monome user Myr (aka James Waterworth | site | soundcloud) has worked on a set of tools that helps make working with Max for Live in Ableton Live easier, more capable, and friendlier with the monome and other gear. It includes a variety of tools and a way of centralizing control of all your creations. It’s a must-have for Ableton and Max for Live users, of course. But it also suggests some ideas about how to combine tools and control in other environments.

The M4L control collection includes a Control Hub which finds all the patches you’re using in a set and sends and receives values all in one place – a bit like a mixer/patch bay for Max. An M4L Device Control patch lets you dynamically assign control of Max patches to any hardware you like. (This feature has been available for certain supported Ableton devices, but here is applied to Max patches and any hardware.)

The plans for the future are ambitious, extending from the monome and MIDI hardware mapping to control and mapping from any MIDI, OSC, or HID device. There are new patch ideas, too, including clip launchers and choppers, and just by centralizing control, it’s possible to make devices that use Live itself as the sound engine.

See the monome forums for download and more discussion:
M4L Control – A collection of M4L apps [post.monome.org]
(Thanks, Mutis Mayfield!)

You can also compare this to the Renoise API now in public beta; I’m interested to see how these two approaches evolve, diverge, and overlap.

Speaking of the monome, you can soon look forward to a new album from King Britt, released on the new Saturn Never Sleeps Ambient series, and made entirely with a monome, the legendary MLR patch, and Max for Live. (King writes to say that he’s had a blast with this stuff – it sounds as though the monome has become a key studio tool for him.) Here’s a teaser film, re-edited from John Cassavetes’ original.

Renoise, the tracker-style music production host, has gotten a massive injection of customizability, scriptability, and hackability. If all you want to do is plug in some controller hardware and have more tangible control of music making, that scriptability can be nicely hidden away. But if you are ready to hack on your music app, this is some enormous news.

For that reason, Renoise 2.6 is being called even by its makers the “Renoise Geek Edition.” But if this hackability catches on, it could mean a music tool that’s more fun to use for everyone – not just scripting geeks.

2.6 has been released into a private beta for registered users, with the full release anticipated soon.

The video at top sums up why the open API is potentially a big deal for everyone. Right now, you can use a pre-built script for two-way integration of hardware like Novation’s Launchpad. As other folks get into the tools used here, though, that could (if hackers get so inspired) lead to lots of other hardware support and musical ideas.

The other big news, at the opposite end of the spectrum, is that longer samples now “autoseek.” That’s best seen in the video below, although I can put it this way – this means if your music isn’t all microsamples, you can now more easily produce and perform in Renoise.

Here’s my personal take on the 2.6 changes. Keep in mind, I’m just wrapping my head around this stuff, too, so take this with a grain of salt. But I can at least express why I’m excited about digging into this release, having followed these developments for some time:

Open hardware means the ability to create exactly what you want. But it doesn’t have to intimidate the newcomer – not so long as you’re up for a project and a little creativity. The monome grid controller, long a sensation with digital musicians, finally sees a major update in its kit version. The “kit” isn’t built from scratch; instead, it includes the major components largely pre-assembled. A US$60 logic board contains the brain and USB port, with all surface-mount soldering done for you. (You don’t even have to upload firmware to make it run). A $40 driver operates the grid. $120 buys you the main guts – just add LEDs yourself (allowing you to pick a color) – and put the grid and pads into a housing.

Specs on the new version from the monome folks:

• USB bus powered
• supports up to four 8×8 keypad grids, for a total of 16×16
• auxiliary ports for additional digital or analog i/o, such as knobs, joysticks, accelerometers, rotary encoders, switches, LEDs
• boot loader for easy firmware updates and customization, no external programmer needed
• open source firmware and schematics

we’ve designed a modular system which allows scalability and customization. the individual parts are:

• logic: hub which communicates with the computer and other connected modules. easy user firmware updates allow extended functionality.
• driver: helper electronics which light up the grid and collect keypad data. connects to the logic section with a single ribbon cable.
• grid: 8×8 keypad surface, connects to the driver board directly. customizable LED color (not included).
• one driver is needed per grid. for a full 8×8, you’d need 1 logic 1 driver 1 grid. a full 8×16 would require 1 logic 2 driver 2 grid. etc.

