Dear QuNeo Backers,

The KMI Team has just returned from NAMM where we had an amazing response to the public debut of QuNeo! Our booth was packed for four days and we were happy to see many of you who backed the project. We recently sent out a survey to collect your shipping info. If you haven't yet responded, make sure you do so soon.

Special thanks to our top QuNeo backers, Craig and Dan who are pictured here with KMI Founder and QuNeo inventor, Keith McMillen. We'll keep you posted on our progress over the next few weeks, and again, we are grateful for your support of QuNeo!

Sincerely-Keith McMillen and the KMI Team

Here is a sampling of the NAMM press coverage that we received and links to videos showing QuNeo in action:

UniqueSquared.com: “This is kind of like that kid in the class who blows the curve for everyone else.” A little while ago a company called Keith McMillenInstruments proposed an idea for something called a QuNeo 3D Multi-touch Pad Controller on Kickstarter.com. When Keith McMillen Instruments proposed the QuNeo, they figured they could get their project underway for around $15,000. Peter Kirn posted the QuNeo Kickstarter over at createdigitalmusic.com and it was all over. When the drive was over the project had exceed their goal post and received over $165,000 dollars in pre-orders. After getting a look at it for myself with Matt over at the QuNeo booth; I can safely say no one is going to be disappointed. The pads’ unique sensitivity was on display in an Ableton set and the potential for what this thing can do is not hard to see. This is kind of like that kid in the class who blows the curve for everyone else. While it is possible that the guys over at Novation could just corner Keith McMillen in the bathroom at NAMM and beat him up, my hope is that this will lead to the next iteration of the LaunchPad being a magical beast. Even if it isn’t, there’s definitely room to drop a QuNeo in next to my LaunchPad. My only disappointment about the QuNeo after actually seeing it in the flesh is that I don’t already have one pre-ordered.

UniqueSquared Award: The Best New Face Award
Keith McMillen instruments are having a hell of a debut. Crocked up or not, this list would be remiss if we didn’t mention just what a welcome addition they are on the
floor. I’m not gonna lie, I’m always partial to any company that caters to me like they have done with the QuNeo. However, I have a funny feeling that this is just the start for a company that had such amazing success as a Kickstarter startup. I love seeing companies in this phase and then looking back on it a decade later. It’s easy to forget that so many names who are established now were the new kids only a decade ago. Remember those whippersnappers with that Ableton thing?

Gizmodo: Ravers Will Love This Psychedelic Music Machine
The 251 candy-colored lights on this MIDI controller are your trippy spiritual guide to the experience it, man.

Dubspot: Keith McMillen’s QuNeo
The QuNeo “3-D multi-touch pad controller” has been on our radar for a few months now, with Dubspot artists such as Thavius Beck endorsing the product from SoftStep creator Keith McMillen. The QuNeo differs from other controllers on the market by way of pads that can read pressure, velocity, and location when pressed, giving an extra dimension of musical expression. It features 16 square pads that provide 127 levels of Velocity response with X-Y location, 2 rotary sensors, 9 touch sensitive sliders and switches in a low-profile design that will cost a fair $250 (ships in March). It’s also worth mentioning that Keith McMillen is one of the coolest people we met at NAMM. His website has a quote that says he “walks the line between Steve Jobs and Bob Moog,” and we found this to be a fairly accurate statement. His energy and excitement for product development and solving problems is contagious and we found ourselves taken to different dimensions of thought with him.

Controllerism.com: Keith McMillen QuNeo, “Totally Amazing Piece of Controller!”
The QuNeo is pretty much the only truly innovative piece of controller gear I saw at NAMM. I’ve been waiting for a chance to play with this thing ever since the Kick Starter was launched, and it has definitely delivered. The QueNeo has so many different layers of control on each pad – velocity, pressure, position, etc. – I can’t even visualize how to play it yet. And the fact that they managed to fit all of those features into such a small, bus-powered package is simply mind boggling! I can’t wait to spend some more time with this controller.

