20th August 2010: Liine has announced the release of “Griid”, an advanced clip grid interface which allows you to control Ableton Live (running on your desktop or laptop) from your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. Using sp…
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Liine releases "Griid" iPhone/iPad control system for Ableton Live
We got a first look at Griid, a dedicated Ableton Live clip launcher for the iOS platform, late last month. It’s now available in the iTunes App Store, along with pricing.
Not previously announced, there’s a version for iOS handhelds (iPod touch and iPhone). A free version lets you see how you like the arrangement, and the developers actually recommend you test the free version before purchasing one of the paid releases. (The free version limits you to four tracks and six scenes.) If you’re ready to upgrade on your iPhone or iPod, the version for those devices is US$5.99.
The iPad version remains the most compelling, displaying colored rectangles across the iPad’s larger screen – and it makes you look less like you’re texting while you’re playing in Live. But it also commands a premium, at US$24.99. At that price, I wonder if a few users won’t complain that other features (mixing, Device parameter control) are missing. $25 is less than the cost of most iPad cases, let alone something you use every day, but the question to me is which price point competitors chase.
The iPad and iPhone/iPod version differ in the number of clips visible at once, but both otherwise support unlimited scenes and tracks.
Curiously, right now the app supports only Mac, but the developers say Windows support is coming very soon.
More details and iTunes link:
http://liine.net/griid/product.html
In the interests of journalistic balance and being able to evaluate these apps, I’ll have to work on funding an iPad for myself, alongside my Mac, Windows, Ubuntu Linux, iPod touch, and Android setup here. I could maybe go busking with my iPod and nanoloop?
More:
Griid, iPad-iPhone Controller for Ableton Live, Now Available
Puremagnetik is a company that aims to harness the power of Ableton Live’s elaborate system of audio and instrument routing. With their current lineup of products (mostly sample libraries, but they just entered the MaxforLive field too), the company serves up Live Packs that range from solid basics all the way through to elaborate sonic experiments.
In this first installment of two articles, I will cover recent subscriber download HackShop, the company’s Drum and Percussion Bundle, and legacy MicroPak, Bender.
HackShop
HackShop is a selection of distorted, modulated, and beautifully grimy sampled instruments. The package includes 2 basses, 2 pads, and 4 percussion presets for Drum Rack. Each of the included Instrument Rack presets make good use of Live’s internal plug-ins and routing options. Puremagnetik has also conveniently set up macros for controlling the “go to” parameters for each preset. Sonically, these patches are covered in distortion, modulation, and filtering. The result is a fuzzed-out, mechanized kind of sound suitable for glitch, industrial, and aggro tech music styles.
The samples involved are supplied by a circuit bender called The Violent Scar. Living up to his name, this collection serves up a selection of sinisterly modded Barbie karaoke machines, a defiled toy guitar, a home built optical theremin, and a modified Yamaha DD 50 drum machine. The collection of instruments leans toward the dark and foreboding for certain.
HackShop also includes over 100 percussive loops that are equally as mangled as the included instruments. The collection of Live Clips offers everything from mutated, evolving abstract percussion to alien sound excursions.
Perhaps the most impressive part of this Pack are the percussion patches for Drum Rack. Each of the kits is chock full of bleeps, squeals, and mechanical bangs. Best of all, most of the kits have enough samples to cover most of your keyboard, which gives the user plenty of options for creating their own twisted rhythms.
If distorted, circuit bent, machine sounds inspire you and you are an Ableton Live 8 user, then you can’t go wrong with HackShop.
Drum and Percussion Bundle
Puremagnetik’s Drum and Percussion Bundle is a collection of Drum Rack instruments for Live. The Micropaks include Trap Kit, Purple Kit, Digital Beatboxes, Analog Drums, and B System: Percussives. The sounds included cover the gamut of sampled drums with everything from multi-sampled acoustic kits, to classic digital drum machine patches, and modular synthesis mayhem straight from a powerful (and pricey) Buchla system.
