Press Cafe / Blinken Park

applications

- CommentAuthorstretta
- CommentTimeNov 7th 2007
Two quick Max patches for the 256 plus video examples at http://stretta.com

Press Cafe is the more interesting one.
- CommentAuthorshellfritsch
- CommentTimeNov 7th 2007
whoa! press cafe is amazing!
i wish i had a 256... will this work with the 40h?
- CommentAuthorstretta
- CommentTimeNov 7th 2007
Good question. At first I'd say it wouldn't take much to hack it, but it may even work without modification. I haven't tried it. I might try it out tonight.

I spent most of my time working on something called cygnet, which I should have a demo video of in the next few days.
- CommentAuthorjoel
- CommentTimeNov 7th 2007
i'm glad these run on the 40h too. press cafe is amazing.
- CommentAuthorstretta
- CommentTimeNov 7th 2007
Ugh. My server seems to have chosen now to fall over.

If you're curious about what we're talking about, go to http://stretta.blogspot.com
- CommentAuthorc1t1zen
- CommentTimeNov 7th 2007
YEAH for LASERS!!! I like the Marimba sound you setup and then the cat bassline preset.
Is that a french connection above the 256...Those things are sweet.
I'll have to give this a go tonight, looks like a more controllable flin with more functions.
- CommentAuthorc1t1zen
- CommentTimeNov 7th 2007
just watched the blinken park vid, and I like how you explained the thought process. Its cool to see someone going for one effect (long exposure photo)but it evoles into a good sound app for random MIDI. I guess I have a bunch to play with tonight.
- CommentAuthorstretta
- CommentTimeNov 7th 2007
Yep. That is a French Connection. Cygnet, which I mentioned earlier, was designed for a piece that uses both the 256 and the French Connection. Cygnet is done, and I've spent the past week or so just practicing with it. I need a performance I can do in one 'take' to make a video. I actually made Blinken Park and Press Cafe after Cygnet was completed.

The French Connection is a good foil for the 256. I really love playing something slippery and organic over something max-generated.

One note about the video: I used monome serial's ability to rotate the unit.

The cat I found in a park a little over a week ago. She was a scared pile of matted fur with a cat underneath. Abandoned, it seems. I can't locate the owner whom locals believe moved away recently.
- CommentAuthortehn
- CommentTimeNov 7th 2007
wonderful, wonderful patches. it's really exciting to see some thoughtful design with led/keypad interaction that's also musically interesting and functional.

great video and explanation.
- CommentAuthorbattery collection
- CommentTimeNov 7th 2007
these videos are great and i'm very excited to get my hands on the patches (once your server's back up). press cafe in particular looks incredible; quite a simple, yet very interesting idea.
- CommentAuthorstretta
- CommentTimeNov 8th 2007
servers up (for the time being)
- CommentAuthorstretta
- CommentTimeNov 8th 2007
Holy carp, Press Cafe works on a 40h without modification. It defaults to a 16 step length, so you should really edit the lengths of all the sequences on page 3, first. Just run your finger down the last column of buttons.

Blinken Park works too, for that matter.
- CommentAuthorc1t1zen
- CommentTimeNov 8th 2007
Really Really solid patches. Love that it works on 256 and 40h natively. I can zone out to blinken park for hours and Press Cafe has some really elegant ideas.
Thanks for them both. Now I can't wait to see what cygnet is and hopefully play it also.
- CommentAuthorvladspears
- CommentTimeNov 8th 2007 edited
These are gorgeous, stretta. I love the concept of Press Cafe. Blinken Park is beautiful with a good piano sound through semi-synchronized delays.
- CommentAuthoradam
- CommentTimeNov 8th 2007
I love your subtitles. Especially the cat one.

Monome related humor hits a new niche of nerdiness I didn't know I possessed.
- CommentAuthorc1t1zen
- CommentTimeNov 8th 2007
I just thought I would mention I had to add extensions of .mxb to all the files after I unzipped it for Max to use them on my PC.
- CommentAuthorstretta
- CommentTimeNov 8th 2007
re: Monome-related cat humor
I CAN HAS 256?

re: .mxb
aha - thank you for the tip!
- CommentAuthortehn
- CommentTimeNov 8th 2007
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bean/1152227924/in/set-72157600807276916/

can has
- CommentAuthorStirHouse
- CommentTimeNov 8th 2007
wow, solid work, stretta.

also, on the cat note, you found stray birman? that's pretty rare, IMO.
- CommentAuthorGoumLeChat
- CommentTimeNov 8th 2007
lolcats rules.
- CommentAuthorGoumLeChat
- CommentTimeNov 8th 2007 edited
anyway, Press Cafe works great with my mduw. I'll try to post a little on-the-fly demo.
- CommentAuthorbrink
- CommentTimeNov 8th 2007
cafe press is very very awesome. if you haven't already tried it, it works *great* as a drum sequencer, I've got it running into an impulse instrument rack in Live and set up 16 basic drums sequences in press cafe and it is beautiful.

