telePort Control (POV Sneak Preview Video)

Developer Lasse Kolding shared this sneak preview of the upcoming telePort Control app, in its iPhone form.

The focus here is on using the phone as a controller for an instrumentalist doing live looping music with the live performance-oriented music app telePort (Mac & Windows). 

telePort lets you integrate hardware and software instruments, as one advanced combined, programmable and morphable instrument. It brings a modular approach to (augmented) sequencing and mixing, while at the same making it easy to switch between completely different songs/tracks, or change the modules independently as the music is playing.

The goal is to create a very flexible music system, where you can have a whole set, not just a song, at your fingertips and improvise or play structured parts based on rules you define freely.

The telePort Control app for iOS is designed to let you make music away from the computer, and even to let multiple users play together at the same time.

“There’s really no reason why only one person should be playing with a computer running telePort at a time,” notes Kolding. “A ridiculous 16 iOS devices can be connected to a single computer running telePort, and they will each and all show what is being done on any one of them.”

telePort is available as a beta and the telePort Control app is expected to be available in a few weeks. See the developer’s site for more info.

24 thoughts on “telePort Control (POV Sneak Preview Video)

  1. Sounds great for studio use but I can just see the evolution go music based technology from a live perspective.
    We have gone form looking like we’re playing instruments to looking like we’re checking email and now you can be on stage and look like you’re posting to your twitter feed in real time.
    I’ve seen video’s of a few iPad performances lately that look remarkably like someone is playing Tetris to a backing track. Riveting concept really isn’t it ?
    And to think that they call it evolution.
    On the up side great demo with excellent musical examples shown (so a thumbs up on that front).

    1. Yes it’s much better as is to just worship DJ’ing and sneer and judge anything live that isn’t jumping off of stages, like it’s anything but a complete joke except for turntablists.

      If people doing live music needs a hand moving show for you, you’re doing it wrong. Don’t breed.

    2. Aphex Twin once did a live tour by laying down on a couch and play his instruments from that position, I suppose you would cross your arms and call him lame?

      Typical Ponce snob.

    3. I come from a similar kind of attitude towards “live music” using a computer. The reason for creating telePort is to try and do something about that.
      I just don’t quite see this comment fitting with what’s in the video? It’s 6.40 long and the iPad is touched for a total of 5 seconds… Even considering that it is an iPhone Demo, the iPhone is used less than the actual live instruments, not even electronic ones… Why the iPad is there and what it can do is not even touched upon in this video…

      In any case, it is very possible to play a telePort set for hours without ever touching either computer or iPad (or even owning an iPad for that matter), simply by setting up the system to react and “teleport” from what is done on various keyboards, instruments and controllers. That requires a lot of preparation though, and what the iPad brings is a straight forward way of improvising with almost everything that telePort can, with only a minimum amount of preparation done to set up basic things like patches and routing presets before you start.
      It will never replace the Instruments that you connect to telePort…
      To quote the great Jean-Luc Picard: “you shouldn’t have to lose anything just by adding a convenience”

      1. Thanks for the reply Lasse.

        To “Snob Killer” and “Troels” – rather ironic monikers I might add.
        Not once in my original post did I say this product was crap and in fact stated it sounds great for studio use, had a very good demo and excellent musical examples in operation.
        Does that equate to being justified in making assumptions about everything else posted in between ?
        It was a commentary on the restrictive nature of said interfaces within the context of a live performance.

        Exhibit A : “Aphex Twin once did a live tour by laying down on a couch and play his instruments from that position, I suppose you would cross your arms and call him lame?
        Typical Ponce snob.” – Yes it is utterly lame, I don’t care how good his studio output is. It shows contempt for both the medium and the paying audience who deserve better than the “push play” culture that many of us pay to see.
        My comments don’t justify being called a “Typical Ponce Snob” either, even if it isn’t much above a kindergarten level insult.

        Worship DJ-ing is just as bad, especially when someone is clearly making faux eq gestures, tweaks and edits that have clearly been preprogrammed. It’s utterly disingenuous and the art of turntabalism is a whole different kettle of fish all together.

        Exhibit B – it’s a looper! are you so shallow that you need to be stomping on guitar pedals to feel like a real musician? – In short I don’t see what feeling like a “real musician” has to do with anything. I don’t know how you define a “real musician” for starters and/or was that whole comment just some sort of pejorative put down to people who meticulously learn a craft and skill over many long years ?

        I don’t care if you DJ, produce electronic music, do avant garde sound installations, play guitar or use a looper. If you do, do it with a passion and show enough respect for your audience by not brining forth some half baked or half faked performance.