In checking out the drum sounds, I kept finding myself inspired. A Digital Beatboxes kit called “Tighty” inspired the first demo, while a patch from Analog Drums called “Electrostatic Kit Basic” ignited the second demo (see below). Moving through the patches, I found the selection of electronic drum sounds impressive. The included electronic sounds are void of the typical 808, 909, SR78, and “pop kit” type drum sounds and instead provide effect laden, yet useful analog and digital drum patches.
Also, on the electronic side of this bundle, is B System: Percussives. This collection is sampled from a Buchla modular and is truly a remarkable collection of synth percussion sounds. The routing options of a Buchla are vast, and Puremagnetik has made great use of the Buchla’s unique sound in these patches for Drum Rack.
The sampled acoustic kits included in the Drum and Percussion Bundle are Trap Kit (a vintage, style Ludwig Set) and Purple Kit (a highly customized modern set). Diving right into Trap Kit I found the samples to be cleanly recorded. At the heart of Trap Kit is the kick, and it has a nice distinct, vintage “thud” to it. The snare is warm and lacking in modern “snap,” which makes it a sure fit for “vintage” styles of music. The toms have the unmistakable retro vibe one would expect from a 60s Ludwig kit. On the downside the crash sounds a bit brittle; however, the included crash ride does offer a bit more in the way of complex, life-like overtones. The hi hats have a good character, with a nice, complex overall sound.
Moving on to Purple Kit, I found it to be a high quality kit, with numerous presets offering the choice of stick, rod, or brush hits. These multi-stick patches work in as a Drum Rack with samples loaded in Ableton’s powerful Sampler instrument.
While these patches sound great, and offer the flexibility to change stick sounds on the fly, I found them to be pretty resource heavy – spiking up to 45% CPU usage on my 2Ghz Core 2 Duo – of course more modern processors should fair better.
Thankfully, Puremagnetik has also included a separate folder of Drum Racks linked to Simpler, which are much more resource friendly. The sound of Purple Kit is aimed at hip hop and R & B genres as it contains no toms whatsoever. There are individual dampened and open kicks, a 14” and 10” snare, Zildjian hats and ride, and a Paiste crash. Overall the sounds are punchy, with a slight hint of woody depth to the primary snare. The dampened kick has the quintessential R & B bump, while the open kick suits hip hop ideally. Aside from a slightly artifact resonant “zing,” the auxiliary 10” snare adds versatility to the kit. In addition to hip hop/R & B I could hear these sample making their way into other genres; however, it is worth noting that Purple Kit’s lack of toms and cymbal options would not work for modern rock/metal productions at all.
Overall, Purple Kit is a well recorded, well organized, and genuinely good sounding kit aimed at urban music styles.
Bender
Another Puremagnetik offering that seems to have origins on the Island of Misfit Toys is Bender. Bender is an Ableton Live Pack made out modified toys. While most of the sounds are seriously gritty percussion, there are a couple of keyboard instruments. My favorite of these is a patch called “Alphabet,” that is apparently ripped from a toy known as the Coleco Talking Teacher. This particular patch can be heard in Sound Demo 1. The included percussion in bender is just what you would imagine: toy sounds which have been bit crushed, over driven, and filtered in sonically perverse ways. Although the applicability of the included sounds is somewhat limited, Bender is certainly a good compliment to your Ableton sound palette.
Conclusion
The sounds I sampled in writing this article are fresh, original, and affordable. Given the myriad of sound manipulation possibilities in Ableton Live, it is important to remember that these Live Packs are sonic fuel for Live’s elaborate routing system – the real tweaking begins when you get them installed. The sounds are cleanly recorded, intelligently organized, and feature convenient macros for useful parameters. Puremagnetik’s extensive catalog has something for everyone, including those who use Kontakt or Apple Logic, for which the company offers alternate versions of most of their products.
In Part Two, I will take a look at current subscriber downloads, Artifact and Phazeform Volume 2, so look for a follow up later in the month.
Price
Puremagnetik provides their products as both a-la-carte downloads and as a subscription service. Price points for individual downloads are $12 (USD). Puremagnetik offers monthly subscriptions which allow users to download current MicroPaks for $5.75 (USD) per month. There is also a Yearly subscription valued at $60 (USD), as well as the best value, $198 (USD) for the All Access Pass. The Puremagnetik site is updated monthly with a new MicroPak, and boasts an impressive lineup of back catalog MicroPaks and Bundles.
