With my SparkFun components in the post I’ve been preparing for building my Auduino – researching the Google Group a bit more thoroughly and following up on some of the links… and it really does seem like an ideal ‘my first proper’ arduino project…
I think the demo video on Jesse’s Studio Blog post illustrates how much fun this could be…
So I’ve now collected a series of Auduino sketches that variously:
Since the Apple software update to Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 1 I’ve been having problems running some of my Processing sketches – particularly those using MIDI – and Java applets such as SevenUpLive 1.4.
I’ve also been experiencing some memory access errors e.g. “Invalid memory access of location 0×0 eip=0×917108d0” with monoControl and some of my own sketches – which I think are issues with OS X, Java and RAM?
A googled forums.sun.com post and referenced Processing forum post seems to indicate I’m not alone.
It’s been a while since I’ve spent a bit of time browsing and catching up with developments at the monome.org community site – though I’m always interested to see what’s been going on – and typically a few things caught my eye:
MonoControl – “an adaptable and flexible midi control application written in Processing for Ableton Live (or any other DAW) which, if configured correctly, should report all controller changes to MonoControl which then adjusts the LEDs on the monome. The app uses the buttons of the far rhs column of the monome to navigate through 8 different pages – and in each you can create combinations of faders, crossfader, x-y faders, push, toggle and note buttons and button matrixes – all stored in an an xml file.” (my somewhat edited version of the app description)…
This is exactly what I’ve been hoping to develop myself using Nick Rothwell’s shado…so I started to implement it into my Mirror2 real-time video processing Processing sketch and it’s working well…
Scanning through the iPhone/iPod Touch apps on synthtopia I came across a number of previously unknown MIDI and OSC controllers which I’ve now installed on my iPod Touch for testing. Some are free – including the iXY MIDI Controller and MIDI Motion Machine from CM Software Designs which use the DSMI Server – more details at the DS Music Interface homepage. Some cost a bit – such as Pro XY from Far Out Labs LLC who also make the interesting looking ProRemote and ProTransport (though you have to install the ProRemote server which runs as a background process and can’t be quit – which I don’t much like), the minimalist Fantastick (with its equally minimalist homepage though I also found a discussion thread on the MaxMSP boards – shame its MaxMSP/PD only) and iOSC (which needs 2.2.1 software). I’ll play around a bit with these and report my findings.
With my monome 64 due to arrive imminently I’ve been browsing the monome website for sparkly things I particularly like the look of…
Starting with Ableton Live…
1. drumwreck by anton hornquist – website & youtube demo
monome step sequencer in maxmsp/live
Early days for this app… which seems both intuitive and ergonomic… and even works using the ‘monome40_fake’ patch. Latest developments on its monome discussion thread.
Interesting things I’ve found…
I want one… I really, really want one…
monome 40h – ~$500 second hand
monome.org
Several video’s HERE
the monome 40h is a reconfigurable grid of sixty-four backlit buttons.
buttons can be configured as toggles, radio groupings, sliders, or organized into more sophisticated systems to monitor and trigger sample playback positions, stream 1-bit video, interact with dynamic physical models, and play games. button press and visual indication are decoupled by design: the correlation is established by each application.
Scanning Turnkey’s official magazine I noticed a few interesting things…
Most of all I really liked…
Novation ReMOTE 25SL
www.novationmusic.com
I’d always thought that my KORG microKONTROL MIDI controller was the best implemented compact unit on the market… and at current price of £155 new from Turnkey I still think nothing comes close for the money… but the Novation ReMOTE SL series look great… and with their Automap Universal standard feature – instant communication with most sequencers… and now with VST plug-ins too… I think this is a must. I can envisage it having a big impact on productivity working with Nuendo and that’s got to be a good thing… the ReMOTE 25 SL is £289 new from Turnkey… looking on ebay now… new US $299.99 + $80 shipping… drool…
