Automapping Ableton Live 8 with OHM64.

This post was submitted by soolee.

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projects by soolee

Today we announced our new product, Builder. Builder is a series of DIY parts and components created to assist musicians, artists, makers, hackers, or anyone looking to make their own MIDI controllers. I am particularly excited about this product because it is something we have been planning to do since we first started Livid in 2004. Before starting Livid I was just an artist with ideas on creating alternative interfaces, but I had zero experience with electronics and building. I started tinkering in college, creating multimedia installations with sensors and other physical controls using a DIY serial I/O board and Macromedia Director. I moved into MIDI when I created the 3rd version of the Viditar using Max/MSP, and that opened a lot of possibilities to work with other software and hardware. I could never really find a simple and easy way to connect components and parts together (well never a way that agreed with my wallet) so I would hack together parts from other controllers, keyboards, and electronics. I was also looking for something that would allow me to experiment with different controls but never had the resources to easily tinker.

Fast forward to 2007. We create the first Ohm with a board we intended to release as a DIY MIDI board but never released it as a standalone product. We were too busy with making our own products and never had the parts to spare. I also thought at the time that it still wasn’t easy enough to use, so we delayed the DIY project as we built up our production shop. Over the last few years we designed our MIDI boards we use in our second generation products (ohm64, block) with the intention of releasing it as a standalone MIDI Brain. At the same time we built our manufacturing shop out and added circuit board assembly machine, cnc machines, and an assembly line with talented like minded makers. I realized that we finally have the resources to create on demand products and that we needed to share these resources with the DIY community to make our Builder line easy to use and versatile.

So here is the fruit of these efforts… Livid Builder, centered around the Brain, a class-compliant, bi-directional, USB-powered MIDI device, and the BYOB (Build Your Own Board), a series of perforated modular circuit boards for buttons, knobs, sliders, and LEDs. Here is a brief overview of the products in video (which is part of our Quick Startguide for beginners).

We also sell various parts and components such as our rubber keypads, faders, and materials needed to create your own controller. More info can be found here. Happy building!

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news by Jay

Our dealer in the Netherlands, MIDI Amsterdam will be participating in Music Alive 2010.  Music ALIVE 2010 is a special EVENT around Computer Music products, Audio and Visual Performances. MUSIC ALIVE is an Open and FREE event for end-users, Dealers, Sales-crew, starting and professional musicians, producers, DJs

Come and see the latest products and technologies, soft and hardware, touch the latest Ableton controllers, watch the workshops and enjoy the music and video performances! Learn and share your experiences and enjoy an afternoon around friends in a relaxed atmosphere, that will give you inspiration for another year of creative flow…

Workshops, Exhibits, Music Performances:

ABLETON LIVE 8 – MAX FOR LIVE – PROPELLERHEAD REASON & RECORD – RESOLUME AVENUE 3 – JAZZMUTANT LEMUR (GARETH WILLIAMS) – DANKMAR KLEIN (ABLETON) – IK MULTIMEDIA (MATTHIAS ZALEPA) – SIMON GREY (PROPELLERHEAD) – CLINT MARANA (CROWDED BEATS) – BEN LIEBRAND – COEN MOLENAAR – EELCO TOPPER & PIM VAN HAM (KNOBSTICKER) – WICK VAN DEN BELT (WICKHOP) – SOUNDCLOUD – EAR PLUG – DOX RECORDS – DANCE TUNES- INTERFACE MAGAZINE – RØDE – CME – LIVID INSTRUMENTS – SAE INSTITUTE etc.

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news by Jay

I’ve been doing a ton of work in Max/MSP for our controllers, and a lot of it’s open source so you can pull them apart and adapt to your own needs. However, these patches can be a bit intimidating, even for the experienced users, since there’s so much STUFF in them.
So I took a step back, both for my sake and yours, and made this patch that fully explains the best way to integrate the Ohm64 and block into a Max patch so it is easy to make sure your on-screen interface matches up with the LEDs at all times, and also make it easy to change what the buttons, sliders, and knobs do.

The heart of this is a couple of javascripts that handle all the controller detection, setup, midi decoding and translation of MIDI into messages.
Besides this “bureaucracy,” there’s a simple example noisemaker that details how to setup a patch that works really nicely with your controller. This example is presented in a couple of different ways, so you can take what you like.
Take your patches to the next level, and start making some instruments!

Download it here.

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uncategorized by Peter

There have been a lot of interesting user videos coming in doing completely different things. Here are a few to share.

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news by Jay