monome
Latest
Monome Arc OSC controller is simple, elegant, and expensive
If you're not familiar with Monome, the company designs and builds unique, minimalist controllers in limited editions for the discriminating music maker with deep pockets. The company's latest, Arc, features two anodized milled aluminum knobs, an enclosure made of black walnut (sustainably harvested in central Pennsylvania, of course), lead free printed circuit boards and circuitry, a felt slip mat made from wool purchased from small farms in the US, and -- well, that's pretty much it. Hand assembled on a farm in upstate New York, this device sends OSC data to a computer via USB. Each knob is circled by a ring of 64 LEDs, and each knob can be configured for whatever your musician's heart desires. On the video (after the break) it is paired with a Series Sixty Four controller to make a sample looper. Looks like fun! Too bad it costs more than our rent for the month. Available on February 18 in two knob ($500) and four knob ($800) configurations. [Thanks, Zack]
Snyderphonics Manta controller takes on Ableton Live, looks (and sounds) great doing it (video)
We sure do love our obscure instruments here at Engadget. Even something as simple as the Monome, with its grid of 64 pads (and little else) can get the creative juices flowin' when partnered with the right software. Well, we just received word that SevenUpLive, the driver that gets Monome to play nice with Ableton Live (via Max / MSP), has just received support for Snyderphonics' handsome Manta controller. What's this all mean? Well, besides looking great, Manta features velocity sensitive plates and polyphonic aftertouch, which means a higher level of control than many of your boutique controllers. But you need a demonstration, right? Why didn't you say so? Video after the break.
Kaossonome rears its head; Guitar Center changes name to Arduino Center
Every time we turn around, there's another amazing new blinking, knobby, button-pressy little sound-maker making cute-weird-alien noises, lacing up our shoes or controlling our remote control cars for us, and it all seems to be Arduino's fault. That's fine by us. Alexander Randon (his awesome, real name) has brought a devastatingly charming monster to the MIDI controller game in the Kaossonome - inspired, not-so-surprisingly, by Korg's Kaoss family and the minimalist Monome. It's a touchscreen laid on top of 256 LEDs, encased in a aluminum-wood-plexiglass box 8 chunky, push-button laced knobs. While none of these elements is particularly new, the whole package and execution just seems to kick things up a notch or two. Check out the green-glow mutant bassline after the break.
Mad musician makes a minimalist maze on his monome (video)
What do you do when you're sick of making music on your instruments? You hack them to play video games, apparently. YouTube user silverspaceship (real name Sean) worked up some code he calls monomAZe 3D, enabling you to take a journey into a very old-school 3D maze on your two fifty six edition monome, which (if you hadn't guessed) features a grid of 256 light up buttons. The intent of the device is making trippy music (such as the soundtrack to this video), but apparently it can also take you on a trip, which is mighty neat in our book. Cost of entry? About $1,400 for the two fifty six, if you can find one, but at least the source code is free.
Music Thing: Monome Controller
Each week Tom Whitwell of Music Thing highlights the best of the new music gear that's coming out, as well as noteworthy vintage equipment: "The wonderful thing about this device is that is doesn't do anything really," say the developers of the Monome, a minimalist-but-clever button-covered box. "It wasn't intended for any specific application. We'll make several applications, and others will make more. We hope to share as many of these as possible. Drum machines, loopers, 1-bit video transformers, physics models, virtual sliders, math games, etc." Like all the best new interfaces, it’s pretty much impossible to describe, but once you watch the demo video, it seems to be surprisingly flexible and fast to use. I can’t help thinking that something this (or the similar, but different, Tenori On box developed for Yamaha) has huge commercial potential as a cheap and funky sound toy. At the moment, though, it’s a tool for high-end supergeeks, like the wonderful Jazz Mutant Lemur (which is now in production and sells for $2,495).
