ZODIACROBATIC

MIDI-Mapping Maze

Geeking out in a big way, I have spent hours in the past several days programming my Behringer FCB1010 foot controller board with MIDI messages. The messages that I have programmed into the 10 banks of signals across 10 foot switches and 2 pedals will control live sampling and sample-triggering, mixing, and effect processing in both the Ableton Live software and my Kaoss Pad. Through this process I have had to consider carefully what range of actions I will want to employ in my live performance, the timbral sound world of the live processing, and what will be most ergonomically efficient. All this has to be considered numerically in terms of Program Change, Control Change, or Note On/Off commands, like constructing a serialist row in the range of 0-127. It will take a lot of practice to internalize the layout of these commands, but I think I have arrived at a semi-intuitive layout and bank structure. The mappings to the Kaoss Pad are fairly fixed (though I can always choose different effects to select), while the MIDI-mapping options in Ableton are extremely flexible. For the Zodiacrobatic project I will bypass the Simple Set Map I have laid out in Bank 2, mapping most of the MIDI commands outlined across the other 9 banks.

FCB1010- Erik’s Programmed MIDI Messages

Bank 0 (Reserved for Kaoss Pad):
1 Program change   #1    (Flt.1 = Low Pass Filter) +    CC #95, #12, #13 (HOLD on, both pedals active for each effect program
2 Program change #2    (Flt.2 = High Pass Filter)
3 Program change   #3 (Flt.3 = Band Pass Filter+)
4 Program change #74  (rVb.1 = Reverb)
5 Program change #77  (rVb.4 = Gate Reverb)
6 Program change   #84 (Grn.5 = Grain & HPF)
7 Program change   #82 (Grn.3 = Mid Grain Shifter+)
8 Program change   #23 (Mod.5 = Ring Modulation & High Pass Filter)
9 Program change   #51 (LF.19 = Mid Auto Pan)
10 Program change   #61 (dLy.4 = Ping Pong Delay)

Bank 1 (Reserved for Kaoss Pad):
1 note on/off          #36    (SAMPLE A button)
2 note on/off          #37    (SAMPLE B button)
3 note on/off          #38    (SAMPLE C button)
4 note on/off          #39    (SAMPLE D button)
5 Control change #95    (HOLD off- value 0)
6 Program change  #72 (dL.15 = Dub Echo) +  CC #95, #12, #13 (HOLD on, both pedals active)
7 Program change #86 (LoP.2 = Vinyl Looper) HOLD off, pedals inactive
8 Program change  #94 (LP.10 = Looper & Isolator+) HOLD off, pedals inactive
9 Control change    #93, #94    (LEVEL- pedal A, FX DEPTH- pedal B)
10 Control change    #95, #12, #13    (HOLD on- value 127, X-axis- pedal A,                                                                                                                 Y-axis- pedal B)

For ABLETON LIVE-
Bank 2:    SIMPLE SET MAP
1 Control change    #87    (ARM TRACK 1)
2 Control change    #88    (ARM TRACK 2)
3 Control change    #89    (ARM TRACK 3)
4 Control change    #90    (DOWN SCENE)
5 Control change    #91    (TAP TEMPO)
6 note on/off          #2 (LAUNCH TRACK 1)
7 note on/off          #3 (LAUNCH TRACK 2)
8 note on/off          #4 (LAUNCH TRACK 3)
9 note on/off          #5 (LAUNCH SAMPLE TRACK)
10 Control change    #96    (CROSSFADER- pedal B)

Bank 3: EFFECT PROCESSING (A)
1 note on/off          #110 +    CC #67, #68- both pedals controlling parameters
2 note on/off #111 +    CC #69, #70- both pedals
3 note on/off          #112 +    CC #71, #72- both pedals
4 note on/off          #113 +    CC #73, #74- both pedals
5 note on/off          #114 +    CC #75, #76- both pedals
6 note on/off          #115 +    CC #77, #78- both pedals
7 note on/off          #116 +    CC #79, #80- both pedals
8 note on/off          #117 +    CC #81, #82- both pedals
9 note on/off          #118 +    CC #83, #84- both pedals
10 note on/off #119 +    CC #85, #86- both pedals

Bank 4: EFFECT PROCESSING (B)
1 note on/off          #7    +    CC #48- pedal B only
2 note on/off          #8    +    CC #49, #50- both pedals
3 note on/off          #9    +    CC #51, #52- both pedals
4 note on/off          #10  +    CC #53, #54- both pedals
5 note on/off          #11  +    CC #55, #56- both pedals
6 note on/off          #12  +    CC #57, #58- both pedals
7 note on/off          #13  +    CC #59, #60- both pedals
8 note on/off          #14  +    CC #61, #62- both pedals
9 note on/off          #15  +    CC #63, #64- both pedals
10 note on/off          #16  +    CC #65, #66- both pedals