Resident Advisor: Keith McMillen QuNeo
“There is a lot going on under the covers.” Keith McMillen, the creator of the SoftStep and 12 Step foot controllers showed off his new drum pad controller, which he calls the QuNeo. At first glance it doesn't look like much, with no labels and a pretty standard layout of pads, faders, and buttons. There is a lot going on under the covers,
though: Each of the QuNeo's pads send velocity and continuous pressure info as well as x-y location, and there are multi-touch sensitive encoders and strips that (according to the demo guys) have more resolution than most timecode vinyl. The data can be sent via MIDI without needing a driver, or the QuNeo can be switched into OSC mode and transmit via an intermediary application. Top it all off with the fact that there is multi-color LED feedback on every control, and the thing looks great for $199.

Digital DJ Tips, NAMM 2012: Our Top 5 Picks of the Show-Keith McMillen QuNeo. We can’t wait to review this one. It’s an iPad-sized, practically unbreakable, thin controller with one lead out of it. It contains dozens of rubberised, multi-backlit controls: These are touch-sensitive and each control contains lots of sensors so depending upon where you touch it, it can trigger different Midi signals. Furthermore, each control has red, green and yellow LEDs for instant feedback of what you’ve touched. As an object, it’s gorgeous. It may be flat, but the pads and “sliders” are raised or lowered to make it tactile, and they feel lovely to use. It may be plastic, thin and cheap (US$199 or thereabouts), but it’s professional and designed to last (think Launchpad but utterly shrunk. You’re only a quarter ofthe way there.) As a concept, it’s mind blowing. Keith McMillen has pedigree in designing innovative musical objects, but this is its first DJ-oriented controller, designed to work with Ableton Live or Traktor (although it will be fine with any Midi DJ software). It comes with an overlay program that lets you map controls from your software to its functions, and when you’re happy, you can click a button to “upload” the mapping to the unit. Then, you plug it in to your computer and it works straight away with the software you’ve mapped it for. Really slick. We can see this one unit being used as a mixer, pad controller, pair of decks, effects controller and loop device, and anything else you want to map to whatever buttons you have left over, all in one. The best bit? It looks amazing in use! The “channel faders” can be programmed to act as VU meters, flashing, green, yellow then red for peak. The pads can flash in sequence to the beats or give you feedback on how hard you’ve hit them. It will fascinate your crowd when they stare into your DJ box to see what you’re doing, or you can hold it up and show them. It may be pocket-sized, but it’s going to make a big impact in the DJ box. It’s truly original, and for that it deserves the success we think it’s got coming.

About.com/Home Recording-NAMM 2012 News:  KMI QuNeo, “This is seriously a cool piece of gear.” Keith McMillen Instruments has announced the release of QuNeo, a multi-touch pad controller for electronica producers, live musicians, DJs, and anyone else with a need to have a fully programmable, touch-sensitive pad controller at Winter NAMM. The size of an iPad, QuNeo offers 16 trigger pads with 127 levels of Velocity response, combined with X-Y location and various levels of pressure sensitivity. Rotary sensors and multi-touch sliders add to the awesome tactile features, but most importantly, QuNeo comes with it's own development kit and API to allow users to "hack" their controls however they want. Pretty cool! While primarily designed with electronic music-making in mind, the QuNeo could be used for multiple purposes in the recording studio or during live sound reinforcement.

Sonicstate.com-The KMI QuNeo, “flexibility on another level”-The QuNeo is a multi-touch pad controller the size of an iPad. We've heard loads about it through YouTube teasers and previews, but we've not seen it in the flesh... up until now. The QuNeo is composed of 16 trigger pads, 2 rotary sensors, 9 multitouchsliders, and a host of switches. It works with USB, MIDI, or OSC, but the coolest part is that you have access to the development kit and API to hack the QuNeo and create your own response code to the sensors. That's flexibility on another level.

