Sasha's Maven is based on the Open Source MidiBox project!

siddhu · Post by **siddhu** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:25 pm

Apparently "pioneer" Sasha's much hyped Maven controller is based around the open source MidiBox platform!

Here's a quote from the guy who advised the builder:

I got an email many moons ago from a guy "building a controller for sasha", and continued contact via email to sell him some boards and kits, and to help them through some technical issues during the build.

My thinking was this would be a great thing to have some world famous people using the MIDIbox, so I helped and treated them with the same attitude I have with any customer......

Now that it's done and has it's own press release(s), I find no mention of MIDIbox or TK, and I have a problem with that while I watch sasha take full credit in the interviews for the controller.

I know who's work it is, now you know who's work it is, now help me let everyone drooling over or bashing sasha's "maven" box know. Surely this is just an oversight, so let's correct it! ?

I have three goals here:

1) The ableton community should know that "maven" is a MIDIbox....Anyone a local there?

2) To let the whole industry know that "maven" is built on an open-source design, so that the manufacturers contemplating the new sasha controller lineup for guitar center will know that it's a DIY freebie for anyone who wants it, and commercial production is prohibited.

3) To help sasha and his builders better comply with the license by releasing a ready to go "maven" app. and docs (you know, the whole sharing your improvements with the community thing, good thing we can help them with that!)

The entire thread can be found here:

http://69.56.171.55/~midibox/forum/inde ... pic=4260.0

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:45 pm

Thats it. It's $a$ha from now on......

$a$ha · Post by **$a$ha** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:56 pm

ooooh.... leave me alone

dCross · Post by **dCross** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 9:05 pm

interesting - some very intelligent posts in that thread. The guy who wrote that post above managed to separate the PR hype from the person himself - easy way to deflate a flame war.

I don't think Midibox has a leg to stand on, though - if a DJ-friendly MIDI controller gets released by a big manufacturer, they'll simply use circuitry in their existing line of MIDI controllers.

Midibox has control over midibox circuitry, nothing more - design/layout of a piece of gear is hard to protect (Behringer has proven this point many times over).

supster · Post by **supster** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 9:19 pm

he didnt actually build it, he knew what he wanted and had some people do that for him. probably worked with them in design, but left the engineering to whoever he had doing it for him

people that build projects like this know where to get the job most efficiently. so they chose an open source platform that had the foundations for what they wanted to do. makes sense to me ...

not being so into or having the time to get into the details of how they did it, s. either a) does not know and or b) does not care.

and why should he? he hired someone to do it. they did it. using open source which is what open source is FOR. so they havent come out and spilled thier guts in interview about all the tech details of what they did.

again: why should they?

because the guy is famous suddenly everything he does or doesnt say is a big fucking deal

here come the whiners

(why do i get into these conversations. why)

computo · Post by **computo** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 9:28 pm

>> (why do i get into these conversations. why)

I have to say it, maybe because you want to re-gurge an OSC project as your own sometime down the line? Hope not, but at least we can all see Sasha for who he is. Like BT, you will never henceforth know what is Sasha and what is "his team."

Im wondering does Squarepusher have a "team"? does anyone know?

well, at least when he has cpu problems on stage, he doesnt have an employee fix it for him...not that I've seen anyway.

-Computo

computo · Post by **computo** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 9:37 pm

http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/03/ ... oller.html
Have you people seen this thing??

This is the ugliest, biggest, most unportable controller I have ever seen... Next to the Radio Baton!

But really, whos gonna buy this thing? You know they're gonna charge a buttload, and for a machine that looks about 20 times the weight of a laptop. Oh, you're gonna have your roadies move it for you? ok.

-Computo

supster · Post by **supster** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 9:45 pm

waaa

(hahaha sorry cant resist)

.

computo · Post by **computo** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 9:51 pm

so you're gonna buy that monstrosity?

or was a tad to rough on Sasha?

supster · Post by **supster** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 10:14 pm

i might. saw it, "got it" basically, works great, why not. its about 100x more of a quality instrument than anything on the market right now for Live. period.

but again (trying from another angle, futiley no doubt):

one must be careful when designing a product for potential sale on the marketplace, to not divulge how you did it or the details of how it works ..

.. *before* its available for sale. why? because every body will jump out of the woodworks to steal your idea and beat you to it.

also: as far as i know, most open source agreements allow for commercial sale of products derived from that source. been a while since i dealt with the issue, surely others here know better that i do, but basically theres nothing stopping you with gnu etc. right? or no

so: why the *fuck* would anyone go out of thier way - out of the goodness of thier heart - to tell the world how they did it, before they release a product potentially worth millions? including where they got the foundations for it, what code they used, what protocols WHATEVER.

they wont. after the fact, if this story is tru, i have no doubt they will. because thats the way professional business works

people need to think. and not go out of thier way to cut down people that are well known, because they are jaded or jealous or "too underground" or too elitist or too whiney. or whatever ...

siddhu · Post by **siddhu** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 10:16 pm

Hawtins + Monolake made it perfectly clear as to how they put their controllers together and where the parts were from.

dCross · Post by **dCross** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 10:39 pm

computo wrote:at least we can all see Sasha for who he is. Like BT, you will never henceforth know what is Sasha and what is "his team."

The worst thing about Sasha that can be garnered from the original Midibox post is that he outsources his technical work. That isn't the worst thing in the world, especially for someone who isn't very technically inclined in the first place.

siddhu wrote:Hawtins + Monolake made it perfectly clear as to how they put their controllers together and where the parts were from.

Again, technical inclination. Hawtin is well known for being an ambassador for new technology in DJing, and takes on that role. Monolake helped make Live, for gods sakes.

All three of these people are lumped into the electronic music world, but are very different from each other.

kennerb · Post by **kennerb** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 11:09 pm

Judging by Sasha's shirt in one of those shots I'd say he's got a good sense of humor about people's wish of ill will towards him. I hope I'd be as graceful.

Harris.Andrew · Post by **Harris.Andrew** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 12:00 am

All i can say, is, why use a fugglin laptop with this setup when you could probably just put an apple xserve in there.

I'm serious.

Diskclaimer · Post by **Diskclaimer** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 12:36 am

computo wrote:
Im wondering does Squarepusher have a "team"? does anyone know?

-Computo

Tom flys solo.....I refer to him as "the MIGHTY SQUAREPUSHER"