When I reviewed JazzMutant’s Lemur at the end of 2005 (printed in the February 2006 Keyboard Magazine), I wondered if what we were really waiting for wasn’t a computer screen. At the time, I wrote:

There’s no question that multi-touch touchscreens represent the future of computer interfaces, and the Lemur is the biggest leap yet toward that science fiction future. For now, the challenge is that the Lemur’s features lie somewhere between a computer display and music controller, without effectively supplanting either one. The Lemur sacrifices the sensitivity and tactile feedback of physical controls in the name of flexibility, but that payoff is limited by the restrictions of its pre-built interface objects and the difficulty of configuring new layouts and assigning them to software controls.

If the Lemur could be truly fused with the computer display, rather than requiring an entirely independent interface, it would become a must-buy.

JazzMutant Lemur Review

At the same time, I marveled at what multi-touch could mean: interfaces that were as flexible as software, powerful live performance capabilities, and the ability to navigate sound spatialization and timbre in new, freer ways. Rather than a solution in search of a problem (as multi-touch image resizing is, arguably), these were tasks that just weren’t possible via any other interface.

The video above, showing multi-touch integrated with the next version of Windows 7 (expected at the end of next year), demonstrates one thing to me: multi-touch is coming, and it’ll be mainstream. And that’s huge for creative performance.

Microsoft demonstrates Multi-touch at D: All Things Digital Conference [Windows Vista Team Blog]

When Touch Makes Sense

Ironically, because Microsoft is the first to show off this technology in something resembling a consumer-ready, standard computer, people are lukewarm. (Do you think the reaction would have been this way if it had been Apple showing the same demo?) Now, I’m all for skepticism. It’s nice to see Lifehacker asking its readers whether touch is really necessary. That was the question I asked in regards to the Lemur, as well: touch isn’t the answer to everything. You lose tactical feedback, and a certain amount of accuracy. On the multi-touch iPhone, this is an especially big deal: I can easily out-type any iPhone user on my Blackberry, and multi-touch doesn’t mean a whole lot on a small form factor that can only comfortably accommodate one or two fingers at a time. Lastly, no technology can change the physical size of your finger relative to, say, a stylus.

But when it comes to music performance, I’m convinced multi-touch can be very powerful. Forget Microsoft’s lame piano demo or obligatory but meaningless photo resizing. Onstage, a multi-touch display is ideal. You can make quick gestures, quickly point at stuff without taking your eyes off the screen, and use large-scale interfaces built for performance. Imagine reaching over to quickly swap instruments, or switch between song sets, or make a rapid gesture to adjust the timbre of a sound, or navigate surround sound spatialization. And imagine that you’ll be able to do this without having to content with another piece of gear, as on the Lemur, but on a mainstream laptop, with any software you like.

Beyond Microsoft

What’s ultimately fantastic about the Microsoft announcement is that it should have implications beyond just Windows. Unlike the proprietary, one-device iPhone, having Windows 7 support multi-touch means lots of hardware should follow, with the economy of scale and access that everyone may benefit. Even Microsoft’s commitment to the relatively niche-oriented tablet PC has driven down digitizer prices (a step, not incidentally, toward this announcement). You can buy an affordable tablet PC right now with Linux installed, if you like. While Microsoft has a leg up in the enabling software for multi-touch, I don’t think it’ll be impractical for other frameworks or open-source frameworks to follow. In fact, the real challenge is to think about interface design in a new way. (In an interview with CDM, the developers of the upcoming Circle soft synth specifically mentioned thinking about making touch work in future as a design goal, and they use the cross-platform JUCE framework.)

And while they didn’t make a specific announcement, I would expect Microsoft to be likewise aggressive about promoting multi-touch capabilities in their own application development frameworks. Ultimately, I believe the most interesting multi-touch interfaces will continue to come from individual developers and researchers, not the likes of Microsoft and Apple. That’s been true already, so imagine what will happen when those folks have cheap hardware ready to go and can focus on design. The OLPC project, of course, promised a multi-touch laptop replacement, as well; that’s basically just a mock-up and I’ll believe it when I see it, but someone is going to deliver a multi-touch machine soon. (It’ll be interesting to see if we hear anything from Apple, as well.)

