This video is a brief introduction to grainstorm, my granular synthesis application for the monome arc. Please take my enthusiasm as genuine, and not some marketing ploy by monome. They don't operate that way. I'm not trying to talk anyone into buying one. Quite the opposite as I think the initial production quantity is small enough benefit from a lower profile release to keep as many possible units out of the hands of people who wish to profit from the scarcity.
The arc isn't for everyone. Also consider the software available at launch: very little. My advice to those on the fence: wait. Also, don't base an arc purchasing decision on grainstorm.
Speech is a rather poor example, and in retrospect, maybe it wasn't a great choice, but I figured I had the soome video to show the more musical side. A more typical result:
grainstorm experiment by stretta samples
Grainstorm has four independent buffers that can be controlled with the arc. Primarily, you use the arc to scroll through the buffer. A push turn gesture on the same encoder widens the window from which grains are drawn. This isn't really evident in the video. A snapshot of various playback parameters can be stored on the grid monome where the it can be played like an instrument or sequenced with the on board sequencer. You can record live audio into the buffer, or load audio from disk. I'm just trying to provide a taste of what is possible with the arc. I've only had my hands on the thing since mid-Fed and I have a half dozen unfinished apps for it. Each new idea spawns two others. Grainstorm just happens to be the most baked at this moment. Meaningful support for the arc4 would be fairly easy.
I like to work with my hands. This is one reason why I enjoy working on the modular. The monome arc advances the ideal of touching sound, to be able to meaningfully improvise with audio in real-time, to sculpt like clay. Using the arc, I've thought a lot about Jeff Noon's Needle in the Groove.
and down
further down
not slow, but like poison to the beat
jody juggles another disc onto the decks
incisions of bootleg guitar, choked off
real familiar, scraped from the grooves like magic
it's the deep-down motherlode, it really is a ton of work to be done, for sure but donna's singing, all that slow tragic honey dripping out, word by word, dropped between the beats
and the dj's crazy tactics on the samples and scratches
I mean, if this is three months' work, I'm amazed
but mostly, oh most of all, the drumming
this 2spot guy can play
you hear him now, splicing the third verse open with scattershot blasts
and down
down flat
funky / holding / holding / making some splinter,
making some blow
deep jesus in the groove
have I been waiting for this like all my life, seems that way
through all the cul-de-sac affairs, the dead-end gigs
the slimeball singers and the junkyard songs
the lousy-arse contracts
all the drugs and the booze and the subhuman blues
all the thrash-happy merchants of the traps and the kit
all that shit
at last, at last some proper goddamn loving on the skins at last,
for me to drop the bass injection
listen to it
off-kilter cuts from the shine of a cymbal
alive with sparks
and a criminal tension that jody's scratching caught, and threw back
own in the cellar, on the other side of town, just this tripwire of sound
twisted space
and all the flavours of noise
gliding away
and throughout the whole song
that stupid cat
gallagher his name
that scruffball just slept on top of the amp, like soaking up the music, every last ounce
one last funky fuck flow-down falling and gone
crackle of silence
I have a bit of trepidation about something monome related appearing on music technology blogs because the reactions I've seen recently have gone non-linear. In other words, there are people that are not capable of judging something monome-related on its merits, rather, they are reacting out of existing prejudice. Of course, this isn't the exclusive domain of monome, some people will have something against ANYTHING out there, whether it comes from Avid, Behringer or myself, but the problem seems particularly acute with the monome.
I believe the issue with the monome is overexposure. The rise of monome coincides with the rise of online video. The 40h was out for about 18 months before it started to take off. The monome provided an interesting visual element to an electronic music performance, and capturing a performance with video and uploading it became the thing to do. There was a period where the music tech blogs would unquestioningly post any monome video and it became a blight. Hyperbolic blog titles don't help. ("This monome video will Charlie Sheen your face RIGHT OFF!") Cue the backlash. In this context, the reaction is understandable.
Interestingly, none of this has anything to do with monome (the company) themselves. They don't do facebook or twitter, they don't advertise. All the 'hype' monome generates is a grass roots thing from the user base. (guilty as charged, but usually I'm trying to demo an application I've developed)
Some people can't see past the bill of materials of a product. Some people have no idea about of the cost of production or running a business. Returns. Packaging material. Development. If the arc isn't worth it to you, it isn't. If it is, it is. But reading specs on paper (err..LCD?) and actually using the device are two different things, and I've had the luxury of this experience. Remember this when someone claims a BCR2000 is just as good.
