KVR Audio

~Pd~ · Post by **~Pd~** » Wed Dec 05, 2012 5:43 pm

My personal favorite iPad control surface is now on sale at 50% off!

Easily worth every penny at full price, Konkreet Performer is a steal at 11.99.

http://konkreetlabs.com/2012/12/05/kpreaktorsale/

sazb30 · Post by **sazb30** » Wed Dec 05, 2012 9:56 pm

Thanks for letting us know about that little bargain Peter! just wondering why you like this one so much? How does this one compare to other control apps like TouchOsc and Lemur? Is it easy to use? Are there templates available?

Sorry for all the questions but keen to hear your thoughts!

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Wed Dec 05, 2012 10:13 pm

I love KP - personally I find it more fluid, dynamic and inspiring to use than Lemur (I have both though). Pity about the slow pace of development though.

Echoes in the Attic · Wed Dec 05, 2012 10:20 pm

aMUSEd wrote:I love KP - personally I find it more fluid, dynamic and inspiring to use than Lemur (I have both though). Pity about the slow pace of development though.

Yeah I bought it a few weeks back, but haven't really used it much since I don't want to use an in between app to tanslate osc to midi for Ableton Live. However now that Reaktor can use Osc as a plug-in it might get some more use.

It would be nice to see it send direct midi soon though. I htink they've working on that for a long time.

~Pd~ · Post by **~Pd~** » Thu Dec 06, 2012 3:13 pm

sazb30 wrote:Thanks for letting us know about that little bargain Peter! just wondering why you like this one so much? How does this one compare to other control apps like TouchOsc and Lemur? Is it easy to use? Are there templates available?

Sorry for all the questions but keen to hear your thoughts!

I will cut and paste something I wrote in this blog post: What Konkreet does, and does well, is translate touch into control in ways that are both simple and complex, in the right ways - simple in that setting up a layout is easy and direct - and complex in that parameters can describe not just touches and movements, but the relationships between different touches and movements. Unexpectedly cool things ensue.

Asking how it compares to other products is like asking how cheese compares to grapes. You want both. But my GOD, this cheese, this cheese... As Sarah Silverman put it,

Is it easy to use? Yes, absolutely. It's best with something that natively receives OSC like Reaktor but there are free translators available on the Konkreetlabs site to translate to MIDI. The Pure Data one is super.

Once you start working with it, it goes deep. It's not a bunch of knobs and sliders. Each node has many parameters and knowing which one to map to which synth parameter takes a little thought and testing. I prefer the angle and length parameters, and the angle and length to next-node.

This pays off when you have your synth or sampler patch and nodes arranged, turn on inertia, grab the center node and move it... and your entire sound goes BWAAAAAAOOOOOGHHHHHH in like 24 dimensions, then drifts back into its original place. Dragging it in a different direction shifts it into a different dimension - say, there are elves in this one - and back again. No other controller can do that.

Instead of templates, it has banks - each bank can have a different number of nodes, different appearance, and different inertia, and the ribbon can appear or not (the ribbon is multitouch, so cool).

So I dunno what else to tell you - I've had it for a year and a half and I love it more and more. It's changed my approach to sound more than anything since Metaphysical Function came out in... 2004, was it? Wow, time flies.

tdmusic · Post by **tdmusic** » Thu Dec 06, 2012 3:23 pm

Had it on my AppShopper want list since it came out but when I saw the price drop, I wondered whether I'd actually ever use it - ~pd~, your post just sold it to me

Nice one!

BMoore · Post by **BMoore** » Thu Dec 06, 2012 3:42 pm

Does this thing do virtual midi yet?

~Pd~ · Post by **~Pd~** » Thu Dec 06, 2012 6:09 pm

tdmusic wrote:Had it on my AppShopper want list since it came out but when I saw the price drop, I wondered whether I'd actually ever use it - ~pd~, your post just sold it to me Nice one!

Awesome. I really believe in this gem of an app and I'm glad people are jumping on the price drop.

~Pd~ · Post by **~Pd~** » Thu Dec 06, 2012 6:12 pm

BMoore wrote:Does this thing do virtual midi yet?

Not yet but it's coming. Afraid I can't say anything more specific.

sazb30 · Post by **sazb30** » Thu Dec 06, 2012 8:46 pm

I've bought this and have been reading through the user guide and checking out the website.. It looks like a really amazing app. Now I'm kinda new to all this and I haven't actually started playing with it yet but the thing I can't figure out from the manual is how to actually map parameters to the nodes.. Am I right in thinking that I would do that in Reaktor using the new drag and drop mapping functionality?

Thanks for any help

~Pd~ · Post by **~Pd~** » Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:11 pm

That's right, in Reaktor 5.8.0 you drag and drop a node parameter right onto a control. The control can also send OSC back to Konkreet for node angle and length from center node, so the positions update when you change snaps.

For MIDI, the best thing at the moment is the Pure Data translator, which lets you map parameters to MIDI CCs and trigger each CC one at a time to do MIDI learn on your target.

sazb30 · Post by **sazb30** » Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:25 pm

Thanks Peter. I guess I need to fire up Reaktor and just get stuck in! The Reaktor user guides that you linked on your blog are really helpful for getting the basic config up and running.. Seems pretty straightforward

Thanks again!

P.S have you tried controlling Metaphysical Function with KP? That's one of my favourites...

~Pd~ · Post by **~Pd~** » Fri Dec 07, 2012 1:28 pm

Coincidentally I was just looking at Metaphysical the other night re: KP. I'll have another look this weekend. I think the thing to do, surprisingly, is avoid the automated faders entirely and control functions directly with node parameters.

I do have plans for automated faders and Konkreet, just not the faders in Metaphysical. They're too fiddly with actions to arm, enable and finish recording and start playing.

~Pd~ · Post by **~Pd~** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 11:40 am

As a little bonus for Konkreet users, I've reskinned and refreshed my poly theremin ensemble, with some features from the Chroma sequencer.

Here's what it sounds like:

https://soundcloud.com/peterdines/konkr ... y-theremin

And here's what it looks like:

Get it here!

Aural Chaos · Post by **Aural Chaos** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 3:43 pm

Bought it, and Chroma Gris Gris, over the weekend. Your synth is amazing- keep up the awesome work!
KP is pretty cool too...

Konkreet Performer 50% sale!