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	<title>EMUSIC-L &#187; gear</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/category/gear/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l</link>
	<description>electronic music and other vaguely-related topics</description>
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		<title>Lying users and synth manuals</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2008/02/15/lying-users-and-synth-manuals/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2008/02/15/lying-users-and-synth-manuals/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 16 Feb 2008 06:03:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2008/02/15/lying-users-and-synth-manuals/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In &#34;Every User Lies&#34; at the excellent&#160;Coding Horror&#160;blog, Jeff Atwood refers in passing to the&#160;concept of the &#34;active user&#34; &#8211; the person who immediately runs the software without looking at the manual at all.
In my trying out of various softsynths (most notably the WayOutWare&#160;TimewARP 2600&#160;and the GForce&#160;Oddity&#160;and&#160;impOSCar), I&#8217;ve found myself doing that &#8211; firing up [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In &quot;<a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001048.html">Every User Lies</a>&quot; at the excellent&nbsp;<a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/">Coding Horror</a>&nbsp;blog, Jeff Atwood refers in passing to the&nbsp;concept of the &quot;<a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/activeuserparadox.html">active user</a>&quot; &#8211; the person who immediately runs the software without looking at the manual at all.</p>
<p>In my trying out of various softsynths (most notably the WayOutWare&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wayoutware.com/products.html">TimewARP 2600</a>&nbsp;and the GForce&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gmediamusic.com/gforce/oddity/oddity.html">Oddity</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gforcesoftware.com/ins_imposcar.php">impOSCar</a>), I&#8217;ve found myself doing that &#8211; firing up Garageband, and opening the plugin in a track, then just fiddling with the presets. By this point I know quite well that doing this with an analog synth with a screenful of knobs and sliders is counterproductive, but I caught myself doing it anyway.</p>
<p>So I decided that if I was going to have any kind of a meaningful interaction with the plugins, I was going to have to work through the manuals and see what there was to learn, whether I decided to buy them or not &#8211; and to avoid wasting money on something that didn&#8217;t fit my headspace (and earspace).<span id="more-88"></span> My TimewARP 2600 demo expired last year(and reinstalling/other fiddling about doesn&#8217;t wake it up again &#8211; I suppose I could wipe my OS X install, but that&#8217;s frankly not an option&#8230;), so I&#8217;ve concentrated on the Oddity, since the impOSCar, though swoonily gorgeous soundwise takes too much processing power on my G4. (Click and breakups <span style="font-weight: bold" class="Apple-style-span">bad</span>.)</p>
<p>I was able to find the original&nbsp;Odyssey&nbsp;manuals at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.oldschool-sound.com/">oldschool-sound.com</a>, in addition to the GForce manual for the plugin itself, and I&#8217;ve started reading them through. Both are very good, and a very different experience from, say, the Ensoniq manuals &#8211; and most other contemporary manuals as well. These manuals assume that your goal is to build a framework of understanding before proceeding, so you won&#8217;t be lost in a maze of Too Many Options. I particularly like the advice from the original Odyssey manual which exhorts you to resist the temptation to simply crank all the sliders up. The author obviously had musicians like some I know in mind.</p>
<p>Frankly, in the case of these plugins, it&#8217;s really necessary to understand the signal routings and how everything is connected up if you want to be able to to do anything other than load presets. The original manual for the Odyssey is quite up to the standard of the 2600&#8217;s manual, with its outstanding step-by-step tutorial. (As an aside, any musician who wants to understand who subtractive synthesis really works should spend some time with this manual; as I&#8217;ve said before, even without a 2600 in front of you, it&#8217;s possible to get an amazing amount from this book.)&nbsp;It very carefully builds up from near the end of the signal path, gradually working backward and adding complexity as it goes. Quite a good read as well as being fun to follow along with.</p>
<p>I think that&#8217;s the key thing here: the machines are relatively speaking quite opaque, and unless you have some entertaining way in, you&#8217;re going to find it a bit dull.Then again, after all this, I&#8217;m still not finding the sonorities speaking to me yet &#8211; I think my current musical needs are actually better served by the Moog Modular V &#8230; which, again, needs more CPU than the G4 can give it.</p>
<p>Hmm. It&#8217;s entertaining anyway, and I&#8217;m finally getting to try out the instruments I missed in their first incarnation.</p>
