Touchable tablets may be all the rage at the CES trade show, showcase to consumer-friendly gadgetry. But quietly, developer Sensomusic has accomplished multi-touch control of an open-ended music system on standard-issue PCs and accessories. They’ve pointed the way to just what this mechanism could be.

The latest video isn’t terribly easy to see, but it realizes something that has been the dream of fans of the music control protocol OSC (OpenSoundControl). “Learn” functionality lets you touch a control, then assign that control to something in your music software. But because these functions have relied on MIDI, they’ve generally been a bit arbitrary – touch one thing at a time, get a number for that thing, then assign that number to a controller. It works well enough, provided you step through each control. OSC promises to do more, though: an arbitrary touch controller on, say, your iPhone (or anything else) can have a plain-English name. And you can see multiple parameters appear on the screen at once, so that a sensor or multi-touch pad could have all its messages pop up at the same time.

Finally, Usine does OSC Learn correctly, with messages that pop up with names and get connected to whatever you like. I still think there’s more potential here to be plumbed, but it’s a great step.

If you don’t follow why that’s cool, check out another mapping notion from last year – here using a touch panel to make any graphic playable. And at the end of this story, check out the clever multitouch gesture recognition they’ve added.

Again, all of this you can do with standard-issue hardware – Apple iOS hardware, if you like, controlling a PC, or non-Apple hardware displays with touch or Android devices and the like. (Unlike the Emulator we saw earlier today or the original Lemur device, it’s a software solution that works with your hardware of choice.) More to watch:

More information (and more videos):
http://www.sensomusic.com/usine/

Before the iPad, before the iPhone, and indeed before the masses understood touch interfaces would be a big deal, there was the Lemur. Dazzling people with high-contrast, colorful controls, this boutique hardware, priced well over €2000 and running embedded Linux and custom resistive touch technology, brought the future a bit early to a handful of musicians. Star Trek was what you heard most frequently – sweeping your fingers over black glass was nothing if not reminiscent of Geordi LaForge helming the Enterprise. (By the way, talk about prior art: those conceptual designers on The Next Generation, working initially with all-optical effects, were also well ahead of their time.)

Now, at last, Lemur arrives on the iPad, released by a leading iOS developer, Liine. Swept away by Apple’s more-affordable hardware, with the iPad offering a higher-resolution display, slimmer form factor, accurate touch sensing, and wireless capability, the Lemur hardware suddenly looked dated. With iPad software, it’s available to the masses.

http://liine.net/en/

The first question, of course: will anyone care – and will the Lemur software compete, with various other touch alternatives? At US$49.99 / €39.99 / £29.99 34.99, the Lemur app is far cheaper than a Lemur, but spendier than a lot of other touch software. [Ed.: An early press release incorrectly listed the UK pricing as £29.99. It's actually £34.99. Just don't ask us for currency conversions. -PK]

I’ve gotten to see the Lemur in action, and actually was walked through some interactive template ideas. (Unfortunately, I was unable to talk about that, and could only tease what I knew – I got to see more than I could talk about via folks working with Liine and M-nus Records’ stable of artists – Richie Hawtin and Ambivalent, in particular – and was really impressed.)

Just like other apps, the Lemur app will let you control any MIDI or OSC application on your computer from your iPad. But the Lemur brings a few strengths that I think will make it a contender in the iPad age:

Innovative controls: The Lemur’s array of controls is, simply, the largest and most comprehensive anywhere. And for those who want to push beyond just fake faders and knobs, it has an array of more unusual controls, with features like:

Physics: Simulated physics and dynamic movement were, to me, one of those most interesting features of the original Lemur. Whereas I’d almost always choose a physical fader or encoder over a touch equivalent, adding physics to touch allows the controller to play to its strengths.

Scripting: This is a big one. Right now, the only other tool capable of genuinely-dynamic, interactive scripts that modify the behavior of touch is the open source Control by Charlie Roberts. (That, to me, is probably the most compelling alternative, especially as it relies on familiar Web and JavaScript rendering, but it’ll need more input to be fully mature.)

