iPod Touch Impressions

The iPod touch is several steps beyond what would be considered a top-of-its-class product. It is like someone stepped out of a time machine and proclaimed, "I've come from the year 2012 and I'm holding the world's most popular portable music device. Behold!"

The last time I felt this way was nearly 25 years ago when I first put my hands on an Apple Lisa. It was so different, so much more advanced than anything I've ever seen before. It was like touching the future.

No doubt the touch will be copied. However, such attempts only manage to capture the most obvious aspects, and ignore the details, and the details make all the difference. A product can still feel klunky, even with an interface copied pixel for pixel. There are so many subtleties to how the iPod touch operates that the cumulative effect is almost perceived subconsciously. There is obviously a fanatical eye for detail behind every aspect of the user interface that will be lost upon crass imitators.



There isn't anything about the UI that can be complained about, but there are some features missing, either intentionally or unintentionally that would make the iPod touch an even more useful product.

For the most part, the iPod touch is a iPhone with some obvious hardware differences: no phone/camera and it is noticeably smaller and lighter. Inside, the iPod is assumed to run the same binaries as the iPhone. So, the iPod touch needs to be crippled so as not to compete with the iPhone. Wait. Does it? I knew going into this there is no email client, but does this really help position it against the iPhone? Well, yes, if you could legitimately use an iPhone without the service contract.

So, in a pinch, it is possible to use web mail via Safari which is as wonderful as the rest of the iPod touch.



What about some rudimentary notes-taking ability? Or, heck, a notes reader? Speaking of which, a PDF reader would be a welcome addition. I used the note reader on my iPod photo a lot, and I can't do this anymore on the iPod touch. Why is this feature removed? Perhaps it is because the disk use feature is disabled. You heard me correctly. You can't use the iPod touch as a portable storage device, like you can most iPods.

Another compelling feature is the built-in youtube application. I'm not sure why this fits into the iPod as a product, but I'm certainly glad they included it. It uses the youtube API in a custom application. This provides a better user experience, but also, Safari has no Adobe Flash support. So, unless you're using the youtube client, you're not going to see Flash video.

The drag about this is there is no way to login to your youtube account. That means, no subscriptions or access to your favorites. Search results are not very useful and you can't navigate to a particular user to see their videos or favorites.



The user interface is amazing, but sometimes you don't want to look at it. Walking down the street, I can operate the controls of my older iPod without taking it out of my coat pocket or bag. Simple operations like switching tracks or adjusting the volume now involve pulling the iPod out and swishing a finger around. I use this primarily when I walk to work, and I don't want to have my face buried in my iPod as I'm walking down the street. It really needs a hardware remote.

Here is something interesting: there are no games available for the touch. I guess this makes sense as the games rely upon the existence of the standard iPod physical UI controls, but I didn't put this together in my head. My previous iPod, the iPod photo was the last generation not to have game support and I was really looking forward to having access to a portable Tetris.

OK, now my biggest gripe of all: no streaming from a local iTunes server. I heard this was not included due to battery life issues. Really? Then why include the youtube application? I simply don't believe that streaming video is a manageable problem and streaming audio is not.

My home library contains all my CDs, many of which are encoded as Apple Lossless. The library is huge. The iPod touch is currently limited to 16GB. Wouldn't it be great to be able to stream music from the larger library to the touch as I'm working around the house? Or, how about internet radio?

Don't let my criticism give you the wrong impression. I really love the touch. However, there are a few issues that were not obvious to me before buying that may benefit others. I feel a majority of my gripes could be addressed with a software update, but it isn't clear to me what is intentionally or unintentionally omitted from the touch to distinguish it from the iPhone. I hope Apple addresses some of these issues.

pros
most advanced portable music player available, bar none

cons
expensive
limited storage
no Adobe Flash support
no youtube login
no disk use
no games
no email client
no notes capabilities
needs a hardware remote
no streaming from local iTunes server

UPDATE 09.27.07
I just discovered something interesting. The youtube client on the touch supports stereo audio. I can view the same clip on the youtube web site, and the audio is collapsed to mono. How weird is that? I understand that if you encode as .flv before uploading, stereo will be maintained on the site, but the only way I can explain how it changes from mono to stereo on the same file is the flash player used on the web site doesn't deal with H.264 properly. The file in question is here. Try it both on the site and on the touch.

ksd updated

I've updated ksd to work with monomeserial, and I've also released the Max patch as source, so you can poke around inside.

Download ksd here.

This is an older video of ksd controlling some analog synths.

Response to monome velocity criticism

The good news is brian and kelli publicly responded to the call for velocity. The bad news is there doesn't seem to be much hope for the idea. The main clarification is velocity is cost-prohibitive, and technically-problematic, and they really did put a substantial effort into finding a solution.

The key technical issue I did not understand is the coupling of velocity sensitivity with backlit LEDs. This is apparently a insurmountable problem. (Although I'd suggest they disassemble a Korg padKontrol which does both and can be found for under $200*. I suspect the diminutive pad size of the monome is the missing variable here.)



