use it. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s such an easy hack that it’s worth at least exploring.

For this tutorial, I’ll take the example of the Korg nanoKONTROL and nanoPAD. They’re a likely candidate, at about US$60 street each and with some handy controls (kontrols?) for mixer channels and drum racks. But you could take any hardware and apply the same technique — even something you’ve built yourself — so long as it sends simple MIDI messages.

The upshot: you get simple “automap” functionality without something specific like Automap (or drivers, in general).

Required for this tutorial: Ableton Live 6.x or later. I’ve tested only the full version of Live on Mac and Windows, though I think at least some of the “lighter” versions should work, as well.

This is a long article but a relatively short and easy process. I’m just giving you everything you could possibly want to know about the nanoSERIES and MIDI Remote Scripting!

Introducing MIDI Remote Scripts

Ableton Live uses compiled Python scripts to provide custom support for controllers, as I understand it. I’ve never looked into this specific functionality, and generally you wouldn’t unless you’re a hardware vendor working with Ableton.

As of Live 6, though, there’s a hack provided for everything else, called MIDI Remote Scripts. They’re simple text files that let you specify mappings of MIDI note, Control Change, and channel messages to common parameters in Live. This text file is compiled into a Python script for the hardware when Live launches. Basically, the Remote Script covers:

• The 16 visible pads in Drum Racks
• Device Rack encoders (the 8 Macros for each Device Rack)
• Bank parameters for switching between banks of encoders in devices that aren’t in racks
• Volume faders 1-8, plus the master volume setting
• Sends for tracks 1-8 (just the first two sends)
• Track arm buttons for recording into tracks 1-8
• Transport controls

Now, if you’re not familiar with Device Racks and Drum Racks, and how to use them for instruments and effects, you should absolutely go brush up now. Really, go ahead – I’ll wait. The rack functionality introduced in Live 6 is essential, because it allows you to take complex sets of effects and instruments and map them intelligently to just eight controls.

You’ll notice there’s plenty of stuff that’s not on here. There’s nothing to do with clips. There’s no way of banking up to track counts higher than 8. There’s no way to easily bank between sets of pads in Drum Racks with more slots. There’s no headphone level. There’s record arm, but not track enable/disable. I could go on…

But you do get a pretty decent base set of functionality if the list above looks appealing. Since you’re just using MIDI, you can manually assign any additional remaining hardware MIDI controls to your favorite parameters.

And the most important thing about all of this is that parameters for the Device Rack are dynamic. So while there are eight of them, that covers any selected device anywhere in your set. Click on the device, and the blue hand lets you know the device is under your control. Whichever controls you’ve chosen — say, eight huge mechanical knobs on a DIY hardware controllers — will map automatically.

Finding and Editing the MIDI Remote Scripts

I do mean finding. Your first job is to find the MIDI Remote Script location on your drive.

First, here’s where it’s not: it’s not in the Ableton program folder itself. There is, in fact, a User Remote Scripts folder in there, but it’s not the one you want to use. (I bring this up only because I tried to put my customized text file in that folder, had my script show up in Live’s preferences, but then couldn’t understand why nothing was working. Learn from my mistake, and be wiser.)

Instead, you’ll want to navigate to your user preferences folder.

On Windows Vista/Windows 7, my Live preferences live in:

[Windows boot drive] > Users > Peter > AppData > Roaming > Ableton > Live 8.04 [or your version] > Preferences > User Remote Scripts

(Yours may be in Local rather than Roaming, depending on whether you installed Live for all users. On XP, the path is similar, but in your boot drive’s Documents and Settings.)

On Mac:

[Library folder] > Preferences > Ableton > Live 8.04 [or your version] > User Remote Scripts

Note that on the Mac, in similar fashion to the Remote/Roaming difference on Windows, you may need either the Library folder at the root level of your boot drive or the Library folder inside your user folder (the one you see when you click Home, Documents, etc.).

You’ll find two files in that folder. One is a how-to text file, as pictured above, though it doesn’t tell you that much. The other is a sample file.

To create your custom script, you’ll want to duplicate the UserConfiguration.txt script and place it in a folder with the name you want to appear in Live. So, for my custom nanoKONTROL script, I have:

User Remote Scripts > nanoKONTROL > UserConfiguration.txt

Note that the new file will still be called UserConfiguration.txt.

Customizing in the nanoSERIES Editor

Let’s take a quick side trip to set up our KORG nanoSERIES controllers the way we want.

Out of the box, the KORG nanos don’t come with any software disc, because you don’t need them – just plug them in, and they work. And, in fact, if you’re happy with the default MIDI assignments, you never need to go beyond this. In this case, though, I was interested in remapping some stuff, particularly on the nanoKONTROL buttons, so I went ahead and started editing.