Scripting on Lemur means you get dynamic templates that actually take advantage of the touchscreen. (Think back to Star Trek: mimicking that would require scripts. They use pages and interactive feedback all over the place.)

A mature editor: Now, here, I’m of a mixed mind. I still want a touch app that lets you edit right on the device – guess I’d better go make the one I want. But if you’re going to be editing templates on your Mac or PC, then the Windows/Mac Lemur editor is now tough to beat in sheer power. I was critical of early versions when I first reviewed the Lemur hardware, but it has evolved and matured since.

An installed User Library: This could well be the thing that puts Lemur for iPad over the top – and make no mistake, it’s the biggest obstacle to any newcomer in touch. The Lemur simply has a whole bunch of templates, ready to go, many of them really sophisticated.

The competition: I imagine TouchOSC will continue to dominate the market for touch apps, though interestingly, for many of the same reasons. It has an installed user base and templates, it has a graphical editor that runs on Mac and Windows that people find reasonably easy to use, good documentation and community, and it covers a lot of needs. TouchOSC’s low price also ensures it has nothing to worry about from Lemur, but the Lemur app will appeal to people with more advanced needs, and I think it’ll be a big hit.

Also unique about the iPad: because US$50 is considered “expensive,” it’s really not a zero sum game. You could buy all of the major touch apps for your iPad, assuming you own one, and still be short of the cost of one plastic keyboard.

As for Android? Look, technically, I’m sure you could port Lemur to Android. The fact that they’re not launching with Android support is no surprise – but the problems with Google’s installed base and market and their inability to get OS updates out on devices is a subject for another post. (Preferably one that involves me writing surrounded by candles in a warm salt bath so my blood pressure doesn’t explode.)

Video: How use Lemur + WiFi

Video: How to use OSC and Lemur

Video: How to use Lemur with USB MIDI

Summary:

- Connect the USB Cable to the iConnect MIDI or similar device.
- Open a factory template in the Lemur.
- Open the settings tab and assign the MIDI Ports

http://liine.net/en/products/lemur/

Postlude: What about Existing Lemur Users

Since it’s a matter of some confusion, I asked Liine to clarify their relationship with JazzMutant (now Stantum), the developer of Lemur, and why existing Lemur owners should spend some cash to upgrade. There’s a half-off deal through the beginning of January if you owned the Lemur hardware, but some Lemur owners understandably feel a bit left out, having invested massive amounts of time and money in the now-abandoned hardware platform. On the other hand, even $50 seems to me not unreasonable for updating to the new software, even if a free release for Lemur early adopters may have been nice. I have yet to test it myself, but I imagine I would have no problem recommending the Lemur app to anyone who owns a Lemur and an iPad, certainly if they’ve nailed the software release.

Updated:

CDM: What is the relationship of Liine to JazzMutant/Stantum?

Liine: Members of Liine have a historic relationship with JazzMutant/Stantum. Richie Hawtin and Gareth Williams were very early adopters of the Lemur and have worked closely with them for years. Nick and Gareth also worked alongside Max guru Mathieu Chamagne on the Mu Ableton Live controller for the Lemur. Axel is the former lead developer at JazzMutant who were are very proud to have on board with us for this venture.

In short, Liine is a young independent company, not affiliated with JazzMutant/Stantum, but with a friendship and working relationship going back many years. We are very proud to be contributing to the future of such a revolutionary controller.

CDM: Why not give Lemur for iPad to existing owners for free?

Liine: It costs time, money and resources for Liine to move Lemur to a new platform and relaunch it. In addition, distributing any product always involves costs. Offering a full rebate of the app price is simply non-viable, we would lose money. The initial release of Lemur on iPad is only the first chapter in this second life of the Lemur. Liine is taking JazzMutant’s code and concept into the future, you are going to see a lot of exciting developments (in-app editing, new objects, streamlined workflows…). This will, of course, continue to cost Liine time and money – the small contribution from legacy owners will help ensure the future of their investment in the original machine. Their early support allowed for many updates of the original software. For this, Liine are hugely appreciative as it means that the product we’re able to bring you is the most mature and powerful solution out there. This is why we want to thank those owners by offering them a 50% rebate. We very much appreciate your support.

