Connecting stuff is one of the things musicians naturally do with gear. So, there’s really no reason that musical gear shouldn’t network as easily as Web servers. And yet a basic protocol, built largely on existing standards, meets with responses like this:
“We’ll support OSC when there’s hardware out there.” “Name one piece of hardware that supports OSC other than the Lemur.”
OSC has some major advantages as a network protocol, as a way of connecting software with software, software with hardware, and yes, even hardware with hardware. It doesn’t have to “compete” with MIDI – you can even send MIDI message data over OSC, thus taking advantage of features OSC has that MIDI doesn’t (like time stamps, which your tools could use to calculate latency even if you don’t use them directly). Yet I’ve been listening to this argument for years now. “Any computer” counts as an OSC device, but even when tens of millions of iPhones and iPod touch devices hit the market (not to mention other mobiles), software developers were still pointing to a (completely absurd) “lack of hardware.” How tens of millions of gadgets can count as “nothing,” I don’t know, but maybe it’s because a lot of them were phones, not music devices.
Well, here’s a combination that ought to get someone’s attention. With the iPad about to launch next month – likely to be followed by more multitouch devices running Android, Linux, and Windows – we’re not just talking phones any more. And the folks at Symbolic Sound, makers of the insanely-powerful sound generation Kyma environment, are adding a proper OSC implementation. Even if you have no interest in the (wonderful) Kyma, now available in more-affordable Paca(rana) devices, this is one to watch.
What you can do:
Use OSC directly, via a direct connection and even onboard Ethernet on the Paca(rana). That opens up the use of devices like Lemur, and, yes, iPad.
Use MIDI over OSC from your existing MIDI devices and software. Explanation (again, worth reading even if you aren’t in the market for a Kyma):
http://www.symbolicsound.com/Learn/BidirectionalMIDIStreamsOverOSC
In this case, the OSC connection acts as a virtual MIDI devices, with three merged inputs and one output. The same is possible on other devices, too, however, meaning that combining OSC and MIDI doesn’t have to be a chore.
Details on the software update:
OSC-enabled Kyma X.74 is a free software update for registered Kyma X owners. OSC communication requires the Paca or Pacarana sound engine. Kyma X.74 also comes with additional features, including an 11-times speedup in the Virtual Control Surface, support for the MOTU Ultra Lite Hybrid mk3, TC Electronic Impact Twin, and Prism Audio Orpheus converters, track-pad compatible menus, refinements to the Tau resynthesis, and more.
And if you’re using Max and Max for Live, you can use a custom external for MIDI over OSC in that environment, as well. (That said, control of Live could be more intuitive if Ableton were to evaluate native OSC control support in Live, as currently exists in nearly all mainstream live visual applications. There’s an unofficial method that demonstrates just how powerful this can be — see comments.)
Kyma is still a high-end solution, but at least the entry-level Paca – still absurdly powerful – is now down below US$3000. If I had $3 grand handy, I’d certainly consider buying one. I don’t, so I think of it as that Steinway grand I can’t afford or fit in my apartment. That doesn’t mean I can’t pay attention to what it does – and, indeed, OSC implementation like this could apply as well to a $5 or open source app, to mainstream hardware or DIY solutions, as much as the Kyma.
The phrase is overused in the media and culture today, but I think it’s appropriate here:
“Just sayin’.”
Thanks to Lowell Pickett, Martin Wheeler, and others who sent this in.
Designing and building your own hardware was previously restricted to those with huge R&D budgets or extensive technical know-how but its now within the reach of just about everyone. Development of the Arduino and other low-cost, USB powered MIDI boards have sparked many home brewed MIDI controller projects that are relatively easy to use and fairly powerful. This article will cover some of the low cost DIY midi kits available on the market and evaluate each of their individual strengths and weaknesses.
What does it take to make your own controller? Much less than you might think. The image above shows the insides of the custom controller built on the Midibox platform, one of the first and most powerful diy midi communities out there. MidiBox projects, while being very powerful, are unfortunately quite complicated to actually make. As more and more people converge on the topic of hardware modding and hacking, some entrepreneurial spirits have developed much easier kits that do most of the legwork for you. Some of these USB powered MIDI boards can run anywhere from $40-300, depending on its capabilities and are relatively simple to set up. There are a few important factors that you could consider when looking at building your own MIDI controller with a DIY Midi Kit.
- Number/type of inputs – how many direct line or expandable (read below) connections are available on the board? Most boards feature both analog (potentiometers and fader) and digital (buttons, rotary) direct wire connections. For more on types of inputs and components see the Cuban MIDI Crisis article.
