Visio

Global notes

A midi pedal on stage triggers the cues. During Premiere, it has been triggered by the flutist of Multilatérales: Matteo Cesari. But it can be triggered by whoever wants/can. The pedal triggers scenes in the Live master session. Live plays every sound files. Max is used only as an effect processor. In tech booth, the BCF2000 control both the Live session and the Max patch.
The electronics of this piece is dedicated to "enveloppe" the instrumental part. So all the performing is done by looking for fusion and deepness (especially in the low (sub) and the very high region of the spectrum).

Ideal speaker set-up

Classical speaker set-up with two additional "lointains" speakers (7 and 8) and 2 sub-channel (9 and 10). 1 2 3 4 5 6 like in the IRCAM studio. 2 "lointains" and 2 Sub-channels. Nothing special at this level. This plan is ideal, but a different setup has been used during Premiere.
Please refer to sound engineer tech spec to have the precise information at this level.

Soundboard

Please refer to sound engineer tech spec to have the precise information at this level.
Any Yamaha Mixing desk with ADAT should be OK.

Fireface UFX or 800

Use ADAT digital connectors. 48000Hz slave to the Sound Board.

Audio Input/Output

The first 10th channels are dedicated to Ableton Live output and the 6th last channels are reserved for MaxMSP so as the sound engineer has separated "sources" in his hand. You can also use Dante of course. The minimal physical channel number can be reduced up to 10 if needed (analogical connections.) We choose to split Live outputs and MaxMSP outputs, but they can be merged in 10 channels.

Input: 13 = 6 voices + 6 instruments + 1 percu (ADAT)
Ouput: 16 = 10 Live + 6 MaxMSP (ADAT)
(+ spare)

MIDI control

You will need:

• 1 BCF2000 or other MIDI controller in tech booth
• 1 MIDI pedal on stage

There is a midi pedal on stage. The electric signal of the pedal is going directly to the tech booth. So the pedal is directly plugged into the switch input of the BCF2000. Then I use the S3 mode of the BCF2000. The output A of the BCF2000 is plugged in the input of the spare computer. The output B of the BCF2000 is plugged in the input of the main computer. The output of the main computer is plugged in the input of the BCF2000. This is the lightest way because we don’t use any booster/merger/midi solution. An alternative is to use a midi solution at the end of the electric pedal cable. Merge it with the output B of the BCF2000, and double it with a booster to attack with the same signal the spare and the main.

The pedal triggers scene launch in the Live master session. Live plays every sample. A midi internal channel ("tomax1") is used to take the control over the MaxMSP patch, from the live session. The Max MSP patch is used to process the sound in realtime as it was a FX rack (no direct interaction with the patch). The BCF2000 control both the Live session and the MaxMSP patch. There is no order in the starting of these software programs…

BCF2000 Installation

The six leftmost faders of the BCF modulates the volume of separated grouped sound files, in the Live session. Give attention to the first one that modulate the sub especially. The two last faders modulate the overall Live volume and the overall Max volume. Turning down these two last faders leads to a quiet MacBook. On the upper left part of the BCF2000, 3 buttons control stop’n’play and init scene. During rehearsal, when you jump from one measure to another, please, use init extensively so as to recover the initial state before recalling any other preset… The two upper right buttons and knobs allow for setting the next scene to be triggered (up and down) to sync the spare and the main.

If you want a minimal set-up and you don't use a BCF2000, in max, only the master fader in INPUT/OUTPUT patch is important to map. In the Live set, the 5 return tracks are important, and also the "next scene" parameter to pass cues manually if there is an issue with the pedal.

Computer

The main computer performance (MacBook Pro Retina) uses:

• 1 Ableton live 9.5 64bits (also tested and working with Ableton Live 12.3.5)
• 1 Max 9 for arm mac computers
• 1 additional screen HDMI for the convenience of the performer (for the main computer only)

Live Configuration

Audio

Don’t forget to allow for the 10 channels.

MIDI

The session should present itself like that:
The max for live device on the master channel is a convenience to see better (from behind the score for instance) the current scene and the next one to be triggered. You don’t need it to perform the piece if you don’t have M4L installed.

Max configuration

Keep the IO straight. Please remove every file preferences or additional library set. Please use provided externals. Be careful, open the project instead of opening the .maxpat file. When started, the MaxMSP program should output no error. CPU is not intense and should not go beyond 100%.

Patch presentation

The max patch has 3 important windows :

• main window : 2026_Projet_Visio_V5.0, choose MIDI controllers, init, activate DAC, open any other important subpatcher.

• INPUT/OUTPUT : choose input and output channels, map the master to a MIDI controller
• events_VISIO : see what event is actually running

Simulation

You can run a complete simulation of the piece by downloading the simulation files.

Ableton

For this one, Live 12.3.5 minimum is required

1. Open Ableton Live Set 2026-Visio-V5-merge-simul&electronics.als
2. Route the audio for your setup.

• Return tracks A B C D E outputs the electronic samples of the piece.
• Visio_main track outputs the master recording of the simulation.
• The group SIMUL INSTRUS contains each instrument simulation audio track. Route them to loopback into Max.

1. Route the MIDI for your setup.

• Pedale midi track triggers the cues during simulation as the player on stage would. It loopbacks (with IAC Driver) into the “next scene” parameter of the live set, so it triggers cues automatically.
• Max FX track trigger the cues of the Max patch. It should be sent “to Max 1” MIDI output.
• Use the MIDI controller of your choice to control the volume level of return tracks (= electronic samples) and Visio_main (= orchestra).

Max

1. Open 2026_Projet_Visio_V5.0.maxproj
2. Audio routing

• in the INPUT/OUTPUT patch, select the loopback channel for each instrument input by editing the bpatcher arguments of each input.
• by default the patch outputs 6 channels to 1 2 3 4 5 6 channels of your dac. You can edit this if needed.

1. MIDI routing

• Choose “to Max 1” in main patch as pedal input
• MIDI Map the master gain output in INPUT/OUTPUT patch to your controller

Running the simulation routine

1. DAC on in Max
2. Init in Max
3. In Ableton Live, make sure Visio_main, Pedale midi and SIMUL INSTRUS are playing in arrangement

4. Stop all samples if any are playing 5. Select first prologue scene by clicking on it 6. Here you go, press play when you're ready !

Performance Notes

In this piece, the electronic forms a "halo" around the instrumental piece. So it is basically oscillating in the 2nd and the 3rd plan in the music. However, it can take the first plan sometimes.
During performance, all you have to do is to relax and mix in the search for a fusion with the instrumental parts.

Pedal list

Each pedal is fired on the first beat of the corresponding measures, except this one in yellow on the second beat with the voices (see the score, please).