“Lemur should just run on the iPad.”

“There’s no point to have a Lemur when you can get an iPad for $500.”

“When will the Lemur just run on the iPad?”

Soon, apparently. Sources and an in-person sighting suggest to me you’ll see this in the very near future.

The JazzMutant Lemur, the touch control hardware I reviewed over five years ago, gave musicians the first widely-available, for-sale taste of multi-touch control of music. It established a lot of basic paradigms that would appear on other platforms: high-contrast user interface objects on a black background (so they don’t blind you in a club), widgets that represent familiar elements like knobs and faders, and also some fairly powerful features like unique touch-centric widgets, simulated physics, and scripting. Some of those latter, more advanced features haven’t really been available in other control applications, and Lemur owners have wondered what their long-term solution might be.

So, a funny thing happened to me the other afternoon. I’m looking over the shoulder of M-nus DJ Ambivalent (Kevin McHugh) at Berlin’s Watergate and an afterparty, and I see – no, that’s not TouchOSC. That sure looks like a Lemur step sequencer. And then I might have spotted something similar in the front-of-house at Flughafen Tempelhof’s FLY BERMUDA show, for Richie Hawtin.

It’s possible this was all a dream, of course. So – who believes me?

It had to happen — button triggering, as popularized by the monome, here meets a conventional two-channel DJ mixer. But the layout I must say is quite spare and lovely, the work of the Japanese-based PICnome project. Furthermore, it’s Open Source Hardware, covered as I have recommended by a ShareAlike Creative Commons license (with no commercial restrictions) and GPL v3. (The creator prefers the term “Free Hardware,” which I love theoretically but have avoided for fear of people demanding we mail them MeeBlips by sending us a self-addressed, stamped box.)

With clean, subtle markings and a nicely-composed layout, it’s hardware that doesn’t scream out its design with big decals or overblown features. It’s just a (colored) grid controller, similar to the monome, combined with controller setup laid out as a two-channel mixer, with the sorts of features you’d expect of each. I love the angled labels, at least aesthetically. (I should note that this is not related to the monome project; the monome is not open source hardware, though it works via open software and commercially-restricted availability to some schematics. It is, of course, deserving of credit for inspiring a whole generation of hardware.)

The controller works with both OSC (OpenSoundControl) and MIDI for maximum flexibility. And, incidentally, this could be an ideal live visual controller, too, especially with that native OSC support.

Good grief; I realize I filled this post with nothing but technical jargon. Hopefully, those of you who speak in such tongue-twisted terms have followed along, and everyone else just looked at the pretty pictures and video.

Carry on.

PICratchBOX – Sneak Preview [atelier.tkrworks]

http://made-in-yamamoto.com/

Japan, hope to come visit you some day soon. Thanks, Regend, for the tip!

Update: Read in comments about some lingering frustration that the original PICnome project was derived from the monome; since the monome doesn’t permit the sale of derivative designs, that could be viewed as an abuse of the available specifications for the monome. In this case, based on what I see, however, I’m hard pressed to see this product as being subject to the same criticism by virtue of having buttons, unless there’s some detail I’m missing. If I am missing something, please let me know.

By the way, if you want to revisit the PICnome project and decide for yourself, that thread is still on the monome community. It’s not accurate to say as some commenters do that the PICnome was a “bootleg” or simple clone of the monome, as it was re-implemented on a PIC chip. The issue is that the product was then made available for sale, because it was built on monome schematics; while those are readily available, they are not licensed for this kind of use. The firmware is free for use; it’s covered under a GPL license, which is non-revocable. However, to my knowledge, those same concerns may not necessarily apply to this project.

To recap: the PICnome project indeed is technically incompatible with the intentions and licensing of the monome project, but the new PICratchBox should be fine. So, here’s to the PICratchBox, which is more interesting precisely because it’s something new.

