Back to the top

The MIDI Set-up of The Solution

I will begin with a little about the way we compose. We usually sequence on our Roland XP-50 and then we transfer the song, via standard MIDI file, to Sonar to use for performance and studio work. Alternatively I sequence directly in Sonar or Ableton Live. It all depends on what equipment I have with me at the time. We use the XV-5080, Proteus 2000, Audity 2000, and the Triton Rack for our primary sound modules. In Sonar I program the lighting and video, insert various messages for switching the processors and sound modules, and record all audio tracks. In a performance situation, we decide who is going to play certain tracks and measures and I will delete or mute those parts for the performance.

At this point we record the mixed MIDI tracks and backing tracks into Sonar as audio so we can move them over to Ableton Live. We record all the music tracks with and without drums and with and without our live keyboard tracks muted. This allows us the flexibility in Live to remix and remake the songs on the fly. The audio tracks get imported into Live and I tweak the warp markers and settings to make them perfect. When we perform with Live I have tracks set up for the songs, the songs without drums, drum loops, arpegiator loops, sound effects, video, and lighting. I have the crossfader assigned to the two music tracks. We use a variety of effects in Live to spice things up a bit. The Novation Remote Zero SL is my control surface for Live along with a trackball mouse.

Also in performances we have video showing on the 19" LCD monitors which are mounted to the front of our keyboard stands. The video is shown using Arkaos VJ software on my laptop. The software allows me to drop in any image or video file and play it back with the computer keyboard or a MIDI keyboard. The laptop functions the same as a sound module or sampler in this situation. So for each song we decide what video images we want and make a track in Sonar to trigger the VJ software. The software also allows USB cameras and such that are connected to the computer to be sources for playback. So I can use my webcam to show live images on the screens and manipulate them with the effects just like video files. Pretty cool. Now I will explain some of the technical aspects of our MIDI set-up.

When using the computer for sequences, we work on an eight MIDI port system (eight independent sets of 16 channels). The MOTU MIDI Express XT interface has 8 MIDI inputs and 8 outputs. Each of the 4 sound modules gets an output from the MOTU, the Alesis Micron get an input and output, and the A-70 gets 4 inputs and 1 output. The other ports are used for lighting, video, and for some of the other processors and keyboards. There are also MIDI output ports on the Novation Remote Zero SL that get used for live aspects such as video and lighting. Having everything on its own MIDI port relieves some of the confusion of MIDI routing and also relieves MIDI traffic in each cable.

In the MOTU MIDI Express XT, I am able to route any of the 8 inputs to any of the 8 outputs on the unit. Also, MIDI filtering, transposition, and a lot of other things can be set up through the software interface. It's quite a neat piece of equipment.

With the A-70 master controller, I am able to control just about everything in the MIDI rig from one keyboard. It has 64 internal performances, each of which can store the information for each of the 8 zones. I set up a performance for each song and have the keyboard split into various parts so I can play all my keyboard parts from the one keyboard. The performances for each song also send bank and program change messages to the sound modules that put them on that song as well. That way when we’re using Live for live performances (which cannot do complex program change and bank sending), the A-70 gets the sound modules on the right page when we dial in the performance. The A-70 also has a significant number of real-time MIDI controllers. There are four palette sliders, two buttons, a footswitch input, a foot pedal input, two wheels, and a pitch bend/modulation lever.

The best things about my MIDI system are the flexibility and stability of the system. When I hit play in Sonar, the Proteus 2000, A-70, XV-5080, Audity 2000, and Triton Rack all switch to the correct song, processors change programs, the lights run on their own, the video runs on its own, and I still have the flexibility to change settings on the fly with all of the controllers and power. It is really quite cool. Even though this is quite a bit of explanation, I still feel I have hardly touched the surface. If you have any questions on how something works or some suggestions, just email me.

Back to the top

The Sound Set-up of The Solution

Our sound equipment set-up is pretty straight-forward. The Behringer Ultra-curve and Ultrafex Pro are hooked to the main outputs on the Mackie mixer. Therefore, all of the signal that comes out of the main outs of the Mackie is equalized and processed before going to the amplifiers. The Ultra-curve is a very powerful piece of equipment; its specs include two 31 band equalizers, an RTA, feedback destroyer, noise gate, six parametric EQ's, and much much more. We use the RTA with the Behringer reference mic in each room we play in and save that EQ setting, so when we go back to those rooms we already have an EQ. The Ultrafex Pro has a multiband high-end processor, a low-end processor, and a surround processor. The Ultrafex Pro does an incredible job of making live performances sound crisper and have deeper bass response; it also increases the apparent volume of the program material.