Yep, I Want It

Don’t get me wrong: tangible, hardware controls aren’t going anywhere. On the contrary, I think the experience of using multi-touch displays, which even with haptics are a long way from giving real tactile feedback, reminds us of the range of ways in which software design and hardware interface can fuse. But by going beyond QWERTY and mouse/trackpad, multi-touch displays could make for an exciting future.

And in answer to Mary Jo Foley’s question, do I want multi-touch in a laptop? Not only do I, but stand next to me or any other digital musician struggling with a tiny trackpad onstage, and you’ll see why.

More multi-touch coverage from CDM

Cybersonica & Encompass Sonic Art Exhibition [YouTube]

Among the delights inside: suspended disco satellites controlled by Korg Kaoss Pads, motion tracking that translates a performer into a shadow puppet monster (complete with roaring sounds), a liquid, fully-3D interface for making music which shall be known at CDM simply as the hotness, a 3D Etch-a-Sketch for sound, an installation with an interface controlled by torn paper, and even a mechanical contraption that samples visitors onto analog tape (it’s not all digital).

Chris is gradually documenting the works on his blog, Pixelsumo. If you’re in London, don’t miss the programs Friday and Saturday, and do file a report so all the rest of us know how it goes!

Jonathan notes some significant bugs in getting the Lemur to work, particularly with control assignments (including problems using multiple arguments with Reaktor). But his conclusion is ultimately positive:

“Using the Lemur as a control surface in live performance feels much more like playing an actual instrument than simply turning knobs or moving faders on a control surface . . . The Lemur is easily my favorite hardware controller, and I hope it becomes popular (especially so that the price will drop).”

My review for Keyboard also found assigning controllers to be unnecessarily difficult. But the primary difference between the two reviews is that I found the Lemur to excel at some tasks, but not at others, and ultimately concluded it was the future of computer interfaces, but not necessarily of musical instruments (at least not on its own):

“The Lemur suggests fantastic possibilities for certain tasks. ItÃÅ’s unparalleled for surround panning and X/Y timbral control, particularly if combined with another hardware controller like a keyboard or ribbon controller.

. . . For now, the challenge is that the LemurÃÅ’s features lie somewhere between a computer display and music controller, without effectively supplanting either one. The Lemur sacrifices the sensitivity and tactile feedback of physical controls in the name of flexibility, but that payoff is limited by the restrictions of its pre-built interface objects and the difficulty of configuring new layouts and assigning them to software controls.”

Do check out the entire reviews, as they’re now both online with full text and images (as there are far too many details of each to summarize here):

JAZZ MUTANT Lemur, Electronic Musician review

Programmable Multi-Touch Control: JazzMutant Lemur, Keyboard review

The hilarious send-up of educational films that was Look Around You: Music was only the beginning. BBC comedy show Look Around You has its own fantastic website filled with still more goodies. And it gives us a much clearer idea of the future of music technology than, say, a teaser from Moog.

Readers have been sending in “Life in the Year 2000″ entries, which include the five-string bass guitar, sex changes using Bach violin concertos, and my personal favorite, Halson Hoek’s invention that improves your keyboard chops by sending electrical shocks through metal gauntlets. At this point, that might be the only thing that can save my piano playing.

Best of all, Look Around You gives us what must be the mascot of Create Digital Music: enigmatic “musechnologist” Synthesizer Patel. He’s shown here with the watery keys of the Liquinth, perhaps inspired by a post here on the water-powered Mocean? There’s more from the new music episode, including a playable Mini-Trelm synth which has sadly been “stolen”. The TV network that gave us the Radiophonic Workshop deeply feels the trade we all ply:

“Synthesizer spends hours at these machines, carefully programming crochets, demi-clefs and arpeggionnes to achieve that special blend of sounds.”