Monome.org has posted a video of a new MIDI controller, the Monome, in action:

The controller is an 8?—8 matrix of on/off illuminated switches. The lights and the switches operate independently, so the buttons can light up when you activate them or they can do things like follow the pulse of a sequence.

It?€™s tiny (6.75 by 6.75 by 1.125), USB bus powered, and has 64 hypnotic, blinky lights.

The Monome wasn’t intended for any specific program or purpose, but it’s easy to see that it might interest people working with Live and similar applications. It’s intended to be a tool that you can use in any way you like, some assembly required:

mapd is the routing application. it translates button presses to
midi/osc, and receives midi/osc (from other applications or computers)
to change lights on the hardware. single or groups of buttons can be
configured for different functionality, such as a toggle, hold and
release, ramp, radio group, or virtual slider.

for example, we could use a radio group of 4 buttons for chords.
each button has midi notes assigned to it. when pressed, these notes
are sent out to the specified device. when another button in the group
is pressed, a different set of notes are sent, while at the same time
the previous button?€™s notes are turned off. the lights follow the
currently selected button in the group, providing an instant visual cue.

here we use notes only as an example. the control associated with a
button can range widely. midi cc and osc provide incredible flexibility.

The 40h (8?—8 matrix) will cost $500. A limited run of 200 is planned. A 16?—16 switch version is planned for the future, but no pricing has been determined.

A collection of non-commercial experimental applications will be included with the controller, written by a variety of different artists.

More information is available at the Monome site.