        You both seem to have missed the point on the nature of many laptop performances and the modern touch interfaces used to control them. I’d use the same argument for a lot of modern synths also. I would rather have a tool with a handful of great sounds that give me great intonation, tone, articulation and user interaction that enables a person to put something of themselves in a performance.

        I use iPad apps in the studio but would rather not use them in a live setting. In a live setting I want a certain level of freeform interaction where probability and chance play a larger role.
        if you want to hear an artist’s album when you go to a gig perhaps its best to stay home and listen to the CD or MP3.

        I am glad Lasse has pointed out that this can be used in a set for hours without having to actually touch the iPhone itself and kudos for taking the performance aspect into account here. It is a vitally important focus and one that is often overlooked.

        It is still (IMHO) why a one touch per function no menu diving analog synth is still preferred over more complex digital methods by many people both in the studio and on the road and it explains why digital synths like the Nord Lead and Virus Ti are such stables of many a live rig for this very same reason.

        Finding good live looping tools that integrate well is not an easy task and not as simple as chaining a few stomp boxes together and going for it either.

        That said I don’t see why the two of you are so dogmatically defensive when the creator of the app can give a perfectly well measured and metered response in a civil manner.

        1. It’s Aphex Twin he can do what he wants and has done decades of music the rest of industry wishes it could, he never was a jumping around guy and didn’t play off of computer that time either. Once he played out of a children’s plastic playhouse with his synths out the windows, it wasn’t a big hand waving show either. You apparently need obvious signs people are doing things. When you know the artist is good and is using the synths, IT DOESN”T MATTER HOW COMPACT AND OBSCURED THEY ARE TO THE REST OF US.

        2. Were making fun of people that need live people to be moving their arms to make LIVE EDM worth it. People that fake things aren’t being called out, so someone who is just busy and compact get’s thrown under the same bus. EDM will never be bands and most guys can’t travel with all of their live gear they compromise. The guys who show up with ableton and trigger for an hour are frauds, and the promoter should be held accountable and subsequently the artist, for labelling their performance as “Live” and charging more because of it.

          1. CONT. but it is crowds en masse now that are willing to just put up with a trigger or sync’d DJ perfomance out of someone and pay becasue they are ignorant to the variety of live techniques out there, or are too high on coke to care. However, I’ve proven that spacing out my controllers and instruments fooled people into thinking I was doing more rather than having them compact where they counldn’t see everything I was doing, mainly because of table space or the venue not being setup for it. It you want to see what people are doing go stand where you can see it, the dancefloor is not going to give people a view into it all the time, and people assume that because they can’t see it, it’s not happening and therefore it’s not interesting. It’s a load of crap, most promoters are already gun shy at booking ANY live acts now because of the setup requirements so we are lucky we get any consideration or space at all, I’m sorry our inconvenience affects your visual dollar spent, it’s a shame I wish it was easier and more integral accommodate the visual aspect, but DJ worship has (of both fraud and decent dime a dozen varieties) been given priority and we are the black sheep space wise. You need to get a bunch of people to tell your promoters you want more out of the price of admission and more out of the show and space to see it. Otherwise it’s not gonna change and only get worse.

            1. CONT, and more and more compact slim and touch devices and solutions will come about, this looper is just the manifestation of one tool on a surface that is pretty much non-visually flamboyant, there are more and more of them coming because promoters can’t be bothered to go the extra mile. I’ve been doing live P.A.’s for 6-7 years in Toronto, it has gone from almost one every weekend, to maybe one a month now or two. It’s pathetic.

              1. Snob Killer – we’re arguing two sides of the same coin here.
                I just think you totally misunderstood my first post.
                I don’t expect grand sweeping gestures and no full well the limitations of hardware from a visual perspective. That said, anyone who does quality misc production can tell when some idiot is utterly faking it up on stage and i absolutely loathe the DJ worship mindset.
                Unlike you I haven’t actually performed live in many years and have a predominantly hardware / tech based studio (though I do play bass on occasion also) and no how hard it is for people to land gigs.
                I don’t want some wanly big hand waving show but honesty and integrity in a performance surely isn’t to much to ask for. Perhaps being the other side of mid 40 something Ive been a tad spoiled but Amon Tobin, Ozrich Tentacles, Underworld, Atoms for Peace, Depeche Mode, Thomas Dolby, Square Pusher, Faithless, Honeysmack and The Orb (back in the day) along with Orbital and The Chemical Brothers and Kraftwerk can put on a live show that is every bit as entertaining as more “conventional fare”.
                I’ve even been to couple of Autechre gigs that were pretty damn good also.
                I am actually referring to people faking it (and they should be called out) and you can tell when someone is in the zone on a compact rig also and rocking it out but seriously, your second last post was pretty bang on the money for my pet peeves with a certain sector of the electronic music scene right now.

