Improving on a design and sharing the results with our users is always at the top of our list at Livid. The Block controller has been a great success and we have just made some minor design changes to make it even better. Originally milled from a solid block of wood, the square body with thin bottom has had its challenges, mostly warping and cupping. We have experienced a bit higher reject rate for bodies at the shop before they were built then we would like. Thus, the up and coming stash of rejected bodies in the Livid Graveyard that were never meant to be!

The other issue is that we have always wanted to eliminate most if not all of the screw heads showing from the top. The all milled body just is not stable and consistent enough to do that. We are very excited to show off our new body construction that addresses both issues and more. We now use a 4 piece side wall design with separate faceplate and bottom plate. The body side walls feature an interlocking joint for both strength and squareness. The beauty in the 4 piece framed construction is that there is almost no end grain showing, so the finish and grain are more consistent. Having 4 independent pieces interlocked makes for a great deal more stability against warping and cracking an us having to scrap bodies coming off the assembly line.

We are now also using a translucent frosted acrylic bottom plate. The acrylic also makes for a much more rigid platform to build off of and really helps to keep the Block square and flat even in adverse humidity. It also gives you a look into the insides of the controller.

Lastly, we have not inset the faceplate and it only uses 4 countersunk screws making for a much cleaner look. These changes not only make for a better built controller but make it more compact then ever.

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news by Travis

“In use, the Block is easy to get to grips with and its sturdiness reassuring. It’s very fun and quick to assign the parameters to Live using Ableton’s MIDI learn feature, leaving you free to get creative rather than feel bogged down with tech jargon and a hefty manual”

Read the full review here >>

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reviews by Jay

The great thing about making our own products in house is that we get to do whatever we want, and sometimes that means making design decisions because we think it looks cool. We recently purchased a few reels of bright red LEDs and decided they needed to be put on a controller. My dog Poquita (pictured below) spends most of her days sitting on my office chair and inspired the Diablo. She is a sweet dog who provides me with a steady supply of ripe red apples. This is a special edition block that we are only making a small run of.

The body is a new construction for the block, it is constructed from red dyed Mahogany and has a glossy VOC free clear coat.  The faceplate is cut from black anodized aluminum and only has 4 countersunk screws in the corner of the faceplate. You will notice that this is a new “frame” design so it allows us to shave a half inch of the total width and height, and the bottom of the Diablo is made of semi-transparent acrylic. Diablo is available now at lividshop.com while supplies last.

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news by Jay

After seeing a lot of discussions and misconceptions about the capabilities and features of the Brain, I decided to make a few small videos simplifying what you can do with the Brain. After we created the Brain we decided to create a line of do-it-yourself modular circuit boards as a lot of people wanted custom controllers with buttons, led, knobs, and faders. This really is only a small part of what you can do with the Brain. By itself the Brain can be used with foot pedals, touch sensors, motion sensors,  pulleys, wii remotes… The list goes on. You are only limited by your desire to experiment.

Recently I picked up a Roland DP-8 foot pedal and wired it to the Brain to work as a potentiometer. I am going to be building a new Viditar with the Brain, and want to add a bunch of  1/4″  jacks to use as controllers for effects. This will allow me to perform with my hands and feet at the same time. I made this simple video tutorial showing how to connect a foot pedal to the Brain. You could even make an entire controller with 64 1/4″ jacks, and have 64 pedals to play with at once. You’d need a lot of feet, but it illustrate the point that no matter how absurd your controller ideas are, the Brain can bring them to life.

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news by Jay

I realized that I had done a bit of recording of my video from last week’s zsalon here in San Jose when I came across the file this afternoon. I hadn’t really considered recording when I designed this add-on to CellDNA, so, of course, there’s something weird about it (too fast, only the lower left quarter was captured!), but it’s still pretty cool looking.
This is the result of a simple OpenGL and waveform animation program that I control with the Ohm64, and run the Max patch in CellDNA so I can use DNA’s effects. It’s too messy to share the patch right now, but I hope to break something out of it as a good example someday.
http://www.vimeo.com/9846138

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uncategorized by Peter