CDM and yours truly team up with Berlin arts collective Mindpirates next week for a learning event we hope will be a little different than most. The idea behind the gathering is to combine learning in some new ways. The evenings begin with more traditional instruction, as I cover, step-by-step, how you’d assemble beat machines, instruments, effects, and video mixers using free software (Pure Data and Processing).

But, we’ll go a little further, opening up sessions to hacking and jamming, finally using the event space at Mindpirates to try out ideas on the PA and projectors. By the last night, we’ll all get to play together for the public before opening things up to a party at night. I know when I’ve personally gotten to do this, I’ve gotten more out of a learning experience. Getting to do it with the aim of creating useful instruments and beats and visuals here, then, I think makes perfect sense.

Working with free software in this case means that anyone can participate, without the need for special software or even the latest computers. (What we’re doing will work on Raspberry Pi, for instance, or old netbooks, perfect for turning small and inexpensive hardware into a drum machine.) No previous experience is required: everyone will get to brush up on the basics, with beginning users getting the essentials and more advanced users able to try out other possibilities in the hack sessions.

If you’re in easyJet distance of Berlin, of course, we’d love to see you and jam with you. In trying to keep this affordable for Berliners, we’ve made this 40 € total for three nights including a meal each evening and a guest list spot on the Saturday night party.

But I hope this is the sort of format we can try out elsewhere, too. If you have ideas of what you’d like to see in this kind of instruction – in-person events being ideal, but also perhaps in online tutorials – let us know.

Create Digital Music + Mindpirates present: Laptops on Acid
Facebook event

Pre-registration required; spots limited – Eventbrite
Register while spots are still available!

(fellow European residents, I’m as annoyed at the absence of bank transfer/EC payment at Eventbrite as you are – we’re working on an alternative, so you should email elisabeth (at) mindpirates [dot] org to register if you don’t want to use that credit card system!)

Little. Knobby. Different. Better.

8 knobs. No, 64 knobs! No, giant knobs, hundreds of buttons, dozens of faders…

Okay. One button, one knob. Put (one of your) opposable thumbs to good use and just do something simple. And, with something this small and inexpensive, never go anywhere without a real knob again. (Friends don’t let friends operate fake simulations of knobs using mice. Augh. Painful. (Which way is a “circle,” again?)

That was the creed of none other than Brendan Ratliff, aka Echolevel, aka chip music “superhero” Syphus, a composer/musician/hacker who works scoring games and film/TV soundtracks and general musical mayhem. He wanted something simple that just didn’t exist. So he built it himself, all using an Arduino-like dev board (by way of the ultra-small Teensy USB hardware).

It works without drivers, so any OS will function, and so will the iPad via Camera Connection Kit. In fact, that makes this a great project if you’re learning how to make this sort of hardware – and it’ll keep you from biting off more than you can chew on your first go.

Of course, there are lots of build details and instructions should you want to attempt your own. And open USB MIDI implementations are just making so many things better. (I wonder if we’ll ever get around to doing something with that?)

Knobber – USB MIDI single knob/button controller by Echolevel

What a teeny little super guy this is. Did I ever tell you about the time …

Brendan makes music. Let’s hear it. (Sorry, I’m late to giving a talk, so that’s all the intelligent analysis I have … no, Brendan deserves more — here’s a giant cornucopia of awesome. You can quote me on that.)

Disclaimer/apology: I grew up in the 80s, and … sorry about the two references above.

My favorite posts don’t easily fit on either Create Digital Music or Create Digital Motion. This one mixes, literally, the meaning of the two. And it results, in the video at top, in some eerily-lovely music. (Album below.)

PixiVisor is software for desktop (Mac, Windows, Linux) and mobile (iOS, Android) that transforms images to sound and back again. Producing sound from images is an idea in a variety of tools. But PixiVisor is unique in that it goes the other way, too: sound can be turned back into the originally imagery as a video. In the demo video here from developer Alexander Zolotov, a simple audio mixer can mix together multiple video sources (in beautiful low fidelity), and add effects. A DIY 4-pole plug connects the signal to the mobile gadget – iOS, in this case.

