Ritchie Hawtin, John Acquaviva and a small group called Liine have created an Ableton specific iPad controller called Griid. It looks interesting. I’m usually sweating and holding a microphone on stage but I am constantly running back behind the laptop to adjust and control things. A small sturdy stand at the very front of the stage with the iPad and Liine or touchAble on could be a solution. Who knows with one of those OtterBox Defender cases maybe I wouldn’t need the stand. I could just carry and leave the iPad various places on stage like I do with my mic sometimes. I’m going to try out Griid this weekend although I’m still a little skeptical. I do think eventually something like this will work but we are not quite there yet. Maybe I’m wrong? Let me know if you tried Griid out.

“Griid is an advanced clip grid interface which allows you to control Ableton Live (running on your desktop or laptop) from your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. Using specially developed touch objects and simple gestures, Griid is carefully designed with the performance experience in mind. Finely tuned for rapid navigation, you can enjoy the freedom of playing Live sets of any size with ease. Explicit visual feedback means that you have all the information you need, quite literally at your fingertips. Combined with wireless operation, this means you can perform with Ableton Live without ever needing to look at the computer screen.” – http://liine.net/

For more info: http://liine.net/

Reader James Turner emailed in to let me know about this video of Ritchie Hawtin aka Plastikman rehearsing at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival 2010 (DEMF). Hawtin likes to use new tech and also knows the value of hype so it doesn’t surprise me he has a few iPads and a Lemur on stage. Ritchie had the recording studio next to mine for a while when I was in Berlin. He stopped by my room a few times and checked out my Electrocomp-101. I also performed at a few events where he performed including a bowling alley in the early 90s. Always a nice guy and even if you don’t like his music overall he has a few hits that you can’t deny are great.

“Hawtin was born in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, but moved when he was aged 9 to LaSalle, Ontario, a suburb of Windsor, Ontario, and just across the river from Detroit, the birthplace of techno. His father worked as a robotics technician at General Motors, and was a fan of electronic music, introducing his son to Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream at an early age. He has one brother, Matthew, who is a visual artist and ambient music DJ. Hawtin attended Sandwich Secondary High School in LaSalle. He began to DJ in clubs in Detroit at 17, and his early style was a mix of house music and techno.” – Wikipedia.org

What’s your favorite Hawtin track?

For more info: plastikman.com

I met Ritche Hawtin a few times. I played a bowling alley with him in the early 90′s. We were set up inside the area that gives out the rental shoes. More recently in Berlin he moved into the studio next to me. Beyond being a friendly guy he’s got some great marketing tool ideas. I really like his latest move which sends Tweets of whatever track he’s playing directly from Native Instruments Traktor to Twitter. Here’s the copy:

“Pioneering techno DJ Richie Hawtin has announced the development of a new Twitter application that enables him to broadcast his Traktor tracklists in real time over the network. The custom Twitter application was developed in-house by Richie Hawtin’s label Minus, and it works by uploading song metadata through Traktor Pro’s inbuilt broadcasting functionality. Track details are automatically posted to Richie Hawtin’s Twitter account every 30 seconds (you can already see Traktor tracklist updates on his Twitter), giving anyone access to the tracklist of his performance, and providing exposure to the artists and labels whose music is being played.” – beatportal.com

Follow Ritchie on Twitter: click here and follow me (Oliver Chesler) too: click here

photo credit: cena carioca

Related post: Use Twitter as a promotion tool for your music.