For anyone whose complaint about OSC aka OpenSoundControl is that it lacks broad hardware support, I have one word for you:

Unicorns.

OSC now runs on magical unicorns. (Would a unicorn not want high-resolution, human-readable messages encoded with time-stamps? I think they would. And because OSC is transport-independent, it can absolutely run on magical Unicorn Beams.)

No idea what this post is about? Don’t worry — I’ll have a talking unicorn narrate a proper, sophisticated, complete introduction to OSC for beginners soon. They’re magical, so they can make complex topics lucid to any audience.

Yesterday, I wrote, entirely tongue in cheek and not expecting anything to actually come of it:

I think maybe I’ll start running screaming headlines with things I want in them, if only for good luck. Tomorrow on CDM: “You Know What Annoys Me? The Fact That We Don’t Have Unicorns. Magic Unicorns. Who Speak OSC.”

Today, via Twitter, Max patcher and audiovisual Merlock Andrew Lovett-Barron of Toronto wrote to me:

@peterkirn I made you a unicorn that speaks OSC.

And here it is, for your enjoyment, in Max 5 patch format:

http://andrewlb.com/max/Oscicorn_for_CDM.maxpat

This is, of course, very silly. But it’s an excuse to pitch Andrew’s site, which has lots of patching and coding goodies and visual creations:

http://andrewlb.com/

And perhaps more importantly, OSC now has a mascot. That means t-shirts, plushies, costumes, the lot. Your job: what should the name of this unicorn be?

All MIDI has is an antiquated DIN cable. Oh, yeah, that and millions of compatible devices. We hope OSC support won’t be as rare as unicorns.

Side note: please don’t troll this post, tempting as that may be. It’ll make the unicorn cry.

Design in music in a digital world can be about the object as the sound – musical ideas translate from one medium to many others. And just when you think you’ve seen it all, someone comes up with a new visual metaphor, a new creation for manipulating music.

OTTO is a functioning prototype combining interactive hardware and computer software, the invention of Luca De Rosso. He produced the design as a thesis project for his masters’ degree in Visual and Multimedia Communications at IUAV University of Venice. It uses the Arduino open source hardware platform and Cycling ’74’s Max/MSP software, and Luca accordingly is quick to credit the assistance of those two communities. In that sense, two, I think it points to lots of new design in the field of integrated hardware and software – not just standalone hardware or standalone software or generic controllers for anything, but hardware that itself behaves like software.

All photos here courtesy Luca and used by permission; see his Flickr account.

OTTO ~ demo.01 from Luca De Rosso on Vimeo.

Luca sends along some more details of the behind-the-scenes workings just for us. (Thanks, mate!)

Luca actually had assistance from his father working on the case. (I love that – father-son collaboration!) All the electronics are on a single Arduino board, and the patch works in Max. (Max has features that make it well worth using, but it’d be nice to see a Pd port, too, making the whole setup open source – and giving you an easy way to run it on Linux.)

OTTO ~ Getting Started from Luca De Rosso on Vimeo.

Luca sends us a view of the innards of this device – you saw it here first:

The first prototype is done, says Luca, with three more coming in coming days as he heads to a festival in Croatia. Plans for the future: no commercial availability yet, but Luca says he’d be happy to hear from anyone interested in manufacturing. (Capital remains the big challenge, even as fabrication gets easier.)

I also love the way he’s designed the documentation. Music tech industry, please, this is how it should be done – with all due respect and without naming names, we really would love if you just showed us your gear and didn’t have some swarmy dude gushing about lots of hype. In fact, we’d be equally happy to buy your gear if the design spoke for itself rather than having your name and circuit diagrams and random text plastered all over it.

But this is really visually inspiring, creative work. And to top it off, it looks insanely fun to play. Putting the beats in a circle opens up all kinds of other possibilities, and suggests thinking in terms of cycles rather than the grids we see on other hardware. As with the monome, you can imagine other software applications that would hook into this basic, minimal hardware design. I hope we see more of this design and concept.

http://www.lucaderosso.com/otto/otto

More videos:

OTTO ~ demo.02 from Luca De Rosso on Vimeo.

OTTO ~ demo.03 from Luca De Rosso on Vimeo.

If you haven’t been following Max 5 updates, the folks at Cycling ‘74 have been aggressively bug squashing. The changelog for 5.0.6 alone is exhaustive. (Via @rekkerd on Twitter, of rekkerd.org.)

Updated: Also new in Max 5, it’s now possible as of 5.0.6 to properly save your patches to a version control repository. Don’t know what that is? Now’s a perfect time to find out — it means it’ll be easier to track changes you make to your own patches, and easier to collaborate with other people. And it’s free. From adamj, on comments:

RE: the diff’ing issue I was talking about above. Timothy Place (one of the Max developers) shared this helpful tidbit:

“Since the change log is a mile long, I’ll point out an obscure new power-user feature in Max 5.0.6.

