Can’t speak for anyone else… but I didn’t listen to the embarrassing “poor recording and sound quality version of Inspire”, so I don’t know what you mean, if that makes you feel better haha.
Ah, I’ll have to stick with the learning curve then (I admit pressing through learning a complicated foreign system isn’t one of my strengths).
For a couple years I’ve wanted a monome (http://monome.org/), have you heard of them? They’re pretty expensive, and they always sell out fast whenever they make more available to purchase, but they do sell a kit with some of the main components (if you have a soldering iron and know how to use it you could save a little money that way, though I’m not sure if it comes with every part required for a finished product).
I think their website also includes a list of parts, and a guide on how to assemble your own (if the site doesn’t have the former, I know these are available online). My eyes crossed as soon as I began looking over one of the guides, so I was too intimidated to seriously consider finding the parts and building my own, but for whatever reason (that I can’t really actually “reason” ) my mind just tells me yours is good at and enjoys “that kind of complicated technological/mechanical/programming stuff”, based off reading a list of your hobbies and ongoing projects–most of which I can’t recall with any accuracy.
Okay, I left the small italicized paragraph below in case anyone wants to read, but in the middle of writing it out I decided “my ‘explanation’ of this is useless”, and I’m not going to bother continuing it. I already planned to include a link, so you can see for yourself.
I ended up adding more and more links. I like the last two the most, as I think they better explain the possible functions and uses of the device.
This is a video about the Monome, by the creators of the device (this is mostly out of respect for the makers of monome, it doesn’t demonstrate the device all that much):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1tTABS_Ugs
a demonstration of the Monome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0A8xR8ieek&feature=related
And another demonstration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJwxbTKwONc&feature=fvw
****a very cool demonstration that includes some quotes by (at least one of) the creator(s) of Monone, explaining his inspirations of the device, and its uses, with clips specifying the qualities and uses of some of the specific softwares/programs (I guess…?) that can be downloaded (for free from their website) and used with the device:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAyjcONJcaY&feature=related
***I think this is a really cool video that shows how sounds can be linked to monomes and utilized to improvise in the moment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkowz_OVz2s&feature=related
[size=85]I only have a vague understanding of this kind of thing, but as I understand it basically the monome is an open source device, pretty simple in (at least exterior look/) design, which–via plugging it into a computer’s usb port–can run various music-based programs/software (as a the intended specialty, I think, it isn’t limited to music), oftentimes simultaneously (or always? assuming the softwares don’t contradict each other…? i dunno ), which seems to offer a lot of creative potential for making music. Certain buttons can be assigned certain functions, it seems, which behave in different ways/result in different things depending on how they are pressed (tapped, double tapped, held down, etc.), what other buttons are activated (and how) around them, etc. Sometimes they seem to just make a noise, sometimes they will loop a file, sometime’s they’ll cause a new program/function to start (… that’s what it loo[/size]