It is my view that the original PICnome project violated the terms of the licensing of the schematics; whether because of a misunderstanding or not, that’s not something to condone. But the new project does not do so, in my view. I contacted monome’s Brian Crabtree and while we didn’t have an on-the-record conversation, he took no issue with that statement.

You might imagine sound in space, or dream up gestures that traverse unexplored sonic territory. But actually building it is another matter. Kinect – following a long line of computer vision applications and spatial sensors – lets movement and gestures produce sound. The challenge of such instruments has long been that learning to play them is tough without tactile feedback. Thereminists learn their instrument through a the extremely-precise sensing of their instrument and sonic feedback.

In AHNE (Audio-Haptic Navigation Environment), sonic feedback is essential, but so, too, is feel. Haptic vibration lets you know as you approach sounds — essential, as they’re invisible. The work of Finland-based DJ/VJ Matti Niinimäki, aka MÅNSTERI (“Mons-te-ri”), the project is part of research undertaken at SOPI Research Group at Media Lab Helsinki. Like some sort of sound sorcerer, the user is entirely dependent on movement, feel, and sound as they move unseen sound sources through space. (More technical details below.)

It’s labeled, as always, “proof of concept.” The creator promises more videos to come; we’ll be watching as this evolves, as it looks terribly promising.

Below, “Tension” is a fair bit simpler, in which users walk through a space and control synth parameters. (“You are the knob,” one might say, though I don’t suggest shouting that at someone you don’t know. They could take it the wrong way.)

More descriptions:

AHNE

This is a demonstration video of AHNE – Audio-Haptic Navigation Environment.

It is an audio-haptic user interface that allows the user to locate and manipulate sound objects in 3d space with the help of audio-haptic feedback.

The user is tracked with a Kinect sensor using the OpenNI framework and OSCeleton (github.com/​Sensebloom/​OSCeleton).

The user wears a glove that is embedded with sensors and a small vibration motor for the haptic feedback.

This is just the first proof-of-concept demo. More videos coming soon.

HEI Project 2011
SOPI Research Group
sopi.media.taik.fi/

Aalto University School of Art and Design

AHNE – Sound and Physical Interaction

Tension

A brief video showing Tension. An interactive spatial sound installation for multiple users.

A person enters the space and a generative sound is assigned to that person. The sound pans around in the 6-channel speaker system following the user in the space.

Up to 5 users can use the installation at the same time. Each person modifies the other sounds based on the distance to the other users. The closer you are to other people the more the tension in the sound increases.

Tension – Sound and Physical Interaction

Side note: watching these two videos makes me want to consult with someone on non-verbal expression, posture, and stage presence. That criticism is mounted at myself – I could use it. Perhaps we need an all-physical, unplugged music event for laptopists, controllerists, and electronic musicians. And I can at least say I’ve had some experience in this, working in the dance program at my undergraduate alma mater, Sarah Lawrence. Anyone game? (Sounds like something we could do while CDM is in Berlin in the fall.)

For their part, the Finnish research facility is working with dancers, along with Nokia Research Center. (Sadly, I can’t find documentation.) But I think interesting things happen when us non-dancers learn movement technique, too.

You may have already seen FaceOSC, free software that eases the use of facial tracking from a computer camera for use as a controller, here with music software (top). Synthtopia picked up the story in July, featuring artist and engineer Kyle McDonald. But one FreeKa Tet has done his own implementation (second from top), and while the video is a bit grainy, he sounds wonderfully terrifying, as if his face is trying to slip out of The Matrix.

Sometimes, I’m rendered entirely silent (no, really, it happens), and it’s best to let videos speak for themselves. So here, after the jump, are some whimsical and wild prosthetic sound light-up … hell, I don’t have any idea what’s going on, but I’m enjoying it.

I dare you to start some conversation about musicality. Just don’t be surprised, comment trolls, if you find yourself abducted by a glowing and oddly glitchy-sounding creature with long, monstrous fingers. I’d watch what I say, frankly. Remember the old saying “on the Internet, no one knows if you’re a dog?” I expect that extends to space aliens, too.