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		<title>The ARP 2600 manual</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2008/01/19/the-arp-2600-manual/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2008/01/19/the-arp-2600-manual/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 19 Jan 2008 09:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[gear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[speculation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/?p=76</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Quite some time back, I found a scanned copy of the ARP 2600 User&#8217;s manual. I&#8217;ve always had a soft spot for the 2600, though I could never quite afford one; it&#8217;s always seemed like a great balance as far as analog synths go.In a recent fit of &#8220;my disk is too full&#8221;, I unzipped [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://ibiblio.org/emusic-l/arp2600blue.jpg" alt="blue-face Arp 2600" />Quite some time back, I found a scanned copy of the ARP 2600 User&#8217;s manual. I&#8217;ve always had a soft spot for the 2600, though I could never quite afford one; it&#8217;s always seemed like a great balance as far as analog synths go.In a recent fit of &#8220;my disk is too full&#8221;, I unzipped the file of scans and started reading. It&#8217;s really a very good introduction to the machine and how it works; I&#8217;ve actually started feeling like if I had one in front of me, that I&#8217;d be able to use it effectively.<span id="more-76"></span>An idle thought crossed my mind that it would be amusing to figure out how much an equivalent synth (from analog modules) would cost to put together nowadays; Richard Wentk was kind enough to point out that theÂ <a href="http://www.macbethstudiosystems.com/" title="Macbeth synthesizers">Macbeth M5N</a>Â is pretty much a modern 2600. Quite a drool-worthy box, but still quite pricey at about $6k &#8211; although that&#8217;s roughly $1200 in 1970 dollars; I seem to vaguely recall from the time that the originals sold new for about twice that, so hey, prices have gone down. Up. Sideways.One-scan-per-page was getting hard to read, so I started transcribing it (copying the illustrations inline). At the same time, inspired by the really lovely design choices in this synth, I decided to poke around and see what emulations of the 2600 were out there &#8211; I had remembered seeing them before, but I wasn&#8217;t in an analog place at the time. I found two:Â <a href="http://www.arturia.com/en/arp/arp2600v.php" title="ARP 2600V">Arturia&#8217;s Arp 2600V</a>, andÂ <a href="http://www.wayoutware.com/products.html" title="TimewARP 2600">WayOutWare&#8217;s TimewARP 2600</a>. Perusing the docs (which are really quite good for both products), I found out that the TimewARP 2600 manual is a pretty faithful version of sections 4 and 5 &#8211; the real meat &#8211; of the manual (it&#8217;s even written by the original author!), so my transcription has halted for the moment. I did find it interesting that just the act of transcribing did a lot to put the concepts into my head, even though I wasn&#8217;t particularly studying them.I&#8217;ve played with both some now,Â and I&#8217;m liking the TimewARP 2600 better than the Arturia one: it seems to run better for me, and doesn&#8217;t make weird user interface decisions (I was convinced for quite some time that the Arturia guys had never heard of a scroll bar, until I was told that there&#8217;s a +/- control at the top of the window that expands and contracts it. Note to anyone contemplating their own softsynth: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic">never</span>Â just make up your own UI conventions. It makes long-time users of Macs <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic">really irritable</span>).Â It <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic">feels</span>Â like a 2600, so much so that I remembered vividly the hour or so I was lucky enough to spend with one when I was fifteen, making silly noises. And it&#8217;s certainly cheaper than a real 2600 at less than $200.I had this dream the other night, of a custom MIDI controller that mapped real physical sliders to every slider on the face of the 2600 emulator, and which would look just like a real 2600. Definitely a pipe dream, but hey, those are the best kind.</p>
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		<title>Different Skies: after</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2007/10/21/different-skies-after/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2007/10/21/different-skies-after/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 21 Oct 2007 22:48:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>joemcmahon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[differentskies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[concert]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[different skies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gigs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[performance]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/?p=73</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m currently at the airport, having just finished going through security and having to have my backpack scanned twice; too many confusing electronic bits, I guess. 
