Robotspeak Magazine

MU For Lemur: Jazzmutant gets completely in touch with Ableton Live

2010-03-12T08:33:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the integration of MAX for Live, the doors into the inner workings of Ableton have been opened to the world. Jazzmutant has seized this opportunity with gusto, introducing MU - a complete integration of Ableton Live for their groundbreaking and award winning LEMUR multitouch controller (Jazzmutant was recently elected #1 for innovation of the decade & #5 for best performance gear by Futuremusic magazine). The Lemur and Ableton are tailor made for each other, and MU finally makes possible what I believe most Ableton users have wanted to do since their first experience with Live; throw aside their knob and fader boxes, put the mouse out of it's misery, and just reach out and touch the screen. Ableton's interface has been begging to be reached-out-and-touched since it was born, but musicians have only been able to do it indirectly with a large degree of compromise using hardware controllers. Although Jazzmutant's Dexter hardware (now a software upgrade to the Lemur) was an attempt to tightly integrate popular DAWS such as LOGIC and CUBASE, likely because of limitations of access to the nuts and bolts of the software it was always with a degree of "almost there". Now with MU, the Lemur is doing what it was born to do, quickly and effortlessly providing a complete software interface that you just reach out and touch. The beta version is available now through Jazzmutant's website, note that Max for Live is required.

Novation Launchpad - "The Ableton Live Controller"

2009-10-06T18:26:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how much influence Ableton Live has had over the way computer musicians approach live performance, and the market weight Ableton has created can now easily be appreciated in the wave of dedicated controllers coming to market. Despite Akai's inability to fulfill early orders for their APC40, (or maybe it was just that they choose to ignore the value of small, independent retailers) it is still tempting to assume that the overwhelming success and relative affordability of the Akai APC40 controller would make it difficult for a new controller to make itself noticed, but the Launchpad by Novation has more than garnered our attention. With Monome-like simplicity, a much tighter footprint than the APC40, and at half the price, we are betting that the Lauchpad will be a Robotspeak best-seller this fall, and I for one am looking forward to getting one of my own. More information on the Launchpad from Novation's Site...

Metasonix tube drum machine demo

2009-07-12T09:12:00.001-07:00

Robotspeak Metasonix demo
Originally uploaded by BeerNotBombs

Eric Barbour from Metasonix demonstrates a prototype of his vacuum tube-based drum machine at Robotspeak. Click through to the Flickr set for more photos and video.

Eric Barbour of Metasonix in shop demo

2009-07-02T16:44:00.000-07:00

Saturday, July 11, 6pm at Robotspeak

METASONIX HELL TIME!!

Yes, the owner and founder of Metasonix, Eric Barbour,
will give an in-person demonstration of the hot new Metasonix
vacuum-tube effect, the KV100 "Assblaster"!!

Plus other all-tube Metasonix products!!

If you'd like to try it out, bring your favorite instrument! If you have a modular or other analog synthesizer, bring it and we'll have an Analog Party! With patch cords and control voltages and the whole shebang!!

BONUS! Eric has finished a top-secret prototype for a possible new product for next year! It hasn't even been on Matrixsynth or shown to Metasonix dealers yet, so show up if you wanna be the FIRST IN THE WORLD to see this unique and insane breadboarded mess of wires!!

This demo is for ONE NIGHT ONLY!!! Don't miss it!

YES, WE WANT YOU TO POST VIDEOS AND PICS ONLINE....SO....
!!!!!!!!BRING YOUR CAMERA!!!!!!!!!!

2009-06-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

Glitch Sequencer: FREE midi sequencer based on Conway's Game of Life

This Über cool free midi sequencer is made by SF local and robotspeak friend Bret Truschan. It was Built using Processing, an open source programming environment. Needless to say Glitch Sequencer is a winner! Its a great app to get the creative juices flowing and lately I can't seem to set it down. Check it out! Now featuring OSC in and out!

*Excerpt from glitch-sequencer*

New!! Version 2.0 Beta. New features:

Configurable "world wrap" (off by default) gives your patterns room to grow.

Completely customizable CA rules. (See /Data/rules.bsh)

MIDI automation of snapshots, volume, and mutes. Fully configurable. See /Data/config.xml

OSC support for both automation and for sending out note information. See /Data/config.xml

Ability to turn MIDI off entirely. This might be useful for people who only wish to use OSC.

Fixed a few bugs with the Nudge Select control

Customizable swatch colors

"Glitch Sequencer is a free cellular automaton based MIDI sequencer for the PC and Mac. It offers an interesting style of composition based on evolving patterns and is great for fast, fluid experimentation. Glitch Sequencer was written by Bret Truchan in Processing using themidibus MIDI library. "

Go get it NOW! and if you feel so inclined kick down a donation for Bret's awesome work!
www.glitch-sequencer.com

Siftables Interactive Computerized Tiles!

