so whos got the monome 40h??????

Contra · Post by **Contra** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 9:03 am

i sure as hell dont, too poor, maybe yall can buy me one.

seriously tho that shit looks crazy as hell it looks like you can affect the sound too by turnin it side to side like the ps3 controller. or back in the day playin 8 bit nintendo.

mechcon · Post by **mechcon** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 12:14 pm

once i actually purchase my axiom 25, and remote sl0, i'll see if i'll need a monome.

they look nice, oh and for those that wanna know where to go to view it;

http://monome.org/

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 1:09 pm

- and no, it doesn't have a tilt sensor...!

itook4lefts · Post by **itook4lefts** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:37 pm

hi,

i got one really recently, so i haven't done much of my own prgramming with it yet, but i'm trying to build some pd patches to interface with Live (the thing about buying a 40h is that there's never going to be any money left over for a max/msp lisence)

machinate's right - that video on the website where he's tilting it around and doing stuff is kind of misleading. titling it does nothing (in fact, that video is just of graphical stuff as far as i can tell - he's not doing anything to the music at all).

it was a bit of a struggle trying to convince myself to buy it - it is a lot of money, and all it is is buttons. it just sends 3 numbers, x,y and on or off (1 or 0), and can receive data to tell it to light specific LEDs. that's it. i would get one only to use with live (it's a very expensive way of triggering clips, after all), but go for it if you want to do other stuff as well (the max apps on their site are excellent, and pretty much worth the price, i reckon).

like i said though, still scratching the surface with mine. i don't know what i'm doing...

Bong Sau · Post by **Bong Sau** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 4:54 pm

I'm still using mine with the Runtime version of Max/MSP at the moment but, like itook4lefts says, the patches available through the online community are excellent. MLR and 64Step are both a lot of fun and have had some great functions added to them since being released.

I too had to think long and hard about whether or not to splash the cash but am very glad that I did as it has already provided me with a lot of inspiration. Although my luck ran out soon after placing my order as my iBook died less than a week before my 40h arrived

Contra · Post by **Contra** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 6:05 pm

yea but as far as being an out there tool, is it really worth it?

or just better off gettin a drum pad(korg or akai) with a fader or rotary unit like the behringer?

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 8:36 pm

itook4lefts wrote:it was a bit of a struggle trying to convince myself to buy it - it is a lot of money, and all it is is buttons. it just sends 3 numbers, x,y and on or off (1 or 0), and can receive data to tell it to light specific LEDs. that's it.

VERY interesting -that means that you can control mlr and other apps just using an X/Y controller like the one I have on my PadKontrol.... !

itook4lefts wrote:(the max apps on their site are excellent, and pretty much worth the price, i reckon).

But the apps are all open-source and freely downloadable, so all that remains is an input converter for X/Y pads, and then anyone can get in on the action! Very! cool.

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 8:39 pm

Contra wrote:yea but as far as being an out there tool, is it really worth it?

or just better off gettin a drum pad(korg or akai) with a fader or rotary unit like the behringer?

They're all totally different. You "Could" do just about the same thing with a PadKontrol (well, 4! padKontrols....), but the key here is the visual updating. I have been trying to get my PadKontrol to act in the same way, using hacked Native Mode, but I can't at this point. But if I could it would work in much the same way, provided you ran the max software for it, yes.

Try going over the documentation to get a feel of what's going on with their apps:
http://wiki.monome.org/view/WeShareInformation-2

Bong Sau · Post by **Bong Sau** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 9:25 pm

yea but as far as being an out there tool, is it really worth it?

I guess this kinda depends on exactly what you wanna do either in the studio or on stage. Personally i've found that the combination of tactile interface and flexible sample triggering/slicing has really helped me to create or develop ideas for my tracks.

I doubt i'm doing anything that other people can't achieve with other bits of kit/software but it's a combination that certainly works for me. As a first port of call to start jamming some of your loops together it's ideal and the transition to more performance based applications is seamless, something that Live users will be used to.

Just revisiting some unfinished tracks on my hard drive, grabbing some loops and messing about with them in MLR or Flip has breathed new life into them. Horses for courses I guess.

You "Could" do just about the same thing with a PadKontrol

4 of em might be a bit unwieldy for taking to a gig

Although having velocity sensitivity would be like mana from heaven.....

