If you’ve been intrigued by the Tenori On or the monome, but put off by their prices, you’ll want to check out the Novation Launchpad – which can be used like a monome controller.

The above video demos the Novation Launchpad with MLR.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This was made and sequenced in mlrV with a Novation Launchpad, through nonome.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This video captures Matt DiFonzo testing out flin with nonome version 1.12b.

Resources:

• You can find Nonome at the monome site.
• There’s a Nonome / Launchpad / Apc40 / MLR Group at Vimeo.

This video demonstrates how you can use the new Novation Launchpad like a monome.

To try this out, you’ll need a Launchpad (You can get them for $199 at Zzounds and other online retailers), a free app called nonome and a monome app.

For this demo, Mike Tron built a Windows executable that combines nonome with a monome program called mlr. Tron is offering to build an OS X version, too, if there’s interest.

A few weeks ago, I suggested that there are only two colors for serious electronic music gear: black & matte black.

A lot of Synthtopia readers weighed in, pointed out all the holes in my logic, suggested all sorts of exceptions to the rule and basically said I had gone insane.

It’s probably all true – and there’s room for those pink keyboard controllers – but at least the monome guys are on board.

They’ve introduced the monome grayscale – which features grayscale/bright white lighting. black silicone over a strong steel enclosure (wacka-chicka-wacka-chicka) and the same minimalist functionality as the original monome sixty four.

The original monome 64 is a great, influential controller. They’ve been selling as fast as they can be made.

The monome grayscale is sure to be a hit, too.

It’s going to cost $500. It’s going to have 64 buttons. It will be available starting in January – but it will probably be hard to get.

A short demonstration of the MLGI (Multi- Laser Gestural Interface) designed by Meason Wiley at California Institute of the Arts.

Strap it on a dolphin, and you’d have a lethal weapon.

The Multi- Laser Gestural Interface is an open source and modular “free-gesture” controller that uses beams of laser light along with photo resistors to create a physical, fluid musical instrument.

With the MLGI, Wiley is attempting to bring a physical interactivity to electronic music performance. By removing the performer from behind the laptop, the audience becomes aware of the performer’s interaction with the controller, which creates an instant visual connection between the sound and the performer.

The MLGI was created using Dan Overholt’s multi I/O CREATEUSB or CUI interface, which, along with the programming language ChucK, can be made to send MIDI or OSC via USB port.

For more information about this open-source + modular controller,  visit www.cyclespersecond.net.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ben Brown plays his bizarre DIY monome guitar synth thing, aka the Guitarnome:

I’m playing the guitar I made from scratch, with a monome kit embedded in it. It was a long project… but fun.

Some parts are a bit out of tune(need to do some more guitar work) and Im still figuring out the setup(running 7up live on the monome). The audios pretty crappy on this recording unfortunately as my speaker setup was a bit janky… but hey! it was fun. Ran the vid through ScreenFlow for some super quick editing and export.

I’m using Ableton Live for my audio bits and a Presonus Firepod to process my voice and guitar signal. We kinda just did this spur of the moment so I didnt get the audio from Ableton.

The Guitarnome is not a traditional guitar synth, but rather a monome/guitar mashup.

The Guitarnome has a body made from cherry, wenge, and maple, a neck with a zebra wood fret board and a birds eye maple neck.  Brown embedded a Monome within the body and custom built the encasing for all the electronics. The Guitarnome has USB & 1/4″ outputs.

Bedtime Stories is am improvisation on custom made Monome 40h running Press Cafe sending MIDI to Logic Pro 8.

via rishabhrajan

Jay from Livid demos the new $399 Livid Block MIDI control surface, working with Ableton Live 8:

The audio is from my band Sinch’s sinch.net 2006 EP Subdivisions, Bluskreen created the samples and they are available under a cc license here bluskreen.com/soundshare.php

Here’s another Ableton Live 8 + Livid Block demo video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

You don’t need any special drivers or apps to do this – the Livid Block is plug and play.