You can send a new message to Max like this (or put it in an init file):
;max sortpatcherdictonsave 1

This makes it so that the JSON files that are use by Max for saving patches will keep the dictionary in the same order (alphabetized) every time you save. If you are keeping your patches in version control (e.g. SVN, GIT, CVS, etc.) then this should make your diffs a lot more usable.”

See: Version Control and Sharing for Patching: Keep Those Max, Pd Patches in Order with Git

And in other Max news, Expo74 will be a full-blown Max conference in April in San Francisco. You still have a few days to lock in the US$295 intro price (through 3/1). On the menu:

• C74-taught workshops for users: live looping, 3D, Max for Live, new timing objects, etc.
• Workshops for developers: C programming and the Max external API
• Special guest speakers, including Robert Henke — but also Miller Puckette, the creator of the original Max and developer of Cycling ’74’s open-source rival Pd.
• An afternoon on teaching Max
• A “Science Fair” for sharing projects
• Field trips
• A “Relationship Manager” – a sort of conference concierge – plus access to the C74 folks, a bit like the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference

Expo74

It’s good stuff. And the price seems a very reasonable deal for a conference.

You know, it also reminds me that some of the events around the open-source tools could be friendlier than they are. And we like science fairs. I’m not sure that I’ll be able to make it out to California in April (I’ll be there in March for the Game Developer Conference), but eager to hear how this goes.

But speaking of open source, don’t want to spend April at an event for a proprietary tool? Prefer the East Coast to the West Coast? Like code better than patching? Like tools that begin with the letter “S” better than the letter “M”? Want tools that make you think of supermassive black holes? Oh, April in North America has you covered regardless of what you like. One moment while I write up another post…

Ready for some musical genetic engineering?

Much of the sound of electronic music today grows out of the use – and abuse – of specific designs. The electronica beats bred in discos and techno, Detroit and Berlin have a direct lineage to analog step sequencers and the rigid precision of Roland’s early electronic devices. These designs create limitations to embrace and to oppose – just as music notation or theoretical convention did for composers for centuries.

Okay, that’s a lofty way to put it — the question here is, how do you re-engineer music, even an ounce at a time? If you’re a composer a few centuries ago, you make subtle changes to your craft, working inside a convention, and write that down. (Just as with electronic music, there is a layer of separation – only then, it was a piece of paper.) If you’re an electronic artist today, you can likewise change what you’re able to control, and how, playing live. The differences at first may be imperceptible, but just like learning an instrument, the long-term payoff can be huge.

I asked for examples of what people are doing with the Lemur multi-touch touchscreen controller and its recently updated V2 software. This isn’t just about the Lemur – it illustrates what’s possible when the musical device and the controller can flow freely out of a musician’s imagination. That could apply to hardware or software designs well beyond the Lemur.

Mikael Björk of Sweden responded with a terrific example, a “dynamic” sequencer available to all Lemur users via JazzMutant. The open-ended screen layout of the Lemur has allowed the creator to provide all kinds of unusual control over morphing beats, with your fingertips manipulating simulated physics as beats twist around you. It’s not just electronica and sampling and DJing, either – he also has an incredible clip working with a very talented vocalist. It sounds markedly different from the more conventional, Loopstation-style loop performance.

DyNAmic is a sophisticated step sequencer managed by a Max patch, and tightly connected to a Live rack. The Live rack consisting of two Simpler devices containing basic sine waves for low and high percussions, a Simpler containing noise for your hi-hats, and one containing a square wave for your bass sounds. In addition, each Simpler feeds an Autofilter and Redux for effects modulation, all of this being controlled from your Lemur of course.

Template created by Mikaël Björk aka Lo-Fi Massahkah.
http://www.lofimassahkah.net

What he says in a separate post on his blog sums up a lot of what I have to say about sequencers and samplers, too:

Sequencing. Sequencing. Sequencing.

You’d think that that’s all I’m about. Perhaps. Sequencers are fun when you can’t really play an instrument. They might also be fun if you CAN play an instrument. I like my new sequencer – and I hope you’ll like it too.

See: Hip to be Square

The upcoming release of Max for Live should mean that Live can work more seamlessly with the Lemur and the control configuration — more on that soon. But this doesn’t have to even be about Live; I imagine we’ll see other setups moving this direction, too.

And having an open music controller means that, pricey as the Lemur is, you get added value from this kind of artist contribution. (See also: monome, on CDM or the monome project site.) You can use this sequencer layout as is — use it in a different way musically — or modify it, or create your own. The whole patch and extensive how-tos are right on JazzMutant’s site:

JazzMutant Workshop: DyNAmic

So, cool as that is, I’m sure many of you were expecting the glitchy beat modulations that result. Here’s a related project that moves in a very different direction.