Actuel · Post by **Actuel** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 11:00 pm

i have one and love it. i too was skeptical because of price but its hands down the best piece of gear i've bought in a long while.

once i grasped what was going on, i feel totally in love. it's a such a great performance/writing tool. the 40h feels more like an ever expanding instrument than some kinda a simple trigger box. this is large part due to the max/msp apps that are developed for it.

i don't think its for everyone but i know three people who use it personally and we all dig on it. i won't sell mine for anything and am looking for to more from the monome camp.

the fact that software written is open source is also a big plus to me. new apps and things are in the works all the time. whats key is that their the apps are totally integrated to work with the 40h. so quick commands and controls are all mapped within that enviroment. again making it more of an intrument than a mousing affair. the experience and applications such of mlr have been such inspiring that i just bought max/msp so i can write and customize some of my own apps for it.

needless to say, i love it

...but i wouldn't tell anyone to just run out and get one. i'd check their forums, read about, and watch the videos to see if its something you really want to invest in. it's single handedly the best investment i've made in a long while.

cheers
a

Contra · Post by **Contra** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 1:33 am

too bad there aint no place to test one out or see it used with ableton just to get a feel for it and see if its sumthin i could use for it.

videos with 40h and ableton live anyone???

most of the ones on youtube are with other programs

eamoon · Post by **eamoon** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 5:58 am

I've got a monome and, after 3 months, I've figured out a pretty fun use for it. I built a max patch that makes the monome a general-purpose Live controller. The main focus of this thing is to trigger clips: there are 7 rows of tracks in a bank (monome page) and it can handle 4-6 banks (currently I only bother with four.)

Each track has a column on the monome. Counting from the top down, a column can trigger 5 clips (I generally make the bottom one the track 'stop' button but that can be freely assigned.) Below that are three buttons:
- track control pushbutton (mappable to anything)
- track mute
- show controller for this track

That leads to the next layer: for each track, the monome can control a single parameter. Sometimes that's volume, but I'm more and more using it for more subtle controls (in Live 6 those can be pretty much whatever you can come up with; highpass filter up + volume down, for example.) The bottom button on each row enables the "controller view" for that track; hold it down and push one of the remaining 7 buttons to pick a new value. Oh yeah, and the max patch can be used to set a fade time for controllers on each track -- you can have some respond instantaneously and some fade smoothly.

4 pages (or scenes) is definitely not enough to cover a whole live set this way. The last show I did this way (1 hour), I had three separate live set files, and used the max patch to play transitional audio while I was loading the second two. That worked out pretty well; nice to give the audience a breather.

I'm planning to clean the patch up a bit and post it on the monome site. If I get some extra time I'll record some video too so you guys see how fun it is...

Contra · Post by **Contra** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 6:15 am

eamoon wrote: If I get some extra time I'll record some video too so you guys see how fun it is...

please do, i have no money at the moment for a new controller but this one might be the one, so it all lies on you and that daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn video!!!!!!

peace.

itook4lefts · Post by **itook4lefts** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 9:51 am

Machinate wrote:
itook4lefts wrote:it was a bit of a struggle trying to convince myself to buy it - it is a lot of money, and all it is is buttons. it just sends 3 numbers, x,y and on or off (1 or 0), and can receive data to tell it to light specific LEDs. that's it.
VERY interesting -that means that you can control mlr and other apps just using an X/Y controller like the one I have on my PadKontrol.... !
itook4lefts wrote:(the max apps on their site are excellent, and pretty much worth the price, i reckon).
But the apps are all open-source and freely downloadable, so all that remains is an input converter for X/Y pads, and then anyone can get in on the action! Very! cool.

basically, yeah, i think you could. though, can you turn the leds on and off on the padkontrol, via max or whatever? if you can't, then things like the step sequencer and stuff wouldn't make any sense.

the main thing i've built for mine is basically eight tracks of clips but with turn a track dependent turn-off-and-onable "double trigger function" so i can loop things without having to play the clip twice. super simple, but it doesn't quite work how i'd like, yet: i want to build in some other functions like changing global quantise and some beat repeat stuff.

i might post a video when it's done, too. the problem with having to learn a new program to use your gear, it's leaves very little time for practicing your chops...

Contra · Post by **Contra** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 10:16 am

itook4lefts wrote:i might post a video when it's done, too. the problem with having to learn a new program to use your gear, it's leaves very little time for practicing your chops...

ay but u only live once, practice your shit up be glad and when ya old youll be like ok im satisfied.

up the ante!

yea man id be interested in seein sum videos from ableton users and how they apply it to live cuz everyone else is usin programs that aint quite convinced me yet