020081006 23:20 • 
I’ve recently started carrying a Lenovo S10 netbook when my MacBook Pro mobile studio has no chance of use. The S10 is tiny, black and very solidly built with a matte finish and wonderfully non-glossy screen. It weighs a mere 1.2 kilograms (2.64 lbs) and will provide the proper amount of extra audio and/or data processing power during the live show when perfect blasts of rare thylacine synergy are needed.
I’m also using it to reclaim time I would otherwise find wasted in the wait for things to happen. These thin moments, added together, provide a window for the writing of weblog posts like this one… perhaps even more once I find the trick of compartmentalizing threads of focus, sleeping and waking them as my physical context changes.
Truthfully, the stats on this wee beastie didn’t seem impressive at first glance:
1.6GHz Atom processor
512MB RAM
80GB HD
25.9cm (10.2”), 1024 x 600 display
Keyboard 88% normal size
Small trackpad
1.3MP cam mounted in the screen bezel
Then realization dawned on the purpose of this device: mobility, productive use of time and place as single focus events. It’s a revolution. It’s a gift from the universe. It’s the instant addition of extra abilities. With some easily made modifications, It’s a perfect companion at this particular point of technological capability on the upward curve. Would I prefer a portable device more like A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer from Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age? Hell yes. But in this moment of possibility, this is the scaled down equivalent. And honestly, the hardware, inexpensive as it is, is very nice. The keyboard is small but easy to type on, the keys have a sweet little snap. The screen is drop dead, super bright, LED backlit gorgeous.
Did I mention the S10 is tiny and portable? For comparison, here it is hanging out with my MacBook Pro 17 inch:
If you need a vorpal device of your own, here’s how to enable a stock S10 to glow with blue magick light when enemies are near:
1) RAM upgrade
Lenovo decided to solder the standard 512MB of RAM to the mobo for some unknowable reason, leaving the single memory slot open. A maximum of 2GB can be addressed, so one 2GB SODIMM later and I’m full up. The S10 was well-behaved with only 512MB, but now operations are smooth and fluid even with multiple workspaces.
2) Hard drive upgrade
I was honestly surprised by the zip of Microsoft XP Home on the power-sipping Atom processor. I explored for about a day, then XP had to go. I swapped the 80GB stock drive containing XP Home for a clean 320GB Western Digital Scorpio spinning at 5400rpm. This was the substrate for my next step.
3) Operating system upgrade to Ubuntu 8.0.4 - Hardy Heron
After the drive swap, a simple USB boot from a freshly burned iso of Hardy Heron and I’m on the golden path. The install was fast and painless. Almost everything worked immediately, including sound, webcam and energy management. The wireless was the lone holdout until I patched the system using Update Manager. Lenovo used a Broadcom wireless adapter in this device which works well under Ubuntu, but requires non-free software drivers. I’ll swap it out at a later date for something less proprietary. Not only was it the easiest Linux install in history, Ubuntu runs fast and snappy on the S10.
Once memory, drive and operating system are upgraded, go for these options in Ubuntu:
Auto-hiding menu and app bars to maximize screen real estate
Desktop switcher (I’m using 3 horizontally right now, but have experimented with 6 desktops - 3 columns, 2 rows.)
GnomeDo (Forget icon hunting. Just type, watch the autofill, hit enter once the app you want shows up.)
Finally, there is something very fulfilling about playing Infocom text adventures directly in a terminal window on this tiny netbook. “frotz zork_1.z5” automatically recasts waiting in the subway as an exploration of The Great Underground Empire.
020080114 20:11 •
I recently attended a swank session of the Bay Area Computer Music Technology Meetup group. A crowd of ~40 rolled into Pyramind in San Francisco for software presentations and performances of interest to musical hackers, interactive technology nerds and all varieties of electronic freaks.
In the first of these, Cycling ‘74‘s Andrew Benson gave a look inside the almost-released Max 5 to a very appreciative audience of patchers. Here’s a small, quick list I gathered of some Max 5 grooviness coming soon from the Cycling elves:
- Goodbye [prepend set]! Message boxes have a right inlet specifically for this function.