Video Reviews and Press Coverage
Create Digital Music Hands-On Review - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmxX_UZUhd0
The Verge - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpofa1dFd6U
MusicRadar.com - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuPQOQ9SDng
UniqueSquared.com First Look - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_brkC2YyAqA
Rock oN Report - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIyJ3MTK73s
Universe of Knowledge Sonic State - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPxT0qSsMfQ
Sounds and Gear NAMM News - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5P2hagqDrY
Mac Pro Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0Y1ObVskZg
Harmony Central NAMM News QuNeo Review - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiJGPHWtJ7w

Dear QuNeo Backers,

I and the entire KMI team truly appreciate your enthusiasm and support for our QuNeo Kickstarter Campaign which ended on Monday.

Our campaign is now the 24th most funded campaign out of 43,000 launches in the history of Kickstarter, the #1 music technology project and the #8 technology project.

We are working non-stop to finish QuNeo and deliver it to you in March. We'll continue to provide progress updates and videos, please feel free to keep the conversation going here and on our Facebook page with any comments or suggestions.

We will be sending you a survey in the next few days which will ask you for your shipping address, T-Shirt size and to confirm that you were able to add the appropriate amounts for shipping and MIDI Expander/s.  If you need to make adjustments to your pledges, we'll contact you with details once we receive your survey information.

Warm regards,

Keith McMillen and the KMI Team

In this video, QuNeo is used to sequence a drum track in real time. Operating in Grid Mode, each corner of a pad represents a different section in an 8 step sequence. Pushing the corner of the pads places a specific drum hit in that step in the sequence. LED feedback ticks the beat and displays drum sequences as they are programmed. FX are controlled by the horizontal sliders, rotaries, and long slider (which uses two finger width to determine the cutoff and cue on a filter).

Another exciting example of how QuNeo is going to take things to the next level.

In this video, Pressure, X, and Y CCs have been mapped to different parameters on 16 audio effects allowing for dynamic and performative audio mangling. Each Pad turns effects on and off, as well as tweaks their knobs and tickles their faders. Vertical sliders change volume, horizontal sliders mix in more audio effects, the long slider cross-fades, and the rotaries are tempo control. Very fun to play, very expressive, and very exciting.

QuNeo is a powerful controller for any expressive art. Putting multiple parameters into each pad allows fun effective mapping of gestures onto video generation and processing. QuNeo is controlling Isadora video software in this video, and will work with any of your favorite VJ programs.

Lucky #13 has QuNeo working track and effects levels with muting, transport control, scratching and crossfades. All sliders, rotaries and switches are pressure sensitive allowing QuNeo to understand double taps, swipes and other gestures other hardware controllers cannot sense. The 3rd Dimension is very useful. 

First performance with QuNeo controlling sounds in Abelton Live. Pressure is mapped to repeat rate and X and Y control Filter and a Bit Crusher. Lotsa fun - we were fighting over who gets to go next. 

More to come next week. 

We will hook it up to Live next week and make some music and show off a bit of what QuNeo's can do. 

Thanks again for your support - there is still time to get a QuNeo for someone you love. Campaign ends January 9th. 

We received 10 final printed circuit board assemblies yesterday. All 10 are now working. We can program and run firmware, USB and MIDI input and output, LED control and dimming, power management, sensor data with plenty of CPU cycles left over.

Special thanks to Dan, Dennis, David, Diane, Conner, Sarah and Matt for their great work! This PCA is one of the most demanding boards I have done and we're delighted to be one giant step closer to putting QuNeo in your hands.

Dear Friends and Backers,

Thank you for the fantastic support. We are halfway through our campaign and have already received pledges for over 300 QuNeos. Incredible...

Because of this success we have picked a new personal goal: 1000 QuNeos by the end of this Kickstarter campaign.

When we reach 1000 units, everyone will receive- free of charge- a limited edition QuNeo 1K custom neoprene sleeve.

Here's the math: we're 1/2 way through the campaign and 1/3 of the way to 1,000 QuNeos. If each of you can inspire 2 new QuNeo pledges everyone gets a free sleeve! Please share our project with your friends. 