Schack & Wetterberg Live looping from Lo-Fi Massahkah on Vimeo.

Esben Schack and Andreas Wetterberg doing a set on Café Zusammen in Copenhagen. Esben on vocals and guitar, Andreas on Live (looping) and Lemur.

And for more of this stuff, you can follow the Vimeo feed:
http://www.vimeo.com/user454089

Not much to add – when the tech is working right, your traditional musicianship (if you’re lucky enough to have it) can come out. And while the occasional touchscreen tap may not seem as dynamic by comparison, I think the way to think of the Lemur is as a compositional device – the vocalist is the real “player,” in a conventional sense, whereas the Lemur is acting as a composer — remixer, however you want to think of it — in real-time.

My respect for the Lemur has really grown as it has matured; the folks at JazzMutant have addressed some of my design complaints. Its cost is, like most boutique instruments that aren’t made in huge quantities, a premium – no argument there. Likewise, you can sacrifice some of that unique design and get a cheap commodity device. In the end, I think there’s a value in both. To me, the more important thing is what people are doing musically. So I’ll be sure to follow both – and hopefully share some how-to people for our Lemur owners and DIY touchscreen users (or other controllers) alike. Even if you just have a box with a few knobs on it, it is possible to move in some new directions.

Got more examples? We’d love to see them.

We get the “where do I go to learn this stuff” question a lot in the inbox. With Max for Live coming later this year, bringing the powers of Max to Ableton Live, I imagine the hunger for knowledge on that tool will be all the greater. (At the same time, I think the growing popularity of DIY tools means that it won’t make alternative tools like SuperCollider, Pd, Csound and the like less popular — I think we’ll see a growing trend toward all of these tools, provided we can show folks how to use them and get better at them ourselves!)

I know one route that has been successful for many people is the coursework at Harvestworks, the storied research and study center in New York. I can heartily endorse this one and say that, while I know and am friends with all the faculty, I have absolutely no investment in this. Dafna Naphtali, Hans Tammen, and Zach Seldess will all be teaching week-long intensives at Harvestworks in Manhattan. They’re not cheap – $1275 for the whole week – but I know some people have even flown to New York from other parts of the world to study up.

And what does all this mean? Well, it means you can turn Street Fighter, the game, into an improvisational ballet as instructor Zachary Seldess has done (above). Among other things, of course.

If it’s all out of your budget, don’t worry; we’ll have some other learning resources for you soon. But for those of you who can take the plunge, here are some details:

(apologies for copy-and-paste, which I always smugly say I don’t do, but I’m in a rush)

HARVESTWORKS DIGITAL MEDIA ARTS CENTER, NEW YORK

—–> MAX/MSP/JITTER FULL WEEK INTENSIVE COURSE

Dafna Naphtali / Zachary Seldess / Hans Tammen
Mondays through Fridays 10am to 6pm
Section A: March 23 through 27
Section B: August 31 through September 4

Cost: $1275 (incl. Harvestworks Membership)

Location: Harvestworks (http://www.harvestworks.org)
596 Broadway #602
New York City, NY 10012 (at Houston St)
Subway: F/V Broadway/Lafayette, 6 Bleecker, W/R Prince

From its central SoHo location in New York City, Harvestworks brings together innovative practitioners from all branches of the digital arts, and provides a vital context and catalyst for creativity in the field. For the last thirty years we have offered artists on-site recording studios, programming services, workshops, classes and one-on-one tutorials in emerging technologies supporting the pioneers of computer music with equipment and instruction. As a tool for artists, Max has been a central part of the Harvestworks program for almost 20 years. We offer regularly scheduled year-round classes and workshops on a wide variety of topics relating to Max/MSP and Jitter; as well as our Certificate Program, a flexible course of one-on-one instruction.

Now, Harvestworks is offering a full-week, 40hr crash course in the basics of Max/MSP and Jitter, run by veteran Max programmer Dafna Naphtali, Harvestworks engineer and teacher Zachary Seldess, and Harvestworks’ Deputy Director Hans Tammen. The course is designed for beginners who want to get a head start with this software package. The course may be especially appealing to artists living outside of New York City who don’t have the opportunity to learn Max in their own hometown and who would enjoy a week in New York City.

