Once in a while we are participating in an event in our own country. That’s an event by itself!
This will be the case next February where the academic group iMAL will host us.
In their own words, iMAL is a Center for Digital Cultures and Technology, a place where the artists are frequently coders, and average musicians carry network cables.

The event is spread over three days.

The exhibition of prototype installations and performances are open to all on Saturday and Sunday.
The main language during conferences and workshops is French, but Q&A sessions can be held in English.

Friday 19 and Saturday 20
Professional days with conferences and presentation of ongoing works at iMAL, dida, GMEA and LaBRI
Among other topics, we’ll hear about Jamoma/tapemovie, the Virage interactive sequencer, the Engine for newbies, and CopperLan.
Performances and installations in the evening.

Sunday 21
Various performances and installations

Details and contact: www.iMAL.org

Until CopperLan is ready for final release to the general public, we continue our presentations behind the scenes.
For the NAMM show, we will have a demo room at the Hilton hotel, just across the street.
All the latest hardware and software developments will be on display.

Visits are by appointment only. Please contact us.

In preparation of the forthcoming release of the Freeware SDK, we are looking for developers wanting to evaluate and comment on the current version.

Interested candidates should be creative enthusiasts with a good track record and high skills.
If you think you fit the bill, drop us a note presenting yourself with links to your developments.

When music synthesis was not digital and even less virtual, all what cables were carrying was voltage. Were it audio or control, anything could be sent anywhere, and it is still the case with today’s descendants of the early modular behemoths.
It is interesting to note that both old and new can still talk to each other after half a century of technological leaps.

Over the years, digital electronics and computers have brought undeniable benefits to music creation.
Remains a puzzling question: why are there today more manufacturers of modular synths than when the genre was prevailing? Are our shiny computers and interfaces not supposed to have solved all the trouble of the past? You may argue about the intuitiveness and tactile feedback of real knobs (agreed), the sound character (it’s up to you to judge).

Whatever the reason, modular is still with us in this computer age. But you have to admit that modular and computers do not unite too well. In fact they live in two different worlds.
This is a pity, because many complex functions could be implemented in a computer more richly and cheaper than with cryptic mechanical switches (not to mention the missing benefit of a high-res screen).

The trouble is that computers and network switches usually lack CV jacks. Computers are not naturally meant to blend with patching cables.
Other limitations quickly spring to mind: why be limited to a single computer? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to give old computers a second life as if they each were additional modules to your patchable racks? What about setting up an intricate device without having to struggle with its user interface as if you were trying to break the code of the enigma machine?

This entire preamble illustrates the current situation that is far from being satisfactory, and a status quo is not desirable.

Hopefully, more fun awaits around the corner. When the foundations of CopperLan were laid out, great care was taken to safeguard the freedom of controlling the music creation as with modular synths in the system definition: not only the possibility to carry the values that represent voltages but also a messaging vocabulary as flexible as a patch cable.
This is why, with CopperLan, you can send anything anywhere; the (free and continuous) pitch can be specified independently of any gating, the gating, triggering and retriggering being distinct actions. Functional blocks can be self-modulating under the control of a third party; yes, complete modular freedom!
Merging modular synths, networking and computers with CopperLan allows going well beyond what the separate constituents permit when taken separately.

Think of separating a module in two, so that part of it exist as a piece of hardware in a rack and its other half as a set of undulating waves on a computer display. Think of mathematical processes that you insert in your patch rack as easily as a cable.
Combining CV, MIDI, hardware, software, while decoupling the control and the result, as well as the need and the place, assigning to each part the best role in its domain. That’s what one would call modular.

The CopperLan SDK available on MAC is in C++ as is its Windows cousin. While this is fine for commercial programmers, we’ve heard of some whining emanating from the community of independent MAC developers.
Apparently, C++ is not the preferred tool of the trade for them.

Whine no more MAC fans, there is hope on the horizon. Camille Troillard, the brain behind the Osculator virtual hub application is currently coding an Objective-C wrapper for your delight.
For more info about Osculator: www.osculator.net

How do you develop a new product that combines CopperLan with digital audio and maybe DSP? Where do you start?
Well, many questions may arise when facing a new world of possibilities.

To help you accelerate the adoption of CopperLan, independent advice is now available from two specialized subcontractors.
They have a proven track in the business and a know-how recently enriched by their knowledge of CopperLan implementations.

You can contact them directly: www.indsp.com, www.zpeng.com.

For design and counseling in products without digital audio links, you can contact ICT7, the company in charge of the CopperLan framework and SDK development: www.ict7.com

A few months ago we established a partnership with ZP Engineering to work on the integration of CopperLan in pro-audio links. We now have a demo platform based on their PicoDM3 Audio interface. We use it to demonstrate how a Firewire-based multichannel audio product can benefit from all CopperLan goodies.

