mzed

M4L BufferShuffler Device modded for Lemur UI.  Also includes Lemur Project.


lemurshuffle

LemurShuffle

Andrew Benson

Even before the Max for Live beta was opened up to the public, a community of testers was hard at work putting Max for Live through its paces.  The integration of Max into the Ableton Live environment opened up a whole spectrum of possibilities that many users hadn't even considered until now, and it didn't take long before our beta testers were begging to show off their new projects to the larger community.

Once the veil of secrecy had been lifted, we saw an unprecedented flurry of blog posts, screencasts, Twitter updates and even whole websites devoted to the software and what people are doing with it. There was already a vibrant and engaged community of users developing around Max for Live before the product was even released.

One of the areas where there seems to be an explosion of development is the integration of various alternative controllers into Live sets.  A lot has been said about the new Akai APC40 and Novation Launchpad, but Max for Live can benefit a variety of controllers.  Ableton Live has a fairly friendly interface for mapping MIDI controllers, but users have increasingly desired interfaces for things like Open Sound Control , serial data, HID devices, and other non-MIDI protocols.  With mature devices like the Monome, JazzMutant's Lemur, and others using OSC as their native communication protocol, Max for Live presents a welcome set of tools for use with Live.  Monome users can expect to see many of their favorite patches ported to Max for Live in the near future, if they aren't already.

Now, Monome and Lemur aren't the only controllers that will benefit from Max for Live.  Here is a screenshot of a patch being developed by Vlad Spears for the Snyderphonics Manta controller:

"Honeycomb maps incoming pad presses from the Snyderphonics Manta to a latticed tonal system of midi notes.  This lattice turns the Manta into an isomorphic keyboard, allowing consistent chordal shapes to be played anywhere on its surface.  A minor chord is always created with an inverted triangle having its root note in the upper left corner, while a major chord is always a triangle with its root at the top of the shape.  This isomorphism makes it easy to play the Manta and produces surprising melodies."

Vlad is also busy working on devices for Monome control, porting his popular Daevl.Plugs, and all sorts of wonderful sounding experiments for Max for Live.

Recently, Create Digital Music ran a story about Scott Wardle's Ms. Pinky digital vinyl system being ported to work with Max for Live:

Livid Instruments has also been working on integrating their new controllers Block and Ohm64 with Max for Live devices.

For those individuals who like to create their own unique experimental controllers, here is a video from "Liubo" showing an Arduino connected to Max for Live:

Of course any device communication that natively works inside of Max should work the same inside of Max for Live, so gaming controllers, multitouch clients, serial boards and custom MIDI controllers of all varieties should work just fine.  Combine this with the Live API  objects and hardware controllers for Live are about to become way more interesting.

Included with Max for Live are 40 of the most popular Pluggo plugins ported as editable Max devices.  This is the result of a labor of love to clean up the old patches, add comments where needed, and generally spruce up the user interfaces.  Admittedly, even after years of Pluggo updates, the plugins themselves were looking pretty dated.  Max for Live provided an excuse to weed out the best plugins and modernize them a bit, taking advantage of some of the features that are specific to the Live integration.  Also, since all Max for Live devices are editable, users are welcome to take them apart, reuse bits of the patches, or look at them as some really quirky examples of patching.

Peculiar Instruments, Custom Effects, and Email

It is tempting to focus all of our attention on the grand productions that people will build in Max for Live, the fully realized synths and complex sequencers. As Robert Henke noted in a recent interview on this site, “MaxForLive allows people to solve their very individual problems with a high degree of elegance.” A lot of the devices produced in Max for Live are likely to be very simple solutions to very unique problems. To help you on your way, there is an impressive set of Max building blocks and tutorial devices developed by Manuel Poletti included with the Max for Live content.  The building block devices show just how effective simple Max patches can be, and also offer less experienced users a set of well-designed demonstrations of common audio and MIDI processing approaches. Also included are the Big 3 devices developed by Darwin Grosse - Buffer Shuffler, Step Sequencer, and Loop Shifter - more complex devices that you can play with right out of the box.  There will certainly be plenty of new toys to keep you busy.

During the beta process, long-time Max user Nick Rothwell decided to take off in a completely different direction and came up with some really clever devices.  Since Max provides access to all sorts of programming and scripting languages, there is a potential to integrate any sort of scripting API into a Max project.  Eager to test this idea, Nick decided to be the first user to create an email-reading device:

He then followed up with a Twitter client as well, using Java and python libraries:

As Nick's experiments suggest, we are bound to see all sorts of strange pairings once people start using Max for Live and exploring all of the options.  As Robert says, “People will come up with ideas which totally exceed what any one of us would imagine people would do.” So, what will you build?

the-edit-button-has-been-pressed

The Edit Button Has Been Pressed

Recently there's been a lot of talk about this new multitouch LCD controller. JazzMutant website.