Just when you think it’s safe to buy that cool matrix sequencer MIDI controller monome thing you’ve been jonesin’ for, out pops the $399 Livid Block matrix sequencer MIDI controller monome thing.

Description:

The Livid Block is a compact programmable MIDI control surface designed for interactive audio performance. Built on the same bi-directional and adaptable platform as the Livid Ohm64, Block provides an interface for creating and interacting with sound in a small easy-to-transport body.

Sixty-four LED buttons provide visual feedback with the instrument by connecting it to Ableton Live, Max/MSP,  pen source sounds apps, or any other software that supports MIDI.

The open source blockEditor application lets you reprogram any of the controller’s sixty-four clip buttons, eight knobs, two faders, and seven function buttons. Block is hand crafted from lightweight wood and aluminum for easy portability.

Block has bi-directional talkback communication allowing the controller to talk to your software, and software to your device. MIDI messages can be sent to the Block to light up the buttons for an interactive performance. Completely programmable and mappable, Block provides a flexible control surface that be used with any software or setup. Completely USB powered means you don’t have to worry about adapters and and power strips, and it is plug and play so no drivers are required.

The Livid Block is expected to be available starting Nov 1st for $399.

More details and photos below!

Features:

• Portability – A compact and lightweight design lets you slip this controller into your backpack. Plug it into your computer’s USB, and you are powered to play.
• Design – Block is completely plug and play and USB powered. This means you don’t need drivers to use it and it works with a single USB cable.
• TalkBack – Reprogrammable buttons with LED talkback provides visual feedback by sending MIDI commands back to the controller.
• Software – A growing collection of open source sound applications and utilities provide a wide range of uses and endless customization.
• Home Grown – Handcrafted by artists in Austin, Texas.

Specs:

• 10.25″ x 10.25″ x 1.5″ (WLH) / weight 3 lbs. (26 cm x 26 cm x 3.8 cm, 1.36 kg)
• USB Powered
• Bi-Directional MIDI communication (talkback)
• Class-compliant: no drivers needed for Mac, Windows, or Linux.
• 64 Programmable backlight buttons for talk-back and interactive performance
• Programmable MIDI mapping allows you to change the MIDI settings on the hardware
• Anodized Aluminum Faceplate
• Open Source software tools to create your own LED talkback interaction
• Editor included for MIDI editing, and LED talkback programming
• Made in the USA
• Compatible with any software that supports MIDI learn
• ROHS compliant
• USB cable included

Matthew Davidson has released this video recently of feignroom:

The recent Imogen Heap on David Letterman video got me thinking about performing an a capella piece in conjunction with a monome. The goal was to use just the monome and a microphone. No other gear or touching a computer is allowed. Also, no sequencers running backing tracks. This is somewhat of a challenge.

I’m using a combination of diatonic harmonizing, phrase building, live vocals, sampled phrase triggering (vocals I recorded for this performance) and sort of layer this whole thing in real time through the monome.

Now you can download feignroom now from Davidson’s blog, The Stretta Procecure.

Ableton Live 8: This is a sneak preview of a new monome app, 7Up Live:

Little teaser of new Melodizer features in SevenUpLive that are currently in development. All I can say is it is very addictive and amazing. You can rip through chords and scales and turn them inside out in a fluid way. The kind of thing you might have spent years learning to do in music theory are at your finger tips. Just the thing to inspire creativity.

7up Live is a Java application that combines 8 different monome applications into one interface.  With it, your monome communicates with Ableton Live 7 via MIDI and allows MLR-like functionality along with other goodies like sliders, sequencing melodies, creating patterns of beats, saving/loading/queueing your songs, and more.

Because it was there: Robert Böhnke’s Monome Tweet Reader is a simple application to display Twitter updates on your monome.

It’s written in Java and should work on most platforms.

The new Livid Ohm64 can be used with the large selection of free applications for the monome:

here is my first test with the mon+ohm max patch, works as a standalone. I am running 64step, available from the monone site here. To run monome apps all you have to do is open mon+ohm, then the app. Some of the apps don’t require this as they send midi. Lots of fun

monome radically increases the options for the Ohm64, making an already sexy controller that much more interesting.