While some other issues are arguable like the 'pad feel' rallying point and velocity not fitting into the minimalist aesthetic, the important thing is the fact that they spent a lot of time researching options for velocity, and that means a lot to me. Therefore, my accusation that the lack of velocity was grounded in hubris was unfounded and ignorant on my part. My apologies.

I hope they don't give up on the quest for velocity, or, failing that, pressure, because there are absolutely no products that do what monome's do.

* FWIW, I'd gladly fork over $800 for a velocity-sensitive monome 8x8, minus all the other features of the padKontrol like the touchpad, knobs, additional buttons, dials, display, footswitch, bundled commercial software, etc, etc...

monome 40h running fourths

While many people see the 40h primarily as a loop triggering box, it is worth noting the designers intentionally left the device open to whatever application you can imagine. That is the beauty of the device.

If you're at all interested in alternate pitch controllers and pitch layouts, you might enjoy this video I quickly recorded last night. This is a demo of a very simple Max pitch mapping application where I map fourths on one axis and chromatic intervals on the other. Another idea would be to map fourths across both axes or fourths vs. seconds - there are endless interesting arrangements that produce facinating harmonies with simple, easily-remembered grid patterns.

Ship and pre-order dates for new monome line announced

I'm an enthusiastic 40h owner, in case you haven't seen this, this or this. I'm totally behind the philosophy and aesthetic monome.org cultivates and they understand the power of open ideas and sharing work. I have limitless respect for the organization.

The device itself is a work of art even before applying power. The 40h has a physical presence that is pure modern genius. It is inviting and impressive. A fanatical amount of care has gone into every detail. It looks amazing and the materials feel wonderful in your hands. Monome is a small operation, but the result is certainly not a homebrew box. Their industrial design know-how is as good as what entire departments of engineers would produce at a major corporation, but the vision is undiluted so the result is far classier. That the 40h exists at all is a minor miracle.



Simplicity is the key of design, and achieving this is surprisingly difficult. I know from experience adding features is easy, deciding what to leave out is difficult. I don't personally find a single aspect about the 40h disagreeable except one issue.

The lack of velocity support on the 40h seemed like a curious oversight. Almost immediately, requests for velocity were voiced by many users. This isn't a minor issue - it is a lost opporunity. Velocity would greatly expand what is possible with the 40h by adding another dimension of control. Every possible existing gesture multiplies in potential with the ability to extract meaningful information from how hard or soft you hit a button. The applications here are staggering, and it doesn't alter the outward physical characteristics of the unit, or warp the communication protocol into an unrecognizable form.

The 40h is so well designed, which makes the lack of velocity or pressure all the more frustrating. I've set up some patches that arrange the grid in a fourths tuning, like my Warr guitar. You can play a pattern and transpose anywhere but keep the same pattern, which you can't on a keyboard. Once you load a piano patch and start playing away, it is refreshing, and liberating and hugely frustrating because every note has the same damn velocity.

The response from monome is something like "the 40h is designed to be hackable, so you do it - good luck..." Perhaps the designers are too familiar with their own expertise and assume others are as gifted/knowledgeable as they are.

I deluded myself into believing the next iteration of devices from monome would support velocity, but this doesn't seem to be the case. They're getting ready to roll out their new product line; the 40h-like 64, a 2x version called the 128, which I was deeply considering, and the mammoth 256. Sadly, none of these models support velocity.



Monome's steadfast resistance to velocity feels as if it springs forth from a personal design bias, rather than a technical hurdle. Brian Crabtree has stated "If we had tri-colored LEDs and velocity-sensitive pads, it'd be an entirely different instrument."

No, it'd be an infinitely better instrument. It would be everything the 40h already is, only far more expressive, flexible and powerful. Velocity could be easily ignored by software. It doesn't change any aspect of the product as it currently exists.

Since he mentions it, tri-color LEDs would be extremely useful, too. Wipers could be a different color from data. Toggle switches could have three, instead of two states. Two 'layers' of grid could be superimposed on a single surface. Downbeats and subdivisions could have distinctive visual tags. There are hundreds of uses for this idea.

They've designed the instrument they want, and offered it to the world. Take it or leave it. I understand that. However, continuing to ignore these requests feels like hubris to me. They don't feel it is important because it doesn't fit into how they personally use the device. Not acknowledging or addressing the importance of velocity is the sort of closed philosophy I'd expect from Yamaha, not monome.

That said, pre-orders for the 100h, er, 256 begin on September 26th and begin shipping on October 15th. Given that the 128 wont be available until December, the 256 is tempting.

More Earthtones Available

Rumors of my out-of-stock-ness have been somewhat exaggerated. Check it out. I found some more Earthtones CDs in my basement.

Digital downloads are also available at the iTunes Music Store.