Load-out took from after the concert and final jams (ten-ish) until about 3AM. We got to experience the weather we might have had: 60 mph winds and cold. Fortunately, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;m currently at the airport, having just finished going through security and having to have my backpack scanned twice; too many confusing electronic bits, I guess. </p>
<p>Load-out took from after the concert and final jams (ten-ish) until about 3AM. We got to experience the weather we might have had: 60 mph winds and <em>cold</em>. Fortunately, that was the only cold night we had. We all got up as usual thsi morning; several folks had to go out early (Otso, DK, and Mike) because of bad weather predicted along their return route. Giles, Bill Fox, Darrel, Allen, and Doug went out around noon, and Jim Combs and I followed soon after. I was lucky that Jim was with me, as there was construction that required us to get off the freeway and drive through random parts of Phoenix. Jim had done it on Sunday when he went back down to pick up Otso and John 3. I dropped Jim off, dropped the rental car off (it was a Honda Civic hybrid &#8211; only half a tank of gas to get all the way to Arcosanti and back &#8211; cool!), and checked in.</p>
<p>Man, am I tired. Thank goodness Ivan was there to do sound for us, but that is some heavy equipment. Fortunately Rus ran into The Naked Guy during this process instead of me, as I would probably not have handled it with equal aplomb. (The Naked Guy showed up partway through the process; he apparently really needed to get to the visitor&#8217;s parking lot for some reason. Who knows.)</p>
<p>Sales at the merchandise table were brisk &#8211; the two folks who volunteered to help out took in more than $400. Wish I&#8217;d had my CD ready, but oh well. Maybe next time.</p>
<p>I need to analyze my setup and come up with something without a single point of failure if I want to play live. The FIREBOX was the bottleneck &#8211; if I&#8217;d just yanked the mixer cables and swapped them to the Firebox I could have stayed on line. &#8220;Everything and Nothing&#8221; would have just been different, rather than for all practical purposes nonexistent. I could have done fine with something I could switch to a straight audio-out feed from the headphone jack in an emergency &#8211; it worked well enough for the TV appearance, so it would certainly do for a backup. I didn&#8217;t use the Vortex much at all, so I could leave it home next time. If the audio was all routed direct to the mixer, and then to the direct box, I could turn up the direct laptop feed in case of an interface crash, or simply switch to whatever else I was using (real modules/etc.) if the computer bit it completely. Add one of the Edirol controllers for a backup if the keyboard goes but the computer&#8217;s up. and I should be ready for nearly anything. Though I will still keep the drum and whatever other acoustic instrument(s) I bring handy; they should work for anything short of the power going off. Miking, etc. is to be figured out later. And I&#8217;d really like to start playing trumpet again. Would be a nice addition to Brian&#8217;s sax.</p>
<p>Admittedly, it would have been nice if I had been able to figure this out earlier, but at least I&#8217;ve got a live setup sorted out for next time &#8230; and I definitely want there to be a next time.</p>
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		<title>Buchla 200</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2006/11/18/buchla-200/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2006/11/18/buchla-200/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 18 Nov 2006 20:45:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>joemcmahon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[gear]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www-dev.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/wordpress/?p=20</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
I saw one of these at a gathering at Recombinant Media Labs in San Francisco, with Buchla himself performing. It&#8217;s nice to see Real Analog Synths again, but the price point is still no more affordable for me now than it was when I first encountered synthesizers in 1972: $9K for a minimal version. Sigh. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://ibiblio.org/mcmahon/emusic-l/200e.jpg"><br />
I saw one of these at a gathering at <a href="http://recombinantmedia.net/info/">Recombinant Media Labs</a> in San Francisco, with Buchla himself performing. It&#8217;s nice to see Real Analog Synths again, but the price point is still no more affordable for me now than it was when I first encountered synthesizers in 1972: $9K for a minimal version. Sigh. It&#8217;s interesting to note that inflation and technology have conspired to just about exactly move the price up by an order of magnitude.</p>
<p>Lovely to look at though, and even more delicate and lovely to listen to. Go <a href="http://www.buchla.com/200e/index.html">here</a> for more information, and if you have deep pockets, to pick one up.</p>
