version berlin En découverte Jean-Luc Hervé

The setup and the execution of the electroacoustic part of this work requires a Computer Music Designer (Max expert).

Table of contents

Version state: Documented

Documentation date: Sept. 6, 2019
Performance date: Feb. 19, 2017

Version documentalist

  • meier (meier@ircam.fr)

Version realisation

  • Jean-Luc Hervé (Composer)
  • Clément Marie (Sound engineer)
  • Benjamin Lévy (Computer Music Designer)

Default work length: 10 mn

Upgrade Motivation

annotated score

Detailed staff

  • 2 violons
(Detailed staff comes from Brahms, send mail to brahms-contenu@ircam.fr for correction.)

Electronic equipment list

Audio Equipment

  • 2 DPA 4061 - Condenser Microphones (DPA)
    with 2 violon clips

Computer Music Equipment

  • 1 MacBook Pro - Apple Laptops (Apple)
    it could run on another type of Mac (Apple). The piece is not CPU intensive.
  • 1 Max 6 - Max (Cycling74)
    we used Max 6.1 32bits
  • 1 Fireface 800 - Sound Board (RME)
    it could be any audio interface with at least 2 audio inputs, 4 audio outputs and 1 MIDI input
  • 1 footswitch control - MIDI Controllers (MIDI Solution)
    to convert from Footswich/Sustain Pedal to MIDI
  • 1 Footswitch / Sustain Pedal - Footswitch / Sustain Pedal
  • 1 MIDI booster - Booster
    if the console/computer/audio interface is far from the stage

Premiere

  • March 4, 2004, Paris, festival Nemo

Publisher :

  • Suvini Zerboni
File Author(s) Comment
[13.4 MB] Score Endecouverte-JLHerve-score.pdf J-L. Hervé ed. Suvini Zerboni
[20.6 MB] Recording(s) Endecouverte-JLHerve-Sillages.CD.mp3 Ensemble Sillages extracted from a monograph CD from J-L Hervé
[90.1 MB] Patch Endecouverte-JLHerve.Max_proj.zip B. Lévy
[21.0 KB] Technical rider Original (creation) tech rider J-L. Hervé ed. Suvini Zerboni
[211.3 KB] Setup Virtual sources localization B. Lévy because an in-place WFS system was used as well
[155.2 KB] Technical rider Overall technical rider for sound C. Marie common with other pieces of the same concert
[13.6 MB] Score score berlin robin meier

Instructions

Setup

The click track or metronome was not used during this performance because they was no video, thus no need for exact synchronization. The cues in the electronic part were triggered by the first violinist.

Setup

Loudspeaker setup

We used a combination of the WFS system provided in the concert hall and additional speakers placed on the stage. With those two systems, we reproducted "virtual sources" in the four corners of the room as specified in the orginal setup. The four channels output by the computer match those four sources/speakers of the orignal setup in the order : Left=HP1 (original setup), Right=HP2, Left back=HP3, Right back=HP4.

Midi setup

The first violin was triggering the cues of the score/patch with the pedal sent in MIDI to the computer.

Software

This version is a Max Project running with Max 6.1 32bits.
Just open the project file EnDecouverte- Max_project.maxproj with Max 6.1 32bits and all the needed files should be found and loaded. Except for Sampling rate (44.1kHz which correspond to the sample rate of the sound files used), no special Max setup is required for this piece. We use this standard setup :

  • I/O Vector Size: 512

  • Signal Vector Size: 256

  • Sampling Rate: 44100Hz

  • Scheduler in Overdrive: yes

  • in Audio Interrupt: no

Initialization routine

Once the project opened in Max:

  • Check that Max DSP is OFF otherwise audio will blow up!

  • Initialize the patch with the init bang yellow button in the top-left part

  • Turn ON the DSP with the menu on top of the patch

Patch presentation

The top-level patcher of the project is EffetLisiere4.61+s(buff)-JU.maxpat

Main patch

However, the main interface is in the commandessubpatcher

Main interface

Performance notes

Volume adjustements during the performance can be done with the mixing console.

  • In the first part of the piece (bar 1 to 45, cue 1) adjust the volume of the electronics so that the it sounds almost as a third violin in the room

  • On cue 4 (bar 88), the attack of the glissendo in the electronics should not be perceptible. It should blend in the first violin note. Adjust volume as necessary for that effect then raise again slowly the volume if needed.

  • from cue 5 (bar 103) the recordings and playings of the electronics should sound as echos of the violins: a bit far away, not to present but still clear.

Program note

Lors de mon séjour à Kyoto en 2001, j’ai été frappé par la relation qu’entretiennent au Japon l’art et la nature, et plus particulièrement la manière dont les architectures tres construites des jardins sont conçues par rapport à leurs environnement naturels. En découverte découle de cette expérience japonaise. La pièce propose un parcours métaphorique de l’extérieur vers l’intérieur, des sons de la nature vers les sons de l’instrument : l’écriture des violons qui prend au début le chant du rossignol japonais (uguisu) pour modèle se transforme peu à peu et utilise à la fin des gestes typiques de la littérature de violon. La morphologie d’un autre chant d’oiseau entendu au japon, qui est caractérisée par la déformation d’un motif par répétition et transposition vers le grave, sert de modèle à la seconde partie de la pièce. Cette idée apparaît clairement dans la partie électronique qui répète les phrases des violons en les transposant lentement vers le grave.

Jean-Luc Hervé.

Version documentation creation date: Sept. 6, 2019, 3:08 p.m., update date: Sept. 6, 2019, 3:09 p.m.