Wesen of Ruin & Wesen has been doing some amazing stuff with the MachineDrum – and sharing every last detail with friends via the Web.

Ruin & Wesen blog

We’ve already seen his DIY hardware, including a joystick for the MonoMachine. Here’s my favorite hack so far, though: using the MIDI Command hardware, he’s set up his MachineDrum as a 16-voice polyphonic synth. That means, instead of just tweaking buttons and such, you can actually hook up a keyboard. (Hmmm… so, Keyboard Magazine, can I now write a MachineDrum + MIDI Command review for you?)

Joy of Streaming: I like Wesen’s latest idea — he’s live-streaming an informal apartment from his studio online using the service Stickam.com. Stickam carries events like the live BFF premiere with Paris Hilton. This particular stream is … well … a bit different in tone. (Think an international convergence of music tech lovers chatting about details of Wesen’s setup. Paris, you don’t know what you’re missing. Music is hot.) 

If you want to join us, the event is happening now, and I’m sure there will be more like this soon:

Sign up (for chat capability) at: http://www.stickam.com/viewJoin.do

Watch at: http://ruinwesen.com/live

Live streaming could be a great way to connect with fans of your work, try out new setups as you’re developing them, or just to hang out. I keep meeting people doing amazing work who aren’t in the same place geographically. (Imagine online hackathons.) So, that brings me to my next questions:

• Seen any interesting uses of live streaming for music?
• Any good tips on the best services / servers to use? (Maybe it makes more sense to use a DIY server solution, or are the hosted servers an easier way to go?)

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m back to listening to Wesen and cleaning my apartment, or I’m not going to be able to do any streaming events any time soon.

Updated - recording: If you weren’t there last night, here’s the technological highlight from Wesen’s hardware, plus an MP3 of the music:

Thanks to everybody who was there, it was super fun! Sadly the video recording option on stickam broke down and didn’t save the recording, but here is an mp3 of the liveset: Stickam Liveset. I was not very concentrated so it is quite raw, and when I was chatting I was not changing much, but it was super fun to play. I presented the new feature for the MIDI Command: tweak recording, turn a knob and record it, and it will play back tempo synced to the controlled device. It’s a very useful feature, very easy to use, and allows for a host of new possibilities.

I’ve been following Ruin & Wesen’s development as they’ve been hard at work on new, petite MIDI controllers, promising to be the first of a line of DIY-friendly controllers. “Open source hardware” has been getting a lot of play as a concept, but the idea here is really built around the product: their stated claims emphasize musical usefulness, documentation, extensibility, and customization in addition to the making code and schematics available to hackers.

Today, Ruin & Wesen have launched their website, with two nice-looking products ready for pre-order. The MIDI Command is a small box with five endless rotary encoders on it and a “Macro Knob.” Here’s where things start to get interesting: not only does the unit ship with support for Ableton Live and Elektron Machinedrum support out of the box, but you can flash your own firmware using SysEx. There’s also an LED display, so combined with the software editors and MIDI mappings, this could even allow you to “roll your own” Kore-style controller.

Elektron fans should be even happier about the MonoJoystick, as featured in the video above. As a companion to Elektron’s MonoMachine SFX-60, it gives you six buttons and joystick control over the boutique drum machine. It’s obviously suitable for emulating Elektron’s own joystick add-on, but it’s again hackable for custom firmware and features, and as seen in the video, allows control even Elektron does not. Given those features, I’d actually be interested in seeing the MonoJoystick re-purposed as a software controller for those of us who aren’t lucky enough to own the MonoMachine.

Both units are handmade in Germany. The MonoJoystick is EUR130 / USD190; the MIDI Command is EUR180 / USD265

Ruin & Wesen Digital Products

I’m in touch with R&W, so hope to have more on this soon. I do think we’re seeing the birth of a new business model for music hardware, one built around open source. You’ll notice that it’s often the interface of open and closed but extensible tools that may be the most productive (like an open source controller for the proprietary but well-supported Ableton Live). Naturally, a lot of the open source ideas out there won’t work — that’s the nature of business — but the ones that survive could be wonderful for the music landscape.