McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
pucklermuskau
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Re: McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

Post by pucklermuskau » Wed Aug 29, 2012 4:59 pm

received mine in the mail last night. Good fun so far. The pad response on the drumpads is really nice and sensitive, easy to achieve the range of velocity. The xy obviously has some smoothing on it, i look forward to getting access to the raw sensor data. Two finger press on the slider is a little finicky, but nice response and feel overall. Pleasing.
i drop on the lokeymassive

scientist
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Re: McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

Post by scientist » Wed Aug 29, 2012 5:10 pm

got mine a couple days ago: DOA. my guess is it's the usb cable, as i have to push down on the top of the jack to get it to recognize. still waiting on a response from support, but after months and months of talk about stringent quality control, to finally end up with a DOA unit is pretty disappointing.

bartend7
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Re: McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

Post by bartend7 » Wed Aug 29, 2012 6:22 pm

scientist wrote:got mine a couple days ago: DOA. my guess is it's the usb cable, as i have to push down on the top of the jack to get it to recognize. still waiting on a response from support, but after months and months of talk about stringent quality control, to finally end up with a DOA unit is pretty disappointing.
that sucks. i wanted to let you know when i had a problem with my softstep, it was replaced immediately. they actually have stellar customer service. unless things have changed you should be well taken care of.

MattKMI
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Re: McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

Post by MattKMI » Wed Aug 29, 2012 6:38 pm

Hi,
QuNeo is very much shipping. We're working hard to make sure that they get out as quickly as possible!

That being said, it's unacceptable for a unit to arrive DOA. @scientist, Have you e-mailed support@keithmcmillen.com, yet? If not, feel free to e-mail me directly (matt@keithmcmillen.com) and I'll handle the return personally. We can make sure to get you a new unit ASAP. All of the units are tested before they leave the factory and again at our home office in Berkeley-- It's upsetting that your unit seems to be malfunctioning.

Please do send me any and all feedback about QuNeo...

Thanks,
Matt Hettich
Product Specialist/Artist Relations
Keith McMillen Instruments
Matt@keithmcmillen.com

scientist
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Re: McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

Post by scientist » Wed Aug 29, 2012 7:13 pm

thanks matt, i opened a support ticket yesterday, but i'll email you directly as well. thanks for the response!

MattKMI
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Re: McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

Post by MattKMI » Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:33 pm

Hey Everyone,
Just want to clarify. QuNeo uses a Micro-USB cable. Micro-USB is actually more durable than Mini, and we actually had to use micro to keep QuNeo so thin!
I just wanted to clarify the type of cable type, as we had a couple of people asking us. Most new smart phones use micro USB cables, so you may already have a few around!

If you want to buy a backup or two, I saw them on sale at Walgreens for about $5. They also are often found in the cellphone section of many stores.

Also, if anyone has cable issues, contact us and we will replace the cable for you.
~M
Product Specialist @ KMI
www.keithmcmillen.com
matt@keithmcmillen.com

-----ALSO:
Wake @ Proximal Records.
http://proximalrecords.com/

Matt_Quinn
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Re: McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

Post by Matt_Quinn » Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:19 pm

Put in some more time with it last night, but not sure this thing is going to be right for me. I feel like it's the opposite of intuitive. Granted I've only had it a couple days, but I feel like the sliders & rotaries aren't exact enough to avoid grabbing the mouse & making corrections, especially if you're trying to reset pans to the center position. The pads are nice, but I was thinking last night even they lack compared to my MPD in the sense that they won't automatically map to the higher levels of a drum rack if you scroll through it. You have to move to a different QuNeo preset, which is annoying.

I think the Ableton Live presets are not very well thought out or arranged, or maybe they just aren't working right for me. When I load a set with clips, the QuNeo doesn't show the clips in their clip slots until you launch them. Trying to remember which corner of which pad activates record/solo/mute vs launching clips, or where the scene launch buttons are is no picnic either. And the documentation is weird. They reference a 3rd 'mode' (M3? M1 is clip launching, M2 is step sequencing, and M3 is 'note mode') - but when I hold shift, it looks like there's only 2 'mode' options, M & M2. You can use Presets 1-4 to get the notes, but when you do that, you control of the volume via the sliders, etc.

And now that I have it in hand, I find it even weirder that 'drum rack' mode has the 16 pads split up between Impulse/Drum rack control. I'm sorry but I have no idea how this would be a useful feature. If there are multiple modes available, I don't understand why you couldn't use one mode for drm racks & one mode for Impulse. Makes no sense to me at all.

I'm coming from an APC40 workflow - which to be sure, has it's own issues. But navigating the APC is a cakewalk compared to this thing IMO.

I *do* like the pads for drumming, and it's a smaller footprint than my MPD18, so I might keep it for those uses, but definitely not quite what I was hoping for out of the deal. Hopefully someone builds a better Live control template & shares it with the community.
the_planet wrote:Trap music is not supported in the current version.

chrissobo13
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Re: McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

Post by chrissobo13 » Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:28 pm

Saw a quick review in Future Music, and I was definitely intrigued. Thought it would be WAY more expensive though! Definitely going to get one.

