We received some news from Julien (jul on Vimeo) who has been working on an application for AudioCubes since a while. The software is built in Max/MSP from Cycling74, for which we provide a development kit to talk directly to the hardware.

We first heard from Julien while he was working on a firmware upgrade for the Monome:

With my firmware modification, it can make very nice visuals. I’m also one of the main developers of serial-pyio, which interfaces the monome with applications such as PD or chuck. Initially serial-pyio was developed to make the monome usable under linux. I must say I love the AudioCubes. I elaborated a similar concept, but my idea was mostly a decorative one. I wanted the cube the color of the cube to be determined by their physical arrangement. This is very related to my PhD work.

About the application:

The patch is a rhythm box. You have 3 different instruments: bass drum, snare drum, hit hat. It is standalone and does not require external instruments. For each instrument you can define sequences and change some synthesis parameters. You can dynamically select a sequence and it will be played at the end of the current one. Instruments can be synchronized and you can set a different tempo for each of them, enabling you to make some poly-rhythmic sequences. Cubes are used to control playback of loops (play/pause) and record loops. Each cube controls an instrument.

We hope to do an in-depth interview soon with Julien. Stay tuned!