You can head to the Korg Nano site and navigate through support, or even easier is to head to this direct link:

Support Results for nanoSERIES

(If you’re outside the Americas, there may be a different link.)

Click Downloads and choose Kontrol Editor for Mac or PC. (You may also want to grab KORG’s own USB MIDI Driver.)

The Kontrol Editor is really quite nice to use and surprisingly powerful for a $60 piece of hardware. At the top, you’ll see buttons for the scenes on the nanoPAD and nanoKONTROL. There’s a visual representation of the controller which, by default, displays MIDI Control Change and note number assignments. (To change what this preview displays, select the dropdown just below the picture of your nano.) The Browse tab allows you to navigate your file structure, but keep Control selected to change assignments.

You can safely ignore the boxes above the controller for now, which control scene settings and channels. Instead, focus on everything on top of and below the controller. On the nanoKONTROL, the faders’ CC assignments are just below the faders. (Look carefully; that can be a bit confusing at first.)

I’m providing my download of my template, so you don’t have to muck with this, necessarily. But here was my strategy:

nanoKONTROL I was most interested in reassigning the buttons next to the faders. Selecting “Momentary” lights up the button only as you’re pressing it; “Toggle” has it turn on and off. Note that this doesn’t actually impact the messages it sends; just the lights. For Scene 1, I wanted these buttons to double as triggers for my drum pads, so I changed all of them to Assign Type: Notes and adjusted Button Behavior to Momentary. For the remaining scenes, they’re record arm buttons, so those I left as Control Change assignments and Toggle behavior.

The tricky part of this is that KORG has nine faders and encoders instead of eight, and everything in Live is grouped in eight. I made the ninth fader a master. You might manually assign the knob above that ninth fader to headphone out.

nanoPAD All the fun in the nanoPAD editor is to be had on the X/Y controller. The two boxes that are pre-assigned represent X control and Y control on the pad. The third box allows you to define an additional controller for touch across the whole pad. On the pads themselves, note that you can assign up to eight(!) control change or note messages, not just one.

For this project, I just wanted to adjust the note settings to map more intelligently across my Drum Racks, which I’ll explain with the download. That means, unfortunately, going through one by one and changing pitch assignments. For the pad, I’m of two minds. You can keep those CC assignments consistent across all four scenes, or use each scene to control different parameters for a total of eight (conveniently, the number of macros on a Live Device Rack) Note that the scene descriptions at top are just text you add, so the “Drum Kit” or “Chromatic” labels are really just suggestions; they have no functional purpose. You can change them if you want, but the editor is the only place you’ll see them.

User Configuration Settings

Lastly, let’s walk through the changes to make to UserConfiguration.

[Globals]:

For InputName and OutputName, it’s essential that you match exactly the text listed by a MIDI device when it’s connected to your computer. For the nanos, that’s “nanoPAD” and “nanoSERIES.” You can verify this by opening your Live preferences and checking under MIDI.

You also need to double-check your GlobalChannel. Numbering starts at zero, so channel 1 is channel 0, and 10 is 9. You can plug multiple nanoSERIES devices into a USB hub — even an unpowered hub, the power draw is so low — so I like to assign different channels to different devices to avoid confusion.

In the rest of the document, any channel that references “-1″ is equivalent to the default. For that reason, I recommend leaving channel assignments along and just changing the default global channel.

Pads and Device Controls

Here’s the fun part: you can set up pads and Device Controls (Macro) encoders to dynamically control the active device. Choose note messages for the pads, and Control Change messages (with the associated numbers) for the encoders.

Here’s the trick: you need to have everything assigned, or it won’t work. In other words, you can’t assign just the first few encoders or just the first few pads, or, oddly, Live will refuse to recognize this as a mappable device.

Banks and Locking

I didn’t find Banks as useful. Banks allow you to choose banks of unassigned controllers. That can get confusing, though, so I still recommend using Device Racks to manually pick and choose which macros you want assigned.

There is, however, an assignment for LockButton. This allows you to pick a button that will “lock” your dynamic controls to one device. So, for instance, let’s say you have a rack of effects you want to control with your nanoKONTROL. When you’re at home in the studio, you might want to mouse around and click different devices for tangible control. But live onstage, you want just one live performance effects rack. Lock the device, and you won’t accidentally click something else and lose control.

I didn’t assign this on the nanoKONTROL because there wasn’t a convenient parameter to assign, but you can still lock a Device from within Live.

