“The RGB’s colour LEDs and expansion slot add more flexibility to an already awesome device.” – Future Music Magazine
Read the full review here… Livid Instruments ohmRGB | Tech Reviews | MusicRadar.com.
When we redesigned the Block and introduced the OhmRGB, we added something called expansion jacks. At the time we didn’t have explicit plans for it, but we often found ourselves wanting to add just a few more controls to the controllers, so we put a pin header and two 1/4″ jacks that tap into the controller’s Brain. For DIYers this is an awesome feature. We’ve seen sensors, touch strips, joy sticks, and extra faders connected for totally customized controls. We did intend to eventually release more plug and play devices I often referred to as “side cars”, like the one in this video. Well we’ve finally released these side cars in the form of our XPC Expansion Controllers.
The first three devices are available now. These sleek and portable controllers easily connect to the expansion jack of your Block or OhmRGB and greatly extend the possibilities of control. Housed in an anodized aluminum body, these controllers are a perfect match for your Livid device.
The 4K2JS has four rotary knobs and two Playstation style XY joystick controls. This one is a lot of fun to pick up and play with in your hand.
The 8F controller give you eight more high quality 30mm faders.
The 4K4F controller has four rotary knobs and eight really smooth 60mm faders.
All of these devices are available now from our online shop.
I’ll be at Cycling ’74′s Expo ’74 this weekend, and part of what I’m showing at the “science fair” is how I integrate hardware into the upcoming release of Cell and CellDNA. I’ve done a ton of work to make MIDI much more flexible and useful in Cell and CellDNA, even allowing for user-editable templates for popular controllers. So far, I have all of our controllers (Ohm, block, OhmRGB, and Code) and the popular APC20 and APC40 integrated, complete with multi-color LED feedback. Because almost every function in Cell and CellDNA can be controlled with MIDI now, you could even build a custom DIY controller that works exactly the way you want 
The best way to show a program, however, is to share the code. (Besides, registration for Expo ’74 is closed, and it’s not a public event!) So here’s a stripped down version of the Max 5 patching and javascript that I use to create MIDI learn and MIDI templates in CellDNA.
You can use these files to integrate MIDI into patches and interfaces in Max, and free yourself of a lot of messy patching and conversions. The javascript also saves and reads JSON files that store your MIDI settings for your patch. It’s pretty simple, yet provides a lot of advanced capability to your programs in Max/MSP. The zip file contains 3 files: a Max patch that demonstrates how to use it, a javascript that handles MIDI and conversion of MIDI into messages for your patch, and a JSON_parse.js that is used by the patch to read and write JSON files. This goes into Max’s “jsextensions” folder (Max5/Cycling ’74/jsextensions).
(Oh, and if you are wondering about the image above, it’s the logo for the original Expo ’74 that occurred in Spokane Washington in 1974, at a time when “Max” was a smart guy at Bell Labs doing early computer music experiments. No disrespect to Cycling ’74, but that logo is way cooler!)
