The grid is in. While the monome remains the standards bearer for hardware with grids of buttons on it, arrays of buttons are suddenly everywhere, in the commercial Akai APC40 and Novation Launchpad, and, from Livid Instruments, the Ohm64 and now the Block. I think it’s a real compliment to the monome’s creators – and the community that has authored ingenious open software for the monome – that there is this excitement around the design.

The latest entry is Livid’s Block, a compact, aluminum-and-wood controller that’s easy to carry and which weighs less than 3 pounds. It’s not a monome – it eschews the monome’s stringent minimalist design aesthetic and adds knobs on top, faders on the side. That layout has made the M-Audio Trigger Finger a blockbuster hit, so I think it could attract people who want more than just buttons. (That’s why choice is generally a good thing.) But just as importantly, the Block takes cues from the monome beyond the skin-deep. As with the Ohm64, Livid is working to open-source both the guts of the hardware and the software on the computer. The instruments are made by hand using sustainable materials and finishes, manufactured in Texas in their own shop rather than the lowest bidder overseas. The hardware itself encourages hacks and customization. These are principles championed by the monome’s Brian Crabtree and Kelli Cain, and they’re badly in need of some company. Livid, like those monome creators, is a handful of individuals rather then a big company, but they give us new hardware that embodies sustainability, openness, and local production – and that makes the monome and its principles stronger. (Livid has been crafting performance hardware and Max patches for many years.) And while this bus-powered USB MIDI device doesn’t yet support (OSC) OpenSoundControl, that could come – without sacrificing conventional MIDI connections to outboard gear when you don’t have the computer connected. (Clarification: as with the Ohm64, OSC support is not yet available but should be possible. Stay tuned.)

Basic specs:

Plastic, aluminum, wood … why not felt? Brian Crabtree and Kelli Cain, co-creators of the open source Monome multimedia controller, have long had an interest in alternative, sustainable materials for music and multimedia. They recently shared some of those ideas at a felt + circuits workshop in Los Angeles. (You may have seen the felt calculator synth show up on Music thing.)

Brian explains to CDM what the workshop was about, with a glimpse of why felt and copper-etched circuits could be the future. I’ve left it lowercase, in keeping with Brian’s textual aesthetic. -PK

the felt+circuits workshop wouldn’t have happened without the enthusiasm and encouragement of mark allen of machine project. teaching workshops helps raise money for the space in addition to bringing together a community. machine continues to serve as a platform for the intersection of art, technology, craft, and social consciousness. it’s certainly our favorite place in los angeles. we were very happy to be there in residence this last spring.

the felt+circuits workshop was one of numerous events we scheduled, all which involved a great deal of process. this workshop in particular covers a wide range:

- make felt from the wool of happy, healthy sheep living on a picturesque farm in northern california. (these particular sheep were rambouillet)
- turn wool into felt with a little physical labor
- learn basic schematic entry and circuit layout
- discuss and collect candidates for natural dyeing (all plant-based, best if we could locate and harvest locally)
- experiment with various dyeing methods (boiling and fermenting)
- transfer film of circuits (as well as images of the student’s choice)
onto copper then etch
- drill, populate, and solder circuit, test on some willing USB port
- create the creature of choice, sewing felt into magical squeak-embedded shapes