Performance Patches for Percussionists

The software package MAX/MSP allows users to create, control, and interact with practically anything that can be represented as a digital signal.  Examples of simple uses for musicians are:

Soundfile and sample playback
Midi control
Signal processing
Basic interaction

More complex functions are also possible, such as:

Core system controller in a multi-media production (MAX can control audio, video, lighting, pyrotechnics, etc)
Complex computation and processing of any type of analog or digital signal
Real-time composition or improvisation
Multi-camera sensing system controller

I’ve been using the software package MAX and MAX/MSP for over 10 years in numerous performance situations.  My motives are simple:  MAX offers a high degree of performance control and high level of audio quality.

Below are selected works in which MAX performs a central role. In most cases I've adapted a piece's electronic audio component to allow better control, improve audio quality or create a portable,integrated system. For a recent tour, for example, the entire show was run by a single MAX patch.

Soundfile playback

A basic, yet powerful use of MAX is as a sound file player.  A patch can be written that allows the user to start audio playback at the push of a button or pedal.  The simplest situation would be for the performer to start an electronic accompaniment from an on-stage position.  Slightly more complex is for the performer to have to trigger multiple files that are used in a piece.  I used MAX in this way for the following pieces:

Glenn Hackbarth’s Points in the Sky for clarinet, percussion and computer was originally written for trigger system mounted onto several of the percussion instruments.  The program would “track” the percussionist’s performance and trigger a series of MIDI sequences at the appropriate points in the score.  In place of the MIDI files, synthesizer and triggers I programmed a MAX/MSP version that allows the percussionist to “conduct” the electronic part using a foot pedal.  Subsequently, I used a similar system to perform a number of other works:

Gary Kulesha: Angels for marimba and electronics
Phil Winsor: Dulcimer Dream for marimba, vibraphone and tape
Ed Miller: Going Home for clarinet, vibraphone and computer
J.B. Smith: In Light of Three for clarinet and percussion
Akira Ifukube: Lauda Concertante for marimba and orchestra
Geoff Holbrook:  Wooden Stars for multiple percussion and computer

A similar approach is used in Tristan Murail’s L’esprit des dunes for chamber ensemble.  A keyboardist conducts the electronic part using a MIDI keyboard.  Each key on the instrument is assigned to a sound file.  Pressing C# starts one file, D another, etc. 

Many works require the use of click track.  There are many pieces that take advantage of the 2 tracks that are available on an audio CD.  On one track has the accompanying audio file, the other has a synchronized click/cue track that would be run to the performer’s headphones.  Unfortunately, the audio quality of the accompaniment is limited since it is a mono instead of the more common stereo signal.  MAX, with an audio interface, can generate a stereo signal through 2 of the interface’s outputs and direct a click/cue track to a third output for the headphones.  If no interactivity is required, any multitrack audio software could be used as well.  I use simple 3-track player patches for pieces such as Ed Campion’s Losing Touch for vibraphone and computer-generated tape, Daniel Lentz’s Apparitions of JB and my piece for Tuba and computer entitled Die Tubageister.

Visual Display

Another simple use of MAX is to use the program to display a counter while a sound file is playing so that sync points are accurately executed.  Two different approaches are used in the following pieces.

Scott Wyatt's Time Mark is written for multiple percussion and tape.  In two spots, sync points do not have preparatory cues.  For both, I have a display that counts down 5 to zero.  In Eric Richard’s finalbells for tuned cowbells and prerecorded audio MAX can be programmed to display a large digital clock.  In this instance there is no difference from watching the clock on a CD player except for the size of the display. In addition, the MAX patch displays scans of the score and autmoatically "turns" pages as the piece progesses. The laptop, in this case, serves three functions: audio playback of the sound file, timer window, notation display and page turner.

