Type of live-electronics

One Mac laptop with multichannel soundboard that runs a Max/MSP patch featuring a multichannel (12 channels) soundfile player with reverb (there's no other real time processing) through a 12 loudspeakers system. The choir and live-electronics are synced by a clicktrack sound channel (13th), which is sent to the conductor through an ear-monitor system. Live-electronics can easily be handled by the sound engineer.

Audio setup

- all microphones are used to amplify the choir into a large, homogeneous and generic stereo diffusion setup

- live-electronics (from the laptop) 12 first outputs feed the 12 "S-n" loudspeakers (please see technical rider). it is possible to add a thirteenth speaker for the surround sound, and re-matrix the 12th channel to speaker 12 and 13, according to the needs/possibilities of the venue.

- the conductor's clicktrack is played through the 13th output channel of the live-electronics, and should be sent to the ear monitor on stage

Loudspeaker setup

Software installation

- download a copy of Max or Max Runtime from the www.cycling74.com website

- copy the content of the LudusDeMorteRegis2013.dmg archive somewhere into your hard drive

System calibration and tests, initialization routine

- launch the Ludus-Concert-Patch.maxpat patch document from the Max application

- in the patch, click the Setup button, and select your sounboard as audio driver, running at 48kHz. Then edit the I/O Mappings according to the loudspeakers numbers displayed in the patch:"Room" 1 2 3 4 5 outputs should feed loudspeakers 1 2 3 4 5 in front of/around the audience, "Stage" 6 7 8 9 outputs should feed loudspeakers 6 7 8 9 on stage, and "Surround" 10 11 12 outputs (reverb only) should feed loudspeakers 10 11 12 behind/around the audience. The 13th output should be sent to the conductor's ear monitor.

- turn Max's DSP on

- press the space bar to start playing the piece from the beginning, and press the space bar again to stop the audio

Patch presentation & performance notes

- when rehearsing, the conductor should tell you the bar number where to re-start the audio conveniently. Enter that number into the white number box on the top/left part of the patch, then press the space bar again to play the audio from the selected bar. Bar 0 starts the audio from the very beginning of the piece (default).

- during playback, adjust the Master level in order to create an homogeneous sensation between the choir and the electronics. Adjusting the relative levels of each Room, Stage and Surround loudspeakers may help balancing the sound into the room. Also adjust the reverb level in the same fashion. Reverb shouldn't be really noticeable, rather it should create a nice contour for the electronics, and therefore interpolate well with the real room's resonance. If ever needed, you can edit the reverb settings in its editor window that opens up when you click in the Edit button.

- once your mix (levels and reverb) is OK, if you click the Store button, the settings will be saved and restored the next time you launch the patch again. At any time you can recall the saved settings (Recall button), or initialize the settings (Initialize button) to their default value.

- tip: when a slider is selected (by clicking), you can enter a value in dB by just typing in the value, and then press enter. If you want to go back to the initial value (typically, 0 dB), select the desired slider and press the delete key.

- you may have to adjust levels during the piece: all sliders are MIDI compatible, via MIDI controller 7, each slider having its own MIDI channel (displayed in white). Thus it's quite easy to control all volumes using a standard MIDI fader controller such as the Beringher BCF 2000. Controlling the different groups of channels (Room, Stage, Surround) directly in the mixing console is also possible, and might be easier for the sound engineer.

Listening & training

It is possible to listen to the recording of the premiere and, for the conductor, to rehearse the piece together with the clicktrack and a stereo version of the live-electronics. Two additional sound files are embedded in the archive:

- Ludus-Rec-Premiere-June2013-For-Monitoring.aiff plays the premiere stereo recording

- Ludus-2ch+click-For-Training.aiff plays the clicktrack and live-electronics mixed into a stereo file