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		<title>Calling all loopers</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2006/04/18/calling-all-loopers/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2006/04/18/calling-all-loopers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Apr 2006 21:05:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>joemcmahon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[gear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[help-wanted]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call for help]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hardware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[looping]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www-dev.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/wordpress/?p=24</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I got a mail the other day from someone who was looking to duplicate the kind of long, fed-back tape delays that Pauline Oliveros used in &#8220;II of IV&#8221;. I
initially suggested a Max/MSP program, or perhaps Supercollider, but, as he put it, &#8220;I use a computer as something to write on&#8221;, and I can understand [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I got a mail the other day from someone who was looking to duplicate the kind of long, fed-back tape delays that Pauline Oliveros used in &#8220;II of IV&#8221;. I<br />
initially suggested a Max/MSP program, or perhaps Supercollider, but, as he put it, &#8220;I use a computer as something to write on&#8221;, and I can understand that.</p>
<p>So, has anyone got a good hardware-based suggestion? Apparently good two-track reel-to-reel tape recorders are hard to come by nowadays, so what he&#8217;d be looking for is a setup which mimicks the following:</p>
<ol>
<li>recorder 1 gets input on channel 1; this is monitored and fed back to channel 2 (resulting in a short delay determined by the distance between record and playback heads)</li>
<li>the tape runs across a gap (TBD by the performer) to a second deck</li>
<li>Channel 1 on this machine is fed back to channel one on the first machine</li>
<li>both channels on machine 2 are monitored and amplified to produce what the audience hears</li>
</ol>
<p>So I think we&#8217;re looking at a long-interval multitap delay, with some clever wiring to feed back parts of the delayed signal. I&#8217;ve suggested a couple of<br />
software solutions, but Real Hardware seems to be indicated. Any takers out there?</p>
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		<title>The Lemur</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2005/01/24/the-lemur/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2005/01/24/the-lemur/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 24 Jan 2005 20:56:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[gear]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www-dev.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/wordpress/?p=22</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[No, not those animals with the big eyes; the Lemur is a new touch-control surface for computer-based synthesists. (Why do
lemurs so fascinate musicians?)
Not cheap: $2495. But it provides something exceptionally cool: you can drag-and-drop your desired controls in a Mac Windows, or Linux application and up load them to the Lemur. The controls are all [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>No, not those <a href="http://www.thewildones.org/Animals/lemur.html">animals</a> with the big eyes; the <a href="http://www.cycling74.com/products/lemur">Lemur</a> is a new touch-control surface for computer-based synthesists. (Why do<br />
<a href="http://www.lemurbots.org/">lemurs</a> <a href="http://www.lemur-music.com/">so</a> <a href="http://shoko.calarts.edu/~tre/CompMusMac/">fascinate</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000003ZBF/102-1276192-8674516?v=glance">musicians?</a>)</p>
<p>Not cheap: $2495. But it provides something exceptionally cool: you can drag-and-drop your desired controls in a Mac Windows, or Linux application and up load them to the Lemur. The controls are all described via XML, so the more programming-minded could conceiveably generate the controls under software control. You can even define multiple pages of different controls, so<br />
you can swap back and forth between multiple controllers from the same device.</p>
<p>The Lemur communicates via <a href="http://www.cnmat.berkeley.edu/OpenSoundControl/">OSC</a> (Open Sound Control) over Ethernet, so anything that understands OSC can be controlled by the Lemur: PD, Max/MSP, Native Instrument&#8217;s Reaktor, SuperCollider, ChucK &#8230; as mentioned on the website, you could control a batch of different instruments, even remotely, since you&#8217;re working over Ethernet.</p>
<p>You&#8217;re not limited to just sliders and buttons and knobs; you&#8217;ve got two-dimensional areas as well. The Lemur doesn&#8217;t have pressure sensitivity &#8211; for that you need a <a href="http://buchla.com/historical/thunder/">Thunder</a><br />
- but it promises to be a really cool option for folks who wanted to have less standard controls for their software synthesis.</p>
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		<item>
		<title>createdigitalmusic</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2005/01/24/createdigitalmusic/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2005/01/24/createdigitalmusic/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 24 Jan 2005 20:52:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gear]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www-dev.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/wordpress/?p=21</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Those of you missing Metlay&#8217;s take on new gear should take a gander at createdigitalmusic. Nice reportage on upcoming interesting boxen.

(For those who want to see Metlay&#8217;s reviews in print, check out Recording Magazine. Mike is associate editor; you&#8217;ll often see articles there by other EMUSIC-L alumni as well.)