The video source (and recording format) is animated GIF files.

Alexander Zolotov is also the creator of SunVox, the powerful music making app.

For more, here’s a filter on a Korg monotron used to modify the appearance of the animated GIF:

Alexander Zolotov makes music as well as software. His eclectic ambient music I think is summed up in its Bandcamp tags: “electronic ambient chiptune easy listening experimental idm Екатеринбург”

Екатеринбург, aka Ekaterinburg, is the central Russian town from which Alexander hails. (Full disclosure: I know this because I Googled it. Did you know Russia is big? Really, really big?)

http://nightradio.bandcamp.com/

Here’s one selection, the latest – quirky, abruptly-percussive music produced entirely on his PixiTracker mobile music-making app, on an Android phone, no less. (LG E510)

Grab PixiVisor free on desktop, or for two bucks on mobile.

http://warmplace.ru/soft/pixivisor/

Thanks, LeCollagiste Vj!

These strange glyphs represent the dictionary of hand gestures Geco and LEAP can turn into music control.

Here we go again. Touchless hand gestures have been part of electronic musical performance ever since the Theremin first hummed to life almost 100 years ago. And those gestures embody the same challenges and promise. We have the ability as humans to think spatially, in three dimensions, and to have a tight sense of control via our muscles of gestures in space. We use gestures to communicate and to manipulate our world. Those same expectations can be disappointed in electronic systems, however, as they lack tangible physical feedback and may misinterpret our intentions.

It’s easier to play with these ideas and experiment with them than talk about them, though. And for everyone who’s turned off by the idea, someone else is enthused.

What the US$79.99 Leap Motion may do for gestures in music is to lower the bar for entry – and up the bar for performance. Leap is affordable hardware, there are already lots of developer units out in the world, and there’s an easy-to-program SDK. We’ve already seen Microsoft’s Kinect open up gestural control to lots of new music projects. Leap may do more: it’s cheaper, it’s faster and operates with vastly lower latency, and it’s more precise for individual hand gestures. It also offers a platform for developers to share their work, in an app store full of stuff you can use, so that the hardware theoretically won’t become a paperweight in the cubicles of the digerati.

Latency alone could make a big difference for musical applications. It’s not the only challenge in motion control, but it has been the showstopper, particularly with the hefty lag you get using something like Kinect. Leap is different, offering latencies low enough to satisfyingly control music applications.

The unobtrusive Leap Motion hardware. Courtesy the manufacturer.

That doesn’t mean you should run out and buy one. Healthy skepticism is always good practice. So, I actually agree with some of Chris Randall’s complaints about Leap, as discussed on Twitter. I think anyone experimenting with novel control schemes, though, may learn something from successes and failures alike.

If you’re ready for the adventure, though, Leap will make it immediately easy to start mucking about with music. Leading the charge is Geert Bevin and his Geco (originally Gesture Control) app. I’m testing it now, but here’s a quick look at what it does.

By making a virtual MIDI port, and using a library of gestures and mappings, Geco allows a wave of your hand to control any music tool that works with MIDI.

• Using two hands, create up to 40 different streams of control messages.
• 16 MIDI channels.
• Mappings with MIDI Control Change or (with greater data precision) pitch bend.
• Manipulate different streams using “open” and “close” gestures of your hands.
• Low-latency control, with visual feedback on both MIDI and movement analysis.
• Send MIDI on the Mac using a virtual MIDI port you can then connect to other applications – or, on either platform, to physical MIDI ports.
• Graphical UI with color/graphical customization, information on gestures and so on.
• Thin out your MIDI data to work with old gear that can’t respond to all those messages.

The intro price will be US$9.99. It should launch with the Leap Motion app store – dubbed Airspace – when the controller launches on May 13.

MIDI is useful, but it’s too bad there’s no higher-precision control implementation here. (OSC would be one option; it seems apps that do that are a likely addition.) There is a whole lot of detail and thought that has gone into how the UI works, and Geert promises that the whole engine is low on system resources and approaches “zero latency” (at least, it’s very, very fast).

