Did you ever wish you could use your Launchpad grid controller to play notes like you can on a MIDI keyboard? Now you can!
GridInstrument connects to your Launchpad external grid controller and lets you it like a MIDI controller! Better still, it works together with any music software that accepts MIDI input.
A new version (0.9) of GridInstrument is out. It features:
– Ability to set the MIDI velocity level to a fixed value. – Ability to set the MIDI velocity to random value within a range (for example, random between 95 and 105, to give a more natural feel). – Ability to set row overlap/offset like on Launchpad Pro – you can find this in the Layout menu.
When I was a kid, a bunch of my friends had the same little musical toy. It was about a quarter of an inch thick, about the size of a smartphone; it featured a row of rubbery buttons which, when pressed, would play different notes on a scale. It was, essentially, a tiny, very primitive synthesizer.
Electron ECHO Mini Piano from 1980s (Photo by Flickr user Kasten)
It was the oddest little device: it could only play one note at a time, had no Off switch, and it came in a little sort of wallet thing with a cover that you could close when you weren’t using it. I never saw one on sale at a toy shop, either. It seemed to be something that only existed at my friends’ houses.
Well, last year, I did a bit of research. It turns out that the toy was called the Echo Electron, although it was actually sold under a variety of names. The reason that I never saw one in a toy store is that they were actually sold via mailorder. Go figure.
Even stranger is that it seems they’re still being made, although the packaging has changed slightly since the 80s. Needless to say, I had one shipped from China for the princely sum of $1.99. Here’s what it looks like:
HC-02 Mini Piano from 2016
It sounds exactly like I remembered: the notes all lasted the same amount of time, and the pitch wasn’t 100% constant. It would start one one note and slowly slide down a half step as it got softer and softer. As an instrument, it’s terrible. Ostensibly, the notes are supposed to form a major scale, but the pitches drift so terribly from one note to the next that by the time you reach the top of the scale, you are actually in a different key from where you were at the bottom.
Anyway, I opened it up, and plugged the little speaker wires directly into the audio jack of my sound card and recorded. Now, I’ve made multisamples (SFZ, Ableton 9.7, Kontakt 5.6) for those who wish to use them with their music software. I’ve done my best to tune the instrument so that it is in key, although that’s very difficult for an instrument that doesn’t hold its pitch (you may find yourself adjusting some of the samples by hand as needed.) What else? I’ve added polyphony, and I’ve also expended the key range so that you are not limited to the major scale that the actual instrument plays.
The littleBits Korg Synth Kit sounds great, but it’s exceedingly hard to use for musical purposes because its oscillators don’t stay in tune for more than a few minutes at a time. After a few frustrating afternoons of trying to record a synth lead with this thing, I decided the only way that I would be able to use it is if I created a multisample out of it.
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Decidedly is proud to announce our first version of Floyd’s Worthwhile Endeavor for Android and Amazon FireTV!
Release Notes:
A new game element: Parrots! See the parrots in the following levels: Â 2, 3, 4, 9, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 29, 33, 36, 37, 41, 42, 47, 48, 50.
Tons of bug fixes in this release: better controls, graphics tweaks.
External controller support should be a bit more solid
That’s right, if you have an Amazon FireTV you can now play Floyd’s Worthwhile Endeavor in your living room.
A new background music song (hear it in levels 41, 42, and 46)!
Two gorgeous new level backgrounds
A counter on the main screen that shows your total number of hats
Finding Floyd slips off those platforms a little too easily? Now, you can reduce his running speed by changing the “Controller Sensitivity” setting in the “Settings” dialog. (More virtual gamepad settings on the way.)
If you are a GameCenter user, your game progress should now sync across all of your devices.
