Description of the piece:

“Paris qui dort”, is a piece written by Yan Maresz for 6 instruments and live electronics on the silent movie “Paris qui dort” by René Clair.
It was created in Auditorium du Louvre on June 2005 (ensemble court-circuit, direction Jean Deroyer, musical assistant Benoit Meudic).

Elements needed to play the piece:

• 1 computer (intel MacBookPro >=2.3Ghz) with max >= 8.0 and reaper >= 6.13 64 bits (for soundfiles, midi instruments and click-track),
• 6 ins/ 5 outs audio interface (for instance fireface 800)
• microphones for each instrument
• 1 mixing console with enough inputs/outputs
• 4 points full band diffusion system.
• 1 reverbs
• ipad with Mira or usb midi mixer (such as bcf 2000).

Instruments positions:

Patch informations:

Installation:

Copy the folder _PQD-2021-Max on your hard disk.
Launch max8, and select this folder (and only this one) in the ‘file preferences’ menu.

Open the file parisquidort2021.maxpat in max.
Open the file _PQD-2021-Reaper-210529 in reaper.

Max8 instructions:

Description of the main patch:

The concert patch is composed of:

• Top right: interface for events triggering. Events are represented by a unique number corresponding to the bar number of the instrumental score. The highlighted number in the menu corresponds to the next event that will be triggered. You can access to the instructions of the events by clicking on the blue message on the right of the event window.

• Top middle: configuration interface (midi communication with reaper and mixing device)
• Top left: main sub-patchers (audio, midi, libraries, events counter, reset, matrix connections).
• Bottom: live mixing faders.

Inputs/Outputs:

There are 6 inputs: flute (fl), clarinet (cl), cello (vc), trombone (tbn), percussion (perc) and accordeon (acc).
There are 4 outputs for live electronics: dac 1..4 for loudspeakers 1, 2, 3 and 4

Receiving time code

Your audio interface should be connected to the timecode output of the DCP server so as to synchronize the start of the reaper session with the start of the movie.

Mira instructions

If you use an Ipad for mixing the electronics, you have to install Mira on it. Then create a local wifi network from your computer and connect the ipad on it. Open Mira and connect to the computer network. The above window should be displayed on Mira.

Initialisation:

To initialize the patch:

1. Click on ‘1-config midi’

Configure midi devices (reaper, audio device receiving timecode and optionaly mixing midi device)
Save the main patch. The configurations will be saved even if you quit max.
If you load the patch again, you will only have to load the sfiles in the ‘config patch’ window.

The controler numbers used to control the mix in reaper can be seen in the max window ‘reaper-midi’:

1. Click on ‘2-init’ to reset the patch

The Dsp should be automatically set to sr 48kHz, IOvs 256 and svs 64.

1. turn the DAC on

The first time you use max8, before turning on the dac, you should choose the correct audio driver in the dsp window.

Reaper instructions:

Description:

Reaper is used to play the soundfiles, the click-track and the midi virtual instruments.

Inputs/Outputs:

The 4 first outputs are for for loudspeakers 1, 2, 3 and 4 and the fifth output is for click-track.

Initialisation:

In the reaper midi preference window, enable the max midi devices so that reaper can receive and send midi from max:

Configure the actions so that you control the gain of the main audio, click and midi tracks from max.
Configure the ‘transport play’ action so that reaper plays when receiving a value of controler 19 from Max.

To run the patches for the concert:

Before the concert:

Initialise the max8 patch, turn the dac on.
Rewind Reaper
Start the DSP movie.

When the time-code is positioned at (or superior to) 0 0 5 7 max8 should order the reaper session to play.

Mixing indications:

Levels of main treatments should be mixed in real time. Try to make both electronics and amplified sound as homogeneous as possible.

Benoit Meudic, May 2021
Ircam