Future Performance development

This week has been a lot in terms of progress and looking toward the future. Ive been accepted into IUPUI, which was the only school I applied to due to it having a very unique music technology program. It will earn me a bachelors degree in science while also teaching me about things like music theory and live performance. The in-state tuition is also a huge plus, making it the only college worth my time from my perspective. 

With this out of the way, I'm back in the swing of development. I need to be proactive and productive as far as scheduling goes. My first gig is coming up this march on the 22nd, and at the moment I've already made visuals for 6 of my songs. However, only two of these are from the new album. Additionally, the visuals are pretty bare bones, and not as evocative as I'd like them to be. Id also like to start designing a costume to perform in, as well as conceptualize the set and layout of the performance space.

Poster for my upcoming gig at Healer

For my gig on march 22nd, I have a set-list of 5 songs prepared that are ready to perform. However, for my final presentation on May 20th, I plan to only play songs from the record in order, and maybe some older ones after as an encore to the show. The March 22nd show will be a sort of practice run.

To plan the event :

• Take measurements of the sound stage (or acquire dimensions)
• Sketch+Brainstorm stage ideas
• Figure out logistically realistic limits to work within.
  
• Build scale model of the stage physically (and/or digitally?)
  
• Look into projection mapping

This will probably be a very individualized process and wont work on any other performance space, but it will go far in making the final presentation more immersive and unique.

What is Percbuddy: Datacore ERA?

My documentation of this project has been almost fully about the visual aspects of it. This is because visual programming was the focus of my research, but my plan was always to present it alongside a record that can compliment it. From the start I had a philosophy for the development of my next project. This was to focus more on the songwriting, and eventually create an emotional arc over the course of the track list when listened to in order.

My music has always had a lot to do with chaos and gratuity that comes from the Internet and the influence it had on my personal development. This remains a big part of my artistic identity as a whole, but I often found myself using it as a crux. This has never been at the expense of the quality of my music, but it was definitely something I did to avoid being sincere. It was the way I half-expressed myself without having to let anyone in. I don’t want to imply that using an alter-ego or character to express yourself is bad or restrictive in any way. I think it can be just as liberating to write from a characters perspective, But for this particular project I wanted to approach the character of Percbuddy a little differently.

I aimed to put more of myself into it. There’s a lot less pitch shifting with my voice. I wrote with much more intention than I have in the past. I allowed myself to be vulnerable and to create without the consideration of what an audience may potentially react to. The arc of the story came together over a longer period of time. I re-imagined old demos, adjusted the arrangements, and changed lyrics. When listened to in order now, the record emotionally and lyrically navigates grief through the conception, fallout, and eventual acceptance of a difficult relationship. 

Datacore ERA is the culmination of this work, and moving forward I will primarily be conceptualizing and creating the visuals that will play in sync with the music. In the next few posts ill be going through each song and my ideas for the respective videos. Ill also begin to develop a plan for the performance space, and start thinking about the logistics of projection mapping and audio throughout the stage.

PERCOLATOR 0.7 UPDATE

0.7

DEVLOG

Sketchbook Declassified 1

Sketchbook

Early idea for video mixer

File structure for Academy Café

Scale map of war room, the studio space

Live setup diagram

Rough system routing idea

Plans for 0.7 (Video rack cut)

Percolator 0.6

Performance Reflection - Oct 13

This last Wednesday, I performed a short, 5 minute set that I prepared and rehearsed the previous weeks. To achieve this, I streamlined my own interface and created an application designed for my own use.

Perculator 0.5 - Pre-loaded with the exact files I needed to preform.

 

Under the hood

The program itself performed remarkably, the CPU usage was fair and there were no issues rendering projection. The music and audio was synced perfectly.

Unfortunately, my friends who came couldn't get a good recording of my performance. I didn't have a super good idea of the projection capabilities since I only got a brief look at the setup. Because of this, I had to set up on a music stand in the corner, behind a large pillar, tethered to a very short HDMI cable. It was comically riddled with technicalities and unfortunate compromises, but the show still happened and I still performed, live vocals and all.

Even after extensive testing, my control interface, a USB operated LPD-8, completely stopped functioning the moment before the show started. I ended up needing to operate the program with my laptop track-pad, which luckily wasn't too hard because of the time I spent optimizing the interface. I think this technical hiccup happened because of a faulty adapter. I have a small aluminum adapter that I used to plug the MIDI into. I think that the aluminum block damaged the connection causing the connection to be lost. This was probably due to the weight of the adapter pulling on the input. Even when I unplugged and re-plugged it mid performance, it suddenly wasn't functional. 

Despite the various trials and tribulations, the show was successful and I performed it to the end of my set.

I also got some valuable feedback from my friends who attended.

Next time, there are a few things I'll do to improve my performance. I'll bring a much longer HDMI cable and a lighter weight adapter. This way, I'll be able to set up directly in front of the projections. This will make the performance much better all around.

I will spend a lot of time this week revising my artist statement and honing my ideas so that i can confidently settle on a thematic motif and some meaning to create performances with more intention.

Devlog 2.5 - Performative Development

Live multimedia programming is at it's best when its done performatively.

In my last post, I talked about a few of the abstract films and audio visual performances that i discovered in my research.

In my jazz history class, I'm learning about the basic psychology of musical improvisation. Jazz artists play with a preset key, chord, sometimes even a full composition. They memorize the scales and rhythms in order to improvise solos and new sections of music. This way, the musicians have freedom to create while still having an auditory motif to return to. This gives jazz music unity, and I think the same idea can be applied to my own performance.

The best course of action is to develop a system, plan a performance, practice, and know exactly how to execute it. I'll need to develop a system which I can practice and master. I should be able to confidently manipulate the images without guesswork.

This section will go through the different video mixers that I've built in max, and how they evolved.