Belmont Porchfest 2024: Technical Details
Belmont Porchfest 2024 was the longest Wizard Peter show to date. The length and musical ambition drove a careful technical design that I explain in this post. You can view show photos here.
Belmont Porchfest equipment setup
Here’s a video of two of the songs:
The set list was partially determined by requests from VIP audience members. Many of the requests were for cover songs, so the show focused on singing, in addition to the usual blend of live electronics.
Here’s the set list, divided in two parts and with an intermission between:
Part 1
Spidey and His Amazing Friends theme, by Patrick Stump
Dancing Queen, by ABBA
Inevitable, by Anberlin
Happy, an original
Work this Body, by Walk the Moon
Part 2
Angel Fish, by Anne Crosby Gaudet
Walk in the Park (modified), by Titus Raffensperger & John Raffensperger
Bluey theme, by Jonathan Bush
Techno song, an original
The first part was sung, accompanied by studio-prepared backing tracks running in an Ableton Live set on a laptop, controlled by Push 3. The second part was the business of live electronics aka “knob twiddling”, combining backing tracks with live modular synthesizer performance.
This extensive show was developed over months of planning, backing track recording, pre-production, practice and careful assembly of the live electronics rig.
The live rig, in the rehearsal studio
The center of the action is Ableton Live running on a laptop, controlled by Push 3. I developed each song in its own project and then I mixed to stems and collected all the projects into one, with a single unified timeline. The Push 3 drives two modular voices via MIDI.
Some Wizard Peter shows have extensive visuals, but this show was limited to static posters, an two live objets d'art: a Monome Norns + 256 Grid running the “plasma” generative art script and DIY Raspberry Pi-based audio-reactive LED matrix.
The two MIDI-sequenced modular voices reside in the 7U Intellijel case. One is based on the Mutable Instruments Plaits oscillator running into Whimsical Raps Three Sisters filter, while the other is the Whimsical Raps Mangrove oscillator feeding the Intellijel Polaris filter.
The 4U Intellijel case has a third voice, which is the combination of Mutable Instruments Tides, Befaco Even VCO and My First Modular filter and is sequenced by the Monome Ansible, controlled by the Monome One 128-key grid controller. This third voice is used only in the last song, and it’s designed for improvisational sequencing.
Full patch notes are below.
Live setup detail
The PA system comprises of two large and heavy Yamaha passive speakers, driven by a QSC amplifier. The amplifier had a broken transistor in one of the channels, which I replaced — an electronics technical job as a gonzo show preparation requirement.
The amplifier is fed by a trusty Mackie 802VLZ which serves to combine audio from the Push 3, the modular and two microphones. The first microphone is the hi-fi Earthworks SR117 and it gets the Universal Audio MAX compressor pedal in the mixer channel insert. I used this microphone for singing. The second microphone is a converted telephone, gritty and lo-fi, as a special effect for certain announcements / spoken word elements.
Live setup side view
The other key part of the show’s setup was the dual button controller, which is a large, industrial button assembly with a big red button and a big green button. This was positioned on the table facing the audience, so that people could come up and press the buttons during the last song. The button presses were routed through the modular and converted to MIDI signals to trigger a variety of comedic samples in Ableton Live. Children and adults in the audience could have the satisfaction of causing fart sounds, cat meows and other, more musical sounds.
