We got an email from a Richard Hagen who’s taking an online course from the Berklee School of Music. He asked a really good question:

Why should I buy a Livid controller, and not an APC40 or a Novation or one of the many others that will soon hit the market?

His email was actually longer than that, with some good observations and criticisms. It provoked a long-winded response from me:

There are a lot of scenarios that give different answers to this, that cover the spectrum of “there’s no reason to buy a Livid controller” to “a Livid controller is perfect” to “perhaps Accounting and Finance is a good career.” I don’t really want to go into a sales pitch, make a table of features, and close a deal. I won’t tell you about how our flux capacitor is faster than the competition’s. I’m going to use your question as a way to articulate some things that don’t easily translate to a website or demo video.

For the person simply looking for a “mouse-replacement” or “DAW-style controller” for Ableton live, the APC40 is probably a good bet. It’s inexpensive, it has lots of labels that match the software, the colors of the LEDs match up to the software, you plug it in, and it’s configured to be used the way the engineers intended. For track controls, navigation in the app, transport controls, and some effects, it looks like a great solution. There’s people out there figuring out how it works, and making it do cool stuff.

Jay and I first saw the APC40 at the NAMM convention in January. We went to NAMM to meet with dealers and show them our plans for the year, sharing some prototype work of the Ohm64, prepared to highlight how we were evolving our existing Ohm controller (which was initially targeted at VJ’s), and broadening our reach to musicians. We felt like we had a unique product to offer.

Practically the first thing we saw when we walked into the giant convention hall was the APC40: a direct competitor, well-funded with an existing sales and marketing network, an established if not legendary brand, teamed with the hottest product, priced way below what we could imagine, speaking directly to the customers we had hoped to reach. It was a bit disheartening, to say the least, and brought up the very question you ask. Unfortunately for us, the dilemma was more an existential one: not “What do I buy?” but “Why am I here?”

The reason we are here is because we want to offer a foundation for gratifying creative work. As you’ve observed, our controllers are designed to work well with Ableton’s emphasis on tracks, clips and effects. A company called NativeKontrol (http://www.nativekontrol.com/) has even designed software that works “between” Live and the Ohm64 to provide the navigation control and automatic mapping of the environment.

However, we are attracted to more than the “meta-music” concepts of clips and tracks.

On the dry side of “music technology,” we provide Max/MSP source code and examples for our Editor. For those who want an easy way to setup our controllers, the Editor is an easy to use program with some nice features. For those who want to learn more about how software communicates to MIDI devices for configuration, or those interested in programming UI’s in Max/MSP, the Editor is a nice thing to tear apart and learn from. We’re not merely making a bullet line in a brochure “Easy to use Editor included,” we are providing a platform for use and learning. Working like this makes it easy for me to add features as they are requested. Since we released the Editor, I’ve added “scales and chords” for mapping a selected scale to the entire 8×8 grid, midi routing, and a lot more LED controls in direct response to user feedback.

The OhmSound application (also open-source) could provide a similar example, but it also highlights another motivation. OhmSound is a simple FM synth that is designed to map to all the controls and provide sophisticated control and playability of sound. I made this to provide a solid example of how one might approach building a single-player, expressive musical instrument using the Ohm64′s controls. OhmSound isn’t really designed to integrate into a production environment: no Rewire, no VST version. It’s really designed for play. Strings, reeds, and resonating bodies are no longer the only musical controls, but the industrial conveniences of knobs, button, and sliders have augmented musical reality such that they demand their own vocabulary of virtuosity.  This is the language that Jay, Travis, and I want to develop. Moldover (Jay has known Matt for awhile, and just filmed a recent performance of his http://vimeo.com/7144978 – it’s damn cool), as you mention, is doing a great job speaking it.

Rounding out our approach to our hardware is our video software. We initially started (http://www.lividinstruments.com/about_history.php) by selling video software. Both Jay and I were attracted to the idea that musical ideas can be translated to the visual realm, and needed tools to exploit that. Even though we now emphasize sound and audio in our business dealings, the Ohm64 comes with a fully featured (and extensible) VJ software in CellDNA. This is definitely motivated by the business of providing VJ’s with a complete hardware-software package, but also motivated by wanting the musicians (the majority of our customers) to have a new artistic tool at their disposal.

To speak to the subject of your study and actual object of your question, Ableton is a very deep program, and with Max for Live coming out, it’s about to get a lot deeper. Musical innovation and meaningful artistic expression is going to demand that this depth is explored. All of our designs, activities, and softwares, current and future, are geared towards exploiting such depth. OhmSound, Cell, Union, and Looper are just the beginning – we will continue to cultivate and grow the examples and instruments, especially in Max for Live, that can be played with our controllers. I wish we could program them as fast as we dream them up, but that doesn’t happen (yet), so we have a lot of work ahead of us! It’s not inconceivable that “working with Live” means “building a synthesizer,” and for that, the more general layout and 8×8 grid of our hardware would give you a much better platform to build around.

Finally, there is the hardware itself. We build it with high-quality knobs and faders. We manufacture as much as possible in Austin, Texas. We maximize that facility not just because it helps control quality, but it keeps us closer to the things we build, lets us try new things, and customize our products on the fly. If we tried to outsource everything, Travis would be a bored manager in front of a spreadsheet and on the phone trying to beat out the lowest cost from a contractor. As it is, he has actual tangible pride in his work.

In short, we see our controllers as “living instruments” with new tools and examples that provide new (or duplicate old) ways of working. We consider the aesthetics of the controller, inspired by the beauty of traditional instruments. We even offered a recycling program for our first generation controllers, providing new Ohm64 “guts” for the previous Ohm! Currently, out of the box, it will be a bit less convenient than some other products . In the long run, however, it will be more engaging.

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