Live performance from Iballz 768 on the monome 512 and 256 at phog lounge in Windsor USA.

Long time Monome buff and laptop performer Daedelus talks about how he got into electronic music, performing live and performs a little set.

Cool performance with Ableton Live,  Novations zero SL MKII and two launchpads. Looks like the guys using the follow action or a step sequencer on the left launchpad. The right one is used for normal track and clip control, as is the zero SL MKII

Akai APC40 bag

Akai APC40 bag side

Akai APC40 bag front and side

Akai have annouced a new bag designed solely for transporting the APC40 & APC20. The bag features a big padded compartment for the APC40 or APC20 and a smaller compartment for hard drives, cables or anything else you might want to carry. I’m not sure if it does or does not hold a laptop as well as an APC40. There are mixed reports with Akai’s official press release stating it does but then no info on the product page. That said there is another compartment that looks like it’s made for a laptop. Watch this space for comfirmation.

The bag has a shoulder strap and handles for easy carrying but it isn’t the most visually appealing bag on the market. Although it’s nice to see a dedicated bag as I had a lot of trouble finding one that would fit an APC40 and a Laptop + other stuff. No prices yet as this was just shown at Musikmesse.

Jazzmutant Mu for Lemur

Jazzmutant have annouced the release of Mu, a software program for thier lemur touchscreen midi controller. Mu aims to bring full intergration for the Lemur and Ableton Live utilising Max for Live.

The idea is that you don’t need to look at the laptop screen when performing.  Mu shows Able ton Live’s clip grid on the Lemur screen, allowing you to launch clips, see the name, colour and playing status of each clip. The grid can also be resized to your tastes. Mu’s device selector handles the controlling of Live’s devices and plugins with a custom interface having beeen built for each device.

Mu requires no programming skills to use but you do need Max for Live. Mu is prity easy to use and instalise, just drag and drop the Mu Max for Live device over the master track and your ready to go.

Best of all Mu if free for all Lemur owners and will be availible later this week.

Here’s a good video from Joey Paranoia demonstrating the APC40, Launchpad & Ableton Live working together as a big step sequencer/Ableton Live controller. He explains exactly how these work together and shows them in action. The main reason for posting this up is that it shows how customisable the launchpad and APC40 are. 

This should give you some inspiration to create your own set up and stand out of the crowd.

Go forth and create!

Nice video interview with Deadmau5 talking about gear. Little bits of his live show using a laptop live and wearing his uber cool mouse hat. Theres even a bit of monome action in there. Video originally from wired.com