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."
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!