Dear Spencer,

having created/discussed a lot of cue-playing machines in pd over the last years, it turns out, that one almost always has to create a unique patch for each production (different requirements, speaker setup, etc.). Although it can be a rewarding task to learn how to use pd for these applications. What you will need basically, is an abstraction (read more about this if you don't know them in the documentation) for sample- or harddisk-based playback, including the panning or loudspeaker ditribution (spatialisation) part. You would have to create as many of these as you have simultaneous voices/samples playing during the performance. Next comes the parameter management (cue list) which you could implement using one of the many parameter management objects (f.e. textfile, qlist, iem_pbank, memento,...) whose parameters can even be edited in MS Excel (or better, in OpenOffice's Calc, or any text editor). You would then step using your "go" button through the line in this textfile, each triggering a new sample at a new position (or whatever params you specify). All this (and much more) can be done within pd, but it requires that you buld such a patch yourself. This might take some time but is definitely worth the effort (esp. when the director asks you to transform the voice of an actor in realtime according to parameter lists, which would be just a simple expansion to yor sample-playback patch).

Let me add that some parts (the aforementioned abstractions for soundfile playback) can be re-used in each variation of a patch you build for another piece.

I will do some theater sound-design in multichannel audio for a theater piece in some weeks, and i will use pd for that.

cheerio,

Peter

Spencer Russell wrote:

Hey there List, I do theatre sound design, and up till now my usual rig for pre-recorded stuff has consisted of my hardware sampler and a couple of DJ CD players. I've been playing around with the idea of creating a sound design patch that would be easy to customize for different shows. My general plan has been to have some sort of script file that is read by PD that can trigger audio streams and alter their volume/panning, with the user interaction ideally consisting of a "GO" button that would trigger the next event in the script file. Anyone who's used a computerized lighting console should know what I'm talking about.

The idea is to have something that's simple enough that I can have pretty complex designs that are easy to run during the show, so that I can actually enjoy the play.

The tradeoff, of course, is that if too much is automated, and something goes wrong, we could have a huge trainwreck, so I'd like to have a "cancel" button, also, that would stop the current cue without moving on to the next one, and maybe some way to easily navigate the cues.

Has anyone played around with something like this? Can my script be a simple text file? Can PD navigate around a text file to skip cues or go back to previous ones? Does anyone have any different/better ideas of ways to make sound design automation easier?

Thanks, spencer

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