Updated: Geert fills us in on that high-resolution data question and OSC. From comments:

Yes, there will be OSC in a next version and I plan to add direct hosting of AU/VST also. I’m also thinking of making an AU/VST version of Geco itself so that it can perfectly be integrated into any DAW and process the audio that’s flowing through.

It’s worth taking a look at the draft documentation for more detail:

http://uwyn.com/geco/

Here’s another experiment showing VST and AU control:

Nor is Leap Motion the only game in town. On Create Digital Motion yesterday, I wrote about another project that is using crowd funding to launch an open source rival. I can imagine developer APIs that let you work across each. The advantage of open hardware would be that people can understand how the device works, and modify it for specific applications (both code and hardware form factor.)

DUO is a DIY 3D Sensor – Like Leap, But Open Source, From Gesture and Vision Veterans

I’m clarifying the details of their licensing plan. At least one of this team has come under criticism in the past for the approach to open source releases and Kinect hacking – you can read the discussion in both directions, though I’m encouraged that developer AlexP was ultimately responsive to some of those concerns. We’ll see how this project is structured.

It does seem that people will continue to develop this thread in motion control. We’ll be watching.

As I do have a Leap, let me know if there’s anything you’d like tested or developed (summer project!), or questions you may have.

https://www.leapmotion.com

One highlight of Musikmesse for me was getting to catch up with Jay Smith of Livid Instruments. Base, their touch controller (grid plus touch strips), is even more appealing in person than online. And it seems like it could really sit in a niche in controllers, even with lots of grids out there these days.

By comparison, Novation’s new Launchpad S, while much cheaper, lacks pressure sensitivity. And Ableton’s Push also leaves plenty of room for Base. Push I still think is a terrific controller, even as it has some growing pains with its initial launch – I’ve had some readers complaining about hardware variations like off-color RGB LEDs, and you just can’t buy the thing for some time. But more importantly, while Push is a beautiful piece of hardware and has the deepest integration with Live, you might want something simpler and more generic. Others must agree: even with Push announced, Base sold out its initial handmade run. There just seems to be an insatiable appetite for all these controllers, and of course no one size fits everyone.

Livid’s Base has dedicated vertical faders, which Push and Launchpad lack. The grid is pressure sensitive, of course. And you get the ability to send note on and note off values (with velocity) from the sliders, too, so you could devise new instrumental applications for them. And it’s tough to overstate just how portable this is. With nice metal sides, crafted in Livid’s facility in Austin, Texas, and no moving parts, it’s a no-brainer to drop this into a backpack or messenger bag – even ones too small for Push.

The simplified layout – grid, bank buttons, faders – lends itself nicely to mappings. Jay showed me the Base’s Ableton Live mappings, and I think they’re brilliant. Bank buttons switch you between clip triggering, drums, and instruments, and the faders easily access mix, sends, and Device parameters. And you still get step sequencing. I think Push is a lot deeper in the studio, but while it works live, it can be a bit complex to navigate in that scenario. And that’s before we get into the possibility of using Base with other software. First, a look as Jay walks us through the Ableton mappings:

Other software, you say? One example: Bitwig was also at Musikmesse, so as I stopped back by the booth, Jay had just installed a new Bitwig Studio control script they’d given him. One of the nice things about Bitwig Studio is its JavaScript controller support. Of course, Bitwig still isn’t publicly available, but insert your own favorite software here.

Here’s a terrible video proving that the script works, and not much else. (Apologies – Jay and I hadn’t really had time to look at the controller, so just figure this is visual evidence that … there is a script. I expect there’s a Base sitting here in Berlin at Bitwig. We really need to all get together and have a massive grid hackday with monome and Push and Launchpad and Base and as much music and visual software as we can organize.)

I’m disappointed that there’s nothing other than MIDI control on Base, though. I won’t get into the ups and downs of OSC, but if not OSC, some control protocol would sure be nice, especially given Livid’s focus on the DIYer.

But that’s about the only complaint I can think of. Like Push, Base is sold out at the moment, but a new run is in the works and should be available soon. We’ll be watching.

http://lividinstruments.com/hardware_base.php

Update: Peter Nyboer explains how the touch faders send messages. You can send variable velocity, but using position, not touch sensitivity (which makes more sense, anyway, I think)!

