The I/O Explore drop-in workshop is the place for music makers, artists, hackers, and creative technologists to explore new input and output ideas for music & sound creation and performance.

Ever imagined using your webcam to manipulate a synthesizer? Can you create a sound pallette using weather data inputs from the web? Have you wanted to turn musical elements into light or physical actions through servos and motors? What other inputs and outputs can you dream of connecting to your music?   

Mentors from Ableton’s Sound Team will setup a three-day drop-in workshop challenging music makers and tinkerers to explore new possibilities for interaction and interesting ways to extend music and performance. Using the Max for Live Connection Kit, a free toolkit currently under development for Ableton Live, the team will build and present examples of input/output ideas, and offer drop-in support and hands-on guidance to anyone wanting to explore new ways to connect, control and monitor Live using things like Arduino, Lego Mindstorms, Leap Motion and communications protocols like OSC and json.

Play with existing examples or bring your Live-enabled laptop and devices (eg. Arduinos, OSC-compatible apps). We’ll provide the pack and help you to get started.

Max Connection Kit

In a connected world, it feels like we should be able to take inputs or outputs from practically anywhere and connect to them to anywhere else. Max Connection Kit is an under-development free pack from Ableton that makes it simpler than ever before to create new and interesting ways to interact with and extend Live: explore music with physical actions using Lego Mindstorms or Arduino to connect up sensors and motors. Enable new types of input from and Leap Motion. Open your sound world up to the web through APIs. Turn OSC data to MIDI, note and CC to easily connect Live with VVVV, Processing and many other software platforms.