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Lemur (input device)

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Lemur Control Surface

The Lemur Input Device is a highly customizable multi-touch device from French company JazzMutant founded by Yoann Gantch, Pascal Joguet, Guillaume Largillier and Julien Olivier in 2002,[1] which serves as a controller for musical devices such as synthesizers and mixing consoles, as well as for other media applications such as video performances. As an audio tool, the Lemur's role is equivalent to that of a MIDI controller in a MIDI studio setup, except that the Lemur uses the Open Sound Control (OSC) protocol, a high-speed networking replacement for MIDI. The controller is especially well-suited for use with Reaktor and Max/MSP, tools for building custom software synthesizers. It is currently discontinued in light of competition from current multitouch input computers.

Creating an interface

The Lemur comes with its own proprietary software called the JazzEditor to create interfaces. Users can build interfaces using a selection of 15 different objects (including fader, knobs, pads, sliders...), group them as modules and arrange them using as many pages as needed. Each object can then receive any MIDI or OSC attribute. A particularity of the Lemur is the ability to modify the physical behavior of each object (for instance adding or removing friction on faders). The internal memory of the Lemur enables the storage of many interfaces, each one controlling a specific software for instance.

Rebirth

The Lemur has been made into an app for iOS and Android by the company Liine (founded by Richie Hawtin).[2]

Dead Again

On September 1, 2022, Liine announced that "we’ve reached a point where this is simply no longer sustainable" and promised to remove the Lemur app from Mac and iOS App Stores [3]

Lemur development has stopped and the app will be removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store on 01 September 2022.

It was a difficult decision to make but one for which the time had come. Collectively our team have been working with Lemur in its various iterations since as far back as 2005 when the original multitouch hardware version was released, before the birth of the iPhone and when touchscreens could only track a single touch. Bringing the Lemur to iOS and Android and helping to democratise and make affordable this kind of advanced music control via touch was a dream that we were thrilled to accomplish. From watching Daft Punk in the pyramid to witnessing the first ever live jam between Earth and orbit, working with Lemur has been full of inspiring firsts. The list of notable artists and performances featuring Lemur in one of its incarnations is simply too numerous to list here. It's a tool which has facilitated and inspired and we are constantly humbled by the tens of thousands of users who continue to use Lemur in their daily sound design, composition and performance practice. Unfortunately, the realities of business mean that Lemur was always a labour of love and we’ve reached a point where this is simply no longer sustainable. In recent years the core partners have been focussing on their new journeys and taking care of Lemur became something we did in our spare time. Now we must move on. We wanted to bow out as gracefully as possible so, in this final year, we strove to update Lemur to full compatibility with the latest versions of iOS and MacOS. We hope that this will allow as many of our users as possible a generous margin of time to transition to their next control setup. If you wish to continue using Lemur please be sure to update the app before we take it off the store. Once Lemur is removed from the store, there’s sadly no way we can help you update.

Of course, we would be delighted if Lemur found yet another way to live on and any serious inquiries can be directed to us by email at [omitted]. For now though, It’s been an honour [sic] serving this community of musicians and creators and we must bid our primate friend of studio and stage farewell.

Thanks, Liine team


Famous users

The Lemur has been used by several famous artists.[4]

Users not in source

See also

References

  1. ^ "Behind the Lemur".
  2. ^ "Lemur – Liine". Liine.net. Retrieved 2013-05-09.
  3. ^ "Lemur – Liine". Liine.net. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
  4. ^ "Artists". JazzMutant. Archived from the original on 2006-12-05. Retrieved 2013-05-09.
  5. ^ "Bjork + ReacTable and Lemur = Tangible Interactive Musical Fun".
  6. ^ "Daft Punk's JazzMutant Lemur Multitouch Modular Controller".
  7. ^ "M.I.A.'s Jazzmutant Lemur multi touch MIDI and OSC Controller".
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