Patch notes
Modular Grid plan for 4U case -- the gap is filled with the "My First Modular" Filter and LFO modules
Modular 4U patch
Crow on 4U programmed as a random voltage generator with crow out 2 = 5v - crow out 1 for crossfader control in tandem with 1U VCA
Ansible Kria gate -> Maths 1 -> 1U LPG CV
Ansible Kria v/8 -> buffered mult -> Befaco Even VCO v/8 & My First Modular Filter CV 1 & Tides v/8
Crow 1 -> 1U VCA CV A
Crow 2 -> 1U VCA CV B
Crow 3 -> Maths 3 -> Even VCO PWM
My First Modular LFO triangle out -> Tides shape
Even VCO Triangle -> Tides Trig
Tides Bi -> Mix 1
Even VCO Square -> 1U VCA In A
Even VCO Even -> 1U VCA In B
1U VCA B (sums output A) -> Mix 2
Mix out -> My First Modular Filter input
1U noise tools slewed random CV -> My First Modular Filter CV 2
My First Modular Filter output -> 1U LPG in
Cross connections to 7U
7U case 1U MIDI Run -> 4U case Ansible in 2
4U case 1U LPG out -> 7U Case QSC ch 1 left
7U case 1U MIDI clock -> 4U case active mult -> Ansible in 1
Modular Grid plan for 7U case -- the gaps are filled with DIY external switch input (upper) and manual switch modules (lower)
Modular 7U patch
Crow on 7U programmed as a random voltage generator
Voice 1, Plaits & Three Sisters
Plaits in Asymmetric Triangle mode (2nd green mode from the top)
MIDI 1U ch1 v/8 -> Plaits v/8
MIDI 1U ch1 Gate -> DIY LPG 1 CV
MIDI 1U ch1 Vel -> Plaits timbre CV
Plaits Aux -> Zeroscope Tuner ch 1
Plaits Out -> Three Sisters All in
Three Sisters Low out -> DIY LPG 1 in
DIY LPG 1 out -> QSM ch 4 left
Stages 2 LFO -> Shades 3
Shades 3 -> Plaits Harmo CV
Stages 3 LFO -> Plaits Morph CV
MIDI 1U ch1 Gate -> Stages 6 gate
Stages 6 decay env -> Three Sister FM
Stages 1 LFO -> Three Sister Span (effectively as a 2nd source of FM)
Voice 2, Mangrove & Polaris
MIDI 1U ch2 v/8 -> Mangrove v/8
MIDI 1U ch2 Gate -> DIY LPG 2 CV
MIDI 1U ch2 Vel -> Mangrove Air CV
Mangrove Square -> Zeroscope Tuner ch 2
Mangrove Formant -> Polaris in
Mangrove PPM Hollow -> Polaris FM1
Crow 2 -> Polaris FM 2
Modular send bus processing
1U Audio IO in L&R -> DXG 1 L&R
DXG out L&R -> Beads in L&R
Beads out L&R -> QSM ch 3 L&R
DXG out L&R -> Warps in L&R (Warps set to be a delay effect)
Warps out L&R -> QSM ch 2 L&R
1U Audio IO in L -> W/ in
W/ out -> DXG 2 L
QSM yellow send -> DXG aux in L (to send modular voices to Beads & Warps)
QSM green send -> DIY transformer module -> Push 3 input 2
Just Friends + Frames was also configured as a crazy noise generator, but I didn’t end up using this during the show
MIDI Control routing
Befaco VCMC -> Push MIDI DIN input
Push USB MIDI -> Intellijel MIDI 1U
Quadratt A & B -> VCMV Aux A & B
DIY external red & green button box -> DIY pedal input module
DIY pedal input module -> DIY switch bank -> VCMC gate inputs
The VCMC gates send notes to the Ableton Live SFX drum rack with round robin sample selections
The sample banks included fart noises, cat meows, different text-to-speech voices saying “Wizard Peter” and other samples
Audio routing
Vocals -> Earthworks SR117 mic -> mixer channel 1, with Universal Audio MAX compressor pedal in the insert
Telephone mic -> mixer channel 2
Push 3 main outputs -> mixer channels 7 & 8
Modular 7U line outputs -> mixer channels 5 & 6
Push 3 headphone outputs -> modular 7U line inputs
Mixer send -> Push 3 input 1 -> reverb send (Valhalla DSP VintageVerb)
Modular 7U DIY transformer IO -> Push 3 input 2 -> digital delay with bit crush effect
Ableton project
Main audio tracks
1 Voice guide
2 Bass
3 Drums
4 Perc
5 Keys
6 Guitar
7 Bells
MIDI, live inputs and misc
8 MIDI 1
9 MIDI 2
10 Reverb in
11 Sampled Piano audio track
12 MIDI piano 1
13 MIDI piano 2
14 SFX
15 Modular in
Setup checklist
connect mini case
Ansible 2 to MIDI run (blue stackcable on QSC)
LPG out to QSC Ch 1 left
Active mult to midi clock (green + blue stackcable on crow)
Check Ableton live output device
Check sound playback
Check oscillator tuning
Check MIDI to 1U
Check MIDI from VCMV is received
Notes
CC
Set loop to “yes”
Set all VCMV sliders to lowest position
Level check
Voice balance level check as
Check modular to Ableton send
Check mixer to Ableton send
Live patch big button trigger destinations
Record video