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news by Jay

Our very own product specialist Mike Abb shot a video recently of DJ/Producer Elliot Lipp explaining how he uses his Ohm64. Elliot’s live performance is centered around his Ohm64 and in this video he lets us in on some of his performance secrets using Ableton Live. After the tutorial there is a section of his live performance from a recent show in Austin, Texas that was filmed at Aces Lounge. What I particularly like about the performance video is how he uses the launchpad as a mouse of sorts for his live set.

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uncategorized by Jay

After spending last weekend at the Maker Faire showing our controllers and Builder series, I talked to a LOT of people from a lot of different backgrounds. One guy wanted was looking deep into our Brain, mulling the possibility of converting the signals from the LED control to control mechanical actuators. A few other people liked the BYOB boards as a way to prototype things for projects that had nothing to do with using our Brain or MIDI or music. But I also talked to a lot of musicians who had feedback and general ideas about controllers, with thoughts about how those could be incorporated into our block and Ohm64. (There’s something about having all the circuits spread out on a table that makes people want to talk about what’s inside the box!) One of the more common questions we get about our controllers is “what about encoders?”*
There are definitely advantages to encoders in today’s software driven world. Encoders’ values can be updated and changed on the fly, adapting instantly to whatever software context you are in. It’s like getting a motorized fader, but without the large, fussy, expensive mechanism that a motorized fader requires. Plus, they have all those LEDs that make it seem more high tech!
But this flexibility comes at the cost of losing the feel of a pot’s definite position. For example, if you want to drop the low eq of a track for bar, it’s really helpful to have the tangible stop at the bottom – that wall gives your hand something to relate to and “get inside the mix.” It’s a subtle distinction, but it’s important.
When it comes down to it, it’s all about your experience with control. We design our controllers to give you the best feeling when controlling, and this is one reason we have rotary pots. However, the value of encoders is definitely not lost on us. Since I didn’t get to see all of you at Maker Faire, I’d love to hear your thoughts? What do you like best? How do you deal with the compromises that you have to make?

*Rotary pots output “absolute” values, and have a distinct physical start and end point. If you turn the knob to the center from the endpoint 90 degrees, the value will always be “42″. Encoders output “relative” values, and have no physical start and stop points – they are often referred to as “endless.” The value that comes from an encoder can be updated with a message to the controller, so if an encoder is turned 90 degrees, stopping at value “42,” a message could be sent that makes the encoder’s value “25″ so the next time you turn it to the right, it starts increasing from “25″ rather than “42″. For more information, visit the Wikipedia article.

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uncategorized by Peter