- Lots of Maxers love the enhancements provided to 4.6.x by Nathanaël Lécaudé‘s Max Toolbox. Max 5 has new and requested shortcuts and key combos built right in.
- Taking a cue from Ableton‘s Info View in Live, there’s a new Clue window which displays information on mouse-over. An annotation attribute allows you to add your own custom clues.
- The new UI is gorgeous, vector-driven goodness, courtesy of Raw Material Software’s Juce. Resolution independent resize is sweet.
- Multiple live views on the same patch, at different magnification levels. As someone who often builds patches which spill beyond the bounds of a screen, this is fantastic. Changes update in all views simultaneously.
- Object name auto-completion. To quote Andrew, “Several of our developers bought iPhones during development and fell in love with auto-completion.” It shows. Arrow through the drop-down list of auto-complete object choices and the Clue window shows information and arguments for each. Pow! Instant answers to “What does [somefunkyobject] do again?”
- Color schemes. The entire application is default color customizable. Sets of colors can be saved and recalled instantly, for say, “dimly lit performance” view or patching in the “well lit lab” view. Different background colors for locked and unlocked patchers.
- Mouse over the left edge of an object with an inspector and a small spot to click appears. Click and, viola! the inspector opens. Inspectors used to be Max patches themselves, but the new method has inspectors created on-the-fly if I understand Andrew correctly.
- Drag and drop audio files directly into [buffer~]. *throws double devil sign*
- I know most Max users are already aware of the new Presentation Mode, but to see it in action is to love it.
- New debug tools = excellent. Watchpoints will seriously change the way I track down problems. You drop Watchpoints on patch cords and they auto-number. Open the Watchpoints window and you’ll find a numbered list display of all your Watchpoints with their data changing realtime as it zips through the cables. There’s a floating audio meter for hovering over signal patch cords, too.
Andrew also mentioned most third party external packages have been tested and are working well. So the various quick-patching favorites like Peter Elsea’s LObjects, Emmanuel Jordan’s Ejies and Peter Castine’s Litter Power suite should be there from go. I generally only use third-party objects for proof of concept or if there’s something I absolutely want potentially greater efficiency in, but it’s nice to know they’ll be available from the start. The only third party externals which will likely need complete rewrites are those with graphic interfaces.
Cycling have paid great attention to usability in Max 5, with the majority of changes aimed at improving user experience and providing a consistent and modern framework for programming in Max. It’s not really an upgrade in the sense of providing new toys for making noise… it seems more the foundation for future development, a new beginning taking the best of the past 20 years and making it space-worthy for a new era of exploration. I’m excited, and very impressed by the way they’ve balanced familiarity with improvements to workflow and environment. Presentation Mode alone is a workflow gift from the gods. Add in a common interface across platforms and the possibility of an eventual Linux port and you realize this is the real deal.
Lastly, Max 5 will live on the same partition as Max 4.6.x. Excellent news… now I won’t need to buy a new machine while I’m waiting for the next Pluggo build based on Max 5. I seriously cannot wait to take advantage of the new interface capabilities for a new wave of Daevl.Plugs.
020070912 01:26 •
Seth Elalouf of Spacesuitgroup has released a fun and funky rhythm application with extra doses of beat-breaking grit and synthesis mojo. You can create crazy (good crazy!) bleep-laden rhythmic structures using just this application and a hardware controller. And when you’re done, you’ll find yourself setting up to do it again. And again. drmArm is addictive.
drmArm features:
- Five different building blocks for synthetic percussion: shaker, hit (aka snare), tine 1 & 2 (aka bloop and blip) and kick. Each have a graphic volume envelope and various other parameters for shaping the sound.
- x0x sequencing grid with MIDI triggerable sequence slots for shifting between various beats on the fly.
- An audio-chopping sample player for live rocking of sliced waveforms.
- Global effects: delay, filter, pan and a nice beat-breaker for triggering glitches and stuttering repetitions.
- MIDI learn for almost everything. drmArm was designed to be tweaked live with a controller.
- Beautifully minimal and concise PDF manual.
