Build Your Own Touch Screen Interface

As computers become ever more like instruments in their own right (beyond simulating traditional instruments), it is important to devise appropriate interfaces for coaxing a truly musical performance from them. The use of touchscreen technology is one direction being explored in relation to improving this experience…

DEAF Drummer Touch

As well as being used for live performance sequencing and synthesis, computers now serve as a replacement for vast racks of hardware that used to fill recording studios, and interacting with such complex production equipment is not best done with a mouse.

Seeking to create a more intuitive process, the folks over at AudioLemon created a nifty touch screen drum machine for last weekend’s Dublin Electronic Arts Festival.

This was done using MAX/MSP and a $65 touch screen, and they’ve come up with something that looks quite similar to JazzMutant’s Dexter or Lemur. It may not be multi-touch, but is a couple of grand cheaper, so this route is definitely worth investigating if you want an exotic and impressive interface for your live sets but don’t have vast wads of cash weighing you down.