On the Jazzmutant

I've had my very-expensive Jazzmutant Lemur for about a month now, and I've only now put my finger on why it is so unsatisfactory.

Unlike a hardware controller with real knobs, buttons and sliders, I always have to look at the screen while I'm tweaking the controls. I can't just grab a knob and start looking somewhere else while I move it. I can't look at the computer screen. I can't look at my other instruments. So I lose context. I'm constantly disorientated because I have to cross-reference one screen with another screen.

With all control being so contingent on looking at the controls I'm manipulating, the lack of comprehensive visual feedback is a real weakness. In the grid of Ableton Live Scenes I can't see which ones have clips in them without reference to the computer screen, so I'm constantly hitting the wrong row when I want to launch something, often triggering off a recording (and not noticing straight away).

The JazzEditor software does a reasonable job of helping to set up screens, with live synchronisation of the view between the computer and the Lemur's screens. It's streets ahead of a lot of the software I've had for setting up other hardware controllers (the Kenton Spin Doctor editor, for example, is TERRIBLE, and I don't even have the option of editing XML directly!). However, it still requires a LOT of pain to get even a basic set of controls set up, more so given the need to make information feed back from the computer to the Lemur. I have been through an awful lot of pain to make even the most basic presets, and don't forget - I am a professional computer programmer!

In summary: if I can't get a certain amount of information onto the Lemur's screen then I have to be looking at two screens. If I can't tell what control I'm touching without looking then I can't comfortably cross-reference between the two screens. Boo.

Back To Nature

back2nature.png
Originally uploaded by michaelforrest

Blurb

Me and William

Me and William
Originally uploaded by michaelforrest

installation_5.m4b

I’ve managed to add all the fancy metadata needed to make this podcast have chapters, links and pictures in iTunes. It probably won’t work in anything else, unfortunately. However, at 3 hours in duration, it’s a little too long for casual listening, so now you can skip through the chapters in iTunes.

There’s some copyrighted material on there – if this is a problem for any labels then I am happy to chuck some pounds there way based on my feedburner stats. Hopefully this won’t be a problem and this is all under the radar… It’s all marked up anyway, if you want to track down any of the tunes.

Here are some pictures from the set.

I recommend you come to this via my podcast

New RSS Feed Location

I just Feedburnered my RSS feed and now it's a lot nicer to use and easier to subscribe to.


The new location is http://feeds.feedburner.com/michaelforrest. Enjoi!

UPDATE: I have made another feed of just the mp3s - you can subscribe here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/michaelforrest_podcast

New pics over at Flickr

the visuals
Originally uploaded by michaelforrest

More Lemur Action

My camera's memory card filled up halfway through recording. Using the Bumpalizer to trigger loadsa harsh sounds. The camera's resting on my controller keyboard which is why it jumps when I mash.

Horacio Pollard

@ The Space - Mare Street, 10th June 2007.

This recording is shit (my mobile can't handle frequencies below about 15KHZ), but I have to say that every time I see Leon play I get a little inspired. He's uncompromising, and it's proper music. Albeit composed entirely of screams and shouting. I was happy to hear an occasional heavy and loosely times 5/4 beat kick in at this one. Top stuff.

Jazzmutant Lemur + DBlue Glitch

More experiments: http://grimaceworks.com/mf/lab

I finally got the MIDI working on this thing and the first thing I wanted to do was to wire up the Glitch to a panel on it. This patch took me about half an hour to create - this is my first attempt to play it. It's late - I should be asleep!