MAX can also help with performance execution issues.  In Daniel Lentz’s The Apparitions of JB for Malletkat and electronics, MAX is used to step through multiple synthesizer patch changes with the use of a foot pedal.  In his Temple of Lament for Soprano, MIDI keyboard and electronic percussion, I shamelessly used MAX to step through the pitches in an interlude that I was having difficulty performing.  Using a single pad, I played the rhythm while MAX added the pitch number to the MIDI signal.

Audio Processing

Compositions written for performer(s) and live electronics are necessarily complicated by the need for specialized equipment to realize the piece.  More so now than ever, however, the necessary gear is often sitting in a typical musician’s studio.  Several works require only a laptop with the audio output run through a sound system.  Kaija Saariaho’s Six Japanese Gardens for solo percussion and electronics and Marita Bolle’s What Exit? for chamber ensemble could be performed in such a way.  A free player version (MAX/MSP Runtime) is available from the manufacturer’s website (Cycling74.com).  With the player and the composer’s patch on disk, nothing else is required but a computer and audio cable.

If processing of acoustic audio signals is required, on the other hand, a critical piece of equipment is needed:  an audio interface.  Numerous models are available which utilize Firewire technology to easily and efficiently transfer audio signals to and from the computer.   Models such as MOTU’s 828 and 896 and Digidesign’s DIGI01 and DIGI02 are popular but numerous companies are making comparable products at various price levels.  With the unit’s software driver program loaded onto your machine, a double-click and single selection is usually all that is required to make your system compatible with a MAX patch.  With the ability to input a high quality audio signal into your computer system, a number of possibilities arise.

For the improvised fourth movement of Michael Daugherty’s UFO for solo percussionist and wind band I used a MAX patch to process the amplified sounds of a rack construction consisting of numerous metal and skin instruments.  Pickups were attached to many of the instruments that allowed even the smallest sounds to be fed into the system.  With the click of a pedal my performance was sampled and modified using a series of grain synthesizers that were integrated into the program.

I’ve also written a patch to replace the digital delay unit required in Nigel Westlake’s Fabian Theory for marimba, toms and delay.  MAX creates the echo effect that runs throughout and plays back a pre-recorded marimba loop in the middle of the piece.  Originally the player would have pressed a pedal to start the loop record and released it to start the loop playback.  To insure an accurate sample length and to avoid any problems on the loop repeats (clicks and pops are common) I recorded the part in advance and edited the wavetable to insure that the repeat was smooth.

Audio Recording and Playback

I’ve performed a number of works by composer Daniel Lentz.  He’s an ingenious writer who made the multi track tape recorder a central component in a number of his early works.  In b. e. comings, for instance, a chamber ensemble performs each pass of an eight-channel piece live.  The accumulative layering effect matches the dramatic nature of the work’s text.  The same approach is used in his Can’t See the Forest…music (1971) and Bacchus Codices #3 (2007) for speaker, wine glass and multi track recorder.  For a recent performance, I offered to write a MAX program that would duplicate the process without the need for an assistant or for the requisite delay while a tape rewound or an operator reconfigured the recorder.  With the use of an interface, the acoustic signal of the performer can be fed into the MAX/MSP system.  In the end, the computer provides a click track, records and plays back each pass and, in my version, has automated panning which spreads the voice and wine glass pitches around the space.

The Improvising Computer

More involved processing can also be utilized.  In Todd Winkler’s Stomping the Ground for MIDI percussion and synthesizer, the computer actually improvises along with performer in the second movement.  The computer “listens” to the performer and then, when triggered, uses the performers rhythm to construct its own melodies.

In an installation piece I developed named Convolution Canopy, the MAX patch randomly chooses from a library of soundfiles and combines them into merged audio signals.  Ambient audio recorded on a city bus, for instance, was combined with the cacophony of a working metal shop.

For information about MAX/MSP or the individual patches described above contact me directly at j.b.smith@asu.edu.
With the permission of the composers I would be happy to share the patches with those interested in performing the works with my tools.