From ribbons to multi-touch, musicians are looking for expressive controllers, ones that allow continuous control for performance.

Oh, yeah, and it’s like totally super-cool on the original Star Trek when people run their hands over the Transporter controls and the blinky lights move. I mean, like still super-cool, even in 2008. (Hint: try to look completely chilled out like Spock when you do it.)

So, one of the things I noticed when the Monome was first introduced was, excellent as that open controller is, you’ve got buttons and no continuous controls. Ever wished another nice square box could sit next to it and give you multiple touch controllers? Good news: Stribe is here.

The Stribe is an 8-channel multi-touch controller for music or video software. 1024 individually-addressable LEDs provide animated visual feedback.

The low-resolution (16 x 64) LED display is controlled in real time by either firmware or host software, or both. MIDI or OSC communication to compatible hardware and software is achieved via patches written in Max/MSP.
Touchstrips down the center of each channel trigger events in the software and the firmware, which drive the display, creating a haptic feedback loop. Each of these eight “channels” has two 64-led-tall columns, e.g. a left and a right.

The Stribe can act as a touch controlled meter bridge, or as an interactive, animated16 x 64 led display. Oriented horizontally, the Stribe can more intuitively interface with step-sequencer type applications, or allow direct manipulation of granular synthesis sampling, or allow the user to perform “scratch” like gestures

or…?

What’s this new Max about, and why was it such a big deal at the AES trade show? To really understand, let’s turn to gaming for a moment. When Nintendo described their vision for the Wii, they talked about appealing to three groups of customers:

• The “hard-core” gamer; that is, their existing audience, of course
• “Lapsed” gamers: people who had done some gaming at some point but lost interest
• Entirely new gamers, across a variety of demographics

History will have to be the judge of Nintendo’s slim white box and controller-wagging interface, but I heard some similar development goals at the AES audio show this weekend. Nowhere was this more apparent than Cycling ’74’s upcoming Max 5. Substitute the word “patcher” for the word “gamer”, and you’ve got a snapshot of the new Max.

After all, whether you’ve touched Max before or not, you’ve likely got some needs in at least one of these categories. Beginners are easily intimidated by the “visual programming” metaphors of a blank-slate, modular tool like Max. Many others get through a couple of patches, often in a school course, but wind up having difficulty getting beyond that first work later on. And even advanced users (maybe especially advanced users) are always looking for ways of working faster.

The build I saw of Max wasn’t entirely complete, but I will say it’s tremendously promising. I talked to many for whom the chance to see Max 5 was the highlight of the entire AES show. It’s a tool you really need to see in action, so be sure to check out Cycling’s just-posted videos of the program:

A First Look at Max 5 [Cycling '74]

This is not the all-words, no-pictures manifesto we saw recently: now you actually get to see the tool in action. Highlights:

Ableton has an interesting teaser up on its website today:

A new strategic partnership between Ableton and Cycling ‘74 promises exciting developments on the horizon for digital media creators, producers, and performers. Ableton CEO and cofounder Gerhard Behles and Cycling ‘74 CEO David Zicarelli are pleased to announce this unique alliance between the two dynamic and innovative audio/video software companies.

CDM Stalwart bliss thinks that Wired’s article on Miya Masaoka’s Laser Koto is worthy of front page CDM status.

Well let’s have a look at the required aspects of a CDM article: Electronic Music? Check. Samples? Check. Lasers? Check. Midi? Check. Arduino? Check. Laptop? Check. Max/MSP? Check.

Yep, I think we can squeeze it in somewhere.

Masaoka was then able to play the instrument in its natural, acoustic state, use the gestural data supplied by motion sensors to generate and process sounds electronically, or do both at the same time. Toward the end of the Monster Koto’s life cycle, Masaoka installed laser arrays above and below the instrument’s body.

The Laser Koto was born when she decided to get rid of everything but the lasers.

Check out the rest of the article.

Other forum questions currently looking for answers include: Is buying Logic Pro 7 a bad idea? Is the Sonny Bono law going to go away? Can you capture live imagery from a Canon Powershot to G4 Powerbook? Does Zebranlogic make great looking effects boxen? Can people give Breathe advice on how to start making electronic music?

Russian DJ Artyom has built his own DJ audio hardware out of wood and electronics, complete with dual cassette playback boxes. The cassettes feature pitch control (fine and coarse), pitch bands, a motor off switch, and more, and he’s custom-built mixers, cross-faders, and EQ.

Then, he hooks these boxes up to his PC and relaxes — wait, no he doesn’t. His PC is packed with custom DJ patches built in Max/MSP.

Full hardware and software details at Artyom’s site, including downloadable Max patches, in English (see also Russian content — I’m sure someone out there speaks Russian):

Self-made DJ equipment
Max/MSP DJ Stuff

Via the rich electronic music blog, Filter27: How to DJ with an old cassette tapes

See also: KDE-Head photo on flickr with specs

Updated: Doh! Tom at Music thing beat me to this in 2005. Slight CDM lag there. ;) Nonetheless, maybe somebody will have a look at those Max patches and get some new ideas.

Man, these lazy newbie DJs, embracing a new-fangled playback medium like cassettes and Max/MSP patches. They’re nowhere near as authentic as the oldskool DJs playing … erm … CDs … at weddings. ;)

Another gorgeous shot of his brilliant hardware-building work after the jump (so you don’t have to wait through glacial load times):

Cycling ‘74 just updated darn near everything they make:

1. New Universal Binaries: Mode, Hipno, and UpMix are all Intel-native. But the big news is that Pluggo, the long-beloved C74 plug-in library, is available — meaning you should also be able to turn your Max compositions into Intel-native plug-ins.
2. Max/MSP 4.6.2 / Jitter 1.6.2: Max 4.6/Jitter 1.6 had already brought Intel Mac support, so other than some bugfixes for Mac users, the big news here is for the Windows side: the new features in Max 4.6 and (most significantly) Jitter 1.6 are now available to Windows users. I’m hoping this also means native uyvy video support, but I’ll save that discussion for Create Digital Motion.

If you’re on an old version of 4.5.x, it’s well worth upgrading. Cycling has put in some subtle but significant improvements over the last few “point” releases, and they’re free for anyone who owns Jitter 1.5 / Max 4.5. Cycling also wins points for providing Intel Native support absolutely free of charge; this is one of the only major application developers I can think of that did that with a flagship application.

I’m currently teaching MSP at Brooklyn College, and we get into the first meat of synthesis this week. I have to say, while I admire Pd, I’m happy to have Max so that we can take advantage of a friendlier interface and far more detailed documentation. The two products, however, commercial and open source, continue to benefit from the other’s existence, and I’m even seeing more people running both on the same machine. Mostly I need people to start trailing me with an espresso machine so I can keep up with all the software I’m using.

Everything’s coming up soundflowers over at Cycling ‘74:

1. Max/MSP/Jitter Free Upgrades, Now Universal: Max/MSP 4.6 and Jitter 1.6 are available as a free update for Max/MSP 4.5 and Jitter 1.5 users, respectively. (The beta is over; this is the final version.) In addition to various new features and fixes, the software is Mac Intel native. This makes it a must-download for Intel and PowerPC Mac users alike. Download for Max and Jitter, then check out a growing directory of Universal-native external objects.
2. Max/MSP/Jitter for Windows: There are many tasty little improvements in 4.6/1.6 aside from Intel Mac compatibility, so a lot of us are anxiously awaiting the Windows counterparts of these upgrades; Cycling says they’re coming “soon.” If we’re really lucky, they’ll do another public beta. Stay tuned.
3. Soundflower Now Works Right! Many of us — myself included — were disappointed to discover that an update to Cycling’s free Mac sound-routing utility Soundflower, including improved functionality and Intel Mac compatibility, didn’t actually work. Cycling has updated the software, and now it installs and works perfectly (so far; let us know if you experience something different). Go download it; it’s free.

Previously:

1. Re-Route Audio, Record Skype, iTunes on Cell Phones: Soundflower, Now on Intel Macs
2. Max/MSP/Jitter 4.6 Hits Beta, with Intel Native Support
3. Jamie Lidell on Max/MSP, Artists Talk Max Inspiration, Write Musical Odes to Max
4. What’s New and Cool in Jitter 1.6: OpenGL 3D and Video Goodies, More [Create Digital Motion, demonstrating why PowerPC Mac and Windows users should be excited, too]

Cycling ‘74 has posted a fascinating set of videos of artists talking about how they use Max/MSP/Jitter. (Thanks, Kevin!)

Jamie Lidell talks about approaching Max as a vocalist and being a “one-man funk tornado.” It’s interesting to me that Max/MSP has made the transition with him from his classic IDM style to funk — solid proof that tools are what you make them.

AGF sings a song about a Max patch she made, which earns extra geek points for sure. (I could write songs about the mistakes I’m making learning JAVA programming, but that’s another story.)

Kevin Blechdom, who is actually female (just to warn you in advance, blokes), talks about the need to put something out there in live performance and not worry about whether it’s good enough. (Just sing / sing a song … I’m with you, Kevin. Something us obsessive perfectionists could probably stand hearing, so we just go play.)

OSU professor Matthew Lewis has students using video tracking to make music and connecting Max to MySpace. (And, I hope, makes CDM required reading — right?)

North Pitney builds giant mazes and tracks movement through them.

The one element in common in all these stories: the ability to experiment with new, custom ideas for making music, all while rapidly prototyping ideas. That definitely sums up the visual patching experience for me. I like the video inspiration; it’d be great to see users of other tools assemble something similar as a grassroots effort.

As we continue physical modeling month, here’s a free piece of software that lets you create music and sound (and visuals) using real-world physics:

pmpd, free external for Pd

Johan Strandell writes:

It’s not physical modeling in the usual sense; pmpd simulates things like friction, acceleration/deacceleration etc.; i.e., more useful for control of parameters rather than synthesis in itself. Some of the examples are really intriguing, but I’ve only scratched the surface on it. An article about it would be great, to see what other people are doing with it.

Consider your challenge accepted. May take me a while, but I’m doing some other work modeling physics, so this could segue nicely. As you can see in the visual below, you can use this to model fluids, matter, particles, and other substances. That could be easily applied to sound synthesis (and they include a number examples) as a way of making control less mechanical and more dynamic and organic. Since environments like GEM run 3D visuals on your graphics card, there’s nothing stopping you from dedicating your graphics card GPU to visual feedback while the CPU plugs away on the sound.

The modular sound and multimedia environment Max/MSP has had plenty of “celebrity” users; among the better-known is the duo Autechre. Some of their newer creations have been featured in Sound on Sound, as pictured below. But via the excellent Spanish-language audiovisual blog mediateletipos, I see that a selection of creations have been reverse-engineered by some passionate fans and are available for download. One has even been ported to Reaktor:

Reverse-engineering Autechre

I’m not really trying to be Autechre, so I’m happy just to poke around in these patches and screenshots and get some inspiration for my own patching efforts. Good stuff. Let us know what you think, and if you have any especially manic patches of your own in Max, Reaktor, or any other environment.