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Those of you missing Metlay&#8217;s take on new gear should take a gander at <a href="http://www.createdigitalmusic.com/">createdigitalmusic</a>. Nice reportage on upcoming interesting boxen.</p>
<p>
(For those who want to see Metlay&#8217;s reviews in print, check out <a href="http://www.recordingmag.com">Recording Magazine</a>. Mike is associate editor; you&#8217;ll often see articles there by other EMUSIC-L alumni as well.)</p>
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		<title>S3000 owners take note</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2004/03/17/s3000-owners-take-note/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2004/03/17/s3000-owners-take-note/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Mar 2004 21:01:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[gear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[help-wanted]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www-dev.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/wordpress/?p=23</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[William Shipway, in Sydney, Australia, asks:

I&#8217;m looking for an Akai S3000 to hire, borrow, or buy.  I haven&#8217;t found one in the places I&#8217;ve looked in Sydney.  My wife is organising a performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of a work that requires an S3000 (or compatible if that makes sense) for playback during [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>William Shipway, in Sydney, Australia, asks:</p>
<blockquote><p>
I&#8217;m looking for an Akai S3000 to hire, borrow, or buy.  I haven&#8217;t found one in the places I&#8217;ve looked in Sydney.  My wife is organising a performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of a work that requires an S3000 (or compatible if that makes sense) for playback during the performance.
</p></blockquote>
<p>I&#8217;ve passed on the suggestions of <a href="http://www.tascamgiga.com/index.php">Gigasampler</a> for the PC and the combination of <a href="http://www.bitheadz.com/ds1/ds1text.html">Unity DS-1</a> plus <a href="http://www.bitheadz.com/osmosis/osmosistext.html">Osmosis</a> for the Mac, but obviously anyone with a real S3000 within striking distance ofSydney would be the most help. (And anyone who has experience with S3000 samples and either of the above programs should also let me know anything you feel useful.)</p>
<p>
<a href="mailto:mcmahon@ibiblio.org">Drop me mail</a> if you&#8217;re close by and you&#8217;ve got one that William and his wife can borrow for a while (I&#8217;m assuming they&#8217;ll need it for more than just the performance!). Offers to hire or buy will be passed along as well, of course. It&#8217;s just my nature to look for the least expensive option first.</p>
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		<title>The Man-Machine Interface: Audiopad</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2003/07/24/the-man-machine-interface-audiopad/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2003/07/24/the-man-machine-interface-audiopad/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 24 Jul 2003 22:09:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[gear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www-dev.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/wordpress/?p=44</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[James Patten and Ben Recht, at the MIT Media Lab, have created a fascinating new tool called Audiopad. This is a hyperinstrument &#8211; a flat surface with embedded antennae that allows it to sense the position of objects on its surface. Combined with custom software and a video projector, this allows you to directly manipulate [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://web.media.mit.edu/~jpatten/">James Patten</a> and <a href="ihttp://web.media.mit.edu/~brecht/">Ben Recht</a>, at the MIT Media Lab, have created a fascinating new tool called Audiopad. This is a hyperinstrument &#8211; a flat surface with embedded antennae that allows it to sense the position of objects on its surface. Combined with custom software and a video projector, this allows you to directly manipulate sounds and samples by moving the objects on the Audiopad&#8217;s surface, with the graphics following your actions.</p>
<p>You can see a video (<a href="http://web.media.mit.edu/~jpatten/audiopad/audiopad-small-web.mov">QuickTime</a>/<a href="http://web.media.mit.edu/~jpatten/audiopad/audiopad-sonar-web.wmv">Windows Media</a>) of Audiopad in action; the authors are currently not distributing the software, unfortunately. It runs on Linux, is written mostly in Python, with low-level sensing code for the objects in C and C++.</p>
<p>I frankly hope that they <em>don&#8217;t</em> turn it into a commoditized piece of software; I can&#8217;t think of any commercial music company that would distribute a package with source code. Being able to fiddle with it and make it do what you wanted would be the real appeal for me.</p>
<p>The hands-on aspect of Audiopad particularly fascinates me; the ability to set up an audio space, move things around in it, and control them by nearly-direct physical manipulation. It&#8217;s a level up from keyboard interaction; more like the stuff <a href="http://www.cassiel.com/">CASSIEL</a> is doing with off-the-shelf equipment and MAX. This is something that current performers need; a way to more easily gestalt what&#8217;s happening and interact with it on an intuitive level rather than constantly shifting focus from screen to keyboard to mixer to mouse and so on.</p>
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