…from solid basics all the way through to elaborate sonic experiments…
Pros
Love It or Hate It
Cons
by Daniel T. Spear
Daniel T. Spear is a musician, writer, and engineer from Georgia. His website can be found here.
See the article here:
Puremagnetik review Pt.1: Hackshop, Bender, Drums
For those of you just joining us, Max for Live is an interactive environment that incorporates the full Max/MSP/Jitter inside Ableton Live, with the addition of hooks that allow it to integrate with and control Live, and to make Max creations look like Live devices. Individual artists have begun using Max for Live, and we’ve seen some free downloads, but less of its use as a development platform. The problem is, your target audience must own both a full version of Ableton Live 8.1x or later, as well as the paid Max for Live add-on.
Max Fuel from Ableton soundhouse Puremagnetik nonetheless reaches out to just those people with a US$38 bundle of instruments. While they’re Max for Live devices, they’re not editable. (This demonstrates that it is possible to lock down patches made in Max for Live. An earlier draft of this story got this exactly wrong.)
Unfortunately, that means in a way, you get the worst of both worlds – you have to buy the development environment, but then you can’t use it to see what’s happening inside the patch. For projects like this, it seems some sort of “player” for Max for Live is badly needed. It could still be a nice pack of stuff for existing M4L users, though.
Here’s what’s included – two instruments:
- Bump – A mono synth with a generous, easily controlled feedback section
- Stick – A drum instrument based around classic FM synthesis, ready for use in Drum Racks
…five audio effects:
Drop – A multiband device where each band receives a percentage chance of being heard
Jumble – An audio processor with the same delay/feedback portion as Bump
Marx – A rebranded Spectral Mixer, setting different volumes and interactions for the signal’s quiet, mid and loud portions
Veer – A flexible pitch shifter with a dry/wet control for the output.
Yell – A rich multiband distortion
…and three control devices:
- el Effo – A versatile low frequency oscillator/step sequencer
- Multiplexd – A single knob that proportionately controls up to 4 plug-in parameters, simplifying automation or MIDI control of multiple parameters
- Side Chainer – A robust converter of any audio signal into a modulation signal
Even with built-in side-chaining for some devices, it’s especially nice to see the side chainer, and of course an LFO/step sequencer is something Live users have wanted for a long, long time.
You need Ableton Live 8.1.4 and Max for Live; standalone Max/MSP won’t work with these bundles.
This is “Max Fuel, The First,” so obviously more bundles are planned.
http://www.puremagnetik.com/maxfuel/
So, I’m curious – does this model appeal to you? Does it make you more likely to purchase Max for Live?
In other paid patch news, the wonderful Paramdrum for Reaktor from Peter Dines has just gotten a big update with a nice, new skinned interface; read more on Pete’s Noisepages blog:
Skinned Paramdrum Now Available for Reaktor 5.15 (non beta)
ParamDrum Update: now with Jonathan Style skin, new sample maps!
…and, of course, even Reaktor remains an option for Ableton Live, albeit without the Live-controlling powers or other integration.
Let us know what you think of these offerings in comments.
Read more:
Max Fuel, a Bundle of Max for Live Devices, Debuts
The preview video for Aurora Sound Studio HD had certain team members compulsively checking the App Store for its release, for it promised a full production studio for the iPad. Not a DAW, mind you – no audio recording would be provided, for one thing – but an electronic studio with everything you need to compose and perform electronic music: drums, subtractive and waveshaping synthesisers, a sampler, mixer and effects, all tied to a multitouch grid interface resembling the iconic Yamaha Tenori-On.
Aurora HD delivers on its promise in spades, albeit with a couple of caveats. The interface is divided into tabbed pages, some of which are geared towards arranging your sequences, while others are aimed at live performance with instruments and effects. Sequences are arranged in 14 layers, each with a fully editable instrument assigned.