"LEMUR is a handy and modular touchpanel based controller designed for audio and multimedia real-time applications. Our technology associates multitouch capabilities with visual display. LEMUR is provided with an extensible library of User Interface Objects such as faders, switchs, pads, keyboards, strings, etc."


Recently there's been a lot of talk about this new multitouch LCD controller. JazzMutant website.

"LEMUR is a handy and modular touchpanel based controller designed for audio and multimedia real-time applications. Our technology associates multitouch capabilities with visual display. LEMUR is provided with an extensible library of User Interface Objects such as faders, switchs, pads, keyboards, strings, etc."


jazzmutant-lemur

JazzMutant: Lemur

kdevices

Cycling '74

When a new shipment of Lemurs arrive from France, the excitement begins to grow at c74 headquarters. But it's not what you think. Yes, we are happy to receive a new shipment because it means people like the Lemur and are buying it. And, yes, it's always good to see that the big box of expensive hardware you just purchased arrived safely. Despite these good reasons, which occasionally lead to hugging the delivery driver, the best part is the BIG BOX.

The big box gives us a chance to blow off some steam at the end of the day. There are two big box options:

1) Get inside the box and attempt to run in circles (see below). It's a wonderful workout and, frankly, quite difficult.

2) Get inside the box, allow your co-workers to seal the box, and then the same co-workers roll you down the hall while you tumble around inside. It makes one so happy after a day of sitting at the computer. Just look at that smile.

btw: It's just a coincidence that Spongebob also likes to play in boxes.

If you find this crap interesting, check back again for more journal entries from the c74office.

When a new shipment of Lemurs arrive from France, the excitement begins to grow at c74 headquarters. But it's not what you think. Yes, we are happy to receive a new shipment because it means people like the Lemur and are buying it. And, yes, it's always good to see that the big box of expensive hardware you just purchased arrived safely. Despite these good reasons, which occasionally lead to hugging the delivery driver, the best part is the BIG BOX. 

big-box

Big Box

Gregory Taylor

Lilli Wessling Hart

The nature of the booth traffic is visible not only in a relative dearth of exciting action demo photos on my part (I am giving them aforementioned demos, and thus otherwise occupied), but also in my relative lack of trade show mobility. There are a few exceptions.

The path from our booth area toward coffee, soda, and the “facilities” runs right but the Moog booth. I normally got to chat a bit with Bob Moog during the AES rather than NAMM, since he was always mobbed in the booth there. The AES this fall was the first time since his passing that I’d gone to a trade show and paused to realize that I’d never see him again. The Moog booth here has a digital “picture frame” with a rotating set of images taken at various points in Bob’s life, and a large poster that passers-by are invited to sign with messages of thanks and condolence (it’s going back to Moog HQ when things are over). It always seems as though there is a small group of one or three people every time I pass by. The booth is doing a brisk business, but the little corner always seems to have people standing quietly, watching the pictures or reading the large sign. It’s really quite touching.

I also finished the second installment of the Buchla 200e review in the current Sound On Sound and decided that the Buchla booth lay somewhat in a straight line to anothertoilet/soda machine vector, so I detoured with my Pepsi to check things out. Mr Buchla himself graced a minimally decorated booth.

Hardly minimal, I’d say you could only say “minimally decorated” if you’re churlish enough to not count this as decoration

I got to spend a little quality banana-plug time with the new machine, and it certainly sounds pretty cool. Loads of interesting new features, not the least of which is a Thunder finger-pad control panel. VERY nice. Time to start saving….

Anyway, back to stuff about us. One of the things I’ve never remembered to do in previous shows is to actually photograph the booth as it appears when finished early in the morning before the public arrives. For reasons I don’t entirely understand, I remembered this year. Here, we see David, Tim, Darwin, and Ben conferring during the quiet of a tradeshow morning.

One of the interesting features of this particular NAMM was the presence in major terms of our friend Scott Wardle, who you may all know as Ms. Pinky. May steel wheels were spun, concentric wisdom was dropped, and much currency of cool was thrown down whenever La Pink was in tha house.

And ditto for that Lemur. Our booth was overrun with them, wrangled by Meg. Come to think of it, she wrangled the booth visitors, too. Keeping them in line with hours of demofortitude.

The rest of us helped out in the north end of the booth by demoing the Lemur editor during the interdemo periods. The south end of the booth was given over to places to view and marvel at our new UpMix collection of plug-ins, Octirama, our troika of plug-in collections, and that machine over there in the corner. Here’s just a sampling of the hordes of pictures I could have snapped if I hadn’t been so busy or thought to give the camera to someone who wasn’t.

