Amazing control surface!

Primus · April 15, 2006, 12:07:29 PM

Check this thing out!

http://146.186.186.101/~bcrabtree/monome40h.mov

These will cost $500, but they are powered by the atmega32 and the source code will be released.

Peter Snowberg · April 15, 2006, 12:50:00 PM

VERY cool!

Thanks for posting it!

searoad · April 15, 2006, 01:36:29 PM

sorry i dont know anything about DSP...
it reminds me this software

http://www.ressl.com.ar/skewl/index.html#download

Unbeliever · April 16, 2006, 03:48:15 AM

Quote from: Primus on April 15, 2006, 12:07:29 PM
Check this thing out!

http://146.186.186.101/~bcrabtree/monome40h.mov

These will cost $500, but they are powered by the atmega32 and the source code will be released.

$500??? The demo was cool, but I don't think the controller is 'amazing'. Isn't just a step-sequence 'surface' with illuminated buttons?

Primus · April 16, 2006, 12:57:41 PM

Yeah, it is quite expensive. The problem is that they are only making 200 of them and they are doing professional mass production. Now, this thing is cool because it is open source programmable and because it has two different matrix functions. The first function acts like a TR-808 drum sequencer where each column is a drum sample and reach row is a time division. The tempo is synced to the computer over usb. Then you select which hits are triggered at any of the time divisions. However, the real cool feature is where each row represents a loop and each colum represents a time division within that loop. You can then have multiple cursors tracking that loop that start at different times!

The Tone God · April 16, 2006, 02:42:35 PM

Quote from: Unbeliever on April 16, 2006, 03:48:15 AM
$500??? The demo was cool, but I don't think the controller is 'amazing'. Isn't just a step-sequence 'surface' with illuminated buttons?

The controller is more then that as I believe it has some intelligence but in terms of functionality it is not hard do. The real secret I suspect is in the software that is running on the computer. The software and the pretty case for the controller are what you are paying for.

For that reason I think $500 is reasonable even if you may not see a use for it. You have paid lots of money for a piece of plastic with a bunch of 0s and 1s on it before.

As with buying stompboxes it is not the cost of the parts that you are paying for most of the time but the R&D and labour.

Andrew

Peter Snowberg · April 16, 2006, 02:52:00 PM

For the amount of engineering involved and the small scale of production I think $500 is a great deal. Seriously.

I could not build one at that level of quality for less than $500.

Primus · April 17, 2006, 03:41:18 PM

The cool part is the software is free and open source for both the firmware, and the daemon that runs on the computer and converts control states to midi and osc messages.

moosapotamus · April 18, 2006, 01:32:38 PM

That is damn cool!

Even if it wasn't a sequencer and all you could do is play with the animated patterns those cool illuminated flashing buttons make, I'd still want one!

~ Charlie

Unbeliever · April 18, 2006, 03:57:11 PM

Quote from: moosapotamus on April 18, 2006, 01:32:38 PM
Even if it wasn't a sequencer and all you could do is play with the animated patterns those cool illuminated flashing buttons make, I'd still want one!

Errr ... Charlie ... I think they've got kid's toys like that in the toy department of your local store for $10 or something.

Ok, ok, I agreed it was cool ... where's the link to more info?

moosapotamus · April 18, 2006, 10:29:56 PM

... I'm off to toys r us.

http://monome.org/

~ Charlie

scaesic · April 19, 2006, 01:50:08 PM

that does look really good.

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Amazing control surface!