Plenty more where those came from.

Oh, look, I could have done my research and seen there’s a bio for Mr. FreeKa Tet, aka Bacon ClapCLAP.
:

Extreme violent bursts, silence, speech, hard rock samples, strange atmospheres, Burgers , American Idol Icon, crackles, retardation, puking static, rocking a gabber party, cutting a worm in half and watching both parts moving, get a watch tatoo on his wrist, confusing videogames with music, drawing little puke characters on friends faces …

Right. Okay. That cleared everything up.

Enjoy your weekend, folks, and stay high and dry, those of you here on the Eastern seaboard of the US.

Nerds: It’s an OSC sequencer. It’s JavaScript-programmable for making your own generative music. It works with hardware and other software. You can use it in real-time.

Everyone: it makes spectacularly strange sounds out of spectacularly beautiful flows of geometries through space.

IanniX, the latest-generation descendant of work done by pioneering experimental composer Iannis Xenakis, has been evolving at rapid pace into what may be the most sophisticated graphical sequencer ever. Xenakis originally had to content himself to drawing elaborate, architectural graphics on paper, then later being one of the first to use a graphical tablet for interactive scores. IanniX, backed by the French Ministry of Culture, is now barely recognizable even from more primitive versions that carried the same name. But the idea is the same: graphical geometries represent events in pitch and time, now sequencing other software (any software that can handle OSC or MIDI) to produce sound.

Free on Mac, Windows, and Linux, and now with growing documentation, IanniX can be seen producing the kinds of warped sounds Xenakis made in his music. But it is one of the first steps toward a graphical sequencer that could be used in all kinds of cases. And it’s free and open source under the GPL v3.

I’ve included some of the recent videos that show off what it can do. I especially like the recursive demo. But since it runs on your OS — well, unless you’re sticking to your beloved Atari ST or BeBox — you can just go grab it yourself.

http://iannix.org/en/index.php

My sense is that IanniX could have implications even beyond this software. Imagine a greater variety of music software that begins to work in spatial and graphical interfaces, not just the traditional piano rolls and linear tape-style arrangement views. And imagine that such tools, using protocols like OSC and MIDI, begin to establish common means of communicating with one another over a network. (OSC and, in particular, MIDI, are in need of some evolution to fully satisfy that. But these kinds of tools might be an ideal way to prod that very evolution.)

Speaking of prodding, thanks to Mark Birchall on Twitter for reminding me to write this up.

Now, if I can just find some hyperspace portal to additional space and time to play with this properly… there must be a productivity jump gate around here somewhere.

Analog synths, meet spacey, abstract touch controls. And Konkreet Labs Performer – the futuristic iPad controller app – meet everything else, including, for those not lucky enough to own racks of modulars, MIDI.

Twisted KP is effectively a clever helper app, taking in messages (as OSC) from the brilliant Konkreet Labs Performer iPad app and translating them into things you can use with everything else — MIDI, analog control messages, or if you’re a Reaktor user, internal Reaktor IC messages. For Reaktor geeks and analog owners, it’s a godsend, but it’ll also work as a Reaktor standalone tool if you just want to make some MIDI control magic.

You do need to own a copy of Reaktor (cough, NI, please, please find some way for these guys to distribute their stuff). And for Control Voltage, you need a DC-coupled audio inter— actually, if you own analog, you can probably go figure that bit out. If you don’t, jut marvel at the sonic goodness.

It’s a very specific rig, but here’s what’s in the video above:

Doepfer Eurorack modules: Livewire AFG, Doepfer A-105 VCF and A-188BBD and A-180 Multi

CV audio interface: Control voltage output made possible by using MOTU 828MKII interface.

Here’s another video showing how it all works:

US$9, and so long as you’ve got a copy of Reaktor, you’re good to go. Reaktor geeks should have an especially good time with this.

