McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

[fiveplustwo]

I know this has been touched upon, but watching that video just hammered home how I'll never be able to buy one of these things as long as the colors scheme is so fugly. It's too bad because the functionality really seems amazing.

Here's hoping there's some improvements to the looks as I'd like to pick one up. Otherwise, here's a good product tagline: QuNeo - world's first rasta controller.

Riiiight, because no controller anywhere, anywhere at all... has ever used the same color scheme.

EVERYTHING in this demo can be done with 1 Launchpad (except maybe for the Rotary Sensor which did something really awkward and unmusical in this demo).
I mean, its just some clips with follow actions and some midi mapping for a few effects right now - nothing what stands out or can't be done by any other midi controller.
Don't get me wrong - I really love the concept of the QuNeo but I hate to see a demo that doesn't smack all these supposedly amazing QuNeo functions and touch stuff in your face.

EVERYTHING can be done with just a mouse and keyboard as well. Do you complain about everybody using any controller too? You should. Personally, I think the least tasteful demos (for any product) are the ones that try to cram every freaking thing the thing can do into one 60 second clip. It's not how people normally work and it always seems to come at the expense of musical quality.

[bigbadotis]

bigbadotis wrote:
I know this has been touched upon, but watching that video just hammered home how I'll never be able to buy one of these things as long as the colors scheme is so fugly. It's too bad because the functionality really seems amazing.

Here's hoping there's some improvements to the looks as I'd like to pick one up. Otherwise, here's a good product tagline: QuNeo - world's first rasta controller.

Riiiight, because no controller anywhere, anywhere at all... has ever used the same color scheme.

Touché. Do you really think it looks nice, or do you just disagree with the designation first rasta controller?

[Sarrova-Q]

[
EVERYTHING can be done with just a mouse and keyboard as well. Do you complain about everybody using any controller too? You should. Personally, I think the least tasteful demos (for any product) are the ones that try to cram every freaking thing the thing can do into one 60 second clip. It's not how people normally work and it always seems to come at the expense of musical quality.

Ehm yeah but I'm afraid you don't get my point.
Seeing that last demo, I was thinking "Why on earth should I want this, I can do everything in this demo with a simple Launchpad" instead of "Whoa that controller looks amazing and will add a lot of functionality NEXT to my Launchpad" I would like to see what makes the QuNeo special, what makes it stand out from other controllers and why it's a handy tool with unique control options that you can actually use if you produce or perform.

[fiveplustwo]

@bigbadotis
Mainly just the designation as the first is being contested. I'd personally like all color LEDs so you can have it be whatever color you want, but those tend to take up more power and they've already stated on their Kickstarter that it's already pushing the USB power limits (which also put blue or white LEDs out of the realm of possibility). I don't mind the colors so much, though. They seem to really be going after the Ableton crowd, which has a history of green means go, yellow means solo, and red means record/stop (and controllers designed accordingly).

I would like to see single color QuNeos, but who knows if that will ever happen?

@Sarrova-Q
Yeah, I understand. I'm just not worried about it. They've been rolling out new videos pretty regularly, and they're obviously still developing the product, so I have a feeling that some even more interesting demos will be appearing in the near future. I mean, these things aren't even going out until sometime in March.

[regretfullySaid]

I think it's more about what YOU could or couldn't be able to do with it at this point. If you don't have an idea from the specs or can't see it from demos then I think the limit is more on you.

I can't even see that Launchpad vs QuNeo as a valid argument. It is like saying I can do the same thing with a keyboard and mouse that I can do on a launchpad...well yeah, but not in the same ways/ Launchpad isn't even velocity sensitive, c'mon.

Imagine being able to control the sample starts and loop times in Simpler or Sampler by using the rotary controls for example (if the Sampler allows it).

Most pads on controllers may have velocity, but less of a chance of also having aftertouch.

having 4 or 5 cc's on one pad on top of that...there's a lot of mapping to be had. You could also make your own control surface using Clyphx X-controls.

The rest is up to you, if you can't come up with something, that's not the products fault.

I'd imagine you can control the LED colors; it may just be a matter of how dirty you'd have to get your hands as far as hackability.

With one pad for example you can trigger the sample, control it's volume, it's cutoff, it's loop point and it's delay or reverb simulatenously. Sure you could do that in the Launchpad, but you see what I mean.

