Lemur Controller Feedback Please

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 11:51 am

maybe so. but if you want to get up and running quick. its not that simple. if you pay over two grand for a controller. i would want some instant gratifcation. not 'but hey the lights look cool'. if you work for a living and only have a couple of hours a night to use it. of which you messing about with the maths. not very satisfing.

it can be all the things you want it to be. however, that comes at a price. not just in euros - but time and productivity.

micah frank · Post by **micah frank** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 1:03 pm

Looking at the price of tablet PCs, you might be better off just dishing out the extra $500-700 for the lemur. From the posts on this forum, it seems that the tablets are far from ideal to use for Live (you need a pen, single touch, etc.).

For those of you looking to put away the laptop in a live performance, I have done this successfully all summer long. My laptop sits under the table while lights from my controller indicate which scene + track I'm on. Don't want to get into details now, but is is possible

Also, it might be possible to use only the lemur and put your laptop under the table. You could actually build a max patch that ghosts the functionality into Live where the lemur has its MIDI shortcomings. This is fairly easy to do and if someone wants to buy me a lemur, I can hook that up for them

FORMAT · Post by **FORMAT** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 1:28 pm

micah frank wrote: For those of you looking to put away the laptop in a live performance, I have done this successfully all summer long. My laptop sits under the table while lights from my controller indicate which scene + track I'm on. Don't want to get into details now, but is is possible
:

What controller are you using?

robtronik · Post by **robtronik** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 1:30 pm

nuperspective wrote:maybe so. but if you want to get up and running quick. its not that simple. if you pay over two grand for a controller. i would want some instant gratifcation. not 'but hey the lights look cool'. if you work for a living and only have a couple of hours a night to use it. of which you messing about with the maths. not very satisfing.

it can be all the things you want it to be. however, that comes at a price. not just in euros - but time and productivity.

not sure what you mean by this. If you download the editor you'll see that it is no more difficult to set up than a MIDI controller.

The only thing you need to be prepared to do is edit the XML file to add your MIDI configuration information (which is equivalent to setting any other MIDI controller).

I don't think it is difficult per se (per the emails describing the interaction needed), but what is missing is someone's real world usage examples that we can reflect on.

rob.

raapie · Post by **raapie** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 2:06 pm

I think it's too slow for real operations. at least this is what those videos are showing me. HUGE latency.

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 3:04 pm

i'm only going off the review in future music. it came across as very complex.

computo · Post by **computo** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 4:48 pm

Latency???

READ THE SPEC.

There is NO latency. Its OSC, thats ethernet cable.

latency....please. What do you think we're dealing with here, MIDI??!?!!

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 4:57 pm

latency in the screen controls. heres a quote from the review:

'my biggest worry was latency - the graphics seem zippy enough when theres no physical modelling going on, but did the software respond?'

by oz owen - future music - october 2005

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 4:59 pm

not to be a downer

'the rest of the controls work perfectly, including the stroking of the decks to momentarily adjust the speed.'

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 5:10 pm

That's not latency, it's smoothing AFAIK... I recall reading that the sensor resolution of this thing was significantly less than than the display resolution, so in order to avoid stepping it smoothes the input. This was a while ago, though, they might have "fixed" it.

Saying that though, I think stuff like this is not just the future for musicians but for all computer users... instead of having a standard display + mouse/keyboard, imagine having one or two of these (say, one on the table top, one vertical) that adapt to whatever you're currently doing. Well Star Trek:)

MarkH · Post by **MarkH** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 5:25 pm

There is no doubt the Lemur looks cool - but only for the person controlling it. In a DJ situation it's counter-productive because the DJ will be staring at the Lemur and not the audience. My vote goes for something like the Maven.

Regards,
MarkH

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 5:44 pm

i was suprised in the review that it was used with traktor, but that is one of the few software packages that use osc.

i think its more of a studio thing rather than live or dj thing. theres no way i would take a controller out on the road that cost two grand - no chance. to dj or play live.

FORMAT · Post by **FORMAT** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 5:57 pm

nuperspective wrote:i was suprised in the review that it was used with traktor, but that is one of the few software packages that use osc.

i think its more of a studio thing rather than live or dj thing. theres no way i would take a controller out on the road that cost two grand - no chance. to dj or play live.

Well I would. Imagine how much fun it must be to make music with that thing!
We all take our $ 2,000 laptops out with us, I would definitely do it (after having it insured)

computo · Post by **computo** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 9:55 pm

Studio thing? No. I dont think so, people ride their motifs and Tritons, A6's, computers...

The average touring band has probably at least $10,000 worth of equipment for the group.

Just guitars cost thousands. Think about violinists. They spend HUNDREDS of thousands, and their instruments arent nearly as durable as the Lemur must be.

And I think the arguement about the "DJ" looking at the Lemur is weak also, because its the crowd that is going to be looking at the Lemur as much as anyone. And it far surpasses simple DJing. This thing is gets as indepth as you want, so you are much more a conductor than DJ.

And if all a DJ does is look at the audience and pick out the next record, Im glad Im not a DJ.

FORMAT · Post by **FORMAT** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 10:24 pm

This thing is a sneak preview of the future and of how we will be using computers, I'm pretty sure.

It will become very easy and affordable to work with computers intuitively, and this is a very early example of what's to come.