Bank 5:    RECORDING AND LIVE LOOPING
1 Control change    #22    (ARM TRACK 6)
2 Control change    #23 (ARM TRACK 7)
3 Control change    #24 (ARM TRACK
4 Control change    #25    (ARM TRACK 9)
5 note on/off          #26    (TAP TEMPO)
6 note on/off          #27 (TRACK LAUNCH 6)
7 note on/off          #28 (TRACK LAUNCH 7)
8 note on/off          #29 (TRACK LAUNCH
9 note on/off          #30 (TRACK LAUNCH 9)
10 note on/off          #31    (LOOPER multi-purpose transport button)

Bank 6:    TRIGGERING SAMPLES
1 note on/off          #32    (TRACK LAUNCH 1)
2 note on/off          #33    (TRACK LAUNCH 2)
3 note on/off          #34 (TRACK LAUNCH 3)
4 note on/off          #35    (TRACK LAUNCH 4)
5 note on/off          #40 (TRACK LAUNCH 5)
6 note on/off          #41    (SCENE UP)
7 note on/off          #42 (SCENE DOWN)
8 note on/off          #43 (SCENE LAUNCH)
9 Control change    #44    (STOP CLIPS)
10 Control change    #45    (CROSSFADER- pedal B)

Bank 7:    TRACK PANNING, LEVEL
1 Control change     #26, #27     (TRACK 1 both pedals)
2 Control change     #28, #29     (TRACK 2 both pedals)
3 Control change     #30, #31     (TRACK 3 both pedals)
4 Control change     #32, #33     (TRACK 4 both pedals)
5 Control change     #34, #35     (TRACK 5 both pedals)
6 Control change     #36, #37     (TRACK 6 both pedals)
7 Control change     #38, #39     (TRACK 7 both pedals)
8 Control change     #40, #41     (TRACK 8 both pedals)
9 Control change     #42, #43     (TRACK 9 both pedals)
10 Control change     #46, #47     (INPUT TRACK both pedals)

Bank 8:    TRACK MUTING
1 note on/off          #17 (TRACK 1)
2 note on/off          #18 (TRACK 2)
3 note on/off          #19 (TRACK 3)
4 note on/off          #20 (TRACK 4)
5 note on/off          #21 (TRACK 5)
6 note on/off          #22 (TRACK 6)
7 note on/off          #23 (TRACK 7)
8 note on/off          #24 (TRACK
9 note on/off          #25 (TRACK 9)
10 note on/off          #6 (INPUT TRACK)

Bank 9:    TRACK SOLOING
1 note on/off          #100 (TRACK 1)
2 note on/off          #101 (TRACK 2)
3 note on/off          #102 (TRACK 3)
4 note on/off          #103 (TRACK 4)
5 note on/off          #104 (TRACK 5)
6 note on/off          #105 (TRACK 6)
7 note on/off          #106 (TRACK 7)
8 note on/off          #107 (TRACK
9 note on/off          #108 (TRACK 9)
10 note on/off          #109 (INPUT TRACK)

Gemini improv

Last night I was experimenting with recording directly into clip slots in Ableton, a method that should prove very useful for sampling and looping in the live performance. In the Session view, you simply record-enable an audio track and then click on the box that would trigger a particular clip to begin recording. Your recorded clip can then be looped or triggered instantly. In the fascination of the moment, using this method for the first time, I recorded a few tracks of melodica playing Gemini. 2 layers are devoted to the static, harmonic accompaniment, moving between and sustaining the tones freely. I shifted the accompaniment to the higher register while placing the melody lower. Different audio effects were applied to the individual tracks, such as Beat Repeat- which adds rhythmic stutters in somewhat unpredictable ways.

Here is a composite of what I recorded:

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Jon described the video component he is planning for Gemini as a series of split-screen portraits of peoples’ faces. Duality, the two faces, is of course a symbol of Gemini. I am thinking about how to work that into our approach to timbre in this piece.

Instrumental pallette for Gemini: melodica, violin, synth, soprano saxophone.

Any suggestions?

Assembling the Live Set

I have begun the process of assembling all the audio samples that I am going to use in Zodiacrobatic. Through doing this I have been gaining a better understanding of Ableton Live 8, the core piece of software that I’ll be using in performance. For triggering of audio clips, the program’s vertical Session view lets you organize groups of samples into “scenes”. I recently learned, through the advice of our friend Todd Reynolds, that by renaming scenes with BPM and/or meter included you can trigger an automatic change of tempo or meter by launching a particular scene. This is a fantastic breakthrough for me, as elementary as it might be, since each Zodiac melody has a different tempo. I was previously concerned about having to remember to manually change the global tempo setting for each section in the performance. Here are a couple of images showing how I have been organizing scenes in the Live Set that I’ve begun putting together: