iPod

Jointly designed by Ableton and Novation, the Novation Launchpad is a new $199 controller designed to “put Ableton Live at your fingertips.”

The Launchpad is purpose built for triggering and manipulating clips in Ableton Live, with a multi-colour 64-button grid and dedicated scene launch buttons. Launchpad’s buttons can be used to sketch out beats with drum racks, and they can be assigned to other functions in Live using Ableton’s ‘Learn’ mode.

Launchpad ships with a dedicated ‘Launchpad edition’ of Ableton Live 8, but can control almost any other music software using Novation’s award-winning ‘Automap’ control software.

Launchpad Features:

• Launchpad features a multi-color, 64-button grid for launching clips plus eight dedicated scene-launch buttons. The buttons are lit by LEDs displaying clip status so you can see at a glance what’s loaded (orange), what’s playing (green), and what’s being recorded (red).
• 4 modes — It’s not just about launching clips: as well as the Session Mode, Launchpad offers Mixer Mode—a unique way to control Ableton Live’s mixer—and two fully-customizable User Modes.
• In Mixer Mode, the rows and columns of the grid become virtual faders, sliders and knobs controlling track volume, pan, sends, mute, solo, Clip Stop Buttons and record arm, depending on the function selected. Use the scene launch/mixer function buttons to select the function you want to control.
• The two fully-customizable User Modes transform the grid into a drum pad controller, DJ effect controller or anything else you can think of. The default state for User Mode 1 provides drum pad control for Live’s Drum Racks — great for sketching out beats. Using Live’s simple MIDI mapping, it’s easy to create custom control environments, whatever devices you’re using and however your Live Sets are configured.
• The User Modes make Launchpad the ideal hardware counterpart for Max for Live. Launchpad is flexible enough to deal with even the most detailed Max for Live devices and can handle generic parameters and controls with ease. Eleven LED states provide visual feedback that’s precise enough for complex devices. Launchpad users will soon be able to download a Max for Live step sequencer patch from Novation and more Max for Live patches are planned for the future.
• Communication goes both ways — Live and Launchpad are in a constant, two-way, hardware-software dialog. The back-lit grid buttons show what’s happening in Live and Live, in turn, shows which section of the Session View is currently under Launchpad control: a red border around the current clip group let’s you see where you are with a just a cursory glance at your screen.
• Navigating the Session View — Obviously, you’re not limited to controlling only 64 clips. The arrow buttons move the grid up, down, left and right one track or scene at a time. Hold down the ‘Session’ button in Session Mode, and you can use the arrow keys to jump eight tracks or rows at a time—very useful for navigating around large, complex Live Sets.
• More buttons? More Launchpads — Want more buttons? Launchpads are designed to work together, with up to six units at once. That’s more than 400 assignable buttons! Launchpads running on the same system can run in different modes, so you can control the Session View, mixer and custom setups all at once, with one Launchpad for each.

We’ve got detailed specs and demo videos below. Get the full details at the Novation site.

Check it out and leave a comment with your thoughts! Read more…

Let’s get this out of the way up front: The answer is – because it was there.

This video demonstrates an iPod with TouchOSC controlling a vintage Commodore 64 synthesizer (SID Chip), with a home made C64 MIDI interface.

Hacktacular.

Littlescale, we salute you.

iPhone music apps: This is a sneak preview of The Strange Agency’s Slice, a beat-juggling app coming soon to the iPhone and iPod touch.

via TheStrangeAgency

iPhone Music Software: This is a demo video of Octavian (App Store link), a $2.99 iPhone Keyboard Calculator.

With Octavian, you can:

• Quickly find scales and chords and transpose them to any root note
• View any mode of any scale
• View chords in root position and first, second, and third inversions
• Build chords on any scale degree
• Use Scale Explore to view all scales that contain the notes of the current chord
• Use Chord Explore to identify chords built on the degrees of a scale
• Traverse the Circle of Fifths by holding down the note selector for 1.5 seconds
• View scales/chords as notes (C E G), intervals from the root (0 4 7), or intervals from the previous note (0 4 3).

NOTE Octavian is NOT a synth. It makes no sound. Bitnotic hopes to make Octavian THE music theory app for the iPhone.

justanotherguy put together this condensed version of Apple’s recent music keynote address, which featuredL

• Steve “really nice” Jobs introducing the new iTunes;
• Jeff “really easy” Rubin demonstrating iTunes 9; and
• Phil “amazingly great” Shiller showing off the latest iPods.

Is it any wonder people come away thinking that these things are smarter, better, really incredible and insanely awesome?