There’s two modes for the note that is sent when you touch the fader: “fixed” and “position.” If fixed, when you touch the fader, a note (of your choice) is sent with velocity 127, then a 0 when released. In position mode, the velocity will be based on the position where you touch the fader, so if you touch it at the bottom, it sends a velocity of 1, if you touch it in the middle, it sends a velocity of 63, and so on. You could say there’s a third mode: “don’t send any note, I just care about the CC!”

Novation’s Launchpad may have begun its life focused mainly on controlling Ableton Live. But a new update, while not radically different from the original, is more flexible, working with more software and more operating systems – including the iPad. It’s also brighter and refreshes faster than the original.

The Launchpad S is, generally speaking, still a Novation Launchpad. It has the same complement of controls, and unlike some recent hardware, it lacks features like velocity sensitivity and full-color RGB LEDs. This is still just a basic, tri-color 8×8 array grid controller with some extra controls. But like the original, that also means it’s about the cheapest grid controller you can buy, and it’s unusually light and portable.

What that “S” adds in terms of hardware is mainly brighter LEDs – much brighter and more saturated, from the looks of the video – and a “significantly-faster refresh rate” that might appeal to specific programming applications.

The other big change is, while there’s still an Ableton logo (the old one, even) and prominent mention of controlling Live, the Launchpad is no longer tied to specific drivers and software. Class-compliant operation means you can plug it into any Mac, Windows, or Linux machine (hello, Raspberry Pi), as well as, via the USB Camera Connection Kit, an iPad.

I think it’s most interesting what hackers will do that, but Novation is also bundling some extras to get you started. There are new custom software control overlays in the box, including FL Studio. (No word yet on what others may be included.) And there’s a gigabyte of Loopmasters samples, as well.

It seems to me there’s a window of opportunity for Novation here, both in timing and cost. On timing, any mention of Ableton’s much-fancier Push controller has to come with a big caveat: Ableton can’t ship you one, with a backlog stretching into the summer. Novation says the new Launchpad S will be available this month. Add to that the dealer price / suggested retail of US$169.99. We’ve seen some street prices much lower than that.

So, sure, the Launchpad S does less than most of the competition. Significantly, Keith McMillen’s QuNeo controller offers more touch controls and continuous control, plus RGB color, for US$199.

But, if you really just want a grid controller bargain, the Launchpad S is a contender. And it’s worth observing that, for not much more than a Push, you could pick up an inexpensive PC laptop or netbook, install Linux and Renoise, and plug in a Launchpad S for an all-in-one setup (among other solutions). I’m also interested to see what an iPad-plus-Launchpad S rig might look like.

What do you think? Is the Launchpad S – or original Launchpad, which may now be even more impossibly-inexpensive – something you’d consider? Let us know in comments.

http://bit.ly/Launchpad_S

Artist Videos

With the new ‘S’, here’s KillTheRobot. There’s an Ableton session to download, too:
http://bit.ly/KillTheRobotSamples

And behind the scenes of how he produced this:

Look, Ma, MIDI!

Ardour has long been software that you probably wanted to want to use. Fully free and open source, supporting standards for plug-ins and file interchange, Ardour is software that arguably the whole industry needs to exist. That is, even if you don’t use it, you might benefit from having a reasonable competitor that pushes openness and interoperability, that can innovate with open source code as much as commercial options do.

Now, Ardour is here in a version you may actually want to use.

It’s not that there haven’t been people getting work done with Ardour in the past. (Don’t forget the clever, proprietary derivative Harrison Mixbus, too, which proves proprietary and open projects can work together.) Ardour has been eminently usable and stable (in non-experimental builds), with some seriously-impressive functionality, all for free. And it’s been the preferred traditional DAW alternative on Linux. The problem has been that Ardour has asked a lot in return, with a sometimes-primitive user interface and major missing workflow features – most notably, the ability to work with MIDI data.

That makes this big news. After a long wait, Ardour 3 is here – initially for Linux, but with a Mac OS X version coming shortly.

And now you can enjoy some of the more innovative features alongside stuff you need, like MIDI.

