Cool Control Surfaces

I'm loving the new controllers coming out that are built to integrate with Ableton Live, which I use as my main composition tool. They mimic the software program's grid and allow you to "play" a physical surface, allowing the software to reach into the actual (not virtual) world, where our hands and bodies can interact. Composers and musicians and DJs especially love Live because of its clip view. You can use it to launch entire sets of songs, all tempo matched, and intuitively mix, add additional tempo matched (or not) flourishes, integrate virtual instruments, etc. Composers can arrange and mix variations of a tune by launching individual parts at will. All on the fly. And now with these cool controllers we have tons of buttons and sliders to "play" the software with.

1 Akai's APC40 ABLETON PERFORMANCE CONTROLLER, $349
This thing is awsome, integrating a sliders, knobs the huge pad grid. Here is what they say about it:

The unusual front panel of the APC40 is packed with glowing buttons. It looks this way because it's designed to let you to take complete control of Live's unique Session View. Session View features a grid that allows you to load audio and MIDI clips into its cells. You can play and stop each of these clips in any sequence, and you can launch groups of clips together as a "scene." You can choose to have the software time-stretch and quantize all of these sounds so they flow together musically. It's an extremely simple yet wildly creative approach to manipulating sound, but until now there has been no true hardware solution that could free the user from staring deeply into their computer monitor with a mouse in their hand.

2 Novation LAUNCHPAD, $199
I like Novation's version better. It's cheaper, has a cooler minimal design, and even though it doesn't have sliders you can mix by switching modes and sliding up and down a column of the buttons. You should really check out the promotional video. Here's some of their description:

Each button has three color states so you can see at a glance what's loaded (orange), what's playing (green), and what's being recorded (red). Similarly, Live's interface tells you what section of the Session View the Launchpad is currently controlling. This two-way communication ensures that Launchpad and Ableton Live are always perfectly in sync.

Launchpad doesn't just launch clips. Switch to "mixer mode" and the same button grid offers a unique way to control Ableton Live's mixer. Volume, pans, sends, track arming, soloing and muting can all be controlled via the grid. Using buttons instead of dials, Launchpad lets you jump to different levels across 8 channels at once, useful for controlling multiple effects sends.

Again, software is finding it's way to our physical world, where we can interact in a natural, physical way.

3 This is an plain old ACCORDION
That's right, not a cool midi controller at all. So what's the point here? Just that there is really nothing new going on. Accordions have been integrating rows of buttons to trigger chords and notes in a really similar way for 200 years. It made sense then, and it still does. So why'd it take so long for the manufacturers to figure this out again? I don't know, but I'm glad they did.

But if you really want a midi accordion, you can have that too. Roland's V-Accordion goes for about $1600.