http://vimeo.com/5138842
In the past, we’ve covered a lot of the innovations coming out of the monome controller project and its vibrant developer community.
This video, though, shows a free Max/MSP patch, monomulator, that lets you use all of the Monome apps with an Akai APC40. With Akai APC40’s selling for about $400, monome hardware, which sells for $500-1,400 and has limited avaialbility, will look a lot less attractive to many.
Will the Monome hardware become irrelevant or is there enough value in its open concept to justify the extra cost?
It’s not that the Monome became irrelevant, it’s that an independently owned and matured technology has been integrated into commercially mass produced equipment. It’s definitely a win for Monome! Sure, the hand built systems will be collector’s items, but they way that they were made and propagated is a paradigm shattering win for sustainable practices, hard work, creative community, and world wide cooperation.
It's not that the Monome became irrelevant, it's that an independently owned and matured technology has been integrated into commercially mass produced equipment. It's definitely a win for Monome! Sure, the hand built systems will be collector's items, but they way that they were made and propagated is a paradigm shattering win for sustainable practices, hard work, creative community, and world wide cooperation.
hmm.. interesting..
i posed the same question in my blog and received many many replies..
http://enigmafon.com/2009/05/28/akai-apc40-vs-mon…
This does make the monome less attractive. The APC40 has a much more useful array of controllers, and the price is incredible.
I WISH i could own a Monome. I really do.
But all this "handmade, quality" is just too expensive for me for a controller.
Plus if you go to the website ordering one is just so nebulous. "not yet scheduled". Wut?
I can go buy a APC today.
In a free market, today always seems to win.
Has anyone with a APC tried the software? It could just be smoke and mirrors.
arduinome is still cheaper, for anyone doing DIY
that aside, this was unavoidable. I'd much rather have an APC right now than a monome. Ideal would be APC + Bonome, the RGB DIY monome.
Good discussion there, too!
Comparison between the monome and the apc40 is inevitable–but ridiculous! The monome is an open source project that invites user development and encourages hacking/coding to create novel applications. If you can't be bothered with the effort of buying one, you're probably not a good candidate for owning one. The monome is also about being part of a community.
The APC40 is a tightly integrated Ableton controller that most people will never hack. It's a superb controller that works out of the box. Of course it's hackable, but it doesn't even match the 8×8 grid of the monome 64. It's great, but heads off in a very different direction from the monome. Got the APC40–love it, but the monome 64 is staying.
How is the monome any more hackable? The APC40 has a lot better array of controllers. There isn't anything that limits it from being used with any software, is there?
*much
Most people just don't understand the concept of a monome …
I bought the APC to run next to my monome and returned it the next day … huge disappointment !
I don't even want to correct these. Please proof your own work, it's an insipid mess of frustrating distractions.
The Monome is basically a prototype to an entire species of hardware that the APC happens to belong to. There will more than likely be many many more MIDI controllers that become mass produced and widespread in the world of music, the APC is simply the first one to do so.
The Monome required people to really know their shit before using it well, whereas the APC can be used right out of the box. What a lot of people don't realize is that the APC can be tricked out and customized a LOT. That, along with the more variety and usefulness of the controls (only buttons on a Monome compared to both hard and soft buttons, sliders, and knobs on the APC) I'm but people who are proficient with a Monome are already using APCs in crazy ways.
My perfect set up would be an APC plus maybe a separate custom made MIDI controller, small MIDI keyboard, small e-drum kit, a scratcher, and LOTS OF LASERS! 😀