After the processing, the mixer's main outputs are hooked to the amp rack and all of the amps are paralleled together. Currently for sound reinforcement, we use three pairs of full range speaker cabinets and two 15" subwoofers; if there is a house sound system, we will sometimes patch into it from the main out of the mixer. The Mackie M1400I amplifier is used to power the subwoofers; it has a built in subwoofer crossover in addition to a lot of other features. It delivers excellent power to give us the bass response we need. For monitors, I use the M-Audio IE-30 in-ear monitors and Steve uses a pair of computer speakers on his keyboard stand. Both are powered by the Samson headphone amp. Alternatively for monitors, the two pre-fader aux. sends on the mixer are sent to the monitor amp which is connected to the two Crate 12" monitors.

The two Behringer Autocoms are inserted into the vocal channels. The units are two channels each, so we have a total of four channels. The compressors are used to even out the volume of the vocals for live performances. The Autocoms also have noise gates and expanders on each channel.

As far as effects go, the Lexicon MPX1 is hooked to effects sends and returns on the mixer. We use the MPX1 for the main vocal effects such as reverb, chorus, and delay; it is a very powerful piece of equipment.

For keyboards, a stereo line is run from the BOSS keyboard mixer into the Autocom Pro compressor, and then to the main mixer. This is similar for the guitars; a stereo line is run from the BOSS SE-70 to the main mixer. The Autocom Pro helps to even out the keyboard's levels; it has a great function called a side chain filter that keeps the lows from triggering the threshold too much. The side chain filter keeps the compressor from 'pumping and breathing' on bass heavy songs. The effects for the keyboards are all internal in the keyboards and sound modules themselves. The Triton Rack's effects are the most flexible. It has two master effects, a master EQ, and five insert effects. Another great function is the effects patch finder; it works just like the patch finder for the synth section. A set of stereo outputs from the MOTU 828 is also run into the BOSS MX-10 keyboard mixer for recorded samples in live performances. Yet another output is run from the 828 into the main mixer for additional recorded vocals for live performance; this channel has one of the Behringer Autocom compressors inserted on it.

Back to the top

The Recording Set-up of The Solution

In the realm of home recording, we use a computer-based hard disk recording system. Our home-built rackmount computer does a fantastic job teamed up with the MOTU 828. The 828 has 8 balanced analog inputs, 8 balanced analog outputs, and a coaxial and optical S/PDIF digital in/out. The first two inputs have mic preamps built in and the optical connectors can be used for ADAT format signals in addition to S/PDIF. We record vocals and acoustic guitar with the CAD microphone and track out all of the keyboard parts to audio tracks. All of the sound modules are connected to the 828 digitally. We use Sonar to mix and add most effects. In addition we use the Lexicon MPX1 for vocal effects. So, once the initial automation and balance is complete, we run the stereo mix through the Finalizer Express. After a lot of tweaking and listening through a variety of speakers we record the "Finalized" audio back into Sonar and export it to wave format to burn to CD.

For mixing, we use the Event Electronics 20/20 BAS studio monitors. These monitors have a very excellent and accurate sound. Also for the mixing process, we use the Lexicon MPX1 multi effects processor for vocal effects. The MPX1 has an S/PDIF digital I/O, so there is no loss in signal quality; the unit does an excellent job by giving that classic Lexicon reverb sound. Throughout the mixdown process we refer to the RTA on the Behringer Ultra-curve to get a visual idea of what the frequency distribution is. For mastering, we use the TC Electronic Finalizer Express. The Finalizer is a multiband compressor and soft limiter. The input signal gets split into three different frequency ranges and each of the three bands gets compressed and limited independently. We often refer to the Finalizer Express as the "magic box". The Finalizer has been the best addition to our recording process ever. By using the Finalizer, we have gotten the difference between the RMS and peak levels to 7 dB or less. Plus the recordings sound tighter and more distinct. I highly recommend the Finalizer Express! This has been a very brief description behind the recording process that we use. As usual, if you have any questions, just email me.

Back to the top

The Lighting Set-up of The Solution

I will begin this section with a little about the control system. I have an NSI MC-1616 sixteen channel programmable lightboard, two 4-channel dimmer packs, two 4-channel relay packs, the American DJ MyDMX software, and a number of DMX fixtures. The dimmer packs are for the spotlights and the relay packs are for effects that cannot be dimmed. I program all of the lighting in a MIDI sequencer, so we do not have to have a person to control the lighting during a performance and the lighting is always correct. When we use Ableton Live for performances, I import the MIDI clips that I sequenced and have a number of loops for the various lights. I choose different patterns to correspond with the songs and the other lights. I also have several buttons programmed on the Novation controller to cue strobing and other effects that I can throw on when appropriate.