The cost of the course is $1200, plus $75 for the annual Harvestworks membership that is required to take the course. The courses are Mondays through Fridays 10am to 6pm. Working in our computer lab after 6pm can also be arranged. Lecture demonstrations will alternate with practice time, and some of our Max-savvy interns can be available to assist during practice time. Workstations with Max/MSP/Jitter will be available, but it is also recommended that you bring your own laptop. The course will provide lots of practice and sample patches. Students enrolled in Max/MSP/Jitter related classes at Harvestworks are eligible for Cycling 74’s educational discount when purchasing the software. The course is limited to 10 students.

We will not provide meals or snacks for the course, but can point to lots of cheap dining places in the neighborhood. We also cannot provide accommodations, but can help with posting requests or bringing you in contact with other artists who might be able to help.

To sign up for the course, or if you have further questions, please call Hans Tammen at 212-431-1130 ext 13, or go to our webstore at
http://www.harvestworks.org/cms/index.php/Classes/Classes-new.html
In his interview on Cycling74’s website, Hans Tammen gives a few insights into Max teaching at Harvestworks: http://www.cycling74.com/story/2008/9/15/113650/347

MAX CRASH COURSE OUTLINE:

Day 1 – The Basics: Objects vs. messages vs. comments; ordering of operations; math in Max; scaling and mapping ranges of numbers; playing sound files.
Day 2 – Basics of modular programming; live audio input; recording sound files; simple data storage.
Day 3 – Controlled chaos; useful GUI objects; more data storage; basics of synthesis.
Day 4: Interfacing with the outside world. Overview of MIDI, the HI object (game controllers), Wii controller, the Harvestworks Sensor Station, using a Wacom tablet. Wireless Miditron. Data storage.
Day 5: Introduction to Jitter: Jitter matrix; basic matrix processing; playing and basic manipulation of QuickTime movies; basics of Open GL.

INSTRUCTOR BIOS:

DAFNA NAPHTALI has been a Max teacher and programmer at Harvestworks since 1995. She earned a degree in Music Technology at NYU. She was Chief Engineer of the NYU Music Technology Studios until 1998, and has taught Max there as an adjunct instructor since 1996. Naphtali is also an academic advisor for both undergraduate and graduate students in NYU’s Music Technology program. She was a programmer for two years for many artists and her own projects at multi-channel sound gallery Engine 27. As a composer, writing custom Max/MSP programs since 1992 has enabled her to perform and compose using her laptop-based noise/audio processing “instrument” to alter the sound of her singing, vocalisms, personalized recordings as well as the sound of any musician playing with her. She has received commissions and awards from New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Meet the Composer, Experimental TV Center, American Composers Forum, Brecht Forum, and has held residencies at STEIM (Holland), Music OMI and iEAR at Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute. http://www.dafna.info

ZACHARY SELDESS currently works at Harvestworks as a resident Programmer/Teacher, and at Brooklyn College CUNY as adjunct faculty. He also works at The CUNY Graduate Center’s New media Lab creating interactive virtual sound environments in 3D Game Space using the Torque Game Engine and Max/MSP. He is currently pursuing a PhD in composition at The Graduate Center CUNY where his primary teachers are Amnon Wolman and Morton Subotnick. Previously he worked as a performer, composer, private teacher and adjunct professor at Wilbur Wright College and Harold Washington College in Chicago. As a composer, Zachary has collaborated with artists in many mediums including theater, dance, film, and poetry. He spends much of his time these days creating interactive media artwork, particularly within the Max/MSP/Jitter programming environment. Programming projects include work with Jane Rigler on Manhattan New Music Project’s “Music Cre8tor”, a sensor/software music-creating interface for developmentally challenged children.
http://www.zacharyseldess.com/

HANS TAMMEN is currently Deputy Director at Harvestworks, and is responsible for the oversight of all projects related to Max/MSP/Jitter and Physical Computing, as well as managing the education program and the studios. In this position he encounters the projects of approx. 250 clients, students and Artist In Residence per year. After an initial degree in Adult Education in 1988 he taught as an adjunct at Kassel University, and as part of his works as a union technology consultant from 1992 to 2000 he held about 120 one to five-day seminars using modern seminar techniques like metaplan, role-plays, and others. As a composer/guitarist he is best known for his “Endangered Guitar” works, interfacing his guitar with Max/MSP. Signal To Noise called his works “…a killer tour de force of post-everything guitar damage”, All Music Guide recommended him: “…clearly one of the best experimental guitarists to come forward during the 1990s.” http://www.tammen.org.

Well, this is the first time I can remember this happening. Tuesday, I covered a GBP20 Max object for independent tempo and pitch modification in Max 5:
elastic~: Pitch, Speed Control Module for Your Max 5 Patch

I wasn’t personally so blown away by it, but it looked interesting, and it uses algorithms used in a number of commercial projects. But Max guru Devin Kerr put his money where his mouth was — or is that, no money where his … um … ears are — and released a free version. Unlike elastic~, it uses all included Max objects. Aside from saving you some dough, that has the significant advantage of being able to easily share patches based on his patch with fellow Max users.

Devin writes:

So I took 15 minutes and made a simple patch and video demonstrating what I’m calling “Free_Elastic”. This Max patch uses high-quality, FFT pitch shifting and is based on the standard groove~ object. It allows for much more control and customization (fft size, overlap, etc.) than “elastic~” does, and it’s FREE!

Free_Elastic: Independent Pitch/Speed Control in Max [Devin Kerr's blog]

Even if you like elastic~, you can’t really argue with the nice work Devin did on his patch. Hope this leads to some other great patching work. Now, can we get a Pd (Pure Data) port for a truly free experience, anyone?

More Goodies

Andreas Wetterberg (of Covert Operators) points to Mattijs Kneppers’ wonderful work. Object-oriented patching? Check. An MPC-inspired drum sampler? You got it.

And most notably in this context:

Real-time, natural sounding granular time stretcher / pitch shifter, version 009, patches only. Download test sounds here.

Time stretching and pitch shifting without artifacts (Max 5 only).

This patch uses the pitch~ object by CNMAT, that you can download here:
http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/downloads.

Granular time stretching has the advantage over a spectrum-based (phase vocoder) approach that it has no inherent latency. This patch aims for the same sound quality (absence of artifacts) as the time stretching features of mainstream applications such as Ableton Live or Reaktor.

That said, actually, you might enjoy those artifacts. But if you’re a Max user (or Pd user willing to do a little bit of porting), this should more than satisfy your appetite for warping. And, Andreas, I’m with you … I prefer the granular stretching sound. (Because it’s really a grain sampler and not just a delay, you may also want to check out the terrific video tutorial Peter Dines did in Reaktor. And there’s a lot more of this stuff elsewhere, as well.)

Monome Life, indeed. What makes the Monome so wonderful is not so much that the hardware and software itself are open source — nice as that may be — but that they have become a platform for experimentation and personalization. Max/MSP, now freshly injected with life following its version-5 release, has a similar ethos. Here are a couple of the creations that have impressed me most recently: a hacked-together implementation of The Game of Life in Max and Monome, and an impressive DJ app, dj64.

This is Your Life

Bean (blog | twitter | flickr) clearly very much loves his Monome, as indicated by the slideshow above. I recently spotted an interesting creation on the CDMusic Flickr Pool — an implementation of the iconic Game of Life simulation/game — and asked him about it.

I made it mainly just because I figured it should be possible. It’s not terribly efficient, and occasionally stutters, but that feels like part of its charm. It is monome tailored, but would run stand-alone with a little tweaking.

I’ve got the cleaned up version posted on my page of monome-specific patches:

http://www.fourthirtyeight.com/monome/#maxlife

There are a number of downloads there, including that one, so Max users, have at them!

Having taught Max to college students and hung around Max and Pd patchers, I actually think I enjoy the hacked-together stuff more. It’s software, but somehow the visible evidence left behind makes it clear that these tools have been touched by human hands. Here’s a look at the interface and the resulting patch in action (prior to clean-up, I might add), with Bean’s caveat that “Max is in no way the ideal, or even a particularly suitable, environment for implementing a Game of Life app. I did it basically just to see if I could do it. And the answer is, yes, yes I could.”

dj64: DJ Software, Monome Style

Bitbasic has reproduced the fundamentals of a DJ setup in Max/MSP, which you can use either standalone or (ideally) controller with a Monome. Consistent with the Monome aesthetic, the emphasis is on minimalism — this isn’t quite Native Instruments Traktor, but then, that seems like part of the point. And by being incomplete, it invites users to try hacking together their own solutions and modifications.

dj64 for Monome – by Bitbasic from simon on Vimeo.

It’s really with the controller that it starts to make sense. Before DJs out there start knocking this, I think it’s the fact that this is the opposite of a turntable that makes it interesting. The results are digital and glitchy. The interface is buttons instead of the continuous control offered by a physical turntable. The software interface may look like a typical 2-deck DJ rig, but the results are unmistakably Monome-y.

Features, as implemented in the Max software and Monome control:

• Pitch and pitch bend, time stretch controls
• Crossfader, 2-channel mixing
• Cue set and return
• Effects: flanger, ring mod, stutter, granular, more

bitbasic.co.uk
dj64 Project @ monome docs
dj64 discussion @ monome forums

It’s under development, so stay tuned. But as a first go, I already find it inspiring. Seen other Monome applications you like? Creating something of your own — even hack-y and unfinished? Holler out in comments.

