David Zicarelli

Recently when I was hearing about a very exciting stage forthcoming stage production (you'll just have to watch this space!) that uses Max, I was reminded of one the last theater productions I saw that used the software, Schick Machine by the Paul Dresher Ensemble. This amazing piece continues to tour around the world (it was in Hong Kong last month and will be in Illinois early next year).

We did a series of interviews with Paul Dresher and Alex Stahl about the software behind the show when it premiered a few years ago. If you never saw these interviews at the time, they're a fascinating look at how software development interacts with virtuosity, danger, and the demands of the stage.

Paul Dresher discusses the Schick Machine project with performance by Steven Schick.

Part 2: Alex Stahl discusses the Schick Machine project. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psKsJVN1wBY
Part 3: Alex Stahl discusses the Looper he built in Max for the Schick Machine project. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7brW1sWk4l8

By Marsha Vdovin and Ron MacLeod for Cycling '74.

Cycling74 Perspectives: Paul Dresher, Schick Machine, and Alex Stahl (Part 1 of 3)

Alex Stahl discusses the Schick Machine project.

Part 1: Paul Dresher discusses the Schick Machine project with performance by Steven Schick. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdK-eK_MmG8
Part 3: Alex Stahl discusses the Looper he built in Max for the Schick Machine project. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7brW1sWk4l8

By Marsha Vdovin and Ron MacLeod for Cycling '74.

Cycling74 Perspectives: Alex Stahl, Paul Dresher, and Schick Machine  (Part 2 of 3)

Alex Stahl discusses the Looper he built in Max for the Schick Machine project.

Part 1: Paul Dresher discusses the Schick Machine project with performance by Steven Schick. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdK-eK_MmG8
Part 2: Alex Stahl discusses the Schick Machine project. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psKsJVN1wBY

By Marsha Vdovin and Ron MacLeod for Cycling '74.

Cycling74 Perspectives: Alex Stahl, Paul Dresher, and Schick Machine  (Part 3 of 3)

an-ongoing-blast-from-the-past

An Ongoing Blast from the Past

Andrew Pask

For decades, Herbie Hancock has been creating great music while pushing the state-of-the-art. He seems to delight in finding ways to project his musical ideas via new technologies, and is constantly searching for new tools and techniques for his musical explorations.

Earlier this year I began working with Herbie and Brian McCullough (his Studio and Technical Manager) to develop some Max-based solutions for managing his onstage workflow.

Herbie and Brian in Herbie’s studio in Los Angeles.

Herbie’s rig is constantly evolving, with hardware, software and controllers undergoing change. Currently his main synthesizer keyboard is a Korg Kronos workstation. There is also a Yamaha Motif in a rack, along with two RME Fireface UFX’s (clocked with an Apogee Big Ben) for audio interface. He also uses a Roland AX “keytar” and a Roland VP-770 vocoder. An iMac and a Mac mini, each running Logic, Live and Max, control this entire system.

An incarnation of some of the gear Herbie takes on the road with him.

For controllers, Herbie is using a Pok foot controller to manage the Looper device in Ableton Live, and a KMI Quneo to provide effects control. Finally, there are 2 Korg microKey37’s used to trigger clips and play an occasional melody line.

What Herbie needed was a way of being able to manage presets and songs throughout the entire system. Not only does he use presets on the hardware synths, but also requires access to presets on the software synthesizers hosted in both Live and Logic. All of this needed to be controlled from different playing locations, with the entire system synchronized throughout the stage area. Some of Herbie’s songs require clips to be triggered in different ways (and using different devices), so he also needed to create a song manager and a master set list.

Herbie warming up for a testing session at UCLA.

We decided that the most flexible way to do this would be to create a smart “MIDI patch bay” in Max, and to present the UI for this via TouchOSC on the iPad. The result is a MIDI patch bay that could be a hub for all of the MIDI control data that needed to be sent around the rig.

Herbie uses a single bank of 127 sounds for all of his shows that he was accessing via the screen on the Kronos. This bank of 127 preset names is stored in a Max patch, and each preset refers to a preset anywhere in the rest of the rig. The preset contains data about its audio and MIDI routing, and also data about other devices’ configuration when the preset is selected.

I implemented this system in Max using Javascript code. Javascript made it easy for me to script the necessary commends to configure the TouchOSC interface I created, and the use of a JS Global object for the state of the system means I can easily add functionality as we expand the rig – and makes it possible for me to query the state of the system easily from new sections of code.

Here’s what a page of Herbie’s preset chooser currently looks like:

The Vocoder and Omnisphere get their own global buttons because we need to be able to go to them at any time. Presets like “Rockit” and “Chameleon” access preset multis which include all of the likely sounds for those songs mapped over the full range of the MIDI controller keyboard being used.

It is important to note that a “song” in the set list can represent almost anything. A song may be something that Herbie wants to play it on the acoustic piano. It might be an elaborately controlled sequential system of clips in Live. It may be a free form improvisation with clips in Live with a beat synced looper and multiple sounds triggered from multiple MIDI controllers. In fact, the song structure may be abandoned at any time during a show, but we still need to “keep in touch” with the song in case we want to return to it later. Combining this with a clear and easy-to-remember UI represents the evolution of this system.

This preset system is only part of his onstage control system. Currently Herbie uses 5 iPads onstage: one for the Omnisphere app, one for TouchAble clip launching, and 3 for our preset/song list/song system.

Future plans include the use of gesture recorders and MIDI recorders, some of which will involve the awesome Bach project. We’re also working on a new looping application that will act as a “loop orchestrator”, providing mixing and arranging controls for each recorded loop.

Herbie’s vision is to expand on these stage management tools so they are useful in the studio. We’ve got this far with Max without even needing to turn on the DSP, so there is a lot more room to explore!


Connecting a complex performance rig with Max.

taking-max-on-stage-with-herbie-hancock

Taking Max Onstage With Herbie Hancock

g2312

The framework and the resulting programs are build entirely with MaxMSP 5.1.9 with excursions to Java, Javascript, and C (for some homegrown hacks).

lsd-–-lvd-–-tlb

LSD – LVD – tLb

Tobias Rosenberger

Electronic Music (Thomas Neuhaus) & Video (Tobias Rosenberger) completely done with Max.

coda-bachs-cello-suite-in-c-moll-theater-der-klange

CODA - Bachs Cello Suite in c-moll (Theater der Klänge)

Julien Bayle

Max is used for the sound analysis and all visuals generation.

alpha

ALPHA

Parmerud

Audio, video (live, interactive and prerecorded) along with light was all controlled by Max using two networked computers. Lemur iPad was used as control surface. Kinect + 2 video cams were used for tracking and capture.

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