Profile: Envision Sound, Technologies is a new musician-producer-tech startup formed to bring to the public its first product, called Strata, a next-generation control system for Ableton Live 9 & 10.

Perhaps a bold move, with Ableton already having its Push 2, and with the legacy of Novation and Akai gear, such as the launch pads and APCs, following in the footsteps of equipment like the Monome and MPCs, but Envision Sound asserts that Strata’s unique approach improves the fluidity and possibilities of music creation and performance in ways otherwise not currently available.

Envision Sound calls Strata a control system, as opposed to a MIDI controller, because it is comprised of two parts: the purpose-designed MIDI controller, and the control surface script which handles MIDI data between the controller and Live- which is where the magic happens.

The control surface script is built on custom nativeKONTROL scripting and the ClyphX Pro Library, by the developer Sam “Stray” Hurley, but offers a functional approach and many functional details not found elsewhere.

Strata, and Envision Sound, are the sole endeavor of Galen Farrel, a longtime music and technology enthusiast, whom designed and built the system and the prototypes largely independently, self-funded, and self-taught.

“This product is the result of approaching 15 years of passion and dedication to the love of all things music, and I’m thrilled to have taken it this far of my own accord and perseverance, to the point of a working prototype, the manufacture-ready design, and the custom software script”. – Galen Farrel, Envision Sound, Technologies Show less