Not happy with what you can get off the shelf? Build your own. That’s increasingly the philosophy of people working on music hardware. But a second economy is growing around these unique, boutique projects. By open-sourcing the designs, they offer the opportunity to build upon their work, buying something from a small group of designer-musicians and then modifying it to your purposes. The latest addition is the Aurora, which just became available for sale this week. CDM got an exclusive hands-on look at the new hardware and a chat with one of its designers. Here’s our first look at open source hardware’s newest musical gadget.

The Aurora is called a DJ “mixer,” but it’s really a control surface. It connects via a USB jack for power and to transmit serial-over-USB data, then uses free software to translate that data to MIDI messages for use with software like Ableton Live. The project is the work of a three person team, with Matt Aldrich designing electronics, Mike Garbus designing firmware, and Maro Sciacchitano working on the form factor and look and feel. They have an impressive background in making stuff. I got to hang out with Matt in Boston, where he’s joined MIT’s Media Lab Responsive Environments group, so I expect more good projects out of him soon. Matt and I talked frankly over coffee and pastries about the strong suits, weak spots, and future of the device and other projects.

Kit Availability and Pricing

Availability of the first aurora224 model was announced today:

• Complete unit: This kit requires only basic assembly. The PCB is pre-assembled, as are top and bottom panels, and all parts are included. Basically, you just put those panels, boards, knobs, and button caps together using a hex screwdriver — no soldering required. US$340.00. ($420 international)
• DIY kit: This is the one with all the soldering — not recommended if you’re new to soldering, as there’s some tricky stuff in there. US$270. ($350 international.)

Aurora Mixer Project Site
Order Page
Previously: Aurora: Gorgeous, Open Source DJ-Style USB Controller; Details from the Creators

You don’t get that much of a price break via the kit, so I expect you’ll only want to do that if you really enjoy the smell of solder as much as I do.

Onto the hardware itself:

Hardware

The Aurora is configured with DJs in mind, though it could also serve as a nice control surface for DJ-style mixing for laptop musicians, or as a controller for visuals. (I like the two-channel layout for visuals, so I’m quite eager to work on that.) Unlike something like Livid’s Ohm, it has mixing functions only, not triggers of any kind — but that could make it an ideal companion to a Korg kontrolPAD or (in the open-source spirit) Monome.

The controllers:

• A/B crossfader, with two channel faders (ideal for 2-channel mixing)
• 24 backlit knobs (ideal for EQ, effects)
• 8 backlit buttons (could be used to switch on and off effects or for other purposes)

The controller layout is likely to be the real draw for some. What’s especially nice is the spacing of knobs, which never feels too cramped. For people who like lots of effects control and simple two-channel mixing, it’s about perfect.

It’s important to note what’s missing: the unit doesn’t come with any caps for the faders and cross-faders. I think you’ll certainly want some, which may mean sourcing extra parts from a DJ maker or fashioning your own. Of course, part of what makes these projects interesting is customizing them, so if anyone has good ideas for unique fader caps, I’d love to hear them. Unless you enjoy the feeling of somewhat sharp bare metal, though, this is something you’re likely to want to address pretty quickly.

Form Factor and Lighting

The other aspect of the Aurora’s design that gives it less of a finished feel — though it looks fantastic — is the fact that the case isn’t fully enclosed. The top plate and bottom plate are both beautiful, and it’s lovely actually seeing a bit of the PCB. But that means the USB connector is a bit exposed, and the PCB and bottom plate are open to dust and the like. It’s very, very pretty, but you’ll need a way of enclosing this for transporting it around. I got to talk to Matt a bit about that; we didn’t come up with any perfect solution, but there are plenty of possibilities for those who want to come up with their own enclosure ideas. Ideally, you’d stick with the clear plexiglass-style solution as that’d keep the look right, but it is likely to be expensive to get that made to these specs.

Part of the reason for the clear baseplate and design is to allow the LEDs to show off nicely. In a darkened room, they look really fantastic. The LEDs on the base are pretty simple — just one red, green, and blue LED — but they’re adjustable, and bright enough that when bouncing on the base they do provide a nice effect. There are also dim color bands around the knobs. You can control the LED lighting in sync to music using the included software patches.

Note that these pictures (and Aurora’s video) are of the prototype, which featured engraved labels. I quite like those, but to keep costs down, the shipping units use silk screening. Haven’t seen those results yet, but I’m promised they look good, too. I’ll post a photo if we can get one.

Bundled Software

Like many DIY microcontroller projects, the Aurora communicates with a computer using serial over USB — that is, it doesn’t behave like a normal USB device. It plus in via USB and receives power over the USB bus. But you need special drivers to make it work on Mac, Windows, and Linux, which work by allowing your computer to see it as a serial device even though few computers today (and no Macs) have actual physical serial ports.