Each layer has three send knobs, for routing the signal to a trio of aux send channels, with a choice of nine effects for each. Additionally, you can apply the Atomizer and M-Gun functions in real time, the former being a sort of sample-and-hold function (think Ableton Live’s Beat Repeat), while the latter is a per-sound ‘drum roll’ function.
Songs can be exported as WAV and AAC files, or even as MIDI. The latter ensures that compositions sketched out on Aurora can be reworked using your DAW’s instruments and effects.
So what are those caveats we mentioned earlier? Well, the big one is that there’s no way to write any sort of velocity data to the individual layers. You can, however, fake it using the synthesiser’s built-in MSEQ function, but this is only available to the analogue synth.
Also, a mere three effects slots seems miserly, and there’s no compressor. In addition, while you can upload and share songs via an online Song Library, this can’t be done with songs that include your own samples.
Nevertheless, 4Pockets has brought in a winner, albeit one that carries a price tag considerably higher than those to which App Store customers are currently accustomed. The problems are few and do nothing to get in the way of what is a truly inspiring production environment. If you’re an iPad owner in the market for a portable production tool, you definitely won’t want to pass this one up.
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4Pockets Aurora Sound Studio HD
Live’s Instruments can be a terrific way to explore Ableton Live – rather than simply giving you black-box preset sounds, these include custom racks that can be customized, disassembled, and warped to your own applications. I’m a fan of the work of some of the folks doing the programming, too, like the talented Puremagnetik folks; rather than just generic productions, you get a lot of the sort of oddball stuff that we love.
Live users may already know this via Ableton’s mailing list, but in case it got into your “marketing from companies” filter, Ableton is offering up a huge compilation of their partner instruments as one giant, 2.9GB Live Pack (1.2GB download, compressed):
Free Live Pack: Partner Instrument Compilation
You get 58 instrument racks, 16 drum racks, 5 live sets, and 80 clips.
Add this to the ten Live sets, focused on artist-specific production and performance, made in conjunction with the Minus label, which I’ve covered previously:
Free Stuff for Ableton Live: FM Drum Machine in M4L, Minus Artists’ Live Sets
…and don’t forget the tasty monome Max for Live content we saw last week.
It’s a good way to spark some production ideas – if not for you, worth passing along to friends you know exploring Live. For those investing in an upgrade or new copy of Live, there’s also a deal on that bundles a free partner instrument.
Read the original:
Ableton Users, Grab Gigs of Custom Instruments for Free
The developers of Griid, the Ableton Live controller on iPad created by Richie Hawtin, have shared photos and screen captures early with CDM to give us a look at the upcoming app. Just over a decade after its original inception, Ableton Live itself remains a ground-breaking user interface design. Love it or hate it, it’s a benchmark in thinking about how music apps might look. Griid is compelling in part because it re-imagines how that central Session View and clip launching might work, now in the context of a touch tablet. Personally, I like the results. As on the Lemur, bold, saturated colors and contrast on a black background are central, of course. It’s also nice to see extraneous visual information removed. And for anyone with epic-sized sets of clips in Live, you’ll like the massive overview.
This also makes me wonder what may be possible with Renoise’s pattern editor, which also uses colored blocks to show off units of patterns and the like (and could similarly be controlled from new input devices thanks to its API). All in all, I think we could see an explosion of thinking about control in performance. If that leads to better performances – or if we just have more fun – I’m for it.
Let us know what you think of the shots, and if it gives you any insights into what’s happening with the app or how you might play your own live sets. For that matter, is touch something you’d consider in the first place, or would you prefer tactile control?
Continued here:
Griid, iPad Ableton Controller, in Exclusive Photos, Looks Clean and Colorful
It may be just a monophonic synth with a GUI that’s prejudiced against fat fingers, but Argon has won our hearts. From wispy, nostalgic leads drowned in noise and delay, to formant wobbles, croaking basslines and the soft pulses of thirds and fifths, Argon can – and frequently does – sound awesome. It’s not a broad palette, trapped somewhere between 1972 and 1984, but it’s a sound full of character, complexity and fun.