Thanks in advance - Keith

Hello Fellow Controllerists,

I want to start explaining our plans for the open aspects of QuNeo. Let's get some terms out there so we can start to build a vocabulary together. 

A simple I/O description: QuNeo outputs data based upon your gestures and you can input data to control LEDs. Modes affect how data goes in and out of QuNeo.

Modes - QuNeo can behave differently for different people. This flexibility will allow it to work right out of the box with other applications as well as be thoroughly hackable. You can access Modes by pressing on the upper left round blue button. It will take a long firm push on the button to put you into Mode selection. Visual feedback will be provided by the Pad LEDs.

Emulation Modes - Contains 16 preset mappings of sensors to USB/MIDI output. This is QuNeo's initial mode and allows immediate mappings for software programs such as Live, Logic, Reason, etc. LED response is mapped to provide immediate feedback for the user.

CoMA (Controller Mapping Assistant) Mode - needed to train software programs like Live and Logic where one output per action is the norm.  Data is delayed until multiple repetitions of gesture (i.e. pressure, up/down, trigger) is repeated 3 times and then the one data type with ID is sent. 

Raw Mode - 10 bit raw data from 258 sensor nodes will be sent up USB as MIDI NRPN data. NRPN allows support for 14 bit address space and 14 bit data sizes.  You will be able to set QuNeo to send data continuously or only when data has changed. 

Cooked Mode - There are some basic operations QuNeo can perform on the Raw data to make it more immediately useful. This will result in 7 bit data values that describe QuNeo activity such as pressure, location, triggers, angle and more. Users will be able to immediately take cooked data and map it to their applications.

LEDs - There are 251 LEDs. All LEDs have 16 levels of brightness and Off. Local or Remote control available. If Local, action on sensors will determine LED behavior. If Remote, CC Data from USB will determine LED behavior.  Local and Remote control can be used simultaneously.

OSC - requires USB connection to a computer running Quneo/OSC bridge. LEDs can be Local or Remote. Data cooked or uncooked.  

USB or MIDI - determined by connection at USB port. USB if a Computer is detected, MIDI if a KMI MIDI Expander is detected.

We look forward to your comments, suggestions, and improvements as we move forward with these QuNeo Open Operation descriptions. We will be regularly posting more information covering all aspects of QuNeo Open Operation, stay tuned-

Click here to download the Sensor Cooking Description document (.pdf).

Circuit boards are in San Francisco now for assembly. We light them up next week!

While many of you will use QuNeo to control creative software tools like Ableton Live, Traktor, Reaktor, Logic, Reason, and Max/MSP, we anticipate some will want to control MIDI hardware as well. We have been pleasantly surprised to hear from many users who are planning to control synthesizer modules, keyboards, effects racks, lighting rigs, etc. To connect a QuNeo to MIDI hardware using a 5-pin MIDI DIN connector, you will need our optional MIDI Expander. The MIDI Expander retails for $49.95 and is already in use by our 12 Step and SoftStep customers.  We have created a new $240 reward that includes a MIDI Expander with your QuNeo, T-Shirt and Sticker. If you pledged at the $200 level and want the MIDI Expander, simply change your pledge to the $240 level. 

Add $40 to any pledge level to receive a MIDI Expander.

Email us if you have any questions; Thanks again for your support!

KMI

"Touch control with pressure sensitivity = puts iPad AND conventional controllers to sleep. Just what I've been waiting for in a next gen controller for music/DJing/VJing. Plus it looks gorgeous. At last an escape packet from the strait jacket of the past. ROCK ON YOU STARS, can't wait to get this. Coldcut are in!" -Matt Black

We are pleased and amazed at the support that we have been getting for QuNeo and our Kickstarter campaign.  We were especially thrilled to find this email from Matt Black of Coldcut / Ninja Tune in our inbox. Thanks Matt for your awesome endorsement!