aum.haa

I can’t seem to find the Brainv2 / Brain Jr. one. I have a Livid elements, several OMNI and Brain Jr. boards, and a CNTRL:R someone dumped a beer into and I would give an important finger to have it back working again. I figured maybe I can try to make stuff out of all the Brain v2 and Brain Jr. stuff I have. I know it’s a crazy notion, but maybe I can use all the parts from the elements, the Brain Jr. and all the boards…. I don’t know. The elements is controlled by a Brain v2 like the CNTRL:R. I bought a whole mess of Livid sourced faders, push encoders, knobs, ribbon cables, everything I could get my hands on once MCM either decided not to carry them or found out they weren’t going to be made…. or whatever it was, MCM Electronics (bought since by newark) sold all those Livid Builder kits for half and a quarter original price. I think I grabbed five, plus bought the identical faders, knobs and encoders. So I have parts. Maybe not everything I nbeed to get the CNTRL:R to work…. but how will I ever know?

The stuff is sitting. So I am going to try to learn how to make some of this builder stuff work. I don’t have finished craftsmanship skills to make things look all nice in their perfect cases and polished corners. I am good at figuring out how things should work, not how to make them look pretty. So that’s a problem even if I figure out how to get the know how to make this thing work again.

And now some ranting. What the heck, Livid? I don’t get it. It seemed like everything was gangbusters around the time DS1 came out and the minum was announced. Hands down the best build quality out of any MIDI controller I had seen or have seen since. A little hard on the learning curve, but I see the software developing to a more user friendly environment. All the products seemed rock solid, even if some were obviously niche market oriented, like the guitar wing. I never heard anyone say even once that Livid built cheap stuff or garbage. Mine isn’t working because you just can’t pour a full beer into a MIDI controller. It’s now a scientific fact I have proof of.

I miss Livid is the point. I thought by now there would be half a dozen more controllers and the OHM and CNTRL:R worlds would have kept expanding to control old and new school MIDI devices. And on a personal note, you guys are a GOOD company. When I wrote you the very first time the day you put a controller half price that I bought the day before, you saw my point and made it right. No company does that. No business does that. The right thing. So I am sad and afraid that Livid is slowly somehow going away.

Please tell me it is not. Please tell me that people still want these controllers and there are still people willing to design and build them and maybe even fix my CNTRL:R or sell me the CNTRL:Rv2 you’ve secretly been working on…. This is just too good of a product, of a company vibe in an otherwise cutthroat dog eat dog world of dollars and cents…. Livid is too good to just go away.

Please tell us there is a way to keep it going. Please tell us there is someone who can at least fix Livid MIDI controllers. Or someone has all the the Livid parts in a warehouse waiting for the right time…

wishful thinking.

But something encouraging would be nice.

Spaker
*broken CNTRL:R owner w/ Master fader & XPC 2JS4K
*clueless elements owner
(3) Brain Jr boards
(3) Brain Jr. OMNI kit
(2) Brain Jr Breakout Kit
many Livid Faders (long and short), knobs, push encoders, rubber buttons with the grid, all the ribbon cables, LEDs, and even some compatible touch strips that I planned to use as faders at some point in some creation.

Can I get a damn bit of this operational? Negative. I used the CNTRL:R with the Master Fader at a weekly gig and a once a month gig for over two years. I collected that other stuff as an after thought and a fan that would build his own MIDI controller someday. Then all the sudden I get a beer dumped on my CNTRL:R and it was like it was the last one on earth. My last email to livid support bounced back, just as I was getting some support from them.

I really want to know how to solve this. Maybe it isn’t typing here. But maybe someone who reads this can help. Help me understand what is going on, and whether this gear I love so much will ever work again.

Maybe that software to work the Brain Jr. Brain v2 would be a start? Anybody have that to post online for us all to use?

Thanks
Spaker