The American DJ MyDMX software is our controller for most of the fixtures we use regularly. The Chauvet Colorbars, Colorpanels, Stage Washes, and Technostrobes are used for most performances. I also have the American DJ strobe and the Motorheads DMX’d to MyDMX.  This software is fairly new and quite affordable for the programming ability it has.  I have defined the Colorpanels and the Colorbars as a matrix in the software so I can easily program chases and patterns that have all of the LED panels working together.  I can create some really cool effects without a lot of work.  The scenes and faders can respond to MIDI commands, so I just set up the scenes to respond to note message and the faders on the stage wash lights to respond to control changes.   I don't include the wash lights in any of the scenes, but instead have MIDI clips in Ableton Live that trigger them to do various colors and patterns.  The stage washes have a separate track in Live from the other lights and I can control them independently from the whatever scene is currently playing.  The other awesome thing about MyDMX is the 3d visualizer.  It allows you to lay out your various fixtures, truss, equipment, etc. on a virtual stage and program lights without it all being set up.   I really like the fact I can program scenes anytime and do not have to set everything up to do it.

The MC-1616 has sixteen pattern programs which I just set each to turn on its respective numbered channel; this is so I can dim channels via MIDI. The board can receive program changes for the pattern programs, blackout, and other functions, note messages for the bump buttons, and controller number 1 for control of the fade rate. For light sequences, I program using the note messages for on/off control of the lights. When I want to create lighting fades, I set the fade rate desired at the beginning of the song and trigger the pattern programs thus making the light fade in at the set rate. This sounds a lot more confusing than it actually is. Overall, the MC-1616 is not used as much as it used to be. I do still use it if I need simple chases and what-not in DJ and some performance situations. The MC-1616 is pretty simple in what it can do, but it works like a charm.

Now I will talk about the light fixtures. Our newest fixtures that we use the most often are the Chauvet Colorbars, Colorpanels, Stage Washes, and Technostrobes. The Colorbars are mounted to the front of our keyboard stands. Each Colorbar has four independent sections that each have RGB color mixing and full dimming. The Colorbars use 17 DMX channels each, so it is a lot to keep track of. The Colorpanels also have four independent RGB sections but are square in shape. The Technostrobes work pretty much the same as one section of the Colorbars with the addition of being able to strobe. The Technostrobes, Colorbars, and Colorpanels are LED fixtures (which rocks). The Chauvet Stage Wash fixtures also have RGB color mixing and have three 300 watt lamps for a total of 900 watts. They are basically used to light us up and for a little chasing sometimes.

The setup varies a lot and we rarely use everything in one place. In general, in front of the stage we can use the Ultimate lighting stands with four PAR 46's on each stand with a dimmer pack. We use four gel colors: orange, red, green, and blue, so there are two fixtures for each color that are hooked to the same channel. The 15 ft. trussing is set-up behind the band and contains most of the effect lights. The eight PAR 38's, Zodiac, and the Motorheads are all hung on the truss along with a dimmer pack. The PAR 38's are usually sequencing during fast songs and used for accent lighting on slow songs. The Zodiac has a bunch of lenses with multiple colors; multiple beams come out of each lens and rotate to the music via an internal microphone. The Motorheads are moving head intelligent lights that have 12 colors plus white, 12 gobos, and dimming ability. The S150 DMX strobe light is either mounted on a floor stand or the truss depending on the venue; it is a very powerful strobe and the dimming and speed can be controlled via DMX. The flatbeam light and four of the pin spots are mounted on a carrying case system which is set up on the stage floor; the pin spots are aimed at various locations pointing in the air. The other two pin spots are set-up on the stage floor on small stands. All of the pin spots and the flatbeam have filters in them and are used for effects; these look really great with a lot of fog, as does the Zodiac. The four beacon lights are all different colors: red, blue, green, and yellow. These are placed around the stage and really help to make a lot of action on dance numbers. As you can probably tell by the pictures, the lighting set-up changes a lot depending on the venue. The truss often cannot be used due to lack of space; in these cases, some of the PAR 38's can be mounted on the front light stands. A lot of improvisation is sometimes required for setting up the lights.

Back to the top

* Adam's Tech Page is part of thesolutionmusic.com.  If you accessed this site via a direct link, click here to load the frames for The Solution's home page.

Adam's Tech Page was last updated on 8/13/09.

Adam's Tech Page has been accessed times as of 2/2/01.