- ReWire, full screen mode, tap tempo and more.
I made the Spacerx source loop for Daevlmakr‘s current 1dot9 sample set using drmArm. I’ve been playing with it for a couple months now, and just can’t stop. Created in Max/MSP then wrapped up as a stand-alone application, drmArm is hands-down one of the best Max built apps I’ve used.
drmArm is a free download at spacesuitgroup.com. If you dig it, grace them with some patronage and/or spread the word so more sweet tools like this one will fall out of the airlock.
020070620 01:46 •
Daevlmakr is moving to a gorgeous live/work loft in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill district, and I’m moving with it. The majority of the heavy studio gear has now been air-lifted over. Stragglers will be rolling in tomorrow afternoon via industrial earth-moving equipment.
Some of the gear, lined up and ready to move out. I need a fisheye shot to capture the whole studio in the new location. I’ve a new site evolving fins right now and am planning a studio section as part of it.
Miles of audio. There’s a mountain of MIDI twine nearby. You don’t even want to imagine their companion snakepit of standard power cables.
Many little boxes of go. I think wall-warts are parthenogenetic. I look away to focus on a mix for five minutes and I swear they double in population.
There may come a day when I lay my deep and abiding love of hardware to rest and embrace the minimalist nirvana of laptopian omphaloskepsis.
That day is not yet.
020070223 23:12 •
Dan Nigrin, sonic headmaster at Defective Records, has developed something special in Major Malfunction: an intuitive, multi-effect embodiment of disorderly conduct for Ableton Live. It’s fairly bristling with experimentation and fun FSU.
I’m currently at work on an ultra-top secret project for Sir Jeremy Logickal, and have been using Major Malfunction extensively on rhythm beds and layered string-like tracks. Definitely slap it on basslines for instant click and cut.
Major Malfunction mangles source audio by triggering 5 effects plus a pass-through and random effect choice in an adjustable 64 step, bpm-synchronized sequencing grid. In the image below I’ve shortened the grid to 16 steps and am adding entropy with the brilliant random effect in the last track.
Full screenshot from the Defective Records site.
The effects sequencing above rotated a slightly pitched down Casio SK1 disco rhythm from cultural repetition to artistically unrepeatable:
Casio SK-1 Major Malfunked (0:24, 44.1KHz, 128bpms, 565k)
Major Malfunction is massive FSU packed inside a single, very inexpensive plug-in. If you’re an Ableton Live user into glitchy, mangled audio, Defective Records has a downloadable demo waiting for you right now.
020060601 09:04 •
The Monome Flickr Pool, 14 members strong as of this writing, has many good shots from [The Box] obsessives. Here’s one from my table:
This is the Monome 40h running an interactive FM synth app I’ve been working on in spare moments. The bag is a WaterField Mac Mini case from sfbags.com... fits the 40h like a glove.
020060423 23:27 •
On April 21st I attended the Monome Release Party at Asphodel.
Sonification came by way of performances from the Monome crew. Tehn cultured us all with a set including a beautiful version of the infectiously structured Mancini sample track you hear in the recent Monome demo video; the Gowns flowed out gorgeous, droning somnabulance; Daedalus brought epic anarchy to the lab and the Portable Sunsets rocked out the ultimate funktronic lo-fi. All used the Monome as an interface. If anyone had any questions regarding the Monome’s fitness to purpose, they were most surely dispelled.
A Friday well spent for the music alone, but a skyride when I brought a Monome back to my studio.
A shot of the startup pattern, 1 through 8 in binary representation:
The Monome is a deceptively simple device. An 8 x 8 grid of rubber pads lit by green LEDs, communicating and drawing power over USB. The unit is a little over 17 centimeters (6.75 inches) square, with the pads measuring a perfect finger width. This control density is one of the Monome’s greatest strengths, packing 64 points of manipulation into the active spread of two hands.
Brushed aluminum front panel, inviting soft-touch pads, rubberized housing to minimize surface slips while performing… the quality level is much higher than most mass-production commercial endeavors. Designed to be used, this device is light but solid. I feel no worries packing it into my already zipper-testing travel backpack.
