Konkreet Performer - a new multitouch controller

[8O]

Amazing. I mean....

Bravo, 80. BRAVO.

I dropped an instance of Alchemy on a MIDI track and had Konkreet up and running in no time.

Holy shit. HOLY SHIT.

The ability to coax all sorts of wicked sounds out of a simple patch - with such fluidity - is amazing. It's really unprecedented, really.

Of course, I can't let this go without one request: The throw feature - which seems to be for the main, center node only, would be excellent on ALL the nodes. If you could get some physics going with throwing a node and have it bounce around the screen like a hockey puck, you'd have something reaaaaallly special.

I'm kidding. You've got something special now.

Thanks! And thanks for our first US review in the iTunes Store too - really appreciated! We're really happy to hear that people get the concept so quickly. We're adding a Feature Wishlist to the KL forum too - throwing nodes and friction level will go in there

Great! Have fun exploring new sounds with it and keep the comments coming - we've been testing it a lot, but nothing beats real-life musicians twisting it and abusing it in ways that we'd never thought of...

[LoopStationZebra]

Yeah, I'm digging how you can spin the entire view around in a circle and all parameters are affected at the same time.

Spin and contract and expand and spin.

[8O]

Great - what I commonly set up for controlling Kore Player was mapping node angle to odd-numbered Kore knobs and node length to even numbered ones, so a rotate gesture changes 4 knobs at once, a pinch gesture changes the other 4 and pinch & rotate changes all 8... on the edge of control, but a nice kinda chaos...

How you getting along with it?

[LoopStationZebra]

was mapping node angle to odd-numbered Kore knobs and node length to even numbered ones, so a rotate gesture changes 4 knobs at once, a pinch gesture changes the other 4 and pinch & rotate changes all 8... on the edge of control

Waaaait a second. How do you map according to node angle? Or node length? I'm just testing using the KP_osculator template, so those kinds of detailed app mappings are already there.

Is the .oscd file where you have to set up specific kinds of mapping?

Please say 'no' because that kind of OSC chart is rather mindnumbing. I'd rather have some sort of graphic interface to set the specific node behaviour/message.

[esky]

Hey 80, i remember our chat at the Ableton User Group Berlin meetings at Raumklang, it's really impressing what you made out of your plans, congrats. I'd buy it instantly...if i was on a Mac. I hope you make some cash out of it...

[8O]

Waaaait a second. How do you map according to node angle? Or node length? I'm just testing using the KP_osculator template, so those kinds of detailed app mappings are already there.

Is the .oscd file where you have to set up specific kinds of mapping?

Please say 'no' because that kind of OSC chart is rather mindnumbing. I'd rather have some sort of graphic interface to set the specific node behaviour/message.

Great - that template is already mapping angle and length to your Ableton rack macro knobs. Hmmm... "...some sort of graphic interface..." hmmm... <scratches head, strokes chin, hmmm>

[8O]

Hey 80, i remember our chat at the Ableton User Group Berlin meetings at Raumklang, it's really impressing what you made out of your plans, congrats. I'd buy it instantly...if i was on a Mac. I hope you make some cash out of it...

Thanks esky! Yeah, it's great to finally be able to release this thing into the wild - I'm really impressed with the feedback we've received - lots more to come in the future too... Cheers!

[LoopStationZebra]

I'm starting to get my head around Performer and took a close look at the OSCulator template file.

One thing that I didn't realize is that Performer is sendout out a BUTTLOAD of CCs! lol.

I dropped an instance of Alchemy into a new MIDI channel in a full set of mine, and started using Performer. Suddenly my hand gestures were firing off tons of clips and controlling stuff that I had already mapped with the same CCs that Performer was sending out. What this means - I think - is that in order to use Performer in a full set with other mapped CCs, you really have to get into the OSCulator file and restrict the CCs that are sent. Right? But once you start doing that, you immediately cripple the functionality of Performer because it NEEDS all those CCs for the ultimate experience.

I will have to think about remapping all my clip slots and FX parameters to MIDI notes...... That should solve it.

Thoughts?

[beats me]

This looks really cool.