This video captures Edison performing live at Love Tech, using:

• monome lunchbox
• the lovebox
• WTPA sampler
• nintendo ds (running proteinds)

via Matthew Davidson

This is a short demo of the Xylobot, a robotic xylophone created for Berlin Music Hackday, held on September 18-20 at Radialsystem V.

A custom Java app receives MIDI data from the step sequencer and controls the Arduino over a serial connection. The board then triggers the servos to hit on the xylophone.

The whole construction was built in under 24 hours and is mostly made of hot glue and wood.

Xylobot was created by Ramsey Arnaoot & Robert Böhnke.

Sunday Synth Jam: This gorgeous a capella monome jam comes via Matthew Davidson:

I haven’t released anything a capella in over a decade. Solo multitrack a capella is one of those things you can’t perform live, which is one reason why I believe recorded music and live music are separate art forms. However, the idea of performing a polyphonic a capella piece live is still an interesting challenge. Of course, one can use delays or looper hardware, but I’ve often found the results lacking interesting compositional structure.

The recent Imogen Heap on David Letterman video got me thinking about performing an a capella piece in conjunction with a monome. The goal was to use just the monome and a microphone. No other gear or touching a computer is allowed. Also, no sequencers running backing tracks. This is somewhat of a challenge.

I recorded this as a two camera shoot – a Canon 5DmkII with a lens baby pointed at my head… well… the mic, and another video camera pointed at the monome so you can see what my hands are doing.

Davidson is always doing interesting work that’s experimental, but also sensually inviting – so make sure you check out his Vimeo page and his blog, Stretta.

Imogen Heap rocks the monome, looper, laptop and piano in a very tasty solo arrangement of First Train Home on David Letterman.

Update: via Matthew Davidson:

I was able to pull up a video on youtube, and see what I believed to be the characteristic blinking of polygome 64 (Davidson’s app) on a quadrant of the 256. This really made my day.

via LateNight2015

This is a demo video of 64 (Video) Fingers, a free monome audio and video sequencer, inspired by Kutiman’s Thru-You videos.

The Stealth Project uses NOVA (a 3D grid of LEDs) to display a 3 dimensional dynamic light-based visualisation. It also features 2 Monome 64 interfaces.

Planes, missiles and other hardware that deflect or otherwise avoid radar detection were key in the race for world supremacy. Detection avoidance, or stealth technology, was one of many ‘developments’ to emerge from the Cold War.

In the Stealth project, two grids of triggers target and launch missiles across an abstracted 3D space at each other, attempting to avoid radar detection and annihilate the opposition.

However, in contrast to the Mutually Assured Destruction madness of the arms race, the piece acts as a collaborative spatial musical instrument – each ‘missile’ emits sounds based on its relative position and the conditions it encounters along its trajectory.

The Stealth Project developed from research into the creative possibilities of volumetric, or 3D, visualisation techniques. Recent Squidsoup experiments using a Baby NOVA (the physical centrepiece of this project) suggested that this kind of three-dimensional light grid has considerable potential for abstract gaming applications.

The piece is a collaboration with ETH Zurich and horao GmbH, and features their NOVA 3D LED grid.

Sunday Synth Jam: This is a twin monome synth jam, featuring the usual “tilting/smacking/mashing”.

Software used includes:

• smack-a-duck: vimeo.com/4739761
• mlr_aes_mdb: princeton.edu/~rweiteka/mlr_raw_0.2.zip
• midi_bends: princeton.edu/~rweiteka/midi_bends_0.3G_RAW.zip
• midi_bends midi remote script: princeton.edu/~rweiteka/MIDI_Bends_LiveRemote.zip
• nanokontrol midi remote script: createdigitalmusic.com/media/files/korg/korgnano_live.zip
• Ableton Live

Details on the setup are available here.

Richard Devine, playing around with the Monome triggering Native Instruments Battery.