Why use the kit? With those additional ins, you could add controls like accelerometers or even the knobs the monome is missing. You can add your own custom enclosure, made from whatever materials you like, so that you have a one-of-a-kind, unique creation no one else has. And you can change the colors of the LEDs, too. Just decide your favorite color. (“Red … no, blue! Aaaaaaa…..”)

I asked co-creator Brian Crabtree to offer some insight into the new kit.

CDM: How is the mk different from the previous kit?

- expanded capabilities while remaining bus powered: up to four 8×8 grids, auxiliary analog and digital i/o
- boot loader for easy firmware upgrades
- more elegant design– single ribbon connector, low profile
- cheaper

Chili – Sweet & Savory from Chili on Vimeo.

Creating imaginative, inventive housings for musical instruments is nearly as old as the practice of making objects that make sound. Even in acoustic instruments, these additions often have nothing to do with sound – a viola da gamba doesn’t sound any better when it’s got the face of a fair maiden carved onto it, but that’s not the point.

So, enclosure creativity when making your own monome grid controller is part of the joy of making a custom instrument. Since this week monome co-creator Brian Crabtree is unveiling a new iteration of the monome kit, I asked him for his favorite examples of creative housings. Some of these have been seen on these pages (screens?) before, but I think they’re worth revisiting. At top, Chili’s Etch-a-Sketch housing. (More details on his rig if you click through to the Vimeo link.)

A vintage radio:

Edison’s classic lunchbox enclosure (and it helps that Edison is one of the most virtuosic players of the monome grid).

failure of the year from edison on Vimeo.

Lastly, there’s no reason you can’t use an instrument as a housing, as here, in which a monome is built into a guitar, with simultaneous access to the guitar signal (creator Ben Brown says this is a work in progress, but it’s really promising):

There’s Something from Ben Brown on Vimeo.

Brian notes that he “could show hundreds of these,” but I’ll refrain from doing a “100 Top Enclosures for the monome” post. Why? Because you should take that time to build your own, of course.

dromama from Altitude Sickness on Vimeo.

Wherever you are in the world, here’s some geeky inspiration to kick off this summer weekend. And if you’re in the Los Angeles area, you should absolutely, positively be on Venice Boulevard tonight at 8pm at hacker venue CRASH Space for Handmade Music, gone LA.

In the lineup: circuit bent toys, robotic guitars, MakerBots, monomes, and microcontroller synths, with Altitude Sickness, Ian Hattwick, The Sweaty Caps, Theron Trowbridge, and Vince Wong.

It’s free at 8 pm, but if you can donate the recommended $10, you can help CRASH Space become a not-for-profit.

Full details at handmademusic.noisepages

Here’s a look at what these crazy California kids are up to. At top, Altitude Sickness is known for his Tupperware-housed creations. Check the Vimeo page for that video to grab MIDI remote scripts for Ableton Live plus Max patches for nanoKONTROL, monome, and more. Inspired by a previous post here on CDM, he assembled a bunch of custom controls for live performance and then uploaded the results for anyone to enjoy. But Altitude Sickness isn’t the only guest star tonight…

The Makerbot, the homebrewed, open source, 3D fabrication / CNC product, has been making music for some time. Above: a stirring rendition of “Still Alive” by Jonathan Coulton. But Crash SPACE have not one, but three Makerbots, leading to the first (that I know of) Makerbot ensemble. And they’ve got some extra MIDI code running between them.

Result: extra polyphony.

Lastly, Ian Hattwick’s Guitamaton, inspired by African rhythmic modality, turns the guitar into a robotically-controlled percussion instrument. Ian describes it thusly:

Guitamaton is a computer controlled musical instrument which explores the percussive and resonant qualities of the acoustic guitar. It melds the precision of microprocessor control with the unpredictability of vibrating metal and wood, and brings an added level of embodiment to computer based music by placing the sound creation process firmly in the physical world.

Enjoy these videos and links, and anyone who is in LA and makes it, be sure to send us any documentation you capture. (I’ll be in NYC, perhaps watching your Dodgers play the Yankees.)

Updated: There’s also the Xylovan, which is exactly as awesome as it sounds. California, always innovating in the vehicle department.

Facebook event page/RSVP