I was ramblin around at the start of this lovely 3 day weekend, and was looking for some craziness to add to my setup. Namely, Mu for my lemur. It requires Max 4 Live, which is 300 dollars, but could be worth it right? That’s when I stumbled upon this for the iPad. As far as I can tell, it is basically Mu for the Lemur, but wireless and basically free, without the use of Max 4 Live. I’ll let you know after this weekend how much this shit rocks.
It’s nice to get feedback from someone who owns a Lemur first hand and can compare similar products such as the iPad to it. I look forward to reading what you have to say, as I’ve been interested in getting something a Lemur for my Ableton work flow.
With all things considered, at the end of the day, do you regret your Lemur purchase with consideration to the apps on the iPad and their level of integration?
LiveControl is a MIDI Remote script that allows you to control Ableton Live directly from your iPad or iPod using TouchOSC. It supports full automapping and as such parameters do not need to be midi mapped, furthermore is does not require Osculator.
LiveControl currently supports Ableton Live 8 and upwards on Mac OSX and Windows
I use touch OSC with my pc and I’ve got a significant amount of lag between the time where i press the button on my ipod and the time it triggers in Traktor. At the moment, I’m using Pure Data to convert the OSC messages into MIDI data and then using MidiYoke to send it to Traktor. Although, I am about to get a Macbook, so my question is: will using OSCulator reduce this lag or is there some other issue here?
The way that the ipad has to connect to the computer is a joke - for a reliable connetion you reallllly need to be using a wired connection like the lemur.
I posted this same video a couple of weeks ago. I installed it and got it working properly. It’s very solid. The script is amazing and you get visual feedback. The best part about it, it’s free. (assuming you town touchosc). You don’t even need osculator for it.
As far as I can tell it’s great. And if you have remote scripting skills you can further customize the template, because you get the touchosc file, so you can customize the template on your desktop.
Plus I’m sure it will be refined over time. As it is, it’s common knowledge that the iPad really lacks in the WiFi performance department, more firmware updates and adjustments to the device will more than likely yield better performance (if hardware is the centric issue of the latency).
Otherwise, time and tested refinement will make this really appealing. If the iPad had an RJ-45 built into it (fat chance, but nothing wrong with wishful thinking), it would help with latencies I bet. The lack of direct input sources on the iPad are probably what will make this somewhat lagged as far as progression with performance development goes.
I have been messing around with it for a few hours today, and I have to say that for as long as the iPad’s been out, it’s a pretty awesome controller for Ableton Live.
Here’s a few of the downsides
-The interface still has a few bugs, and the tracks and buttons don’t always update like they should. Performance-wise this is a major deal, but can easily be fixed.
-The connection is wifi. I haven’t had any problems, but then again, you wouldn’t have any problems at home, problems would always occur when you least needed it. The last jailbreak for iPhones included the ability with a few extras to use tunneling to share a network through the sync cable. So this is possible, however, could take some work. The connector is open source though, so a dedicated data connection to your computer could be made, as long as apple approved of it.
Upsides
-Cheap for “near” lemur quality functions. Mu for the Lemur is free, but requires max for live, which is 300 dollars. That’s just assuming you’re using it with Ableton. If you’re using it with just traktor, then all you would need is OSCulator and TouchOSC, less than $50(don’t remember exactly but I think it’s closer to $35). With this combo, you could literally have an unlimited amount of controls at your fingertips, provided you found a way to smash it all onto the screen.
-on a quite a few fronts, the iPad actually has the lemur beat. Memory, weight, resolution, and potential all go to the iPad, but the Lemur still acts like a musical instrument, and is rock solid.
-can be improved, and will be
-isn’t the only controller device available on the iPad, and won’t be the last.
Only time will tell, but more and more everyday the niche that the Lemur filled is slowly slipping away. I still use and will keep using my lemur, however, for those that can’t afford one, the ipad will start being a valid replacement, maybe even a smarted replacement after awhile. Good times.
I use adHoc instead of straight wifi. Seemed very stable for a couple of hours. I was at my beau’s and he doesn’t have internet so i’m forced to use adHoc instead of internet wifi. I dug it.
i also use touchosc & osculator. ived used it at several gigs live with no problems. I have no lag whats so ever. I love that its wifi being that it frees up a usb port. its not joke how valuable the iPad is going to be to the digital dj for serato and traktor…and any dj or production program that uses midi or osc
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