2009-06-25T14:50:00.000-07:00

These things are soo f**kin cool! I can't wait until they are a commercially available product, reactable look out!

Siftables Music Sequencer from Jeevan Kalanithi on Vimeo.

*The Following is an excerpt from David Merrill's website*

Imagine overturning a container of nuts and bolts, then looking through the resulting pile for a particular item. Or spreading photographs out on a tabletop and then beginning to sort them into piles. During these activities we interact with large numbers of small objects at the same time, and they utilize all of our fingers and both hands together. We humans are skilled at using our hands in these ways, and can effortlessly sift and sort - focusing on our higher level goals rather than the items themselves.

Siftables aims to enable people to interact with information and media in physical, natural ways that approach interactions with physical objects in our everyday lives. As an interaction platform, Siftables applies technology and methodology from wireless sensor networks to tangible user interfaces. Siftables are independent, compact devices with sensing, graphical display, and wireless communication capabilities. They can be physically manipulated as a group to interact with digital information and media. Siftables can be used to implement any number of gestural interaction languages and HCI applications.

The Siftables interaction platform is a collaboration with Jeevan Kalanithi, of Taco Lab.

Novation Automap App for the iPhone / iPod Touch

2009-06-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

I am really looking forward to this one, it should be available through the iTunes store in July.

MIDI CONTROL IN YOUR PALM
Now you can turn your iPhone / iPod touch into a MIDI controller, with multiple faders and buttons easily assigned to parameters in any software that allows MIDI control, and even some that don't!

AUTOMATIC PLUG-IN MAPPING
Instant, wireless, palm-sized control of all automatable VST, AU or Pro Tools format plug-ins in any DAW.

INSTANT VISUAL FEEDBACK
See at a glance how every control on your iPhone / iPod touch is assigned, both on the iPhone / iPod touch itself, and across your computer screen

LEARN AND CLEAR MODES
Make and delete assignments directly from your computer screen using lightening-fast 'Click-Touch-Assign' facilities.

AUTOMATIC MIXER CONTROL
Ideal for remote track arming and muting, transport and master level controls in a growing number of supported DAWs. (Control these elements in non-supported DAWs using separate dedicated Automap systems, or your own custom mappings.)

PLUG-IN AND MIXER MAP BROWSING FACILITY
Get to the right software fast! Control maps are automatically placed into categories depending on type (instrument, mixer etc.) for quick and easy browsing and selection with hardware or software.

Touch - Introducing the APC 40

2009-01-16T11:59:00.001-08:00

Akai unveils APC40 for Ableton Live. Looks awesome!

Gadget Orchestra with RockStar

2009-01-14T10:51:00.001-08:00

Can you imagine how light this guy's gig bag must be?

Clinic featuring Dave Smith and his new monophonic analog synth, the Mopho

2008-11-14T13:47:00.000-08:00

The Mopho, a screaming Yellow tabletop analog monster by Dave Smith Instruments, is the latest creation from synthesizer legend Dave Smith and a Robotspeak favorite. In this recording of an October '08 in-store clinic he demonstrates some Mopho patches, talks about the electronics, and answers audience questions.

Robotspeak video window

2008-11-03T15:36:00.001-08:00

Boo!

Tenori-On and Roland TB-303

2008-07-16T14:10:00.001-07:00

It weren't easy to pair these two beautiful, blinky gadgets together, but it was worth it. Hopefully we'll see a Tenori-On firmware update in the future that will make MIDI syncing easier.

Tenori-On unboxing

2008-06-23T13:18:00.001-07:00

Donald (aka Robotspeak's own Chachi Jones) offers us a Tenori-On striptease.

The KORG DS-10 for the Nintendo DS

2008-05-23T15:46:00.000-07:00

Korg's DS-10 software, which made its debut at Musikmesse in March, will run on the lilliputian Nintendo DS. Its going to look like an MS-10 and will feature two "patchable" dual-oscillator analog synth emulators, a four part drum machine, and a six-track sequencer. All of the software's parameters can be controlled in real time using the stylus. Alas, at this point it looks like it will only be sold in Japan, but should you track one down at about 4,800 YEN it will put you back about $50 American.

Gear Porn

2008-04-04T21:50:00.001-07:00

Gear Porn, originally uploaded by BeerNotBombs.

Shot at Recombinant Media Labs, SF. Find more photos at my Flickr page.

Lasers + Celibacy = Beamz Music Performance System

2008-04-04T21:33:00.001-07:00

I would put a gun in my mouth if I wasn't so busy vomiting. Enjoy.

Tenori-On

2008-04-04T21:26:00.001-07:00

Chachi and Yu Nishibori spend some quality time demonstrating the Tenori-On at Robotspeak in December 2007.