21Dec/090

monome: greyscale sixty-four release date

Monome.org just released the information in the release date of their greyscale sixty-four: 1st of January, 2010. The 64 edition is US$ 500 plus shipping costs. *Update*: Orders are accepted as of NOW. I just ordered my monome via google checkout. International postage fee is 90$ +customs. Let's see when it arrives...

What is a monome? "a reconfigurable grid of backlit keypads which connects to a computer. interaction between the keys and lights is determined by the application running on the computer. there is no hard-wired functionality."

(see more videos of the monome on vimeo)

20Nov/090

Owl Project: electronic musical instruments made of wood

Owl Project is a collaborative group of Manchester based artists who share interests in human interaction with technology and process led art. Over the last few years they have become known for a distinctive range of wooden musical and sculptural instruments that critique human interaction with computer interfaces and our increasing appetite for new and often disposable technologies.

17Nov/090

The Future Sounds Like This: 10 Magnificently Modern Musical Instruments

MontageMusical1_weburbanist.jpg

via weburbanist: "The study of musical instruments (’organology’ – no, really) is the study of the human condition. Every culture is defined by its own distinctive set of trills, whistles, parps, honks and beats, and every corner of the world has evolved its own location-specific indigenous instrument to renew a sense of cultural identity through noisy self-expression. And instruments evolve – never more so than now, in the midst of a technological revolution that has opened up entirely new ways to make music. So settle back and compose yourself as we look at ten new instruments that look set to accompany us into the world of tomorrow."

24Oct/090

Percussa AudioCubes: a platform for audio-visual creation and exploration

Percussa's Audiocubes are some sort of "intelligent interfaces" that share information with each other. They can "Generate, Process and Control music loops and samples". You can link them to you existing music software or also use them with Percussa's own Software. The cubes have an USB connector, as well as 1/4 inch jacks to connect them with each other to be used as "lo-fi sound generators". Cubes interact with each other wirelessly, change their color according to the settings, blink on triggering, etc.

"Each AudioCube is identical. You connect them with a USB cable to your computer, one after the other, and assign a colour and behaviour. After that, they work wirelessly with each other, and use their four onboard infrared sensors to communicate and measure distances to objects nearby. One cube stays connected, to pass the information from the cubes to the software on your computer. Location, orientation and distance information is passed to the software, while you interact with the cubes. The software can connect via MIDI or OpenSoundControl (OSC) to any software or hardware for music or visuals which you already have, or you can use it within your DAW (digital audio workstation) software as a VST plugin, or as a host for VST instruments to let you create sound immediately."

In the Video below, there is also an example how to trigger loops from Ableton Live. All in all these interfaces look really nice - they seem to be a quite intelligent and intutive interface to create, modify and trigger sounds. (see other AudioCube videos on Vimeo)

2 AudioCubes are priced €399.00, if you get a set of 4, they cost €649.00 (including tax). AudioCubes work with computers running Mac OSX 10.4 or later, or Windows XP SP2 or later. Drivers are not needed. Dimensions are 75mm x 75mm x 75mm.

I definitely have to get those. I will post a full review and some examples when i have them!

2Oct/090

New Ableton Live Contoller: Novation Launchpad

launchpad-ableton-main-gimage-copy

A Monome for the rest of us. The new Ableton Live Controller by Novation looks quite like the monome. Still, if it integrates in Ableton as well as the Akai APC 40, it can be a quite handy - and cheap: 150€ (199US$) is said to be the street price (to be released Nov '09).

Still since the APC40 uses a proprietary protocol, it is uncertain if the Launchpad will be usable for controlling other things than Ableton Live.

26Sep/091

“Totally Wired” – a film about Schneider’s Buero, Berlin.

Doepfer Sneak Peek from niamhguckian on Vimeo.

(via the blogosphere)Dear Friends,
It gives me great happiness to announce at last the release of 'Totally Wired', a film about Schneiders Buero, now available on DVD from Amazon
To thank you for your patience and support, a 10% discount is available to you with the following code: FRLD3JPV
The film will also be available from HERE and in Schneiders Buero, Berlin.
All Tweets, Forwards, Adds and Posts would be greatly appreciated!
I hope you enjoy the film and look forward to your feedback.
Niamh Guckian, Director, 'Totally Wired'.

14Sep/090

Workspaces and Enviroments


TRASH AUDIO at blogspot collects really nice videos, interviews, photos and other stuff - audio and synth related. Best of all: "Workspaces and Enviroments" - you get some information about how other people arrange and produce their music - and how they arrange their workspace, which tells a lot about themselves. In the end I like to look at other people's environments. we likey!

9Sep/090

Monome: minimalistic bi-directional interfaces.

three models: two fifty six (16×16), one twenty eight (16×8), and sixty four (8×8). each is a reconfigurable grid of backlit keypads which connects to a computer. interaction between the keys and lights is determined by the application running on the computer. there is no hard-wired functionality.

I am really looking forward to get one od those. If anyone wants to sell his 8x8 version, please drop me a mail. Currently only the DIY-Kits of the 40h version are available again, everything else is sold out. I think i will get myself one, stay tuned for a detailed review when i got it.

30Mar/090

New Arduino Mega microcontroller board: bigger, more powerful, still blue.


The Arduino Mega is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega1280 (datasheet). It has 54 digital input/output pins (of which 14 can be used as PWM outputs), 16 analog inputs, 4 UARTs (hardware serial ports), a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. It contains everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer with a USB cable or power it with a AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started.[...] (via arduino.cc)