A composer's best friend // Conductive Labs, Steve Barile // Synth Design Podcast

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A composer's best friend // Conductive Labs, Steve Barile // Synth Design Podcast

Рет қаралды 9,976

2 жыл бұрын

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About this episode:
The concept of noodling on a guitar is one we are all familiar with, but how do you noodle on a synth? Conductive Labs took the notion of noodling (or freestyle playing) on synths as the starting point for their NDRL sequencer.
Rather than playing with notes, with the NDLR you play high-level concepts - chord progressions, arpeggiators and how they interact with one another. It's like conducting a little quartet rather than playing an individual instrument. And this might sound like playing Ableton, but it's very different than that. With the NDLR you don't mix between pre-recorded samples, but rather mix musical concepts. This way of playing informs the interface directly. There is no way to add individual notes precisely. Instead, you sequence ideas and progressions with a set of pre-defined rules.
Putting design aside for a moment, in this conversation we go well beyond design and engineering. We discuss the challenges of fabrication and DFM (design for manufacturing). Producing instruments in China, or from home, and what it actually means to turn a prototype into a product that's produced by the thousands.‍

Пікірлер: 41

@flaminggarlic 2 жыл бұрын

That thing Steve mentions where there's always someone who reacts to noob questions aggressively is part of what I've been taking to calling the stack exchange meta-game. You always have these response "archetypes" where there's one or two people who bite your head off, another person who will retype your entire question and fix your punctuation errors, someone who will accuse you of trying to get them to do your homework, but then also there will be two or three people who will engage the question in earnest and attempt to help you with your problem. It's just about the same everywhere you go on the internet.

@09876username 3 ай бұрын

Thank you Steve. It is uncommon to find someone on KZfaq that is willing to be so forthcoming about addressing all of the details to bring a product to market. I’m ordering my NDLR later tonight. Best of luck with the MIDI Router Control Center with its variants and other products in the future.

@09876username 3 ай бұрын

Thank you Roey. I appreciate the time & effort that you invested in producing this video and all your other work at Synthux Academy. You have inspired my curiosity to learn more about how to integrate the user experience into industrial design. Fundamentally the Conductive Lab products fascinate me because they seem to work so intuitively by simply putting the right buttons in the right place. I’m also a fan of Teenage Engineering products, especially the OP-Z. Once a user masters it’s idiosyncrasies, the workflow of the product has allowed me to create and make first recording in as little as five minutes. I’m not a musician or an engineer, but with the right tools, making music can be a lot of fun.

@danpreston564 6 ай бұрын

Very interesting to hear that staying diatonic was the point. When I first saw the machine I asked about being able to bring in other chords like secondary dominants or parallel major chords. Nowadays the chord sequencer should let me do this. My NDLR is due this week!

@korynt3984 2 жыл бұрын

I wish for a second part with a deeper dive on manufacturing.

@SynthuxAcademy 2 жыл бұрын

Sure. Let me know what questions you'd like to answer and I'll see how I add them in other interviews. You can join our Discord also, to ask. Steve is there and many others.

@markwhitehead7096 2 жыл бұрын

This is a great video, Thank you for bringing this fantastic discussion to the public.

@SynthuxAcademy 2 жыл бұрын

You are very welcome. Thanks for taking the time.

@fcf8269 10 күн бұрын

It is fascinating to hear how these projects start, and at the same time scary to hear how you work in a large corporation and have people 2 cubicles away that make groundbreaking tech you have access to, and then you may leave that company and start your own product and potentially make something that could be inspired by what you saw there. I doubt that Intel will ever watch this interview, but it is always good to break down where a product relation with your previous employer may stop, to avoid any potential problem in the future.

@DrJosephSweeney 2 жыл бұрын

Very interesting discussion on manufacturing. I find the NDLR to be exceptionally well-made and the passion shines through.

@rocl420 Жыл бұрын

Fantastic interview, thank you. The MRCC is the MVP in my studio with only 6 unused I/O ports. I love Conductive Labs' approach and I really hope to see more NDLRs get pumped out soon. Like the Linnstrument, I think it's a gateway controller that really opens up making music to so many more people that might be intimidated by traditional instrument interfaces (keys, strings, etc).

@DECIMA1 2 жыл бұрын

Bro such a cool video I want the ndlr sooo bad. Also dude I'm you 1000th sub!! An honor!!!!!

@SynthuxAcademy 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! And cooool! 🍻

@MikkelGrumBovin Жыл бұрын

Those dudes from Conductive Labs had been AMAZING , both custumer friendly Wise , always answering questions and always eager to hear from users , about wishes for updates and new future products - Super legit Company 👍✨

@SynthuxAcademy Жыл бұрын

Indeed! Steve has been so generous with his knowledge. Thanks for stopping by to watch :)

@stoneware 2 жыл бұрын

Great interview !

@SynthuxAcademy 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

@bilonggrisimmeri 2 жыл бұрын

My first Kickstarter was the NDLR, so thanks for sharing your back story. It was quite a ride, both for Steve Barile, Daryl and myself. I sat with my NDLR on my lap, watching this video; how the design evolved. It brought back memories of how you handled the delays, with regular update emails and photos of the Chinese technicians. I saw the end of manufacturing in Birmingham in the UK, and am very sorry. Will it ever return, or is everyone too important to "get their hands dirty"? Computer literate people in the West are the Lords of Creation, with the masses barely able to fix a dripping tap. Not good.

@moldythoughts4765 2 жыл бұрын

15 min in and I have found a solution for an issue I HAD, got motivated to finish my arduino project and found a new channel to sub to...

@SynthuxAcademy 2 жыл бұрын

That's awesome! Keep me posted with your progress. Always curious what people are working on.

@moldythoughts4765 2 жыл бұрын

Big up!

@NicolasKaniak 2 жыл бұрын

this is very inspiring

@SynthuxAcademy 2 жыл бұрын

Cheers!

@FilipeLopesbr 2 жыл бұрын

Hi, I recently bought one in Brazil and it's amazing... I would suggest having a line in a midi channel with a more active bassline with nuances designed to spice up this wonderful hardware, that would allow for more types of usage in other styles, like techno, house and funky... This update could be interesting! Thanks and see you later !!!

@alexbreugelmans8448 3 күн бұрын

Problem is that after years of using Adobe and gathering plugins, changing to another program is difficult because you/I lose the use of these plugins. Affinity should import plugins, but not mine ;).

@marcofsw 5 ай бұрын

Just ordered mine… is there any support for working with the musical modes? Or corresponding scales?

@RAFAELLO077 2 жыл бұрын

please make a VCV version :)

@theoliviaarchives4794 2 жыл бұрын

They seem great, but I am reluctant to buy one because I worry about the quality. 1:38:48

@a1o1 2 жыл бұрын

Really expected the NDLR to get more software updates after it launched...

@markwhitehead7096 2 жыл бұрын

It started to make sense when he said it was basically just an Arduino script “c” and that programming it was a struggle. It’s a shame because I have no doubt there are things that could be updated if it was easier to to do. Fingers crossed there is an update in the works.

@flaminggarlic 2 жыл бұрын

It's had something like 76 updates to date and is still being updated, although it's slowed down around the MRCC development. There is an immanent release on the horizon though that deals with some of the timing issues related to the Chord Sequencer and controlling it externally via CC messages. I hope to get that out in the next couple of weeks.

@danpreston564 6 ай бұрын

I’d just like to point out, having spent years in commercial printing, we did have white ink printers.