Griid Ableton Live Controller Now Available

Liine Griid – a modular Ableton Live touch control system for Ableton Live and iPad / iPhone / iPod Touch is now available in the App Store.

Griid is an advanced clip grid interface for Ableton Live that lets you interact with Live using gestures familiar to iPhone and iPad users.

Griid had it’s world premiere performance at Movement 2010, the Detroit Electronic Music Festival. Richie Hawtin, below, performing as Plastikman, took to the stage with two iPads running Griid:

It’s available in three variations:

  • Griid for the iPhone, $5.99;
  • Griid Pro for the iPad, $$24.99; and
  • Griid Lite – a free demo version

If you’ve tried Griid out, leave a comment and let us know what you think of it!

Here’s the details on each version.

Griid is an advanced clip grid interface which allows you to control Ableton Live (running on your desktop or laptop) from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Using specialised touch objects and gestures, Griid is carefully designed with tactile control and the performance experience in mind. Finely tuned for rapid navigation, you can enjoy the freedom of playing Live sets of any size with ease. Griid features explicit visual feedback meaning that you have all the information you need, quite literally at your fingertips!

Features:

  • Clip grid optimised for small screens (6 tracks by 6 scenes in landscape; 4 tracks by 8 scenes in portrait)
  • Launch clips and scenes.
  • Full clip information: name, colour and playing status.
  • Clip status information: clip playing or cueing.
  • Track names
  • Scene names and colours.
  • Piecharts and progress bars highlight position in loop or in one-shot.
  • Smooth scrolling clip grid with inertia scrolling.
  • Overview mode displays a bird’s eye view of your whole Live set. Move anywhere with a tap.
  • Tap the track header to bring playing clip into view.
  • Track stop buttons (including safety feature).
  • Group track support (including remote fold/unfold).
  • Smoothly switch from landscape to portrait clip grid.
  • Tight, dynamic integration with your Live set.
  • Wi-Fi connection to Ableton live.

Griid Pro:

Griid Pro is an advanced clip grid interface which allows you to control Ableton Live (running on your desktop or laptop) from your iPad. Using specialised touch objects and gestures, Griid Pro is carefully designed with tactile control and the performance experience in mind. Finely tuned for rapid navigation, you can enjoy the freedom of playing Live sets of any size with ease. Griid Pro features explicit visual feedback meaning that you have all the information you need, quite literally at your fingertips!

Features:

  • Clip grid takes advantage of the iPad’s large screen (11 tracks by 11 scenes in landscape; 8 tracks by 16 scenes in portrait)
  • Launch clips and scenes.
  • Full clip information: name, colour and playing status.
  • Clip status information: clip playing or cueing.
  • Track names
  • Scene names and colours.
  • Piecharts and progress bars highlight position in loop or in one-shot.
  • Smooth scrolling clip grid with inertia scrolling.
  • Overview mode displays a bird’s eye view of your whole Live set. Move anywhere with a tap.
  • Tap the track header to bring playing clip into view.
  • Track stop buttons (including safety feature).
  • Group track support (including remote fold/unfold).
  • Zoomable clip grid.
  • Smoothly switch from landscape to portrait clip grid.
  • Tight, dynamic integration with your Live set.
  • Connects to Ableton Live via Wi-Fi.

Griid Lite is a test version of Griid / Griid Pro. It is identical to Griid, but with the following two restrictions:

  • Clip grid displays 4 tracks by 4 scenes in landscape mode and 3 tracks by 6 scenes in portrait.
  • Only the first 4 tracks and first 6 scenes in your Ableton Live set are visible to Griid Lite.

The purpose of this App is so that you can test how well Griid / Griid Pro will work with your setup for free before purchase.

Griid Lite runs on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad (in compatibility mode).

11 thoughts on “Griid Ableton Live Controller Now Available

  1. Or you could just buy a Launchpad and get near-identical functionality for a fraction of the price.
    Now what would be REALLY cool is if Ableton brought out a version of Live for the iPad. That's something I'd almost be tempted to buy an iPad for!

  2. Mmm, touchABLE (soon on the app store) does that and muuuuuuch more (for what I saw in the video). wait and see.
    Oh, and 25$ sounds a bit expensive.

  3. Overly complex setup process. Really terrible UI—doesn’t behave according to the Apple Human Interface Guidlines. The UI font is atrocious and looks straight out of 1998. No knobs. No sliders. Overpriced. Don’t buy this unless you’re really desperate for a poorly-designed, clunky clip launcher.

  4. Yea Jackson, I agree about the set up process. I spent about a half hour trying to get it right and then just gave up. It just one of those things that seems like it might speed up your workflow, but then just winds up wasting time you could be using to making music.

  5. Craptastic. Setup is ridiculously complicated. LiveControl is easier to set up and is free. I feel bad for buying this.

  6. Did the set up first with the free version. Set up was not complicated at all for me. Spend 5 minutes on it. Just follow the step by step procedure.Worked for me without any hassle.
    Decided to wait for more contro apps.
    I suddenly realised that all the info on gridd was very much hyped beforehaand by virals starring Richie Hawtin. These virals were disguised as internet tech journalism but I think they were posted by friends of the makers of Griid. Looking back it seemed too obvious.
    Indeed spending 20 euro on an app that has reactions like above makes me wait a little while till the establised pro companies jump in on the platform.
    Touchable looks ok though.
    Would be better if you cpuld install a demo of the pro app instead of a toy free version. The free version of Griid looks totally rediculous.

  7. @jane: No, I didn't try the free version. I wished I would have. You're smart. The "Pro" version for iPad requires setting up a separate ad-hoc network which basically forces you to disconnect from your wifi network.

    LiveControl (http://livecontrol.q3f.org/livecontrol/) is much easier to setup and is free. It requires TouchOSC but doesn't require using a MIDI bridge like OSCulator. It takes a little fiddling but it works pretty well for controlling devices as well as clips.

  8. How long will it be until Ableton comes out with an official iPad control app?

    It seems like companies that build these third-party control surface apps are going to get reamed when the DAW vendors wake up to the opportunity.

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