The nature of the booth traffic is visible not only in a relative dearth of exciting action demo photos on my part (I am giving them aforementioned demos, and thus otherwise occupied), but also in my relative lack of trade show mobility. There are a few exceptions. 

om-namma-shiva-part-n-where-n3

Om NAMMa Shiva (Part N where N=3)

florent colautti

Standalone audio application enterely built with max6.

bouncer

piwolf

Media server and interaction software with show control for shows, events, and venues.

project47-venom

Venom

My colleagues Andrew and Meg and I headed over to the new Recombinant Media Labs facility last week for a fun-filled week of Max workshoppery.

Of course, I was so busy pitching Max/MSP/Jitter patch projections around and ranting at the some 20-some brave souls gathered to attend that there aren't any pictures of me, and probably fewer or Andrew and Meg in action dispelling the phantoms of fear and doubt. I apologize for this, but will share such as I have.


The site itself was wonderful, and their staff as decent and friendly as one could have wished for. This is particularly amazing, since they were spending long evening hours after we departed readying for a concent event on the Saturday when the workshop concluded. They remained conscious and helpful throughout an ordeal I can only imagine (sleep dep is not one of my things). Bravo, boys.

I was photographing during the lunch periods, however. They were generally a welcome event, enlivened by good weather and a roof garden...

...and, on one particularly special day, a lunch from the Tamale Lady, a famous local SF personage who makes spectacular tamales.

Joshua Clayton paid us a special visit and charmed the masses with an introduction to slabbery in his own inimitable style.

But it wasn't all me ranting, nosirree. I was greatly assisted by my colleagues Andrew, who provided QuickTIme and OpenGL illumination to the assembled masses...

...and Meg who limned the subtle depths of scheduling and patch tracing, in addition to Lemur-wrangling.

Following the workshop, our "classroom" was transformed into what has now become my favorite listening room ever. Saturday evening featured performances in their extraordinary space from Trevor Wiahrt

...who turned in one of the most interesting performances I've ever heard from him. A great end to a wonderful (if exhausting week).

My colleagues Andrew and Meg and I headed over to the new Recombinant Media Labs facility last week for a fun-filled week of Max workshoppery. 

a-workshopping-spree

A Workshopping Spree

NEW HARDWARE CONTROLLER ALLOWS UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES

NAMM • ANAHEIM, CA • January 20, 2005 - Cycling '74, a San Francisco-based music software company, and the French company JazzMutant SAS today announced the signing of an exclusive U.S. distribution agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Cycling '74 will distribute JazzMutant's Lemur multitouch control surface within the United States. The Lemur is a sleek portable controller for live performance computer music applications featuring a 12" LCD display and a proprietary touch screen interface that can simultaneously track multiple fingers.

The Lemur communicates with a host computer over 100-baseT Ethernet using the Open Sound Control (OSC) protocol developed at UC Berkeley's Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT). OSC is an emerging standard for synthesis control that supports simple configuration, 32-bit data resolution, and low latency. Applications that currently feature OSC support include Cycling '74's Max/MSP, Native Instruments' Reaktor, and Pd, a popular open-source sound synthesis application.

Users configure the Lemur using an editor application that runs on Mac OS X, Windows XP, and Linux. Users drag and drop graphical control objects such as faders, buttons, two-dimensional area controllers, and status monitors to create interfaces. After a collection of interfaces is uploaded to the Lemur, the device sends data to parameters in a sound-generating application when a user touches objects in the display. Performers can flip between interfaces on the Lemur using buttons located above the touch screen.

The Lemur's interface objects can be customized with JazzMutant's "physical" properties that include friction, smoothing, and fade-in and fade-out. For example, faders with decreased friction "glide" across the screen and can even "bounce" after hitting zero. Objects can also transmit data based on complex floating-point mathematical formulas, moving far beyond the 0-127 limitations of typical MIDI controllers.

JazzMutant expects to deliver the first Lemurs to customers in April 2005. Cycling '74 announced a projected US retail price of $2495 and plans to sell the Lemur via its web site and through selected retailers.

Cycling '74 creates and distributes Mac OS and Windows software for audio, video, and multimedia innovators. Products include the Max/MSP/Jitter graphical programming environment, the Pluggo collections of Max/MSP-based audio plug-ins, the Radial loop-based composition and performance system, and the interactive algorithmic composition program M. Cycling '74 also releases creative musical and multimedia works through their c74 recording label and audio source libraries for musicians, sound designers and media producers through its Cycles series. https://cycling74.com

Graphics available online at https://cycling74.com/pressimages.

Cycling '74, 379A Clementina Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, 415-974-1818, info@cycling74.com

Cycling '74, a San Francisco-based music software company, and the French company JazzMutant SAS today announced the signing of an exclusive U.S. distribution agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Cycling '74 will distribute JazzMutant's Lemur multitouch control surface within the United States. The Lemur is a sleek portable controller for live performance computer music applications featuring a 12" LCD display and a proprietary touch screen interface that can simultaneously track multiple fingers.

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