Managing Live Music Bands Via Laptops Using Max/MSP
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Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Managing Live Music Bands via Laptops using Max/MSP ∗ y z Yehiel H. Amo Gil Zissu Shaltiel Elul syndrome, Israel Uni. of the Arts, london Oxford University, UK [email protected] college of comunication, UK [email protected] [email protected] Eran Shlomi Dima Schukin Almog Kalifa syndrome, Israel syndrome, Israel syndrome, Israel [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT usually limited by the band's equipment and relies on the We use the Max/MSP framework to create a reliable but equipment available at the concert venue (amplifiers, mon- flexible approach for managing live performances of music itors, and mixer). Therefore, the sound of each player and bands. This approach allows an easy and low cost way to the output mix is significantly shifted from the composer's apply innovative music interfaces for live performance, with- original intention. In certain cases, this shift is harmless or out losing the professionalism required on stage. In the ap- even contributes to the liveness of the performance. How- proach, every 1-3 players are plugged to a unit consisting of ever, for some bands, the sound and recorded samples are a standard sound-card and laptop. The units are in charge an integrated part of the composition (for example music of auto-changing presets to manage virtual instruments, ef- that involves "concrete music" or background samples [6]). fects, and gestures for each player. All the units are then In these cases, this shift can significantly reduce the expe- remotely controlled by a conductor patch which in charge of rience in a live performance [11]. the synchronization of all the players and background sam- These two challenges can be reduced greatly or even elim- ples in real time, as well as providing sensitive metronome inated by using a high cost music production. However, this and scheduling visual enhancement. Last but not least, we is not the case for the standard music band who playing at can take the advantage of using virtual instruments and a standard venue. Hence, many bands in a range of music effects in Max/MSP to manage the mix and routing the au- genres have this limitation of bringing their own sound from dio. This provides metronome and monitor system to the the studio to the audience in an interactive and convincing players' ears, and also virtual live mixing. This privilege al- way. most eliminates the dependence on the venue's equipment, Max/MSP specializes in creating an interactive interface and in that way, the sound quality and music ideas can be between sound, visual and physical playing in real time[8, brought directly from the studio to the stage. 1, 10]. Nowadays, there are also many commercial or open source virtual plug-ins of audio digital effects that can re- place and simulate analog amplifiers and effects for electric Keywords guitars, bass guitars, and vocals [9, 12, 3]. Governing these Liveness, interactive interfaces, synchronization, intiligent new technological advantages, we can take the advantage of performer, Max/MSP, live bands, low cost. Max/MSP [8] to manage and create the virtual plug-ins as well as the mix, audio routing in order to reduce and almost eliminate the dependency on the venue's equipment. As a 1. INTRODUCTION result, the sound and music ideas can be taken out from the In live performance, the ability to deliver the same music studio to the stage. or sound concept as in the studio is a challenging aspect. Previous works [6] debate the issue of loss of performativity in live performing with laptops due to lack of gestures and 2. RELATED WORKS AND TARGETS visual expressions from the performer [11]. Many works have been done in the area of combining lap- Music bands have another significant challenge on bring- tops in live performances to synchronize music and coordi- ing ideas from the studio to the stage. In the studio, al- nate media [4, 5]. For example, works on automatic syn- most unlimited variations of sound modulations and effects chronization[10] and accompaniment systems for classical can be assigned together to each instrument. Yet in live music performance [2], and recently, an important work by performance this process cannot be easily achieved. It is Dawen at al. suggested a framework of media synchroniza- ∗ tion with intelligent tempo detecting on 'real time' [7]. Here Inter alia, sound integration and performance tests in this work, we focus on controlling the whole environment y Inter alia, graphic art for live performances in a practicable way. The aims and zCorresponding Author considerations of the approach are as follows: The first aim is to enhance the interaction between the live playing and the electronic music by; synchronizing sam- Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for ples and visual enhancement (by static tempo), ability to personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are use metronome, and automation for changing sounds and ef- not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies fects in live. In this stage, we still wish to consider 'known' bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to tempo for media synchronization instead of using intelligent republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific tempo detector for practical reasons as will be discussed permission and/or a fee. NIME’14, June 30 – July 03, 2014, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. later. The second aim is to control the audio signal and Copyright remains with the author(s). audio-routing of the band. This approach uses laptops and 94 Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression sound-cards to manage the audio routing to eliminate the provide the stage monitor system for the performers, as will dependence on the venue's equipment ("plug and play"). be described later in the audio routing section. The Conduc- There are some considerations that took into account while tor adjusts the metronome's volume relative to the sound developing the approach. The reliability along the perfor- signal and sends these massages to the Child patches. This mance is in high priority, keeping the CPU and latency low automatic volume balance makes the metronome convenient enough to get smooth performance at every concert. Still, for all the player, which is crucial in order to avoid leakage it is also important to use standard quality of sound cards of the metronome click to the audience in very quiet music and computers to achieve high performance result in low phrases, or on the other hand, to be high enough (especially cost equipment. for the drummer) in 'full' volume playing phrases. 3. METHODOLOGY 3.1.2 Visual Accompany The approach is programmed in Max/MSP. All the audio In this approach it is also possible to trigger and control signals from the music instruments are controlled by stan- visual art, movies, or pictures during the performance. We dard 13" laptops with 2.4Ghz, Intel core 2 duo processors built a Max/MSP/Jitter patch that provides the visualiza- and external standard portable sound-card contains 4 audio tion and also controlled by the Conductor. It receives from inputs , 4 audio outputs, and a standard S/PDIF or optic the Conductor presets massages as well as audio signal val- audio connection. Each laptop is connected to one audio ues to make interactive visual, stimulated by the music. card and can be assigned to typically two players without 3.2 ’Child’ overloading the CPU and keeping the latency low enough (performance tests are detailed later in section 5). The Child patch is designed to manage the audio signal of The approach contains three main patches. A scheme of the instrument for each player. In that manner the musical the connections between the patches and laptops is provided instruments (electric guitars, bass guitar, and microphones) in Figure 1. Massages between the laptops are remotely should be plugged to sound-cards (typically 2 players per transmitted via UDP massages (around 1ms latency for one sound-card and Child patch). The audio signal from UDP massages in inner network). The first patch, named the instrument is generated by VSTs (see figure 1) con- 'Conductor', is used for triggering samples and synchroniz- trolled via Max/MSP in the Child patch. The VST can ing all the players. The second patch named 'Child' is an be either a commercial plug-in of virtual amplifiers and ef- interface that provides all the virtual environment for every fects, in order to simulate the sound of an analogue amplifier player on stage. The third patch, named 'Virtual mixer', for the electric guitar and bass or a 'homemade' Max/MSP allows virtual mixing of all the live music instruments. All effects and virtual instruments. The role of the Child is the patches are described further in this section. therefore,to give an automatic control of the sound in live. The player chooses his sound in the desired VST, adjusts his effect and volume. Then set a preset to a specific time Wireless messages Conductor Visual in the music track (bar and beat). In real time, when a Wireless mixing trigger massage is sent from the Conductor to the Child, a Can be used in any child Using in the same computer specific song's plan is generated and the presets are auto- matically changed. Figure 2 shows an example of presets that was planned for a song with a metronome of 97bpm.