Final performance 12/11

Daniel and John - trumpet & trombone - no video - 2 mics - 6' - mostly written out

Cheryl - non-pitched percussion trio - 4' - video by Ming Ching

Justin - work with Ming-Ching?? - adapt M-C's patch - 4' - no video

Jinok & Dale - 2 wiimotes & video - 5' - no mics!

Alex - flute & percussion, 2 mics - 6' - maybe video

Mackenzie - techno flute, 5' - let's try for video

Dee - bass guit, wii drums, elec guit, tbn, tpt - 2 mics - M-C will do video - 6'

Adrian - electronic noise, 1 laptop, video - 4'

KAM on Wednesday

Just a friendly reminder that on Wednesday morning we'll be meeting at the Krannert Art Museum. Let's meet at the front door on Peabody, near the coffee shop (which is right inside).

500 East Peabody Dr
Champaign IL 61820 [view map and driving directions]
(217) 333-1861 (automated)
(217) 244-0516

Here's a slightly outdated website about the exhibition space, the Canvas, that we'll be playing in.

Doink!

Does anyone play an instrument that can do slap tongue?

Midterm congrats!

Dear Loadbangers,

I'm really pleased and proud with how you all did tonight - "Project 1" was a big success! Let's build on it and make our early-December gig in the Krannert Art Museum something to remember. I have two goals in mind for December:

• Work with video (Jitter)
• Work in ways and with people you haven't tried yet.

For Monday I would like to look over folks' patches from tonight and look for the good things, and the things that could be improved. The main patcher people will probably have some thoughts about how to improve their patches, as well.

The December gig should have no more than 50 minutes of music, I'm guessing; so we need to start figuring out who will be writing (or "writing") pieces, how long they will be, who will play in them, etc. The people who did the main patching this time, I'm going to ask you to let others come to the fore; maybe you can concentrate on Jitter, or on fine-tuning what you already have. If you haven't done much patching yet, roll up your sleeves and get ready to work! Thanks again and have a good weekend!

Setup for Friday

People at Smith Hall, 5:30
- Alex, Ming-Ching (busy with dress rehearsals), Dee, Cheryl, John

4:45 - moving equipment
- Jinok, Dale

6:00
- Adrian, Daniel

6:30
- Mackenzie, Justin

Sound check order - starts at 6:35 (reverse performance order)
- Alex & Ming-Ching
- Jinok, Mackenzie, Cheryl
- Adrian & Cheryl
- Alex, Justin, Cheryl & Ming-Ching
- Daniel, Justin & Dee

Fridays gig

A will send out a duplicate email of this post.

  I don't think its a good idea to put the computers at front of house position. Part of the appeal of pieces like this is that the people and the computers are part of the performance. I do have some ideas that can help us out tomorrow though.   

  First off, I believe I can provide some stage monitors which will make things easier to understand what is going on while on stage. 

  Secondly, I will try changing how things are routed. Instead of putting the microphones through the interfaces, I will put the microphones direct into the mixing board, send those signals out to the interfaces, then take the output from the interfaces back into the mixing board. That means the signal coming to Jinok and John's interfaces will be line level. So be sure to set them appropriately. 

  My reasoning for all this is so that I will be able to have independent control over the amplitude of each individual instrument. Only problem with this is that I will not have control over the amplitude of sounds being played back off the computers. This means we need to get a balance figured out during sound check.

  Does anybody else have a car we can transport some equipment in starting at 5:00pm tomorrow? Its not that much stuff. Two monitor speakers and an amplifier. Anybody who is available to help set up at 5:30 would also be appreciated. There will be more setup time involved in this performance. Let me know.

-Dale

Beckman liveblog

Dear loadbangers,

I'm liveblogging the Beckman gig - first of all, a big thanks to Dale, Jinok and Ming-Ching for helping with the setup; and to John and Jinok for letting use their computers and interfaces - that's a big deal! And thanks to Ming-Ching for getting us an extra gig Friday night - it'll be great doing the concert twice in a row!

For tomorrow night's concert, we will need the performers to be earlier - it's not good to be setting levels etc. while the audience is already there, it makes us look unprofessional. If we have another daytime concert (which is unlikely), you'll just have to miss your classes to be here on time.

Our strategy of using two computers seems like it's working! For tomorrow night, let's see if we can avoid moving mics around more than necessary. Also - Adrian suggests putting the laptops in FOH position, next to the mixer. That might be a very good idea - Dale do you think we can do that? OTOH it's cool to see the laptops onstage.

Daniel, Dee & Justin - I'm not sure what happened in your piece, but the combination of gamelan and electric guitar sounds really good. Let's devote extra time to sound check on this one tomorrow, and do it last, so it's ready to be the first piece. Dee, double check your electric guitar rig - make sure the laptop is facing you, so you can visually check that your levels are OK.

Ming-Ching, Justin & Alex - nice piece, I think it's very successful - the highs were really maxing out though. Dale had your highs entirely down, but it was still painful at times. I don't know if we can get monitors for tomorrow night or not - I wouldn't count on it. But it'll be a little easier to hear in Smith.

Mackenzie & Ming-Ching - good job. Try to act more like a "performer" - it seemed (to me) like you were sound-checking or practicing, and never really went into performance mode. Just play one or two short/long notes as a soundcheck to make sure everything is working; then start your piece. Try to make it more integrated, so it really sounds like a piece of music.

Adrian & Cheryl - good job. I'd like to draw attention to Adrian's posture behind the computer; you can really tell he is performing as a musician, not just sitting back there.

Jinok - good job. Can your beats section fade out more gradually next time, to make a smoother transition into the ending?

Alex & Ming-Ching - good job - try to have some sections in the middle with the vocal samples where M-C stops playing in the middle of the rolls - that would make it more obvious that M-C is controlling the sample playback (if he is).