Ardour also has a remade, grown-up website to explore, but here’s the bird’s eye view of what’s new – especially as we wait on those Mac builds:

• Full MIDI support – record, edit, playback, and work with plug-in instruments not only in VST and AU format, but LV2, as well.
• Parallelize DSP for multiple-processor systems.
• Improved signal handling, including open-ended matrix-style patching and routing. (This one’s important – Ardour has long been flexible with routing and friendly to those used to working in studio setups. Now those features are better, still.
• Solo and monitor more like a mixer, including Solo Isolate, corrected AFL/PFL.
• Non-destructive recording.
• Strip silence.
• MIDI binding maps and improved support for Mackie Control.
• Advanced sync/chase modes for MTC, MIDI Clock.
• Improved performance: 64-bit timeline, resizable disk buffers, support for JACK Session, and an undo that uses less memory and improves speed.

The announcement comes at a unique moment in history, with serious questions about the health of Pro Tools maker Avid as a business. (I’ve not commented on that situation because I feel I’m not educated enough on the details, but it is troubling, to say the least.)

In the larger scheme of things, though, it seems important that we have an open solution, as it could benefit the whole ecosystem of music tools. And prime Ardour developer Paul Davis is the right man for the job, as the creator of inter-app audio standard JACK.

Check out what’s new in detail, or, if you’re new to Ardour yourself…

See the more-polished, up-to-date feature tour on Ardour’s site.

And when you’re ready, you can build Ardour for free on Linux or pay as little as US$1 for a subscription. (Seriously.)

More images, revealing that Ardour’s UI is finally looking nicer:

Now, extensive plug-in support includes compatibility with virtual instruments, via that MIDI support. Images courtesy Ardour.

The problem with the music instrument industry releasing all their new stuff at the same time – as they do annually at the USA’s NAMM trade show – is that useful but not-particularly-sexy stuff can easily get lost. So, here’s one example that I think a number of pianists and keyboardists wanting mobile keyboards might really appreciate.

Digital pianos, done right, might live up to this scene from the movie Crazy People.

There are plenty of digital pianos. They tend to fit in two categories: good, but massive and heavy, or light, small, and … slightly crappy. (At least if you suffer through the onboard sounds.)

So, Roland’s RD-64 is a pretty simple value proposition. You get the number of keys you’d normally need: 64 of them. It still has the feel of a hammer-action piano (scaled down a bit so you get the majority of that feel without a huge amount of weight). It’s a piano a pianist would be comfortable playing or practicing on – in terms of sound and feel – but that that same pianist could actually lift.

Weight: approximately 28 lbs, Roland tells CDM. (about 12.7 kg)

The onboard SuperNATURAL sound set for acoustic piano, vintage electric piano, clav, and organ likewise covers 95% of what most keyboardists need, rather than covering the remaining 5% by doubling the weight and cost.

Roland has also seen the light on class compliance – thank you, iPad – releasing a driver-free USB implementation that will work with everything from iPad to Linux to Windows and Mac without driver installation.

You don’t get any knobs, but onboard you’ll find the classic Roland-style pitch/mod wheel and D-BEAM touchless infrared controller. And while there are other compact keyboards, Roland’s sounds – twelve of them, plus EQ, reverb, and multi-effects – set it apart. SuperNATURAL isn’t quite as deep as one of the bigger sample libraries available in software, but it gets in the same ballpark of playability and quality without having to switch on a computer. And it easily bests, I believe, other controller keyboards in this price range by a pretty wide margin. There are even sound features like damper resonance, and the organ and electric piano parts sound lovely, too.

The keybed, for its part, has the textured feel of piano keys and sensors, escapement, and other details that should make this comfortable for trained pianists and keyboardists to play.

And since you can use it with an iPad, this is a reasonable solution without having to work out where to put a laptop.

Due around March, for US$1195.

RD-64 Digital Piano [Roland Connect]

And it’s hatchbackable.

So compact, you don’t even need to be an American with a truck to have enough space to carry it around. (That’s a Toyota, right?)

No disco-colored pads. No pressure-sensitive controls. No flashy layouts for specific software. It’s not an iPad app.

