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[BJG145]

Spent the morning on a renewed effort to figure out the latest addition to the alien MIDI controller collection - a Snyderphonics Manta I recently spotted on eBay.



It's pretty cool; the pads can be controlled to light up in different colours and transmit variable OSC or CCs or whatever via USB according to coverage. But, boy, it's quite hard work, this one. There's no real Windows support, just OSX and Linux, so I had to dig out a borrowed Mac laptop which I barely understand and spend several fruitless hours experimenting with Manta Max objects. But I finally got it working just now via some obscure utility called "MantaJUCE", and played some twinkly sounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsTtej-5UqI

Happy now, but exhausted. Forget about trying to grasp the Wicki-Hayden note layout; I'm heading down the pub.

[Martin Walker]

That does look extremely smart, but like so many controllers, the more difficult it is to set up and then use, the less likely you are to use it regularly.

I wish you luck - do let us know how creative you find it once you're up to speed


Martin

[BJG145]

...cheers, yeah, I'll plug away at it. There's definitely something appealing about it...

Being Max-orientated, it's prompted me to spend some time trying to understand Max for Live, which is an amazingly powerful piece of software.

This was the original SOS report:

https://www.soundonsound.com/news/snyderphonics-manta

Snyderphonics seems to be mostly a bloke called Jeff who sits around in a studio with a dog doing experiments on trombones.

[Martin Walker]

Ah!!

(to the dog - not the trombones )


Martin

[BJG145]

If you like the dog, you'll love this lizard.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmgCD6KAAZc/

http://gechologic.com/

[Martin Walker]

Coolio!


Martin