Playing Ten Children with live electronics instead of tape

From the mailbag: I was looking to perform some (or several) of your compositions, particularly Drift and Ten Children. I was wondering if you could tell me what I would need in order to perform them the same way you perform them instead of with the tape accompaniment. Thank you very much.

So, I'm going to make a video for the site to show all the gear I use, but until I get around to doing that, this post will have to suffice...

First of all, you need a "basic" electronic music computer setup like mine:

• MacBook (probably pro, but I think you can make do with a non-pro)


• Audio Interface with at least two inputs


• Instrument Microphone


• Vocal Mic (like an SM58 or something better)


• Foot pedal (something simple)

Then you'll need the software & plugins:

• Max 5


• WaveArts TrackPlug & Masterverb (you'd choose "power suite custom duo" here)


• Voxengo's LF Max Punch

The rest of what I use is optional, really.

I guess the reason I don't make these non-tape versions available to people is that there is a LOT of troubleshooting that needs to go on in order to get things working with each particular setup. For example, everyone has a different footpedal, so I would have to reprogram that part of every movement to handle that; everyone has a different audio interface, so the levels need to be optimized, etc. etc. Basically, It'd be too big of a pain for me to do it, so I don't. That said, if you're ever in NYC, you got all the necessary hardware/software and you want me to set your machine up, I might be persuaded...

Like I said though, stay tuned. I will try to get a video "tour" of my setup up on the site asap.

Broke my own rules...

A tale:

I upgraded the software I use to run my show (Max/MSP), before my most recent show on Saturday in Ohio. I tech some of the pieces, but not Ten Children (why? I don't know). Of course, it's THAT piece that totally, miserably and irrecoverably crashes in the show.

Now I pride myself on being able to nail the tech part of my show -- the computer is there, but I almost never look at it or touch it, preferring to focus entirely on the audience between pieces, with no "dead air" while I'm fiddling. Well, that was not to be on Saturday. So, I broke my rule of 1) tech your whole show when upgrading, even if it's an incremental upgrade, 2) don't touch your computer during performance, and 3) don't talk about technical issues with the audience. So I beat myself up pretty bad about that the next day, but I spend Monday going over everything with a fine-tooth comb and rewriting some of the code. Now it should all work again.

We'll see on Friday when I play at LEMURplex! Oh, an for info on that show, go to www.tranzducer.com

Mike