A Monome is a step-sequencer contolled by an array of buttons that you can use to control any manner of software applications. The most common use is for realtime music creation/performance using the buttons to trigger samples and sequences of samples that are played back by (often free) software applications.
Whilst the Monome itself is a beautifully crafted, and expensive, piece of kit desgined and sold by the Monome company, many people create their own.
As with any musical instrument the magic comes from the artist themselves, and the best music I have heard comes from edison, whose grungy homebuilt lunchbox Monome belies the stunning performances it is used to create.
Here is one such performance.
failure of the year from edison on Vimeo.