Insert here my normal rant about the fact that the OSC protocol implementations in software should be flexible enough that you can do this with everything, and that OSC messages should be clear enough and have a degree of standardization such that this sort of thing is possible simply by taking in incoming messages, even if you haven’t seen them before. In the meantime, though, this works now.

http://twistedtools.com/shop/reaktor/twisted-kp/

http://konkreetlabs.com/

If this interests you, definitely don’t miss our extensive interview by Markus Schroeder, reprinted in English from the German version on AMAZONA.de:
Crafting New Twisted Tools: A Chat with Reaktor Patchers Making New Sonic Instruments

Following yesterday’s interview with Kyle McDonald on FaceOSC, his custom webcam + tracking application that can make music with your face, here’s another face-controlled music demo. This one uses Ableton Live for jamming. I should add, since I somewhat obscured the fact, that this isn’t Kinect: it works entirely with a built-in webcam, which means it’s completely free to try and you don’t have to tote any extra hardware, so long as you have a laptop with a built-in cam. More on this technology as we watch it evolve…

Science and art alike demand inquisitive exploration and experimentation. So, it’s encouraging that a discussion of the future of the digital guitar here on CDM brings impassioned reader debate. There’s some consensus if you dig through our comments: guitarists are compelled by adventures in new technology, and there’s widespread hope that new tech could expand guitar technique and expression, rather than (as the “Auto-Tune” name has unfortunately come to mean) a replacement for musicianship. And yes, there’s excitement about what Antares is doing – just as it’s possible to go beyond the status quo applications of their vocal tech.

But wait — there’s more.

Reflections on conservatism and guitar tech adoption Rich of Way Music sends over an extended, thoughtful rant, inspired by the discussion and directed at his fellow guitarists:
Amongst the guitar players: conservative fetishization and its discontents ;^) [Way Music]

The payoff of guitar research: Adrian Freed of the University of California Berkeley’s CNMAT research center reminds us that the research work with Gibson continues – and fruits of that research appear in products:

Thanks Peter for the mention of our work at CNMAT, UC Berkeley.
Our interactions with Gibson are ongoing and we continue to appreciate their commitment to innovation.
I am regularly confused by the lens used to talk about our research work, i.e., “Where is the product? Where are the adopters?” Good research rarely results in particular products although products are sometimes good demonstration vehicles for new ideas. Our work (as with much of UC Berkeley’s research) is more likely to sneak up on you over decades as an enabling part of the infrastructure, e.g. the first audio plugin, OSC (used in TUIO), pressure-sensing multitouch (next gen. Kindle?), Ethernet EVB, RISC (in ARM), BSD UNIX (part of OS/X), RAID etc. Watch out for how our work at the PARLAB will enable multicore efficiency for audio and music applications. There are lots of acronyms becoming part of mainstream tools already in that project….

I was going to start hyperlinking those acronyms, but I’m afraid you’ll have to Google them.

Why digital guitars matter: The Auto-Tune teaser brought about concerns about automatic intonation. (I do hear from guitarists that they’re really fond of the new automatically-tuning Gibson “robot” guitar!)

But there’s another side to the ability to track guitar pitch, and that’s the ability to combine the guitar with the sonic powers of the computer. Keyboardists have had the lion’s share of the fun over the years with software synths; just as wind, breath, and vocal controllers open up new possibilities, so, too, do MIDI guitars. While possible with any guitar that can send control, Starr Labs have posted some intriguing demos to their blog; see top and below. (I talked about Starr back in January as they introduced new controllers and guitars.)

Starr blog: http://starrlabs.blogspot.com/

And yes, you can play the digital guitar and still win a best beard contest with your more folk-oriented colleagues.

I really enjoy the Ztar guitar playing techniques. I’d love to see this in action in a performance, so readers – whatever make of MIDI guitar you may be using – do send those in.

I’m not as concerned about the conservatism, real or perceived, of any one artist. I’ll say this: regardless of the instrument, there’s vast untapped potential in new instruments and controllers waiting for brave artists to try to tap. And all of this can still draw upon knowledge and skill in traditional instruments. With a few thousand years of instrumental history at our backs, I’d say there’s no rush.

We just need a better term than “alternative controllers” or “controllerism.”

Maybe … music?