New tutorial uploaded showing you how to use the APC40 & Luachpad with Ableton’s Max for live. This tutorial goes through the basics of selecting a control surface, observing the buttons and using the Live API to create a simple app. The tutorial will help you understand how to build your own apps for max for live and the APC40 & Launchpad.
Video from Matthew Davidson, monome expert. He talks about how Max for Live and the monome work together and the intergration between Max/msp & Live. Matt’s also put up some videos show the monome with Max for live.
Ableton announced some important news regarding Max for Live yesterday, again while I was sleeping.
The public beta for Max for Live is available to downloadand test out. You have to be a registered Ableton Live owner to download the beta.
Release date
Ableton also set a release date, the 23rd of November. Not too long away, that is if all the beta testing goes to plan.
Pricing
Finally the last bit of news and possibly the most important. How much will it cost?
Well Max for live pricing depends on what software you own…
Ableton Live owners
Without Max/msp = $299/249 euros
With Max/msp = $99/79 euros
Max/msp owners get a few offers on buying Max for Live and Ableton Live 8 together.
Abelton Live suite 8 + Max for Live = $699/549 euros
Ableton Live 8 + Max for Live = $449/349 euros
Now no one ever said Max for Live was going to be cheap but If your a max/msp owner your going to have to fork out a fair amount of cash to use this. If your lucky enough to have Max/msp and Ableton Live then it’s not too bad.
Remember that Max for Live needs Ableton Live 8 to work so your going to have to upgrade which will cost more money.
Well Max for Live is certainly enjoying lots of internet hype so lets hope that it lives up to it’s name.
Excerpt of Novation Launchpad programmers reference
Launchpad Programmers reference
Along with the first shipment of launchpads going out, Novation released the programmers reference, a document that shows exactly how the Launchpad works with midi.
12 pages of a programmers dream as the PDF really explains the detailed inner workings of the Launchpad. Not only that but they have gone out of their way to put it in easy to understand terms. The release of this document is sure to set developers a light with ideas of creating open source apps and software. You can download the PDF from their site. Some interesting notes are that the Launchpad uses a slightly slower USB connection to transfer data.
Learn from your competitors mistakes
I must admit I get the feeling Novation are learning from Akai’s mistakes as Akai didn’t release any midi documentation or give away any hints as to how the APC40 handles midi. Akai didn’t even release a driver, you don’t need one but the APC40 and windows users are having a few niggling problems that a dedicated driver would fix, the launchpad has it’s own driver
Akai holding back has not stopped open source apps such as the monomulatorbeing released but it does slow development down. So this is a call for Akai to release the midi information. That said they will only tell you to wait for Max for live to come out and then buy it to completely manipulate the APC40. These are luxuries not everyone can afford.
Conclusion
With this release I’m expecting to see some open source apps and software popping up very soon. Probably some max/msp patches too. Seems like Novation are trying to align themselves with the open source community and maybe trying to make the launchpad a poor mans monome. For now it’s too early to tell but the future is looking bright for the launchpad and the button matrix controller as a whole.
Well were all excited about the forth coming release of Max for live but with no set release date I thought some videos might get peoples juices going.
Max for Live is basically a way for Ableton Live users to incorporate Max/msp patches into Live as plugins and effects. This really opens up Live’s flexibility as no other DAW or performing software allows Max/msp patches to be used. The other big news is that it will allow the APC40 to become fully customizable which is exciting and opens up a whole new world of what the APC40 can do.