- LED Outputs- Having LED feedback can also be very useful, but only if the board accepts MIDI control for the lights
- Size of PCB – most of the kits are small (credit card size) but make sure they are smaller than the controller you plan on building.
- Modular or linear design model – Can you increase the number of inputs like the Midifighter.
- Component connection type – components can be soldered in by wire but some boards use ribbon cables and connectors (remember those massive grey cables coming out of your hard drive?) in place of all direct wire connections to save space.
- Plug-and-play – It is also important to note that some boards require USB drivers to be loaded whereas plug-and-play devices do not. This is because they are USB class compliant, or use system standard drivers
- Power – adding more plugs to your set-up is undesirable. Thankfully, most USB bootloading boards are USB powered.
- Middleware Editor – Some DIY boards require a middle-ware program (software between the hardware and your music program of choice) to configure the inputs and MIDI before they can be used
Most DIY MIDI kits vary in how complicated they are to set up and how many features they support. Hardcore programmers may find the MIDIbox project up their alley but building the projects require extensive experience, testing and patience. On the other hand, more basic kits sacrifice capability in order to reduce the required effort in making your own controller.
Another important aspect to consider is the use of multiplexers and matrices that lower the restrictions of space and power in a circuit board. These extensions allow you to take advantage of the legwork done in simple kits like Builder DIY, and expand them to have capabilities closer to the more intensive projects like the MIDIbox. A multiplexer takes multiple inputs and sends them down a single channel and are usually chip based. This allows a PCB to be expanded from a static number of direct connections to multiple inputs per connection. The Midifighter, for example, features 16 direct button connections but can be expanded with latch-and-shift chips that multiply the number of possible digital inputs to over 200. While the controller above was originally created with MidiBox, the same design could be duplicated much faster today with a Midifighter DIY kit.
Bliptronome
This modding kit turns a Bliptronic 5000 matrix synth into a small monome. The kit includes a DIY arduino, all the necessary components, and even a port of Monome Serial (monome mapping software) to complete the transformation from cheesy 80’s sounds to scrolling controller mayhem. While this mod is limited the bliptronic’s diminutive design and unsatisfying snappy buttons, it is a good beginner to intermediate project especially if you have a Bliptronic on hand. Built by Stray Technologies the Bliptronic 5000 is $49.99 from Think Geek and the Bliptronome is $69 for the Breadboard kit.
- Analog inputs = 0
- Size = roughly 6″ x 6″
- Digital inputs = 64 buttons, 4 Analog-to-digital pots
- LED outputs = 64
- Plug-and-play= No
- Connection: Ribbon cable, FTDI
- 4 xAA battery powered.
- Middleware Editor: Yes, requires MLR Serial to interface with a DAW
Builder DIY
The folks at Livid, responsible for the Block and Ohm controllers, offer a totally modular approach to building your own controller. The USB “Brain” board is small (3.5″ x 4.5″), offers a large number of inputs and LED outs and is easily programmed with an included firmware editor. The keyword here is expansion; the board can handle a total of 179 buttons and 48 LEDs when coupled the matrix boards. Costs can start adding up quickly , however, as the “brain” board is best suited to the expansion boards sold by Livid and everything else must be sourced yourself. Because the Builder is modular in design, it takes more time to get off the ground, but has very wide potential for modification. Find it at Livid for $189 for the “Brain” and around $12 for matrices and other modules.
- Analog inputs = 64
- Digital inputs = 16 (expandable to 179)
- LED inputs=14 (expandable to 48)
- Plug-and-play= USB class compliant
- Component connection type= Ribbon cable
- USB powered
- Middleware Editor= Yes, Brain Editor
Midifighter
DJ Tech Tools’ entry into the pantheon of DIY MIDI controllers strikes a balance between ease of use and creative potential. The button masher can get started with in about 20 minutes from receiving the Midifighter, as it comes with the all components to get started and does’nt require a middleware editor. Though the board features 4 solder-able analog inputs, an analog multiplexer lets you multiply the possible analog to 16. Those willing to dive even deeper can use switch chips to expand the digital and LED inputs as well. Find it at the store for $125.
- Analog inputs = 4 (expandable to 16)
- Digital inputs = 16 buttons, 4 unassigned (expandable 200+)
- LED outputs = 0 (expandable 200+ with latched serial drivers)
- Plug-and-play= USB class compliant
- Connection type = direct wire
- USB Powered
- Middleware Editor= No, can be reconfigured from hardware
Hale UMC32
In this extremely small board (1.6” x 2.7”) each one of the 32 inputs can be configured for a large assortment of analog, digital and LED components. Hale also make a “linker-board” that, you guessed it, links separate UMC32’s together. The board can send MIDI SysEx commands for controlling other MIDI hardware, but the trade-off is that Windows only software is required to configure the output before you can even get started and it does not feature a MIDI out as standard . Again, components here must be sourced yourself. Find it at Hale Micro for $89.95.
