MPC 500 used for Sample-based Busking Performance

Thanks for the positive feedback, I'm glad you guys are feeling it. This was the first time I'd tried it live so I was a bit nervous and only really played with a few of the 48 samples.

Jim, I had to make everything battery-powered because of the outside nature of the busk, so I used a Roland Mobile Cube Stereo Amp. The amp sounds great but cuts out if you feed it too much signal. It probably wouldn't be so bad with a guitar, but there was more busking I did with other samples that I couldn't put in due to the amp cutting out.

Esquilo: I synced up the MPC pads to the corresponding video footage of the sound via MIDI. I tried doing it with Max MSP but there was quite a bit of lag on the video so I used Modul8. Basically just put the video clips into the program and then assigned the pad on the MPC with the videos. At the end it was simple but it took a lot of trial and error before I went back to that original idea!

The projection would be better bigger but I had to project it onto something and my chest is only so big. I'm thinking out doing it again in San Francisco so maybe I'll try the bigger projection out then.

Maybe project onto your mpc/speaker/stand that you're using. A pole and a white sheet might be able to make it plenty big. The projection is lower, but it might look cool. Plus then you might not need to carry the projector stand. When doing these kinds of projects I usually look for ways to lighten the load and reduce setup time. If you don't have a power strip in the mix, might be useful so you can keep everything 'stacked' and just plug in to recharge when the opportunity arises. There are some locations you can find from time to time that have an outlet, and if not then you can always go in someplace for a cup of coffee and see if they'll let you charge up.

As far as the amplitude cutting out, you may need to just lower your outputs on the MPC. It's probably not so much of an issue as to how 'loud' the samples are, but how hot they are being mixed. If you're playing the samples from the MPC you can always just use the amplitude level to lower sounds that are a little too loud. A touch of filtering may help as well. You may even want to tweak the MPC use the MFX EQ and just roll off the bass as this is probably what is using up the largest amount of your available sound that the Roland can generate. Not a perfect solution, but if you don't mind losing some of the low end you can probably get a lot more clarity in the high end without having to worry about it cutting off.

Good luck and keep at it. Definitely an interesting project.

Thanks for the answer

Nice stuff man.

Absolutely love it! That's some real creative shit!

Just came across this thread. Great stuff!

wish i could check that out, i just pick up my internet signal for free and it isn't strong enough for video. I'm sure its fresh though.

NearTao wrote:Maybe project onto your mpc/speaker/stand that you're using. A pole and a white sheet might be able to make it plenty big. The projection is lower, but it might look cool. Plus then you might not need to carry the projector stand. When doing these kinds of projects I usually look for ways to lighten the load and reduce setup time. If you don't have a power strip in the mix, might be useful so you can keep everything 'stacked' and just plug in to recharge when the opportunity arises. There are some locations you can find from time to time that have an outlet, and if not then you can always go in someplace for a cup of coffee and see if they'll let you charge up.

As far as the amplitude cutting out, you may need to just lower your outputs on the MPC. It's probably not so much of an issue as to how 'loud' the samples are, but how hot they are being mixed. If you're playing the samples from the MPC you can always just use the amplitude level to lower sounds that are a little too loud. A touch of filtering may help as well. You may even want to tweak the MPC use the MFX EQ and just roll off the bass as this is probably what is using up the largest amount of your available sound that the Roland can generate. Not a perfect solution, but if you don't mind losing some of the low end you can probably get a lot more clarity in the high end without having to worry about it cutting off.

Good luck and keep at it. Definitely an interesting project.

You have a good point about the projection. I originally had to project onto myself because I needed something white to project onto. I thought a proper projection stand or even a sheet might take it too far away from the idea that I myself was a busker busking with others' sounds. If I do it again though will definitely look into different ways to project, but it is quite dependent on the location.

The cutting out was solely the fault of the amp. It just can't really handle too much going through it, and I think if I'd turned down the level of the samples, and turned up the amp it wouldn't have made too much difference. I did filter the samples quite a bit, and they were all pre-mixed in terms of the level I wanted each sample. Because I recorded them all in public on the camera built in music I had to mess with them to get a bigger frequency spectrum. At first it was all sounding very muddy.

Anyway, really good to hear your thoughts, the feedback is very useful.

Very nicely done. I'm doing something similar with Maschine and Resolume. Also thinking of trying the iPad route with TouchOSC.

I kinda like the intimate atmosphere created by projecting onto your chest. What kind of projector did you use?

emptysea wrote:Very nicely done. I'm doing something similar with Maschine and Resolume. Also thinking of trying the iPad route with TouchOSC.

I kinda like the intimate atmosphere created by projecting onto your chest. What kind of projector did you use?

Cheers. I used the Aaxa P2 Pico Projector http://www.aaxatech.com/products/p2_pico_projector.htm - which worked really well

NearTao wrote:He's using Max/MSP (possibly with Jitter) to trigger the videos and presumably the sample playback on the computer. I'd imagine it's a bit too much work to do the audio on the MPC 500 and the videos in Max/MSP although I could be wrong. If I had to guess, he's probably just using the MPC 500 for the sequencing but not audio playback.

We'd need to see more details though to get a complete idea of what he's doing exactly... my guess though is that quite a lot of effort went into programming everything and hooking it all together.

Quite clever.

I believe you are wrong as fook

I looked at doing it in Max and build a simple patch but it was more hassle than it was worth and there was so much lag. In the end I went simple with the MPC sending out a MIDI signal to Modul8 to trigger the appropriate video. Very little lag this way.

The clips were all cut in ProTools so they are perfectly synced and then I just separated into audio/visual samples. So the sound IS output from the MPC.

Moved to San Francisco after finishing this project but there's not one area like in London where a lot of Buksers perform so I don't think the recontextualisation idea really works. Plan on trying it again in London in the Summer though if anyone there is interested.

That is really great.

Reminds me of the old Coldcut videos:
Natural Rhtyhm - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mkMWXGsnb8
Timber - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLu7p9bTJ84

And in SF, you could try Haight street near the park and all the shops, but definitely more of a 'pan-handling' than 'busking' vibe there.

nogginj wrote:That is really great.

Reminds me of the old Coldcut videos:
Natural Rhtyhm - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mkMWXGsnb8
Timber - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLu7p9bTJ84

And in SF, you could try Haight street near the park and all the shops, but definitely more of a 'pan-handling' than 'busking' vibe there.

I really like those Coldcut videos. I wrote my dissertation on sampling and their name came up a lot while I researching.

As for doing BUSK in the city, I think it may work somewhere like Fisherman's Wharf which has a lot of people with the time to stop and look. I'd feel a bit uncomfortable bring my computer, MPC and projector Haight st. You need to be somewhere that your not to worries about the gear to be able to perform properly and even though the Haight isn't so bad, you need to be alert. Plus there's more buskers in Fisherman's Wharf.