For a sense of the setup, have a look at the Windows and Mac setup guide. The most important ingredient is the virtual COM port drivers from the chip maker, FTDI:

Virtual COM Port Driver Page

For Windows Vista, I installed the “setup executable” option 2.04.06 at the top of the list; for Mac OS X Intel I downloaded the special Mac 2.2.10 driver. That works perfectly; on Windows, for instance, the Aurora installed like any other hardware and showed up as COM7. (This process should be familiar to anyone who uses the Arduino; the Aurora is not based on the Arduino but uses the same virtual serial setup.) I haven’t tried Linux, but there are Linux drivers available and the process is fairly similar. (Linux users could also use the available Pd patches.)

If you’re handy with patching or coding, you might be done at this point — you can fire up Processing (cdmo tag | cdmu tag) and talk to it using the serial library. (I’m going to try working on a serial library for the Aurora; stay tuned.)

But, of course, since that will only be a minority of you, the Aurora team have created some software that’s intended to be relatively friendly. The software receives incoming serial data and sends MIDI messages to your software of choice. That means you need a way of routing MIDI between applications — think MIDI-Yoke on Windows or the built-in IAC bus on Mac OS X. (I think I helped out the developers a bit on how to use the IAC bus, because those instructions are now included in the docs!) Once you can do that, though, you can use the Aurora just as you would any other MIDI controller.

There’s an added feature, as well. Using ReWire, the Aurora can add some tempo-synced lighting effects by receiving tempo information from your software. So, for instance, you could fire up Ableton Live and have custom, flashing lighting in time to your music. I would be even happier to do this with just MIDI clock rather than ReWire, as I don’t think the timing is quite critical enough to necessitate ReWire; I hope to have a patch that does MIDI clock soon.

The software is all built in Max 5, but it’s compiled for Windows and Mac so you don’t need to own Max 5 to use it. There are also Pd patches, which keeps your software open-source — it’s worth downloading the free Pd-extended for your OS of choice to play with them. And if you do own Max 5, the Max patches are editable, as well. That naturally means you could also directly interface the Aurora with your Max or Pd patches for controlling stuff you’ve built.

Using it with Ableton Live

I was curious to learn more about how the Aurora team actually make use of this device. After all, often the best creations are the ones designers build for themselves, not for anyone else. Matt showed me a basic 2-channel Live setup, pre-mapped to the Aurora. I convinced him to release that set as a template, so it’s now downloadable in the files section of the Aurora site. You can see how they’re making use of it: two channels, EQ, effects. If that’s your preferred mapping, you can even make use of this template directly. Of course, it’d be equally as possible to customize it or make assignments for software like Traktor, FL Studio, or whatever you want. (I’m going to give mappings for Kore a try for our Kore minisite, which will be an excuse to create a “DJ” rack for Kore.)

You may need to adjust the template to properly receive data.

Here’s a video from the Aurora crew of the results in action:

aurora Open Source DJ Mixer\MIDI Hardware w/ Ableton Live from mcubed on Vimeo.

Impressions

The Aurora really is something special; you can tell that it’s not the typical store-bought controller and people do respond very well to it. Also, while there are control surfaces with cross-faders like Novation’s adorable Nocturn, I can’t think of anything (amazingly) with this particular, balanced layout of effects controls and two-channel mixing. And it really is open source: the enclosure specs, schematics, firmware, and computer software are all available for editing.

It’s important to acknowledge that the Aurora was built as a DJ control surface, and built for MIDI. Messages transmitted over the USB port are all MIDI-formatted, so what this isn’t is a blank-slate control surface using OpenSoundControl like the Monome. It’s really MIDI first.

Those things said, I think it’s worth noting both the Aurora’s strong and weak suits, having played with it for a couple of weeks.

Strengths:

Put simply, this is a very nice controller layout. People who want it are likely to be attracted to the Aurora; people who don’t will obviously move on. The difference is, as an open, DIY project, instead of that decision being made by a large manufacturer, it was made by a group of tinkerers who have opened up the fruits of their laborers to the music community.

The open source nature should make it possible for those in the know to do unusual things, like add a tilt sensor or other things that wouldn’t be possible with a store-bought unit.

The Aurora looks gorgeous and unique, and I really love the exposed design aesthetically — if you can find a way to safely enclose the case.

The controls feel great, too — the knobs aren’t anything particularly special, but the buttons are wonderful and the tension on the faders in particular is nicely tuned. That is, if you can add caps.

Caveats

The biggest caveats have to do with MIDI and serial. By using MIDI, the Aurora doesn’t differentiate itself much from existing commercial MIDI controllers – and making matters worse, you will have to deal with an additional piece of software to route that MIDI into your computer. The arrangement works, but it’s slightly less convenient than having real MIDI drivers. It would be nice, given the need for software between the hardware and your software anyway, if the Aurora used something like OSC and translated that to MIDI. That’s something we might see on future projects.