The GUI presents two horizontally scrolling layers. The topmost provides access to ten pages of parameters and each parameter is drawn in a radial, anti-aliased style that Ableton Live users will immediately recognise. The lower layer is a scrollable keyboard that lets you switch octaves by dragging the lower border.
Argon’s incredible sound comes courtesy of a trio of oscillators and a Minimoog-like signal path. You can choose between saw, square, sine and noise for two oscillators, while a third adds formant generation. There’s FM and AM, and six different filter types, with 24, 18, 12 and 6dB/oct low-pass modes. An ADSR and LFO give amplitude and filter modulation, and you get distortion, EQ and delay effects. There’s even a visual step sequencer and a four-bar loop recorder that features overdubbing, so you can stack up parts to create a tune. You can save the output to an internal preset or beam a WAV across a WiFi connection.
We’d like to see named presets and fake velocity (ie, based on where you touch the keys), but all this is besides the point. Argon is the closet thing we’ve found to carrying a vintage monosynth with us on the bus, only it’s far less obtrusive and costs less than the ticket home.
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Continue reading here:
iceGear Argon
It may be just a monophonic synth with a GUI that’s prejudiced against fat fingers, but Argon has won our hearts. From wispy, nostalgic leads drowned in noise and delay, to formant wobbles, croaking basslines and the soft pulses of thirds and fifths, Argon can – and frequently does – sound awesome. It’s not a broad palette, trapped somewhere between 1972 and 1984, but it’s a sound full of character, complexity and fun.
The GUI presents two horizontally scrolling layers. The topmost provides access to ten pages of parameters and each parameter is drawn in a radial, anti-aliased style that Ableton Live users will immediately recognise. The lower layer is a scrollable keyboard that lets you switch octaves by dragging the lower border.
Argon’s incredible sound comes courtesy of a trio of oscillators and a Minimoog-like signal path. You can choose between saw, square, sine and noise for two oscillators, while a third adds formant generation. There’s FM and AM, and six different filter types, with 24, 18, 12 and 6dB/oct low-pass modes. An ADSR and LFO give amplitude and filter modulation, and you get distortion, EQ and delay effects. There’s even a visual step sequencer and a four-bar loop recorder that features overdubbing, so you can stack up parts to create a tune. You can save the output to an internal preset or beam a WAV across a WiFi connection.
We’d like to see named presets and fake velocity (ie, based on where you touch the keys), but all this is besides the point. Argon is the closet thing we’ve found to carrying a vintage monosynth with us on the bus, only it’s far less obtrusive and costs less than the ticket home.
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iceGear Argon
monome user Myr (aka James Waterworth | site | soundcloud) has worked on a set of tools that helps make working with Max for Live in Ableton Live easier, more capable, and friendlier with the monome and other gear. It includes a variety of tools and a way of centralizing control of all your creations. It’s a must-have for Ableton and Max for Live users, of course. But it also suggests some ideas about how to combine tools and control in other environments.
The M4L control collection includes a Control Hub which finds all the patches you’re using in a set and sends and receives values all in one place – a bit like a mixer/patch bay for Max. An M4L Device Control patch lets you dynamically assign control of Max patches to any hardware you like. (This feature has been available for certain supported Ableton devices, but here is applied to Max patches and any hardware.)
The plans for the future are ambitious, extending from the monome and MIDI hardware mapping to control and mapping from any MIDI, OSC, or HID device. There are new patch ideas, too, including clip launchers and choppers, and just by centralizing control, it’s possible to make devices that use Live itself as the sound engine.
See the monome forums for download and more discussion:
M4L Control – A collection of M4L apps [post.monome.org]
(Thanks, Mutis Mayfield!)
You can also compare this to the Renoise API now in public beta; I’m interested to see how these two approaches evolve, diverge, and overlap.
Speaking of the monome, you can soon look forward to a new album from King Britt, released on the new Saturn Never Sleeps Ambient series, and made entirely with a monome, the legendary MLR patch, and Max for Live. (King writes to say that he’s had a blast with this stuff – it sounds as though the monome has become a key studio tool for him.) Here’s a teaser film, re-edited from John Cassavetes’ original.
See original here:
monome Meets Max for Live Control, New Album