- Analog inputs= 32 (Shared)
- Digital inputs= 32 (Shared)
- LED outputs= 32 (Shared)
- Plug-and-play= USB class compliant
- Connection type= ribbon
- USB powered
- Middleware Editor= Yes
Doepfer USB 64
This board is a rectangular 6.2″ x 1″ monster. This controller board from the German modular synth makers is a bare bones board that, like the Hale Micro UMC32, has cross compatible inputs. It also has 2 MIDI outs, for controlling other MIDI hardware. While offering a lot of I/O, one hangup is that the board does not receive MIDI input for LEDs, like the Midifighter or the bliptronome and all components must be sourced. Find it at Doepfer for around $200, includes ribbon cable and 240v power connector.
- Analog inputs= 64 (Shared)
- Digital inputs= 64 (Shared)
- LED outputs= 64 (Shared)
- Plug and Play= USB Class Compliant
- Connection type= Ribbon
- USB or independently powered
- Middleware Editor= Yes
We already knew that one Next Big Thing for the Lemur – the specialized multimedia multi-touch controller – would be Ableton Live integration. Having teased that coming functionality, JazzMutant has now revealed the name (“Mu”), as well as a video showing what the features look like. What’s funny to me is that the result is a bit like what I’d imagine Live itself might look like if it were designed for multi-touch screens. That’s a real consideration for all music software UIs, given the direction of computer hardware. But in the meantime, with choices in multi-touch laptops scarce (makers like HP and Lenovo make a handful of models) and quality scarce, the Lemur hangs onto its niche. It comes with a solid set of tools for users to make their own layouts, it has the reliability of wires (which the iPad will lack, since it has no Ethernet port), and dedicated OSC functionality. While it may come to a surprise to those eagerly anticipated the iPad’s arrival next month, the Lemur’s fans are largely unswayed.
One reason is that, cool as Mu is, it isn’t alone. Musicians keep making fascinating control layouts for the Lemur, ones worth noting even if you don’t plan to buy a Lemur for yourself. For instance, Mat of music-interface.com sends along tips from his own work and beyond.
Rick Hawkins goes a different direction entirely from Mu, with a sequencer that’s esoteric enough to have “esoteric” in its name:
The EsoWave sequencer is a project for the Jazzmutant Lemur. It is a esoteric/generative midi sequencer that sends midi notes according to the positions of 32 nodes in a 2D plane. The nodes are connected along an elastic string and can be additionally controlled by two waveforms that drive the X and Y coordinates.
More info on the blog: ILL GOTTEN GAINS: The EsoWave Sequencer
Esoteric Sequencer Prototype – Ambient Session from Rick Hawkins on Vimeo.
For his part, Mat’s own work on the Sequencomat is full of ideas, with track-independent humanization and tempo, a roll pad X/Y marked by rhythmic subdivision, step sequencers, controllers, and more. Mat’s work shows part of the appeal of the Lemur, which has evolved beyond being a simple controller to be a generator of sequencing data. Just like the old days of hooking up a sequencer modular to a bay of analog synths via patch cords, the Lemur becomes the sequencer and software like Ableton Live simply the sound source.
http://www.tonvibration.de/extra/SequencomatV2.html
If you’re wondering why the Lemur fans have remained loyal, this gives you some answers. It proves that a device’s longevity can matter, in an age when (thanks, I’ll admit, to blogs like mine) newness and buzz tends to trump what lasts. While the Lemur may be old news to some, that’s part of the point: it’s taken some time for people to really work out what to do with it. And whether your future is in the Lemur or another device, I always find inspiration in what the Lemur community is doing, thinking more generally about how touch can be used with music. Sometimes my reaction is, honestly “yeah, but jeez, I’d never want to do that” – but then, that’s always why it’s interesting to see other people’s work. And sometimes, it’s just fun to watch.
Side note: if you get fatigued of all this talk of integrating with Ableton Live, fret not. I think we’ll see a lot of ideas around a lot of tools; just to take today’s news as a jumping-off point, note that the Renoise team are still working on their own, friendly API for customization with native OSC control (something Live still lacks). And variety is the spice of life, or at least, of blogs.
Updated – here’s part 1 of an intro by Michael Chenetz to the Mu environment.
max4live.info: Mu-tations: Part 1 – An intro to Mu from Michael Chenetz on Vimeo.
Source:
max4live.info: Mu-tations: Part 1 – An Intro to Mu (Beta) [note the video was uploaded by special permission]
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