[MixerControls]

This gives you limited automatic control of mixer levels (for channels 1-8), sends (1-2 for each of those channels), record enable (for arming tracks), and the master mixer level. I like having a master to control, so having that ninth fader on the nanoKONTROL wound up being very nice.

Now, it is a little annoying to be limited to eight tracks, but there are two important factors here. Firstly, this is a dynamic assignment, meaning you don’t need to manually assign anything or make a special Live session template. That means you can mix and match MIDI and audio tracks arbitrarily, which you can’t do with a template. Secondly, sometimes having the arbitrary limit of eight channels is ideal in live performance — and it means you don’t have to bank around.

Transport

This winds up working perfectly: you get play, stop, record, forward scrub, reverse scrub, and even a loop on/off switch. Of course, you don’t get some of the other parameters you get from an Akai APC40, like turning on and off MIDI overdub. But, hey, you spent sixty bucks on the Korg and you really can’t balance an APC40 and your laptop on Greyhound.

Setting Up Live

Once your MIDI Remote Script is in the proper folder, your device will show up automatically in Live. That’s especially cool if you’re a DIYer; you could have Maria’s Arcade Button Mashapalooza show up if you want.

Select a configured device just as you would any other control surface. Choose Preferences > MIDI/Sync, select Control Surface in the first column (nanoPAD, for instance), and then its Input and Output ports. Finally, enable the Control Surface Input for Track and Remote. This will allow you to manually override assignments if you want, and to assign controls on your hardware you didn’t assign in the MIDI Remote Script, both via the usual MIDI Map method.

Because I want to be able to easily record-toggle multiple tracks — and because anything else will mean the “toggle” lights on the nanoKONTROL are wrong — I also like to turn off “exclusive” arming in preferences. This way, you can record-enable multiple tracks at once, so that when you want to feed MIDI into your soft synth on track 7, your vocoded vocal track on track 2 doesn’t immediately switch off. Go to Preferences > Record/Warp/Launch > Record > Exclusive and make sure Arm is unlit. (Pictured above.)

One last tip, as suggested by Mike Hatsis of Trackteam Audio: use the Drum Rack’s Auto Select feature, and you’ll automatically toggle the interface to whatever part of the rack’s various pads you happen to trigger. (This works in Live 7 and later only.) This way, you can easily toggle more than the 16 visible pads. On my nanoPAD template, for instance, I’ve already gone to the trouble of mapping the remaining scenes, so the first 16 pads map automatically, and then scenes 2-4 can access other pad slots.

To enable Auto Select, make sure the Chain is visible in the rack, then click the small A button as pictured above.

Alternatives, Future

Now, go forth and have fun!

Granted, this isn’t a perfect control mechanism. If you need to bank more easily between tracks, control a whole lot of mechanisms that aren’t here, focus on clips, or … well, do anything other than the stuff described above … it’s not ideal.

On the other hand, I find this resolves about half of the situations that would otherwise require manual MIDI assignments and, worse, templates rather than dynamic assignment. For basic MIDI tasks, it’s a hack, but a useful hack.

What about the future? HyperControl from M-Audio and Automap from Novation both have more sophisticated integration. The Akai APC40 goes further than previous devices as far as dynamic clip triggering and shortcuts. And other integration is possible with Ableton’s own scripts than what you can do here, although you don’t necessarily get support for all the hardware you’d like to use.

MIDI Remote Scripting is frozen in time in Live 6, so as its own documentation says, there’s some stuff missing. I don’t expect it to be updated, however — too bad, as it is a nice hack.

The Ableton Live API is likely where future action is at. While it’s not an official or supported feature, I have no reason to suspect that it’s going away. On the contrary, you should be able to use API functions controlling clips and most functions of the user interface in Live dynamically. This functionality will be baked into Max for Live if you’re a Max user, but should also be accessible via the hacker-spported, community-based Python API wrapper. Most promisingly, hackers have already wrapped this Python API into both MIDI and OSC implementations, meaning you should have a choice between using Max for Live and supporting this functionality directly from hardware, even without M4L.

I’ll be documenting what’s coming very soon, both on the Max and Python/OSC sides. In the meantime, here’s a preview of what the API will do from our friend Andrew Benson at Cycling ‘74. Andrew is himself a visualist, so I expect we’ll see some nifty visual applications.

Max-for-Live: A Sneak Peak at the Live API features

And looking beyond even Live, I think we’re now in a world in which we’re finally moving beyond simple MIDI learn. That’s a big relief. Next stop: OSC.

KORG owners: Downloads coming in a separate article later today!

Corrections/tips: More to add? Let me know and I’ll update the story. -Ed.