                1. Yes, sorry I tend to jump on the performance complaints fast these days, I’m fairly sick of them. Those groups you mentioned are special, and mostly because most of them have multiple people in them and were part of an age where it was a very cool thing to see live electronic music that few people could master. I don’t have a purely Laptop setup I use the best i can of both worlds, ableton supplying my midi notes and sound output nothing more, the rest is me mixing channels and playing Korg Ms-20 minis and other things, but as one person on the edge of failing to do something pretty much the whole time, I can’t really incorporate much visual performance into it and my philosophy is: I do this for the music and the music is the top priority so everything else is a bonus. With a second partner I would have much more flexibility to incorporate more.

                  Those acts you mentioned were also held up as band level perfromance where as Live P.A.’s are the toned down, personal travel size or were supposed to be at least and accessible to the individual. Somewhere a long the way too a set with no interruption for all danceable styles of EDM became the standard and demanded (mainly because of promoters again) so songs that begin and end became a problem to all in a mixed (DJ AND LIVE PERFORMANCE) scenario. Also today, because of the mainstream invasion of EDM, the ambiance of the party and gimmicks have outweighed the music itself in a lot of cases so performance has become less important and a total crock of shit (Glam ROCKesque) era of EDM has begun. So all I’m saying is that ANYONE who can manage to do ANYTHING live at this point with success and tour gets the benefit of the doubt when the visual aspect is not there, because the odds of even getting booked are stacked against them. It is easier to book the same local DJ”s over and over when the crowd cares more about socializing than the music, and that has always been there, but is it is out of balance in the cycle music rotates at. I hope soon there is a movement that will call for more quality music and but it back in the priority cause right now I can take the whole thing or leave it. TBH

                  1. And yes people who fake anything, should be called out but, this isn’t punk rock, Ravers/clubbers are pacifists for the most part, and care more about attitude and vibe than authenticity and accountability. A fact that keeps me generally at home on weekends or at a punk show doing something that I can at least enjoy being at for multiple reasons.

                    1. Wow, you guys really got going! 🙂
                      I’m with you on your opinions and arguments I’m just still not sure why exactly This video provoked those thoughts? And I’m curious. It’s a POV video, and if you “reverse” the camera angle in your imagination, you see a guy moving about frantically playing all sorts of instruments and singing…pretty far from what you describe?
                      I’ve seen both Amon Tobin, Kraftwerk, Chemical Brothers and Autechre live, and they have been great shows, because I loved the music. They did not however impress me in terms of what was done “live”. All of them great none the less though, but part of the long line of inspirational experiences that got me started on the never ending journey of developing tools in the first place…

                      OSCar you write: “In a live setting I want a certain level of freeform interaction where probability and chance play a larger role.”
                      Me too! There’s currently no way of playing a fixed set with telePort – unless you are a robot and you can perform the same way every time.
                      In the end, this video doesn’t begin to show what telePort is about, it was simple meant as a little pre-release teaser as to what it can Also do (compared to older videos). It being used as an audio looper at all is a new addition, the final bonus feature I added…

                      The “real” focus is on what I call Augmented Modular Sequencing, which I’m still trying to figure out how to describe exactly what is, since it entails being able to produce the same output in extremely many different ways, and alternately also an extreme amount of different outputs with close to nothing entered into the machine and reactive – depending on rules you set – to what you play or tweak on actual instruments.

                      In essence it’s a result of hitting my head against the wall with Logic, Cubase, Pro Tools and Ableton and wishing I could just play my piano and tweak synths and have things somehow “come together” and evolve. This resulted in 5 years of patching in MaxMSP before combining all the patches into One, which was the first prototype of telePort two years ago before the iPad was ever considered! That is, a system that above all allows you to connect a bunch of hardware (and software) together and use the advantages of the computer without actually ever touching the computer after the setup phase.
                      With the initial prototype it was really quite difficult to do though, and the iPad is really there to make the setup much much easier, and while at it, making it very possible to skip a bunch of the setup work and do your “setup” live as part of an improvisation.

                      More about that in later videos, once I figure out what to show in them! But I enjoy the discussion 🙂

Leave a Reply to OSCar Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *