A powerful step into (hacking) openess. As Novation promised it, they published a 12 pages well detailed pdf describing how to update and communicate with and from the launchpad. Led’s states, notes’ arrangment, grid’s update system, midi/decimal/hexadecimal values for every CC and Note. Everything you need to write and hack applications for the Launchpad. Without Live, if you want. Must we expect a monome 40h/64 emulator soon?
Download the pdf for free here:
Finally me and my colleagues found the time to put online the whole thing! You can get the Max/MSP patch, a copy of the GPL license and, if you want, also a copy of the documentation ( Italian only.. ). The software is no more on development, so don’t expect updates or support. However I’ll be happy to know about your experience with it, so feel free to write a comment about it. Have fun!
It happened. A simple array of 64 button ( like the Monome 64 or 40h ), supporting three different colours ( amber, red and green ), fully compatible with Ableton Live and cheap. It has additional buttons too, to switch presets and go around on your Live’s project, and a full compatibility with the nice Automap.
All the communications from and to the Launchpad are simple MIDI messages ( like the apc40 ), which means you can use custom patches and mapping using the two User modes and Automap of course. In addition to that it has standard modes for Live, like Session View, a nice “panorama” view of your session view ( it can be really useful in large sets! ), Mixer and sends Views with pseudofaders functions. It sends MIDI notes by default on User 1, so you can use it to play your drum racks to.
The situation will be cooler with the upcoming Max For Live. Is it also possible to “extend” the grid on multiple launch pads.
It’ll be available worldwide on 1st November at an expected price of $199/€149 (VAT excluded).
Monome understood it. A grid of buttons opens endless creative possibilities for a laptop performer. Ableton Live’s Session View itself is organized around blocks, wich makes a great way to improvise with your musical ideas.
But monomes aren’t for everyone. They’re quite expensive, difficult to buy due to availability, and building yourself a clone might be tricky ( kits and arduinomes ). It uses OSC after all and has an open approach.
But Launchpad is ready to go, full of out of the box functionality, it has multiple colors and it’s customizable enough for almost everyone.
It’s cheap and it’s functional. Novation really got it.
This is an old project I made for university with some colleagues. It’s made in Max/MSP and it uses a simple generative algorithm to drive notes to 5 sound generators using FM synthesis. It can become addictive!
UPDATE: now available for free download! Try it here!
via Hack a Day: Parts: 4×4 RGB button pad controller SPI – Hack a Day.
Since I found it, I was really interested in the modular Monome RGB clone that SparkFun is selling for a ridiculous price.
However I was really disappointed about the lack of proper documentation and examples.
But guys at Hack A Day tested it, using their development board Bus Pirate universal serial interface
Must be noted that thank to this test SparkFun published a better datasheet.
A minimalist controller wich show you a loop and let you jam with it. It’s not the new Akai toy, but a prototype built by Luca De Rosso as a thesis project for his masters’ degree in Visual and Multimedia Communications at IUAV University of Venice.
It works in a very simple way. You plug it to your laptop, open the Max/MSP software, drag’n'drop a loop from your library: suddenly you’ll see the peak of your loop displayed by leds under the big buttons. You can now trigger the parts by hitting the buttons ( a led will show the reading position ), sample and hold them with buttons, change volume with faders and reverse the reading direction. That’s all. Have a look:
Amazing!
Must be noted how cool is to have a loop actually displayed as a REAL loop, a circle. This choice absolutely makes sense and it’s so obvious that an akai style grid of buttons seems useless compared to this.
The hardware is driven by an Arduino board wich makes the project even more Italian.
No sales informations, unfortunately! I hope this one will hit the market soon…
NeZoomie says hello!
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