Re: backing solo performances/Cheating

[Mark Sottilaro <msottila@mailbox.syr.edu>]

Hey,

As a solo or duo performer that relies on silicone for band mates, I've
realized how important it is to add a visual element to a performance.
Let's face it, to non musicians a performance with nothing to watch just
isn't that interesting.  I think that the subtleties of improv go right
by most folks.  Luckily, I cut my teeth working for the Queen of
Multimedia, Laurie Anderson, and that woman knows how to spice up a
sequence spewing from a synclavier.

What I've been doing to augment my "button pushing" (I'm a guitarist
with lots of stuff to step on and tweak) is to use either my midi
guitar, a Roland Octapad or keyboard (often playing a sequence of which
I'm syncing to) to trigger digital video off a Macintosh.  The program
is called Xpose and all you need is a midi card of some kind (Opcode
Midi Translator, in my case) a PowerMac with Video out (If you don't
have video out, the card will cost you $200 [Xclaim VR 128] and will
accelerate 2 and 3d graphics as well) and some sort of monitor or
projector.  The program is silly simple to use, and although it dumbs
down all your video to either 8 or 16 bit, the results are pretty good.
There's also a program for the PC made by some Austrians called Varp.

Is this the "cage dancer" of the computer age?  Digital colored water
and oil?  Maybe, but let me tell you:  It works.  I've found people are
a lot more receptive to genres of music they're not familiar with when
there's a visual component.

Mark Sottilaro
http://web.syr.edu/~msottila