Percussa AudioCubes Sensors/Controllers (review)

The AudioCubes created by Percussa are sold in varying sets of identical white acrylic cubes measuring 75 mm³ and weighing approximately 400 g each. Each cube sports infrared sensors on the four horizontal faces, one USB port, and a $\frac{1}{4}$-in. unbalanced mono input/output set (see Figure 1). An on/off switch is provided on the bottom face. The white plastic casing is semi-translucent, and when switched on, the cube produces pastel-colored light of varying intensities over the RGB color spectrum (see Figure 2). The cubes are intended for use with a computer running at least Windows XP or Mac OS X 10.4. Percussa's founder Bert Schiettecatte promises that Linux support is in the works. Computer configuration is recommended at 256 MB of RAM and a Pentium 3/Macintosh G3 or better. The AudioCubes configuration software is provided on the installation DVD, and includes MIDI Bridge (for live performance), Deckabridge (for DJing), Loopshaper (for sound design), and Plugin Wrapper (for production). Sound packs from Loopmasters are also included. Each cube is powered by a battery that can be charged by means of the USB connection. It is highly recommended to download the latest software, firmware, and manuals from Percussa's support page (www.percussa.com/isupport.php) before beginning installation or using.

Figure 1.

Close-up view of a single AudioCube.

The installation, configuration, and basic operation of the AudioCubes are moderately easy to work through. It should take about one hour to install the configuration software, the operations manual, and to work through the Quick Start tutorial showing the MIDI control basics. In order to use the provided configuration and control software (MIDI Bridge), some sort of MIDI loop-back driver is also necessary for MIDI communication between Percussa's MIDI Bridge and sequencing/performance software such as Ableton Live!. The installation DVD provides LoopBe1 for Windows XP. Macintosh computer users do not need to install this additional software. The documentation included is thorough, and up-to-date reference material can be found on the Percussa Web site (manuals.percussa.com/).

Figure 2.

Set of AudioCubes configured to display different colors and intensities.

The AudioCubes are a sort of "white box" instrument without a premeditated, highly specialized function. Rather, musicians can use the general properties of the cubes to come up with new methods of performing electronic music and art. The AudioCubes are created for use in four manners: (1) as MIDI controllers, sending Note On/Off messages when the cubes' faces interact with one another; (2) as sensors tracking the distance of objects from each of the four faces of each cube; (3) as MIDI continuous controllers affecting the colored lights within each cube; and (4) as modular audio signal generators.

The MIDI Bridge software (running within the included Max/MSP Run-time software environment) provides the basic control interface for the cube functions (see Figure 3). Each cube can be configured to act as a sender, receiver, or sensor by plugging in the USB cable and tweaking the parameters. The cube's color can be set as well as the MIDI in/out ports and the channels for integration with other software. Operation of the cubes with the MIDI Bridge software requires that at least one cube is connected to the computer via USB. Designated as a "receiver," this cube will then transmit sensor input from other "sender" cubes as MIDI Note On messages, depending on which face of the sender cube aligns with the receiver's sensor. The basic application of this set-up is to control Live! sets (or something similar using other sequencing/looping environments) by simply rotating a cube 90 degrees and triggering MIDI-mapped clips loaded...