Our friend Mike Abb recently shot this great video / interview with producer and OhmRGB user Emancipator at Emo’s right here in Austin, TX. Listen in as the band talks about their new album, live production techniques, and how the internet helped launch their career. Their Winter 2012 tour has also just been announced, be sure to check them out! 
This week is SXSW week in Austin,TX. It is the time of the year when the music world converges on our little city. Every year we seem to get pulled into demos, speaking engagements, parties, events, or showcases. This year is no different. The company has several events and all of our guys have multiple events going on.
I thought it would be fitting to do a limited Texas edition controller set. The wood choice for maximum Texas flavor? Mesquite of course. Although Ryan Anderson (the head of our circuit board department), insisted that the state tree of Texas is a Pecan, nothing says Texas like Mesquite.
Mesquite is an extremely hardy tree that grows in the arid parts of Texas where not too many other trees will. In fact, it grows so well that ranchers consider it a nuisance. Also called “Texas iron wood,” it is hard and very dimensionally stable. In the dry west Texas climate with poor soil quality, mesquite trees usually mature as a large shrub so the supply of lumber is plentiful with very small pieces that have plenty of “character”.
As the Livid wood monger, I make it my responsibility to personally select each piece. Most of the local mesquite lumber is two feet long and three inches wide – an ideal size for our wood end caps. I made a trip to the yard and dug through a pile to come up with some really nice choice pieces for this Texas edition.
The Limited Texas Edition Ohm64 and Block have extra thick “Texas sized” mesquite end caps, clear anodized aluminum body, white LED’s and a mesquite crossfader. We fabricated a new Texas star wood brand to designate this run of controllers. Everyone who has picked up one of these Texas edition controllers comments on how well made it feels; the density of the mesquite with a little extra weight is really nice and solid. We may take mesquite for granted here in Texas but for the rest of the world, it is an exotic wood.
We will be making a limited run of this for a great deal only available this month. We will have one of them up at the Austin retailer, Switched On as long as we offer this model.
The South By Southwest Festival, (a.k.a SXSW ) is a busy time here in Austin, Texas. If you haven’t been to it, it consists of a week of live music, film, and interactive (though the live music part is really the main attraction). Over 2000 bands play in six days in Austin, which is part of the reason we have the moniker “Live Music Capital of the World”. It’s not just bands either, we have DJs, electronic acts, and producers playing all over town.
This year for SXSW we are participating in a bunch of events around town, and have even made a limited Texas Mesquite model controller available until the the festival is over.
First we have teamed up with SwitchedON, Austin’s own vintage synth shop for a “Local Electronic Instruments Manufactures Meet and Greet” where our friend and Create Digital Music Editor Peter Kirn will be speaking. This is taking place at the Victory Grill across the street from SwitchedOn in downtown Austin. There will be a bunch of interesting makers and musicians there, plus I hear rumors of jello shots, so stop on by and say hi! If you can’t make it at least be sure to check out SwitchedON, they have amazing stuff and are a great bunch of people.
Wed. March 16th
4-7PMVictory Gril
l1104 E. 11th St.
Facebook Event Page
Next we are going to be demoing, performing, and probably drinking many Lone Star at the Bwomp x Glitch.FM Showcase on the 17th. This event is presented by Dubspot, Propellerheads, Native Instruments, and Ableton. The evening features performances by Ill Gates, Mochipet, and many more. There will also be a bunch of giveaways including a controller or two from us, and a workshop by DJNSM from the Ableton Colorado crew. We be demoing Max4 Live, Traktor, Reason, Live, Arkaos, and Cell DNA with all of our controllers.
Thurs. March 17
1PM – 7PM
Deseo Centro Lounge
219 Congress Ave.
Facebook Event Page
If you are in town and can’t make it to either event, you can always drop us a line and maybe get a tour of our shop.
We are happy to announce our new series of classes for electronic media production and performance. I am really excited about having the opportunity to teach this class and open our facilities to other makers, hobbyists, artists or anyone interested in the kinds of things we do here at Livid. This first class is an intro class to DIY controller building using our Brain. This class is perfect for anyone interested in this sort of thing, and no experience is necessary, we will teach you everything you need to know.
DIY, Build Your Own Controller 001 Introduction (4 Sessions)
Starting November 9th, 2010 - SIGN UP
Have you ever wanted to create your very own MIDI controller but have no experience with electronics or soldering? This class introduces anyone to the basics of building your own controller based on our controller Brain for do-it-yourself controller building. You will learn the basics of the Brain and build a USB MIDI controller with knobs, buttons, LED’s, and sliders, and learn the basics of electronics and soldering. No experience necessary this is a fun class for beginners and experts alike. Tools and supplies are included. Classes are held at Livid’s manufacturing facility in Austin, TX, and taught by Livid founders Jay Smith and Travis Redding. Sign up today, space is limited.
You are probably looking at this post because you contacted us and are still waiting for a response so this is my attempt at justifying that delay. We are a small self-funded company that makes all of our own stuff. That includes our hardware, website, software, marketing materials, advertising, sales, custom projects, cnc machines (Travis builds these) , demo videos, book keeping, blog, support emails, and personally writing back to each inquiry. We are run by only three people, Travis who does all of our hardware development and runs the production at our shop in Austin, Texas, Peter who deals with all software, demo videos, and support, and myself who does everything else. We all take part in product development, software design, marketing materials, support, and actually performing using the products that we make. We currently have about ten people on our assembly line making controllers and a handful of talented freelancers that help us bring our products to life. So with all this going on we are constantly juggling our priorities to make it all fit in. I can honestly say as I am writing this I have no idea how we get it all done. We could easily outsource our hardware production and get everything made for cheaper overseas, but we prefer to make quality hand-assembled products in-house and choose to do what we love and and actually make the products we sell over maximizing profits. With that said we do really appreciate every piece of mail we get and will get back to all inquiries.
The fastest way to get an answer is to use our support forums, or follow our twitter and blog for the latest news and announcements. You can also sign up for our newsletter where we will eventually announce everything. If none of these methods suit you rest assured we will get back to you, it just might take longer then expected. If you really need to send us gifts, free beer, or need to unload a large sum of cash right away you can always mail it straight to our shop.
Thanks,
Jay Smith
Founder