The other issue is the fact that the form factor isn’t really quite finished. The case is exposed, and you don’t get caps for your faders. That might be a deal breaker, except that with this kind of hardware, you almost don’t want a finished product — the fun is in finding ways to customize the unit. But by the same token, I wish the design made this a bit easier. There’s almost no clearance on the edges of the faceplate or around the screws, and the lovely-looking curved edges would be hard to work into a design. My guess is that you’d sort of build a clear box around the thing. I’m interested in the problem, so I’ll be investigating and asking around some people I know who have worked on these kind of projects — and we certainly welcome your feedback.

Lastly, though it’s a niggling point, I’m not in love with the knobs, I think partly because I’ve been spoiled by the amazing encoders used on Native Instruments’ Kore controller. I don’t mind the lack of EQ center indents, because I can’t imagine using them that way, but that may also be a small drawback for DJs.

Open DJ

The image above sums up what makes the Aurora different from other controllers — and what outweighs some of its current weak spots. Courtesy the Aurora Mixer project.

Despite these weak points, it’s a really remarkable piece of hardware, and one you can get right now and immediately open up and reprogram / repair / rework if you wish. The real test will be to see how people respond to its open-source design, whether that translates into people using it creating some of their own solutions to housing, customization, and software operation in the way they have with some other open projects.

In other words, Aurora isn’t perfect — but that’s actually kind of terrific, because it’s something more important: open.

And I have to point out, the price is very appealing. I really do hope this is the beginning of more open source hardware to come. The key to me will be establishing strong platforms for development (Arduino is a start, as are microcontrollers like the PIC18LF4525 used here) and better models for fabrication, enclosures, and distribution that help keep costs down and (ideally, to support people doing development work) bigger margins.

Bottom line: it can’t be understated that this not only a unique controller, it’s a controller you’d have no problems taking apart physically or in terms of software to change something. And that’s a very exciting thing, indeed.

Would I buy one? As far as DJ-style controllers go, absolutely — this would be on the top of my list.

Stay tuned for more specific hands-on, and let us know if you decide to pick one up. A big thanks to Matt and the Aurora team for sharing the project with me prior to launch and for responding to feedback!

All photos by Peter Kirn/(CC) Create Digital Media unless otherwise noted.

]]> http://createdigitalmusic.com/2008/08/27/hands-on-with-aurora-open-source-dj-control-surface-shipping-now/feed/ 32 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2008/08/07/pretty-open-source-audio-looping-with-livid-looper-win-mac/ http://createdigitalmusic.com/2008/08/07/pretty-open-source-audio-looping-with-livid-looper-win-mac/#comments Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:06:58 +0000 Peter Kirn http://createdigitalmusic.com/2008/08/07/pretty-open-source-audio-looping-with-livid-looper-win-mac/ ]]>

A big surprise announcement from Livid, the VJ software / boutique A/V controller maker: Livid Looper is a new, free audio looping tool, built in Max 5.

Click through for the full image; it’s quite lovely with … um, butterflies and such. (Strap that solar panel to your MacBook and take it camping!)

Built around the Ohm hardware controller from Livid, but certainly adaptable to the interface of your choice, the Max 5-based software has some very nifty features for live performance:

• Audio looping, slicing, dicing, and scrambling
• Built-in audio effects, plus VST support – and a built-in Granulator for time-shift / scrambling effects
• Instant audio recording
• Interactive waveform display for selecting loops (or chop them up automatically)
• Beat-synced, sequenced gesture recording – meaning effects can be added in performance and locked to the loop
• MIDI learn (in case you don’t have an Ohm)
• OpenSoundControl support, for easy networking of data to other laptops, or multiple apps / VJ apps on one laptop

As you can see below, it is Ohm centric – making that already very sweet controller this much sweeter – but is likewise generic enough that you own preferred controller should work just fine. Livid also promises that this could work well with a cheap laptop like the Eee (though for now you will need Windows or, at the very least, Linux + WINE).

You’ll need the full version of Max 5 to edit it, but once you do the patch is fully open source, so you can hack it do your own thing. (Max 5 is great, but I wonder if anyone will port to Pd for an end-to-end open source experience? Or perhaps there are some similar Pd patches to consider, dear Pd community? Pd would also give you instant Linux compatibility – at least until Max is available on Linux, ahem, Cycling ‘74.)

It’s too bad Ableton Live doesn’t support OSC, as these two would go together quite nicely linked via OSC (though you should be able to sync them via MIDI, I’d imagine).

Available now for Mac and Windows, fully free as in beer and freedom and beer freedom:

Livid Looper

Let us know how you like it when you give it a try!

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