touchscreens (reactable, lemur, etc)

[balma]

What do you think about the new generation of user interfaces provided by jazzmutant on its Lemur, or the visually amazing Reactable?

here a nice explanative video



a guy jammin' with the reactable....


I must the say the music he is playing is not of my taste. But I wonder what kind of music could you produce having some decent sounds loaded on them.

I don't what to say when I saw the Reactable for the first time. For me, is like a dream for a live act. Where the sound sources comes from?

just a curiosity thread

[maindeglorie]

The Reactable is amazing. It encourages people to create together in a whole new way.
The sound comes from the software controlling it.

[Zamise]

Cool but either too damn expensive or hard to set up. They arn't that new anymore either. I await touch surface controls we can replace our potentiometers with on old analogs.

[TrondC]

the lemur seems very cool, but insanely over-priced. I guess there will be similar products for $500 in a few years.
The reactable is awesome, but so far all I've heard is random drone/noise/weirdness. if anyone can make a dynamic, good sounding full track using the reactable as one or more of the instruments, I'd love to hear that. tons of potential in that thing

[Dogboy73]

I don't like the product myself but the Apple i-pad could be a brilliant control if nothing else (lets face it, it's just an oversized i-pod touch really).

[JayEm]

get an ipad i suppose... its potentially a cheaper lemur, and there are already iphone apps that use OSC.

Personally, I couldn't care less about either technology.
Its just a control surface. Neither one actually offers anything new to the table other than how your performance appears. Whether or not that appeals is up to the individual.
In the end, the ReacTable and the lemur and other such devices are just pretty. Nothing more.

[balma]

The reactable looks like an alien Fisher Price toy. Is simple amazing.

I suppose we have to wait a couple of years until we can see somebody playing this machine in a serious way. It's too innovative, and it requires a lot of practice and re-learning, Reactable's concept will totally makeup your mind when composing music

I would love to put my hands on the REACTABLE. I would not even eat or go to the bathroom playing with that thing.

It brings a lot of fun to some tedious process on music production. Visual and auditive, both senses are equal important.

how much is this thing? anyway, there were very expensive synths on the past that today are really cheap.

About the Lemur, great sequencing concept. Intuitive. Is a shame that the website was hacked, but they still too expensive in my opinion.

[TrondC]

well, like Joey mentioned in another thread, the Ipad might take over the lemur if someone writes a good/similar control program/whatever. I would definately pay for the lemur if I was moderately rich or if my music made my living tho... with all the great software and hardware out there, I think a lot of modern music and especially performance comes down to how well you go with the controller. thus, expensive as it is, a lemur does what everyone wants: a custom controller that can be altered in a thousand ways. I know I'd LOVE that (and that's why I'm hoping the iPad might enable me to do something similar)

[space6oy]

get an ipad i suppose... its potentially a cheaper lemur, and there are already iphone apps that use OSC.

if anyone's looking for one, check out automap.

Personally, I couldn't care less about either technology.
Its just a control surface. Neither one actually offers anything new to the table other than how your performance appears. Whether or not that appeals is up to the individual.
In the end, the ReacTable and the lemur and other such devices are just pretty. Nothing more.

i haven't checked out reactable yet, but the lemur IS just a control surface, but it also definitely IS more, simply because it is an infinitely modifiable controller. you can add whatever controls and however many you want, arrange however & assign them to whatever you want. it's not just a light show.

[balma]

I was waiting somebody to say that these new instruments are just pretty.

I have learned that the user interface is as much important as the sound itself. More dynamism, intuitivity, allows you to work faster, better, to do more things in less time, to have a better and more fluid communication between you and your instrument.

Lots of synths with an outstanding sound or engine concept, cannot show all its potential due to a stupid or poor interface or communication with the musician. The visual display of the lemur allows you to have a better understanding of the sounds and their interactions, to create your own controller settings. This thing is so customizable....

The V synth's touchscreen, is very far away from the lemur's control surface or concept, But, that touchscreen is very handy and can speed up your composition processes.

I mean, most of the people here, is over 30, (I'm 34) . Is very healthy to get informed about new technologies or concepts and not get stuck on the vintage area. Also I'm totally aware, that the newest, does not mean the best. Lot's of new instruments, are pure merchandising.... and lacks the quality of some older instruments, but the lemur, looks like a serious proposal.

But, I must be honest: the REACT TABLE concept totally blew me away. I will like to hear what BJORK or her musicians, can do with the reactable. She got one, and she has probed throught the years, being as one of the most bizarre, creative and prolific musicians that ever came to this world.

[cartesia]

yeah.. user interface is important to me too.. I really dont care how it looks in terms of 'is it appealing to the eye' - much more imporant to me is having a system that is both visual and tactile that works with my brain.

To me that's the biggest draw of reactable - all the benefits of a screen/projector based system, with animated and updated information, with the added tactile feedback of the controls placed on the table.

[crufty]

for those in the usa w/a costco membership (or a best buy nearby), HP has a multi touch all in one cpu < $900. The screen was laggy though, looks like there might be an iteration or two before it gets snappy enough.

I'm sure the ipad will be snappy enough.

while i prefer knobs above all, fab filter twin has the best ui of any soft synth i've used (not that i've used anything new since may/09 ).

[Stab Frenzy]

Reactable is cool, but it has too much lag to make it properly expressive, you can't play it by feel because you don't hear what you've done immediately. Also it's a giant pain to set up and calibrate whenever you move it.