A wonderfully refreshing experience: there are no markings of any kind on the device. Its functions are left to the user, and so need no labeling. Even the single USB port has no indicator: the developers assume you can think for yourself. There is no corporate logo or company name silk-screened into your mind with each and every use. The Monome is pure, minimal functionalism at your fingertips.
A blank canvas for your controller desires, the pads and indicator lights are decoupled for access to the full range of this device as both manipulator and indicator. Two-way communication with musical applications is accomplished by Open Sound Control messages. Several purpose-specific Max/MSP patches are already available at Monome.org, with more to come. The developers have open-sourced their personal Max performance patches under the Gnu GPL, such as Tehn’s mlr (a loop dividing beat breaker) and step (a fun take on xox style rhythm programming). Once the May 1st ship date arrives and more Monomes find their way into the larger world, I’ve a feeling the Max action will go crazy. I’ve already started customizing my own Monome environment, and will release it back to the developers and other users once it matures. I’m sure many others will do the same. You won’t need Max chops to take advantage of the Monome’s endless possibilities, though. Mapd, an application to facilitate Maxless mapping of the Monome to other apps like Live, Digital Performer, Reason, is forthcoming.
The Monome was created by a small group of people who actually make music with it, not a corporation intent on profit margins and planned obsolescence. Care was obviously taken to create a device of the highest quality, using the most environmentally sustainable and economically sound practices. Local suppliers and tradespeople were employed when possible; the devices are assembled by hand and are RoHS compliant to ensure a greener world. The Monome’s software, firmware and hardware are all open source.
I’ve known for some time this interface would revolutionize my musical creation, both in studio and out. It is. After two days, I’ve leapt into my sonic future and love what I hear. Isn’t moving us forward the purpose of well-wrought design and sustainability?
Built by forward looking people, the Monome is a future device available right now.
Update: This post was picked up by CreateDigitalMusic and spawned excellent discussion of the Monome and its makers, planned obsolescence versus sustainable design and doing the right thing.
020060411 21:54 •
Developing the Daevlplugs suite, a nice buzz of composition itch and excitement has been building for me. My current plan is to finish the Daevlplugs, then rock out my backlog of music. As I’ve watched the Monome 40h progress to completion, the itch has exponentially increased and my nice buzz is now an undeniable urge.
A newly released promo video shows the 40h and a few of the bundled apps being put through their paces:
I’ll be breaking from the final Daevlplugs push to attend the Asphodel Release Party on April 21st and actually place hands on a unit at the Maker Faire on April 22nd and 23rd.
Those 64 ectoplasmic green buttons are coalescing beneath my digits even as I type.
020060126 23:30 •
While searching out replacement keys for my ailing Casio SK-1, I’ve edged up close to several other 80s consumer keyboards. A mint VL-Tone caught my eye and wouldn’t let go, and I’m now proudly co-habitating with the first keyboard ever made by Casio. It’s in excellent condition: nothing broken, no discoloration, no scratches, and it sounds freshly arrived from 1979.
The VL-Tone’s funky rhythm sound was immortalized by Trio in “Da Da Da,” and its baby synthesis has been used by Devo, The Fall, The Human League and Moby, among many others.
For me, in my endless analysis of culture and creation as choices building upon themselves, the VL-Tone is a wormhole from the past into the present into the future. Something clicks into proper place in my heart when I source sounds from the past, sounds resonant in collective memory, the foundations of what we now hear everyday. It’s a method of time travel, of helping something live in a form it was never conceived for, of growth through punctuated evolution, direct intervention in a sound’s chronology.
This little toy keyboard with a built-in calculator was created in a world that had no idea I would someday be processing its sound through an immeasurably more complex Max/MSP patch, on a laptop computer dwarfing the processing power of its day. I reached out to the 70s and 80s, grasped, and pulled it straight into the now.
It has been sleeping in a thin vinyl case for 25 years.
I’m making it young again, here in the modern world.
I can tell, just by the recontextualized blips and bleeps of its output… this tiny synth is grooving on 2006.