| images | ||
| .gitlab-ci.yml | ||
| README.html | ||
| README.md | ||
| theme | _class | <!-- paginate | backgroundColor |
|---|---|---|---|
| gaia | lead | true --> |
Towards a universal button grid interface
And it's open implementation
Thibaud Keller Maynooth University - ossia.io made with marp
An enduring practice
-
Thoroughly documented at LMU Munich by Beat Rossmy [1], with Alexander Wiethoff [2], Maximilian Rauh[3] and Sebastian Unger [4].
-
With a dedicated course at Berklee college of Music "Grid Controller Studies" ISEL-112 [5]
-
And an active community of artists and developers [6] Due, in part, to the open source, and open-ended nature of monome's grid
The monome way
As presented in Maker Stories [7].
Origins of backlit button grids
1998 - SP series (202 & 808) Performance samplers
The grid allows:
- Sampling and triggering
- Copy and paste
- Step recording
Notable instruments and sequencers
- 2007 - Tenori-on, Yamaha
- 2014 - BeatStep, Arturia Circadian Rhythm, Tip Top audio (eurorack)
- 2015 - Circuit, Novation Pocket operators, Teenage Engineering (hand held)
- 2016 - Deluge, Synthstrom (open source)
- 2017 - Seq, Polyend (wide)
- 2019 - Zoia, Empress (nodal patcher)
- 2023 - Push 3, Ableton (export to and from a PC)
Notable controllers
- 2006 - 40h, monome (open source)
- 2009 - launchpad, Novation
- 2013 - Push, Ableton
- 2014 - Untztrument, Adafruit (open source)
- 2015 - Linstrument, Roger Lynn (continuous surface)
- 2019 - Grid, Intech Studio (modular)
- 2020 - Mine S, Special Waves (modular)
Notable libraries
Problem
- A majority of closed source, proprietary hardware.
- Either a blank slate (monome), or overly standardized practices
- Software specific libraries, with divergent approaches
- Many overlapping features
The issue with menus
The case of the Yamaha FS1R [8] and the dread of "menu diving"
Button grids can be:
- Keyboards / drum pads
- Step sequencers
- "Clip" launchers (Ardour (Ableton))
- Arangement views (Deluge)
- Routing matrixes (Deluge)
- Rudimentary waveform cropers (Deluge)
- Text displays (Launchapd)
- Basic spin boxes (Circuit)
- Nodal patchers (Zoia) ...
Tangible timelines
Samuel J. Hunt's UGS [9] & Beat Rossmy's SuperBrain
Byond
Beat Rossmy's COMB & Beat Rossmy's COMB
Honorable mentiones
Chalenge
Aproche
Implementation
Bibliographie
[1] Rossmy, B. “Buttons, Sliders, and Keys – A Survey on Musical Grid Interface Standards.” In International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, 2022.
[2] Rossmy, B., & Wiethoff, A. “Musical Grid Interfaces: Past, Present, and Future Directions.” In International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, 2021.
[3] Rossmy, B., Rauh, M., & Wiethoff, A. “Towards User Interface Guidelines for Musical Grid Interfaces.” In International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, 2022.
[4] Rossmy, B., Unger, S., & Wiethoff, A. “TouchGrid – Combining Touch Interaction with Musical Grid Interfaces.” In International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, 2021.
[5] Matthew Davidson, aka stretta, gridalb patches repository, June 21, 2024. https://github.com/stretta/gridlab.
[6] Lines “Latest Grid Topics”. The monome comunity forum. https://llllllll.co/tag/grid.
[7] Maker Stories. “Monome / Open Source Tools for Music Makers.” https://stories.maker.co/monome-open-source-tools-for-music-makers.
[8] Robert Skerjanc, “HARDWARE-CONTROLLER FOR YAMAHA FS1R,” August 26, 2023. https://fs1r.skerjanc.de/.
[9] Hunt, Samuel J. “Exploring Polyrhythms, Polymeters, and Polytempi with the Universal Grid Sequencer Framework.” In Proceedings of the 15th International Audio Mostly Conference, 101–6. AM ’20. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, 2020.