MattKMI
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Re: McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

Post by MattKMI » Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:48 pm

Hi!

@Matt_Quinn, if you wouldn't mind e-mailing me your comments about QuNeo, I'd love to pass your feedback on to the team... We're going to be actively working on making the QuNeo more intuitive and expressive and I'm sure your initial experience could help!

Also, we're already working on a simplified live script for QuNeo, so that people can get used to the workflow... Should help get eveyone used to QuNeo, or allow for choices as far as integration goes!

Please send me your feedback.

Thanks,
Matt
Product Specialist @ KMI
matt@keithmcmillen.com
Product Specialist @ KMI
www.keithmcmillen.com
matt@keithmcmillen.com

-----ALSO:
Wake @ Proximal Records.
http://proximalrecords.com/

pucklermuskau
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Re: McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

Post by pucklermuskau » Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:49 pm

i think people just need to embrace what is so impressive about the quneo: it's open nature. It doesn't make any sense to me to buy something as expressive as this, and then just use some default template. Build your own template! That's the way forward. All issues regarding sensitivity and function are addressable, if you tune the instrument to your fancy.
i drop on the lokeymassive

Matt_Quinn
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Re: McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

Post by Matt_Quinn » Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:00 pm

Thanks Matt, I surely will, I just want to type them up into a slightly more articulate form, as well as put in a few more days with it so I can decide what I really like/don't like about it's current state. And I really appreciate all the work KMI has put in both on the device itself, the responsiveness to customer inquiries, both have been top notch IMO, I'm sure half of my grumblings are just due to not being used to the layout/workflow yet.
the_planet wrote:Trap music is not supported in the current version.

Warrior Bob
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Re: McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

Post by Warrior Bob » Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:59 pm

MattKMI wrote:Please do send me any and all feedback about QuNeo...
Is there any kind of feedback you're particularly interested in? You guys have been super cool every step of the way and I'd love to help out where I can. I mean, I can gush about how neat I think it is (I tried your demo unit and mine should be arriving in a few days) but I'm curious what things will be most helpful to hear about.

MattKMI
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Re: McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

Post by MattKMI » Thu Aug 30, 2012 9:24 pm

Hey,
Anything you think would be helpful! We obviously can't change the units now that they're in production, but we can add features with firmware, make things easier to understand, and generally address issues.

QuNeo is a new instrument, and playing it will be a little bit different than the standard midi controller. We want to make the transition as seamless and exciting as possible!

We've done a lot of work on the feel and built of the units! I have a feeling that everyone will be impressed with the durability and quality of QuNeo-- especially at the price point! We're really not cutting any corners with this device & we're proud of it! We want to make sure the user is just as excited as we are!

It's been a long road, but I'm grateful that we're getting them out to everyone. I'm excited to hear what everyone thinks! We'd love positive and negative feedback! While we love knowing what we can improve, it's also nice to hear what we've done right! All of us are wholly committed to this project, have made it an incredibly important part of our lives, and would basically love to know what we're doing right and what we can improve!!!

Thanks!
Matt
Product Specialist @ KMI
www.keithmcmillen.com
matt@keithmcmillen.com

-----ALSO:
Wake @ Proximal Records.
http://proximalrecords.com/

scientist
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Re: McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

Post by scientist » Sun Sep 02, 2012 11:07 pm

wanted to drop a quick post to say thanks to matt and kmi for the quick response on the above mentioned quneo issue. matt sent a replacement cable and that was indeed the problem.

Warrior Bob
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Re: McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

Post by Warrior Bob » Tue Sep 04, 2012 5:47 pm

Matt_Quinn wrote:Put in some more time with it last night, but not sure this thing is going to be right for me. I feel like it's the opposite of intuitive. Granted I've only had it a couple days, but I feel like the sliders & rotaries aren't exact enough to avoid grabbing the mouse & making corrections, especially if you're trying to reset pans to the center position. The pads are nice, but I was thinking last night even they lack compared to my MPD in the sense that they won't automatically map to the higher levels of a drum rack if you scroll through it. You have to move to a different QuNeo preset, which is annoying.
For what it's worth, yesterday I was able to whip up a quick User Remote Script to resolve this problem, and I now have QuNeo pads that move to match what's visible in a Drum Rack as you scroll. I also mapped the 8 sliders to Macro Knobs on racks, for fun.

I was hoping to use this script to replace QuNeo's Preset 10 for Live, but it turns out that I can't map some of the cleverer functions like overdub or transport because Ableton User Remote scripts rely on CC messages for these (or flat out don't implement them), while the QuNeo only sends note data for the initial pressing of a sensor. Using the pressure CC is awkward and results in duplicate messages that don't make sense for such uses. I could get around this with transformation software, but that's bulky and annoying and I think I need to go learn Python and do this right.

In the meantime I'm just using my remote script for drumpads/Macros, and am using Live's MIDI mapping interface for the rest of the controls, which is pretty straightforward thanks to QuNeo's CoMA mode. I don't know if this would work for you but it's working for me.

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