No, it’s just the Faderfox controller we love: incredibly compact, engineered and built like a tank in Germany from metal and high-quality pots, with gimmick-free controls. And perhaps more than any previous version of the Faderfox series, the UC3 is aggressively generic.

You just get crossfaders, a set of vertical faders (notably absent on Ableton’s new push), and a useful and versatile MIDI controller you can use with a variety of machines and software. As it’s class-compliant, that includes even the suddenly-ubiquitous iPad. (In fact, imagining an iPad and this box in a bag, you’d have an absurdly-portable rig.)

Of course, Ableton Live remains the most popular Thing To Control, so there’s a special control surface script for that, too. Use two UC3s, and you can control 16 tracks.

Speaking of buying more than one, Faderfox’s entire lineup is also more affordable, at €142 (€169 with VAT). That makes it competitive with a lot of other options out there.

It’s funny, much as I loved Faderfox, I always found about half of what I wanted on each product – this one has a crossfader but only four faders; this one has all the faders but lacks other controls. The UC3 seems a perfect balance: eight encoders that you can push, nine faders, and switching so you can create eight groups of controls.

Update: It is too bad to see the LV3 discontinued. This unit combined two analog joysticks and trigger buttons, both absent on the UC3. I was always more in favor of clip triggering from something else, but having those added parameter/effect joystick controls was terrific, and would have made the UC3 and LV3 a nice pairing. On the other hand, the new fader caps look like they’ll be more popular, and the layout isn’t so crowded on the UC3, so all in all I’d still have to say the UC3 is the most sensible Faderfox yet.

Full specs:

- Universal controller for all kinds of midi controllable software
- iPad compatible with camera connection kit
- Control surface setup for Ableton Live 8 is included (no manual mapping necessary)
- USB interface – class compliant / no driver necessary
- 8 push encoders without detents (resolution about 36 pulses)
- 8 faders with 45 mm length
- crossfader with 45 mm length
- 4-digit-display to show control values and programming data
- 14 bit high resolution encoder mode for sensitive parameters
- data feedback for encoders avoid value jumps
- All controls fully programmable in the device by channel, type, number and mode
- Advanced programming functions like copy, paste and channel set
- 8 groups for all controls
- About 136 commands per setup (17 controls x 8 groups)
- 16 setups with backup functionality
- USB bus powering — consumption less than 500mW / 100mA
- Very compact design in a black, plastic casing with metal faceplate (180x105x70 mm, 350 g)

http://www.faderfox.de/

Microsoft’s Kinect has proven a compelling proof of concept for gestural control of music. But it could be just the beginning of mass-market gestural sensing technologies. The Leap Motion, like Kinect, promises to be affordable gear. Unlike the Kinect, the hardware is even more unobtrusive, and gestural control is more precise and responsive. Given the latency limitations of Kinect, that’s a huge deal for music.

And better expression could inspire new musical ideas. We’ve spoken many times before about the limitations of touchless control – Theremins are spectacular but not the easiest instruments to play, and waving your hands in the air probably isn’t the best way to play the piano. (Though it is fun – see below.) With a more responsive system, these proofs of concept could eventually yield something genuinely different.

Leap Motion units are just now arriving in developers’ hands – I have one on the way, so you’ll be sure to hear about it. But even this first video, at top, demonstrates lower latency and finer-grained control, each suggesting something more musical (whether or not an AirHarp is what you personally want). Developer Adam Somers writes, in the video’s description:

AirHarp is the result of a weekend hacking session with a Leap Motion dev board. Leap Motion is a highly precise and responsive motion tracking device, making it a perfect tool for expressive musical interactions. AirHarp is being developed in C++ using my audio processing toolkit, MusKit. The source code for both projects is available at http://github.com/adamsomers.

Special thanks to the Leap motion team for making these dev boards available and for the great response to the developer community.

For more information visit:
http://adamsomers.com/airharp
http://leapmotion.com

Developer Creation: AirHarp [Leap Developer blog]

The Leap crew also put together this cute holiday video:

There’s definitely some potential here. I’ll be watching for my box. Since we have some hackers out there, let us know if you’re getting one, too.