Adding CopperLan to the PicoDM3 was done by ZP Engineering themselves, using our network plugin. This plugin approach allows the developers or proponents of a given connectivity to add CopperLan support to their system all on their own.
This is how standard or custom links can be easily integrated into the CopperLan fused pool of connectivity without having to modify/update the existing CopperLan Virtual Network code that runs on a computer.

By design, CopperLan is versatile enough to conform to any type of link (point-to-point, networked, master/slave) and we do not favor any one over any other.
This is why we continue to look at expanding CopperLan to other transports. The next developments are already under way.
First, we plan a small board that will add CopperLan capability to AES50 products (in this case, based on a ZP Engineering AES50 solution).
Secondly, we follow very closely the Ethernet AVB progresses towards standardization, and we should be able to make some announcement in 2010.

For more info about these specifications: www.aes50ta.org, www.avnu.org

As you most likely know it by now, CopperLan is fusing all hardware and software applications in a unified network. For this to happen, a virtual network piece of code should reside in the computer(s).

From there, every CopperLan application or equipment can talk to each other regardless of its location and cabling type. Moreover, it becomes possible to freely exchange messages between CopperLan and MIDI applications or equipment.

But wait! Does that mean that I can use this networking for MIDI-only purposes? The answer is yes! A CopperLan network is de facto an all encompassing matrix where every MIDI flow can be directed, on a channel basis, to any MIDI destination, also on a channel basis.

Practically, the MIDI channel 2 data entering a PC via an ordinary MIDI USB interface can play as channel 5 in the software synth in a MAC located remotely. Any number of flows can be simultaneously directed to a given destination. In CopperLan, the merging capability is implicit.

Well, but how do I define the linking? One application included of the CopperLan bundle is the Connector. This is a side application you can use from any computer part of the setup. It shows you all sources and destinations in the entire setup and allows you to edit their connections. This shows how CopperLan can be useful even with MIDI-only applications and equipment.

Two more side applications are part of the CopperLan package: the Editor, to access every parameter into anything that lacks a dedicated editor or editing front-end; the Snapshot, in charge of capturing, storing and restoring the state of the entire setup, including its connection settings.

The networking software and its side applications will be available to download free of charge. Don't hesitate to subscribe to the newsletter, as soon as the package is ready we will inform you.

Our ties with the academic community are bearing fruit. Their (sometimes outlandish) needs and unbridled creativity have pushed us into new territories.

Many interesting developments are brewing. We are excited to reveal them to you as they will unfold over the next months.
The end result of these exchanges is that we now have a more versatile CopperLan than before.

We would like to thank the people at IRCAM, CICM-MSH, LaBRI, Didascalie, GMEA, CNRS, ENSATT, GMEM, iMAL, ISTS, BEK, and GRAME for their great support.

We always welcome interested academic communities to join us.

This fall, we have finalized a set of demo hardware. So, instead of relying on off-the-shelf demo kits from chip vendors, we have our own set of circuit boards neatly boxed. There are networked MIDI, CV-in and out devices, an Ethernet to USB Host interface, and a control panel with LCD (the latter, to finalize).

It is time to show how CopperLan can fulfill the hardware needs of the MI and pro-audio businesses beyond the basic knob-turning setting change. It also gives us a good opportunity to conduct some performance measurements with “real” equipment. (more about these figures to follow).

This equipment is now part of our touring demo in addition to the various software applications. All the schematics and related code are available to manufacturers as a starting point for their own designs.

For quite a while, we've had good ties with the people at IRCAM. So far, the relationship was of a rather 'academic' type!
This is to say, they were waiting for us to deliver some hardware development platform in order to start the hard work.

Now that the hardware SDK is available, we should hear from them before too long.

We can’t wait to see the result coming out of this wedding of art and technology that the IRCAM is renowned for.

As a member of the Virage consortium, Stantum, the well known company behind the JazzMutant Lemur multitouch controller, is involved in CopperLan's development.

Teaming up with their academic counterparts, they all have been intensive users of MAX/MSP for a long time. For the benefit of the Virage project, they found good reasons to bring CopperLan in the equation.

The resulting hybrid is currently called CopperMAX. It is a satellite module that makes a MAX/MSP environment networked via CopperLan. What the release version will include and how it will be offered to the public is not finalized yet, but it is already alive and running.
Stay tuned for more info.

The most pressing question about CopperLan is its availability. When will CopperLan be delivered?

Well, it is already available, but not widely and not in its final stage (currently still in beta mode V3.1).

We are teaming up with a small group of companies, academic and independent developers to make our way towards a final release.

If it all goes as planned, we should have a Release Candidate for March 2010, just in time for the Musik Messe.

So far, we have communicated mostly via our web site, through many meetings held at product manufacturer's sites and trade shows, and the occasional newsletter or press release, but we feel this is not completely satisfactory.

As we have much more to tell in order to keep the various communities interested in CopperLan updated, we hope this blog will somehow help filling the gap.

As you might guess, this is not the place to reveal details of corporate deals and developments, unless we are expressly authorized to do so, but it will be an ideal location for the many snippets of info we’d like to share with you. And, not to forget: your comments are very welcome.