Mike Oldfield, Changeling

Mike Oldfield is one of my top musical influences. I've dissected his work and am naturally curious about the person behind the music. I read all the articles I could find about him, spanning decades. Taken together, they present a muddled, conflicting and incomplete picture, distorted by the prejudices of the journalist and the passage of time between interviews.

To my surprise, he has written an autobiography. Autobiographies present a different kind of distortion, but perhaps I'd get some parallax and fill in some gaps in my understanding. The book was an import, but totally worth it.

A good deal of the book is dedicated to the road to Tubular Bells, and justifiably so. I feel I much better understand the circumstances and influences that led up to that monumental work. He offered some insight as to where the inspiration for the repetitive opening figure came from, and explained how he was able to build up a demo of the piece outside the studio using written block diagrams and a hacked two track recorder for sound on sound.

Less and less time is devoted to each subsequent album such that by the end you're lucky if you get one paragraph about each. Granted, a few of these albums the lesser said, the better, but it was gratifying to learn that the releases he seemed most proud of (Tubular Bells, Ommadawn and Amarok) were also my favorites.

Mike is someone who wanted to be a successful musician, but not famous. He understood recorded-music is a separate art form from live-music and balked at attempts to translate his recordings to a live context. He believed, and seems to continue to believe that inner turmoil is a prerequisite for great art. This leads to a horrendous trap where one is in love with the demons inside. This is a difficult power to let go of.

One last bit is this quote I want to stash away for those times when people suggest that recorded music should be free, and artists make all their money touring anyway.

"It was a major lesson. You can go on tour and have all these people cheering, you stay in lovely hotels, then you finally get the bill and find out you've been working for the last three or four months and it's actually cost you hundreds of thousands of pounds. It happens again and again; everybody thinks the artist makes a fortune, but quite often it is the reverse. It will be the people around the artist making the money, and in the end, the artist will be left with a negative bill, a deficit, just from touring."

Tenori-On Manual posted

I've gone though the Tenori-On manual, and it seems that my initial technical speculation of the product was pretty much correct.

From the video demos, the Tenori-On appeared to behave in a variety of ways. It was unknown how many behaviors are built in to the instrument, and how editable the behaviors themselves are.

We now know there are six behaviors on the Tenori-On, which are called modes: score, random, draw, bounce, push and solo. There are 16 layers of the grid that you are presented with. Switching grids is accomplished using one of the 10 'off grid' buttons built into the frame of the device. The different modes are assigned to the layers for you, and you can not reassign the layers.



Score mode is the step sequencer and primary operational focus. As I suspected, the layout is modal, with the default mode as Ionian. Still, you can select chromatic as a scale, if you like. Seven of the sixteen layers are dedicated to score mode.

The next four layers are dedicated to random mode. Random mode is another type of sequencer, but with a different interface. The y axis represents pitch, but the note activity is determined by the order the pitches were entered. Temporally, the following note is determined by the distance from one note to the next on the grid. Sounds odd, but in practice, it is quite intuitive. One interesting wrinkle is once a pattern is established in random mode, you can rotate the pattern, thus producing new pitches, in a shape resembling the previous incarnation.

As the modes become more specialized, fewer layers are allocated. Draw mode occupies the next two layers. Pitch is represented on the Y axis and the X axis is, from what I can tell, voices. You can draw a shape, like a chord, and the Tenori-On will 'repeat at a pre-determined interval'

Bounce mode is cute - you drop a ball from various highs and each time they hit the bottom, a pitch is generated. I suspect a lot of notes could be created using this technique, thus, limiting bounce mode to a single layer is probably a good idea.

Push mode is a special interface for sustained, evolving sounds. In fact, certain sounds are designed for this mode, and are pretty much required to make sense of it. This is the mode that looks like pulsating radiant circles. Pitch is determined from left to right. It is unclear to me what, if anything, is determined by the y axis.

Solo mode has pitches arranged on the x axis and the y axis determines a beat synced rhythmic pattern for as long as as the button is pressed. The repeat interval is determined by the Y axis. The LEDs respond with a cascading pattern corresponding to the note data.

It should be noted that there are sixteen 'blocks.' Each block is all 16 layers. You can move to another block like moving from verse to chorus.



The support for user samples is fairly weak. You can load up to three samples, each a little less than one second in duration. Samples are treated as voice patches, so don't expect monome-like mlr functionality.



There is no mention of USB in the manual, so there isn't any hope for the Tenori-On as a programmable control surface. Furthermore, the behavior of the Tenori On software isn't editable. It is what is is.

Now that the behavior of all six modes is known, it isn't unreasonable to envision a virtual Tenori-On constructed in Max. Plug in a monome 256 and you're there. Without support for OSC, the Tenori-On will forever be a subset of what is possible with a monome. Buy a Tenori-On and you get a Tenori-On. Buy a monome and get a Tenori-On, and a ton of other goodies, and anything else you can dream up.