But somewhat like M4L it seems like you need to have a specific purpose in mind to get something useful and repeatable out of it.

[LoopStationZebra]

This looks really cool.

But somewhat like M4L it seems like you need to have a specific purpose in mind to get something useful and repeatable out of it.

Not at all, dude. With that template that 80 provides on his site, you just drop something like an ambient instrument rack into a MIDI track and start moving your fingers around. Each node on the screen affects one of the 8 macros.

I cannot express the sheer joy and wonderment of controlling - with precision - 8 macros at once. One cool thing I discovered is that you can keep all the nodes on one end of the screen, then quickly slide them over to the opposite end of the screen at the 1st note of a new bar - then slide them back quickly. You'll affect all the macros at once and get some excellent sound going. Have a delay on a return track and that quick sound madness just echos away whilst you keep fiddling.

Just like the iPad itself...it's MAGICAL.

[beats me]

This looks really cool.

But somewhat like M4L it seems like you need to have a specific purpose in mind to get something useful and repeatable out of it.

Not at all, dude. With that template that 80 provides on his site, you just drop something like an ambient instrument rack into a MIDI track and start moving your fingers around. Each node on the screen affects one of the 8 macros.

I cannot express the sheer joy and wonderment of controlling - with precision - 8 macros at once. One cool thing I discovered is that you can keep all the nodes on one end of the screen, then quickly slide them over to the opposite end of the screen at the 1st note of a new bar - then slide them back quickly. You'll affect all the macros at once and get some excellent sound going. Have a delay on a return track and that quick sound madness just echos away whilst you keep fiddling.

Just like the iPad itself...it's MAGICAL.

Right. It's the superior choice for wankery. And I mean that respectfully.

Let's say I drop Omnisphere on a track. Then what?

[LoopStationZebra]

Let's say I drop Omnisphere on a track. Then what?

If you just drop the plug on a track - and not within an instrument rack - then Performer will most likely start controlling some parameters within Omnisphere. That's what happens with Alchemy.

If you create a new instrument rack, drop Omnisphere into that, then map settings to the 8 macros, you are GOLDEN.

ps. I've found that you actually have to save that rack in order for it to work.

[LoopStationZebra]

80, couldn't get the Reactor Player to respond at all...

Not sure if there's some additional settings within the OSC setup that you aren't covering? For instance, my iPad will show up in the network Identifier column, but the IP address is listed as unknown. Not sure what to tweak there.....?

[beats me]

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it isn't cool, but for my purposes I see something like Touchable more obvious and upfront in it's purpose. I think for this you really have to have something in mind that you want to do...even if that something is to try your hand (literally) at creating mayhem. But as part of the name is Performer I know it's geared towards just that. That's not really what I do (yet). I'm sure I could work it into production too but for now even just getting a basic track skeleton going seems to be a chore.

I also think with innovations like this it's also showing that owning just 1 iPad isn't enough.

[8O]

80, couldn't get the Reactor Player to respond at all...

Not sure if there's some additional settings within the OSC setup that you aren't covering? For instance, my iPad will show up in the network Identifier column, but the IP address is listed as unknown. Not sure what to tweak there.....?

Mornin', right so, it's probably because Reaktor Player can't load up user ensembles which contain the Performer to Reaktor mappings. You should still be able to see incoming OSC messages from Performer in Reaktor Player. If you opent Reaktor -> File -> OSC Settings... you should get something like this:



That OSC Monitor window at the bottom should show the Performer messages as you move the Performer object around. This needs to be working first - if it's not working double-check your port settings in Performer, e.g. in the above configuration, I'd need to set my Performer OSC out port to 10000.

Once that's working, you can map any of the Reaktor Player ensemble controls to the incoming OSC messages. Right-click on a control and select Properties and there's a window for mapping from the OSC source there...

Hope that helps... Of course with the full Reaktor software you can then just load one of our pre-configured ensembles and get that mapping all done...

Edit: I was just reminded over on our Konkreet Labs forum that Reaktor also needs to have its sound engine on, otherwise OSC will not be displayed. Maybe helps too...