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.

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The block has two sliders, eight knobs, and extra buttons.

In MLRV, I modified several data controls with sliders and knobs. That’s why I call it Block edition.

Enjoy!

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This post was submitted by soolee.

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projects by soolee

I made my first controller in 1999 out of plywood, a hacked computer keyboard, and anything else I could find at the time at my local Radio Shack. It looked pretty sad and I used it to run visuals using Director and I called it the Editar.

A year later I made a newer version of it with plexiglass, added MIDI, started using Max/MSP (with a little help from nn and Nato), and renamed it the Viditar.

Shortly after this Wired piece I hooked up with Peter to help with the software, and met Travis at a show while opening for Stone Sour in Houston, and Livid was created (in theory at least). We started making controllers together at that point but simply for my performing, and in 2003 we officially started Livid. After a few years of prototyping and software development we built up our own manufacturing shop in Austin, Texas where we make everything with the same kind of tools and care you would see at a guitar manufacturing shop.

We are very pleased to announce the birth of block, our latest product in our line of real instrument grade control surfaces. Block is the little sister of the Ohm64 controller, housed in a compact ‘block’ and fits into a backpack. I actually did a demo last weekend in Brooklyn at Moldover’s release party and put it in my backpack with my laptop. Block will be available Nov 1st for $399 USD. More details here.

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news by Jay

We recently launched our Ohm recycle program. It is a bit unheard of in the music products business to upgrade past units to the latest model’s features. We figured “hey what the heck”. We realize our users appreciate our controllers as not being disposable so we figured they should not be left out of the fun!

After a couple weeks of getting conversion parts fabricated by our shop robots (commanded by humans). We just started receiving Ohm classic controllers and recycling the bodies to accept the new Ohm64 controls. It requires a custom faceplate and that has the outline of the classic faceplate but the inside cutouts of the Ohm64 controls. We also do away with the classic midiboard and back panel board and replace it with our new talk back enabled MidiUSB all in one board.
Here are before and after pics of a super sweet Red ohm Classic owned by user Diego Medina that that we just recycled.
The recycle program is extra rewarding for me. It is like a reunion with my babies after they left the nest. It is nice to spend some time with them and see how they are holding up in the harsh world.

Before:

After:

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news by Travis

Thanks to the dot com era, the term branding has almost surpassed “b2b marketing” to become the lamest word in business. If you are in marketing, well just take a cue from Bill Hicks. Seriously though the term comes from livestock branding, a means to identify ownership that dates back to ancient times. I have always liked the way a brand looks especially on wood, so in 2003 when we made our first “production model” controller called the Tactic, we made our very own Livid brand. This is the very same brand we use today. Travis cut it out of Brass and steel (brass on the brand because is heats up a lot faster) and we started branding our instruments. Six years later we still brand each and every controller. Travis actually does it himself by heating up the brand with a torch and pressing it to the back of the controller before it goes into the finish process. Here is a video of Travis branding a batch of controllers. I really had to bite my tongue on the cowboy jokes here.

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