Livid Instruments has introduced a new MIDI controller, CNTRL:R, created in collaboration with Minus and Richie Hawtin.

Here’s what they have to say about the CNTRL:R:

In December 2009 we hooked up with electronic music pioneer Richie Hawtin and started talking about designing a new controller together. The next year was spent discussing designs, uses, and prototyping a few units to actually road test in a live performance setting.

After a few redesigns and a lot of hard work, CNTRL:R was born. This is one of the most exciting and longest lasting project we’ve work on and it’s only just the beginning.

CNTRL:R features twenty four rotary knobs, twelve push button rotary encoders, eight faders, a 4×4 grid of RGB keypads, and two rows of 16 RGB light buttons. The CNTRL:R also contains expansion jacks for connecting Roland-style foot pedals and other expressive analog devices such as faders, accelerometers, sensors, rotary knobs, and Livid’s XPC expansion controllers.

The CNTRL:R is fully programmable with scripts and templates available for softwares such as Ableton Live and Native Instruments Traktor.

http://vimeo.com/34511713

In addition to the hardware, Livid worked with Hawtin to create a Max For Live step-sequencer that integrates seamlessly into Ableton Live.

Features:

•  Integrated with 16 pad Drum Racks in Live
• 16 steps per Drum Pad
• easily mute a whole sequence
• full envelope control for each Drum Pad sound
• control pitch, volume, pan, and filter for each step
• creative step variations for on-the fly editing
• 16th notes or triplets
• variable note value “repeat”
• create and recall up to 32 presets for each sequence
• full interactive control with CNTRL:R

Livid is taking orders now for the CNTRL:R. It’s priced at $699.00 and is expected to ship in 4 weeks.