I want to try to figure out how to add a velocity page and some "stickyness" to the presses so I don't have to keep my fingers held down.
- CommentAuthorstretta
- CommentTimeNov 8th 2007
It wouldn't be difficult to add a velocity page. This is a very good idea. The sticky button presses is another good idea. I implemented this as 'latch mode' in ksd.
- CommentAuthorbrink
- CommentTimeNov 8th 2007
if you ever add a velocity page or a latch mode let me know! I'm having too much fun playing with the patch as-is to try much work on anything thus far...

again, great job...
- CommentAuthorteej
- CommentTimeNov 9th 2007 edited
Press Cafe is so dope. Really, really majorly enjoying this thing on my 40h. Makes me wish I had a 256. Awesome work man!
- CommentAuthormudlogger
- CommentTimeNov 9th 2007
I'm using Press Cafe on the 40h and its superb - a very clever idea.
Reminds me a little bit of Flin and works really well hooked up to Battery in Ableton.
You can get some really glitchy type drum sequences out of it.
The video demo is a big plus and beats the hell out of reading a text document.
Very musical and inspiring.
Thanks for sharing.
- CommentAuthorveiss
- CommentTimeNov 9th 2007
These apps are super awesome.
- CommentAuthorstretta
- CommentTimeNov 9th 2007
gosh, you guys really make it gratifying to make this stuff.

really, the credit should go to monome, whose vision makes all this possible.
- CommentAuthorjesper
- CommentTimeNov 11th 2007
damn you, stretta, for making these awe-inspiring videos and causing me to once more experience a thirst i had hoped to have quenched when i got the 40h. god, how i wish i'd had $1400 when the 256 started selling.
- CommentAuthorveiss
- CommentTimeNov 11th 2007
haha yeah thats exactly why i waited. Ofcourse now theres zero dollars in my bank account, But damn was it worth it.
- CommentAuthormudlogger
- CommentTimeNov 12th 2007
Heres a blatant plug for a short tune i did using Press Cafe yesterday called Pho Ham Long.

You can listen/ download it here :
http://www.myspace.com/mudlogger

Thanks Mr Stretta!
- CommentAuthorc1t1zen
- CommentTimeNov 12th 2007
Nice track mudlogger! How many passes/tracks did that take?
- CommentAuthormudlogger
- CommentTimeNov 13th 2007
Hey thanks - it was done in 2 passes and built around the drums - a lucky accident i guess.

I played live with 40h and Press Cafe with Battery in Ableton and recorded the midi for that track. There are 6 tracks total and these were copied/pasted from the original take to separate tracks / instruments and edited / faded in from there. The strings i played from a midi keyboard on the second take.
- CommentAuthorwingo
- CommentTimeNov 14th 2007
Hey - I've been messing with Press Cafe on my 40h. It's AWESOME, and it *works*, but for some reason the 40h isn't receiving the LED info. All of the buttons just stay lit continuously and don't reflect what is happening in Max. I'm using Monomeserial and OS 10.4, if anyone can offer any advice.

@mudlogger - I just listened to all of your MySpace tracks. Suberb! It looks like we have very similar tastes in music... I've added you as a friend ;) What did you use for 'Going to Work'? Do you have a Wurli? Sounds great!
- CommentAuthorstretta
- CommentTimeNov 14th 2007
Huh. I just opened Blinken Park on a 40h and I can't duplicate the issue. I can't imagine what is causing that problem. Your message did inspire me to make a quick modification to it so it more intelligently supports 64 128 and 256 layouts.

I also updated residue to support a deep edit mode that edits all layers at once. Sort of like a copy and paste. This way you can program a pattern, and then modify other patterns based on that. You can enter this mode via the multiedit menu, or, better, any edits performed while holding down the edit button will affect all patterns.

linkies
http://stretta.blogspot.com/2007/11/strettas-monome-application-roundup.html
- CommentAuthorbean
- CommentTimeNov 14th 2007
@wingo: If you're using an older version of MonomeSerial (pre 0.17) there was a bug that caused the LEDs to misfire when /led messages were sent outside of the 8x8 bounds. It usually eventually led to all LEDs remaining continuously lit until the 40h was unplugged.
- CommentAuthorwingo
- CommentTimeNov 14th 2007 edited
Ahhh, thanks, Bean. That must be it - my version is older. I'll try that out after work when I actually have access to the 40h again.

Hopefully now I too can have the frickin' laserbeam fingers!

I guess I should keep up on the release updates... ;)

edit: That was it! Total workage now. Thanks again.
- CommentAuthormudlogger
- CommentTimeNov 16th 2007
Wingo - sorry i never replied - i've just come out of hospital. Long story..motorbike...Hanoi...hospital...now ok...ish.

Wuly sound is Lounge Lizard 3 through Rev 6 (Reaktor ensemble) reverb.

I'll check out myspace.

Thanks
- CommentAuthormapmap
- CommentTimeJan 29th 2008
next to MLR, Press Cafe is my favorite monome app!

is there a way to save patterns as presets? i see the preset boxes on the edit_custom_map page but those don't effect the patterns, right?
- CommentAuthormarekbuk
- CommentTimeFeb 11th 2008
I just found this thread - Stretta has done great work with these little apps - I hacked Blinkin park to work with my 40h and added a couple more midi channels/voices. see

http://post.monome.org/comments.php?DiscussionID=776&page=1#Item_0

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Press Cafe / Blinken Park