That came off sounding harsh and I didn't mean it personally.

[fiveplustwo]

Well played.

[Warrior Bob]

Man, I don't care what the colors are anymore. I am going to get one and I am going to perform with it and the whole thing is going to look awesome.

[Matt_Quinn]

So what exactly is going on with the step sequencer looking blocks? I thought it might just be a visualization of the metronome at first, but then you started grabbing squares & re-triggering them. Are those clips?

[MattKMI]

Hi,
Let me explain that demo and some other stuff!
First off, I'm really glad that everyone is excited and talking about QuNeo!

On to the live set:
Pads: Pads are triggering steps in various loops at a 16th note quantization. For example, Pad 1 triggers the kick in the drum loop and Pad 2 triggers the Snare. The LEDs are controlled with follow action midi clips sending out 1 note per pad. C2 triggers the red LEDs on Pad 1 and C#2 triggers the red LEDs on Pad 2. Transport controls control play and stop and flash on the clock/metronome to distinguish down beat and various beat divisions.

The long slider is mapped to the crossfader, which distinguishes between two "decks" of loops.

Horizontal sliders are mapped to FX, both globally and per the 4 send tracks I have the decks routed to.

Rotaties are mapped to a max for live device we made which is a sort of granular scratch sampler. Each rotary sends to one send track with FX on it.

Vertical sliders are volume control on the four sends. Tapping the vertical slider mutes/un-mutes it's send track. LED control per slider is dictated by a CC per slider. 0-127 is mapped to LEDs (bottom to top) which dictates which LED is lit. Audio is converted to MIDI using these free VSTs (http://www.thepiz.org/pizmidi/).

This is just one way to use QuNeo! It sounds complicated, but it's not really. I've been really excited about how playable this thing is-- even as a prototype!

As far as Launchpad vs QuNeo functionality, today I'm shooting a demo featuring Pressure and X/Y. We feel that showing each level of control in an easy and usable way is really fun and exciting... We hope people are compelled to use QuNeo with other controllers as well as on it's own! These are the first demos we've made with QuNeo, we're getting more and more in depth every day... I hope the next few videos are convincing statements on the awesomeness of the QuNeo!

As always, let me know if you've got questions!
~Matt @ KMI

[Matt_Quinn]

Awesome, thanks for the info! Seriously can not wait to get my hands on this thing.

[Sarrova-Q]

Thanks for the reply MattKMI !

I'm looking forward to see the new demo's and all of the special functions.
I did not meant to start a LP vs QuNeo battle here (although I had to see it coming by just mentioning the LP ), I was just commenting on the fact that QuNeo has a lot more really unique functions that weren't doing anything in that demo.
@Shadw312: I have no problem visualizing what I would be able to do with it (I have more than enough experiences with other controllers) I just thought this demo didn't do justice to a product which can do so much more. I mean, if I need to be able to know what products do by looking at the specs only, then what's the point making a demo vid at all? I expect a demo vid to show off all the bells and whistles in a pleasant and informative way so you immediately know what's it all about. No hard feelings

[simmerdown]

many short demos = good idea imo

7 minutes of that and you'de lose the (ehem) short-attention-span theatregoers

launchpad has no velocity?...crossing that off my 'possible' list.....

[regretfullySaid]

@Shadw312: I have no problem visualizing what I would be able to do with it (I have more than enough experiences with other controllers) I just thought this demo didn't do justice to a product which can do so much more. I mean, if I need to be able to know what products do by looking at the specs only, then what's the point making a demo vid at all? I expect a demo vid to show off all the bells and whistles in a pleasant and informative way so you immediately know what's it all about. No hard feelings

Yeah that's cool, I know what you mean. It looks like they're just starting to get some hands-on experience with their baby, let alone being able to show all the possibilities. The best video demos will be the users once they show what they're doing with them, or at least from a marketing perspective, I think. It's going to be a long wait for March:p

I'm trying to fight getting one since I don't need it (in the sense that I'm not in performance "season" yet but production mode, so it may not get as much use until), but the rest of the excuses are pretty much winning. Apart from the point about color-blindness, there's too much concern with the colors imo.

[piZMo]

Fischer Price. IMO.

[MattKMI]

new performance video:

http://youtu.be/aI-Sz1tFqPQ

-Matt @ KMI