Music 'hackers' unleash new generation of instruments
cnn.com
cnn.com
Meeblip - http://meeblip.com - a small but aggressive substractive synthesizer, very affordable as a starter project.
Sonic Potions - http://sonic-potions.com - the LXR has often been desribed as a 'poor man's machinedrum'
Midibox Seq - http://ucapps.de - probably the most advanced pattern-based hardware sequencer in existence other than the Cirklon, but commercial resale/licensing is extremely restrictive and the project owner's DIY ethic is so strong that kit options are fragmentary.
MIDIsizer - http://midisizer.com/ <- this guy is also lead engineer at Evernote. No word on whether you will be able to send emails with your guitar any time soon, though :-p
Mutable Instruments - http://mutable-instruments.net/ - a variety of instruments, without outstanding documentation and beautifully engineered source code.
Special mention ofr Bruno's Nord Modular G2 open source editor, which works a treat and provides access to several incomplete models that are not accessible from the official editor, like a modelling oscillator, as well as developing tablet implemtation: http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48872&postord...
And somehow I'd missed the SP LXR, thanks for the link.
Machover's Biomuse is over 20 years old and dot-matrix Star Wars is at least 10, and I don't really see those progressing beyond gimmickry, or at the high end engendering loop-pedal and sample-trigger (MPC, et al) artists that tend to hew to standard forms. Sadly, the heretofore promises of computer environments such as MAX/pure-data and even Ableton (when stretched) have caught their more experimental practitioners in a vortex of randomness, likewise let's-see-where-this-goes algo composers under compiled environments like SuperCollider. I'm all for the death of the author, but the book still needs to be legible.
Of course, all of this speaks only to my own preferences. None of us can predict the future.
Suffice it to say that I think the most meaningful musical statements tread a line between tool-exercise (because-I-can sound generation) and songwriting, and playing AC/DC with a Tesla coil really doesn't say much in that context. Now, treat a Van De Graaf generator like headphones so that the person touching it can experience the sensations of static electricity as a component of music, as a frequency-oriented tactile instrument, and I might start turning my ears (and hair) toward the welder-tunes crowd.
Seaboard: https://www.roli.com/seaboard/
EMR pickup: http://zvukolom.org/instruments/elektrosluch/
and from Stanford a Flowbee: https://www.yahoo.com/tech/ge-wang-who-has-the-most-high-lev...
https://ccrma.stanford.edu/groups
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(these are all interesting, but I'm going to stick to piano, clarinet, mandolin and cello, i think)
I kind of assume at this point that most people who have an interest in this sort of thing know about monome[1], though I was surprised that there hasn't been more interest from HN in their most recent release, aleph[2], a (mostly) open source sound computer that can interface with just about anything that produces sound, cv, or bits.
While Monome were among the first to innovate in this area, the steep price premium isn't justified when you can get similar or better functionality for less than half the price for most of their offerings.
On one hand, if you have no use for CV i/o aleph is basically a non-starter. Additionally, there are other CV solutions e.g. Expert Sleepers or the Kenton MIDI > CV boxes that get the job done a lot cheaper.
As you note, a substitute (of sorts) for anything they make can be had cheaper. Brian & Kelly et. al. have never been a concern oriented towards being the budget provider of anything, as they readily admit:
"monome is operated on a human scale. we use local suppliers and manufacturers with whom we've created long-term, trusting relationships. environmental and economic sustainability are critical considerations in our design process. we believe in beautiful design and quality craftsmanship. editions are produced in short runs according to demand. staying small affords the flexibility to pursue interesting new directions, not simply commodify established trends."
There is something to be said for the blank slate, raw unadulterated OSC, it only does exactly what you tell it to do design ethos. When I bought a monome I had never seen or used anything like it before. Though it should be noted that I sold my monome and kept my Launchpad, at least in part because the monome could be sold for exactly what I bought it for, and I'd be lucky to get $100 for Novation's hunk of molded plastic.
However, $1400 doesn't get you very far in Euro (especially if we're including the aforementioned ES modules to emulate aleph's USB>CV capabilities). One sound source, an EG and a filter? Maybe an additional source of modulation if you budget well? Not to mention power, rails and cases, cables and other accessories, etc. Ultimately, I defy anyone to find anyone with any experience in the matter who doesn't think modular synths are a money pit.
For that matter, Reaktor is basically just a springboard to spend more money on more Reaktor ensembles—largely because there are some teams doing really great stuff for that platform—and Max, plus an audio interface, plus a cheap plastic box of knobs and faders leaves you maybe $700 to buy a computer? It's not as if aleph is way out of line with the alternatives on price.
Where it does stand alone, and the reason I find it compelling, is that aleph is the first all-in-one box I'm aware of that offers the sound/data processing and marshaling capabilities of a computer without the "dude checking his email on stage" aspects of a laptop. That's something that I believe people have been awaiting anxiously, and although it's far from perfect, it's a start.
Every instruments has come from a “hack” of sorts..