Tech Blog

MAX/MSP Screen Shots

2008-05-25T05:54:00.000-07:00

The first screen shot is for the Drum Trigger:

Fairly self explanatory up to 'p timedlatch' which cuts off the signal for a short period when it's been hit to prevent double bangs coming through... Then as the 'incdec' object increases it opens a different path through the gate and the second bang from 't b b' (trigger bang bang) sends a bang through the corresponding number of the gate. Difficult to explain but not that complicated!

The next screen shot shows how the FCB is routed through MAX to Ableton Live.

The FCB is programmed to send '127' out on notes 22, 23, 24 etc, these messages go either straight through to another control message into Live or they trigger a different control value... This method is still a bit messy at the moment...

Drum Trigger

2008-05-25T05:45:00.001-07:00

When playing drum kit in a piece I use a cymbal pad from an electric kit that's connected straight into the computer. MAX/MSP then triggers actions when the pad is hit (the pad acts like a microphone, when hit it sends a massive audio signal).

This means I can trigger a set of changes that are sent to Ableton Live using a counter. Every time the pad is hit it counts up one number and sends whatever action is programmed for that number.

Behringer FCB1010

2008-05-25T05:37:00.000-07:00

I've recently replaced my home-brew foot controller with the FCB1010... One major factor was the expression pedals, which I can use to control hundreds of effects. Plus it's laid out nicely and offers 10 banks of 10 switches, all fully programmable with MIDI notes/control messages.

I still haven't fully got my head around MIDI but for now I'm using the FCB in conjunction with MAX/MSP in a similar way that Zoe Keating and Kid Beyond use their pedals. Often it's necessary for 2 or more actions to occur at once within Ableton Live, although you can program two note commands from one switch on the FCB, I've started using MAX to receive MIDI notes from the FCB and send them out to Ableton Live. This means I can not only send loads of commands at once but I can also just hit the pedals in order, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc meaning it's less likely that I'll mess up because I've forgotten which pedal does what!

It also means I can program some automation into the foot presses such as fade ins/outs...

Previous Setup Oct-Dec 07

2008-04-26T05:43:00.000-07:00

This post covers my setup that's used in gigs in 2007

I use a Fender Mexican Strat going through a Line 6 Spider II, a Yamaha bass DI'd through a Joe Meek Compressor, a Meinl Cajon, Wood Flutes and a Jaws Harp.

The cajon is miked with a Shure PG52 and SM57 and I use either a Sennheiser e845 or an EV967 for the flutes.

The mics and lines go through a Mackie 1202 desk (I once used a Soundcraft 328) into a MOTU 828MkII (or M-Audio 1814), into a 1.83GHz Macbook with 1 GB RAM running Ableton Live and Max/Msp with a custom built foot controller and a Playstation 2 game pad.

The set up enables me to give more control to the front of house engineer sending 8 individual channels to the main desk. These are - Cajon, Mic, Bass, Guitar, Electronic Drums(Stereo), Synths and Samples(paino/congas etc. Stereo):

A brief walk through of the pedal I built from start to finish:

First off I got one of these from here: http://www.ultimarc.com/ipacve.html

Then a load of these from here: http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=34489&doy=26m3#overview

A couple of these from here: http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=35032&doy=26m3#overview

And some of these from here: http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=35737&doy=26m3#overview

Then the wiring is basically like this for the ordinary push buttons (non-latched or momentary action). They make a connection between one of the connections and ground:

Then to wire in a SHIFT button that will give all your other buttons a different action (letter/keystroke) you wire in a latching switch to either the shift button that the computer recognizes as shift or to the iPac's built in shift function (see ultimarc.com).

Then to wire an LED to this switch to give you an indication of whether it's on or off the following wiring is required:

The Max/Msp patch for Playstation 2 Contorller essentially routes the inputs straight through to Ableton Live. The LR buttons are used to route the analogue sticks to different places so I can control many different things in Live. The 8 pad buttons play an octave of notes or drum sounds.

The main window with visual feedback on button presses and joystick movements.

This shows all patcher windows.

'analog' patcher is for the analog sticks and l/r buttons

'pad' patcher is for the d-pad and x circle etc.

These both receive signals from the gam pad and route them straight to MIDI as well as the visual feedback in the main window.

'keymenu' patcher routes start and select to change up or down the key in which the pad keys play, this also selects their drum state as well as updating the display:

'display' patcher opens a jitter window displaying which key or drum mode the pad keys are in. Unfortunately I've not been able to make this hover above the Ableton window so it sits in the corner.

I will talk about my Ableton Live setup in future posts....