Audio Science

Recently some small start-up companies in the audio field have been introducing very forward-thinking products. Two of the most prominent of these are the monome 40h and the genoQs Octopus. Here’s a little bit about both of these.

Monome’s 40h is a bank of 64 back-lit buttons that works very flexibly as a basic MIDI controller, as a versatile pattern programmer, and as a tremendous live performance tool. It is extremely versatile and programmable, and using the backlights, provides amazing visual feedback for creative use. US price: $500 - the 40h is handmade in Philadelphia.

Monome is ending production of the 40h to work on the 100h (the same thing but with 96 buttons), and to figure out a business model that will work better for them, as handmaking the 40h has not been as profitable as it needs to.

If you (like me) are just jumping out of your seat to get one of these, but can’t budget it at the moment, and are worried that you won’t be able to get it again, don’t worry too much. On the monome forums, used 40h’s are often for sale directly from users. And of course, if they mass-produce the 100h when it comes out, the price may be even lower than the 40h’s current tag.

The genoQs Octopus is another absolutely amazing pattern programmer. It is a hardware pattern sequencer with extremely vast possibilities for live performance. To use this as a live pattern programmer would be a tremendous effort, but the creative possibilities of it are astounding. To understand it at all, I’d encourage you to watch the videos of it in use.

Also handmade, the Octopus, with its even greater possibilities than the 40h, costs more than a Clavia Stage keyboard at $3,299.00. It can be ordered directly from genoQs, and they will make it for you, or, in the US, it can be ordered from Analogue Haven in Pomona, CA, where they usually have it in stock. Price above quoted from Analogue Haven.

Both of these units are extremely desirable for anyone making pattern-based music, or using loops in their music or performances (which is just about everybody these days), and especially for those of us looking to expand our live performance potential. Needless to say, I would love to get my hands on either one!!
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