Thighpaulsandra sent the following to the Plan B list regarding his performance. I asked him if I could put it up here, and he was kind enough to give me the ok. Enjoy."Here's my take on my piece for Analog Live. As with much of my material truly live performance is very difficult. I have no problem with that. Some things sound better sequenced (ask T Dream) and if I can get a computer to do all my patch changes too then I can concentrate on playing. On this occasion I opted for some written material, some improvised and some sequenced. Like Peter, I too recreated some of the more module intensive events from samples of the original work. One particular three second event would have involved the use of 24 modules and some very precise tuning. As this was clearly impractical for the purposes of this show I opted to replay a sample of that event. Another sample was the use of four VCOs and four Serge Waveform Multipliers for the opening drone. As Virgin Atlantic have pretty tight baggage restrictions these days I was unable to bring my whole Serge system from the UK for this show. I played as much of the score as was possible and practical and if you noticed I always had my hands full.
As Peter mentioned [on the Plan B list] the piano was a Steinway. The piano was micd with two AKG 414s. The original score had the piano ring modulated by two Synton Fenix ring mods. In rehearsal we tried to recreate this but the ring modulators seemed to add to the monitor feedback problems from the piano so I opted to leave the piano untreated. The rest of the gear for the show was as follows:
-Waldorf Microwave - used for bass sequences, and the long chords in sections 2 and 8. This also provided the filtered chords in the improvised middle section.
EMS Synthi AKS - used for effects in sections 2 and 8
Custom EH 16 sec delay - used to reverse and pitch change the EMS in the above sections
Nord Modular - Added sharp attacks to Moog bass notes in section 4
Aries Modular - (kindly lent by Roger Cordell at Big City Music) used to recreate the two
ARP 2600s from the original score. I was seriously impressed with this synth. I checked the tuning on my strobe tuner the day before the show and it seemed very stable. Five minutes before the show I checked it again and was pleasantly surprised to find that all four VCOs were rock solid.
Moog Voyager - (thanks again to Roger Cordell) used for fast intro sequences in section 1, bass in section 4 and the nasal solo I played in section 6.
Serge Modular - (thanks to Chris Pitman) used for Peter's SLOS
Kenton Pro4 - Midi - CV convertor used to run the Aries
Doepfer and Fatar midi controllers - (kindly lent by Analogue Haven) used to control the
Waldorf and Nord in both my piece and Alessandro's.
Apple Macbook with MOTU midi and audio interfaces - played samples via NI Kontakt,
sequenced the onstage synths and provided large visual cues (because I'm almost blind) via MOTU Digital Performer for sections 2 and 8.
During my piece Gary added various Roland textures throughout but particularly amazing bell-like textures in sections 2 and 8. Peter added more to the chordal sections and descending tones on my Moog solo.
Alessandro added some great French Connection/EAR to the chordal sections and evolving Buchla to the improvised section 5.
Chas played steel on the chordal sections and bowed his waterphone device in section 5.
Thighp"
