Launchpad mixed goodies: apps, videos, codes…
So my launchpad is not here yet. It seems it’s in store worldwide from 2 Nov, except Italy. Maybe Italy it’s not part of the world, or Novation is not from this world. By the way, I’m so excited about this device that I can’t stop my compulsive need to look around for it and its applications. So, here we go with my favourites!
Nonome, the Monome emulator
With all the protocol under the sun, it was just a matter of days. And infact Peter at Create Digital Music informs us that Piclae made ( and it’s currently updating quite often ) a cool Monome emulator for the Launchpad. It seems most apps run smootly ( the major problem seems to be 7up ), and you can choose your favourite colour too! And if you’re guessing it, yes, you can keep your Ableton modes while using it!
Download Nonome application and updates’ log, monome.org forum
Below a video of Piclae showing us a Launchpad running Flin, and Sunup, a song performed in mlr by Thomas Piper
OSC Wrapper, programming made easy
This is my favourite one! It’s a simple app by Will Crossland which translates the MIDI communication with the Launchpad into OSC. So, the 12 pages of the protocol are reduced to 2 simple messages, /press and /led! The program lets you use 8 different “layers” to address 8 applications for each Launchpad. And yes, yes… you keep your out-of-the-box Ableton modes too! The application is made in Max/MSP, but only for the communication’s buses. All the code is placed inside a Javascript file, which everyone can modify to his needs. Cool stuff, cool stuff.
Free download Wac.Launchpad handler
The nice part is that Will decided to use the approach of monome’s protocol due to its logical simplicity:
“The Monome OSC protocol is clearly well thought and well suited to addressing a 2D grid so why reinvent the wheel?”
I can’t agree more. And it would be cool to have a unified protocol for every grid controller! It seems like Monome’s users don’t like the Launchpad too much, but I think that both devices ( and think of Livid Instruments’ Block and Ohm64, too ) are simply different forms of the same concept. Monome’s succesful work is about faith in a concept that big names rejected at first. I personally don’t think a grid of back-lit buttons is any kind of invenction you can patent, and that talking about “stolen ideas” is inappropriate in this context. Concepts belong to people who are using that stuff, the wonderful community behind Monome for example. Now the family is extended, and I’ll be happy to see a common language, and people sharing their work, in the name of a common evolution. Will’s choice seems a good start in this direction!
Custom Max controller and Max4Live porting of Monome’s apps is ispiring
Surfin’ around YouTube brought me to this Max/MSP application which makes the Launchpad a custom controller! I can’t understand exactly the features, I don’t understand the language, but it seems he made pages of presets’ grids mixed with slider controllers, which makes sense in many ways, like if your using it with your favourite synthesizer or for some kind of experimental generative application!
And you know, Max4Live public beta is started and people are having fun! So check out these Max4Live ports of Polygome and StepFilter by Stretta! It will not be difficult to adapt these to the Launchpad, expecially now that we have our OSC wrapper!
via max for live blog by nick rothwell
and
So, what can I say… Maybe it’s better I come back to my wavelet’s book, waiting for the time I can press some buttons!
January 23, 2010 at 7:55 pm
[...] and midi ) playing from your live set and slices them on your monome ( or a launchpad using an emulator ) so you can trigger parts of it in the way which made MLR famous! See the discussion on [...]