When using your InterOscitorTMin a live performance here are some suggestions for improving its response and using it most effectively.
0) Use a solid, featureless, black backdrop to enhance the contrast with your hands when playing the InterOscitorTM. A bright floodlight shining on you from the front will also enhance the ability of the program to detect your hand motions. You want as much contrast as possible between you and your background. The background should be smooth and featureless.
1) A flashlight or pair of flashlights can be used to play the InterOscitorTM and will enhance the ability of the program to detect the location of your hands. This can help compensate for those times when you can't choose a featureless, single color background for best contrast.
2) Adjust the settings for your video camera to enhance the contrast. Try playing with the brightness and contrast controls. Adjust the room lighting for best contrast. Using a spotlight can help.
3) If you want to set one of the controllers (pitch or volume) in the InterOscitorTM to a fixed setting select User Options from the Options menu and either set the Top Note and Low Note to be the same, or set the Loudest and Softest volume settings to be the same. This is useful if you only want to control volume or only want to control pitch. This is often used in situations where you want to create sounds based on body, rather than hand movements.
4) There are, in general, two kinds of synthesizer
sounds. One kind will make a sound for as long as you hold down a
key on a keyboard (like an organ). The other kind will play a note
that fades away, even if you keep holding the key down (like a piano).
The InterOscitorTM deals
with these two kinds of sound differently. Usually it will do so
automatically, as long as you are using the General MIDI synthesizer built
into your sound card since it knows the type of each General MIDI sound.
However, if you use an external synthesizer or sampler you will have to
tell the InterOscitorTM which
type of sound it is dealing with in order for it to handle it correctly.
Organ-like sounds are handled by sending out one message to tell the note
to start playing, and then subsequent messages just alter the pitch controller.
Piano-like sounds are handled by sending out a new message to turn a note
on repeatedly. Each new message also contains a new pitch setting.
You can tell the InterOscitorTM
to use one method or the other like this: Select User Options in
the Options menu. In the User Options window that appears there will
be a check box labeled "Use Note On/Off instead of Continuous Controller".
If this box is checked a new note-on message will be sent repeatedly.
If this box is not checked then a single note is sounded and pitch
controller messages are sent to change the pitch.
Organ-like sounds will work with either setting.
However, piano-like sounds will only work with the Note On/Off method.
If you are not getting any sound from your InterOscitorTM
then it could be this is the reason why. Try turning on the Note
On/Off mode to see if that helps.
Also, if you interrupt the synthesizer in Continuous Controller
mode, the initial note that was sounding and having its pitch altered may
be stopped, in which case you have to cause a new note to be triggered
to get the sound back. You can trigger a new note by switching between
Continuous Controller and Note On/Off mode and then back. Or you
can choose another General MIDI patch (and then reselect the original one.)
Or you can just exit and restart.
5) Adding an echo or reverb unit to the sound produced by your InterOscitorTM can enhance it dramatically.
6) Like any musical instrument, certain skills in precise control of your body or hand motion are needed to get exact control of pitch or volume. The InterOscitorTM is not as difficult to play as a violin, but is more like a slide whistle or a Theremin. Practice the effects you want to achieve.
7) There are several different styles of playing the InterOscitorTM
. Here's a few suggestions.
a) By holding the volume steady and changing pitch you get a slide
whistle like effect.
b) By holding the pitch steady and changing the volume you can make
a single note fade in and out.
c) To play single notes of different pitches, instead of a continously
changing pitch, lower the volume to zero with one hand, and select the
pitch with your other, then raise the volume briefly and lower it again.
Select the next pitch and again raise and lower the volume. You need
to develop a good sense of where each pitch is your zone of movement to
make this work well. Careful setup of the camera, lighting, background,
pitch range, and volume range will make it easier to achieve repeatability
if you move the equipment to a new location.
d) Changing pitch and volume at the same time increases expressiveness.
e) Vary how fast you change volume. For example, bring the volume
up quickly and down gradually or vice versa.
f) Flutter your volume hand faster or slower for different vibrato
speeds. Flutter your pitch hand faster or slower for different modulation
wheel type effects.
g) You can alter the pitch and halt at each new note you want to play
when you reach it. Or you can keep changing the pitch continuously,
only arriving at the exact note you want at the exact moment it fits the
song. This requires a good sense of pitch control.
h) Reducing the pitch range or volume range will give you finer control
over that range. With a 6 octave pitch range a hand motion of 25
centimeters might sweep through a whole octave. With a half octave
pitch range a hand motion of 25 centimeters might sweep through one note
in a 12 note octave.
8) You can play your InterOscitorTM from a variety of distances. You can create a very small stage on a table top with a black backdrop and play both pitch and volume with one hand (use the tip of your fingers for pitch and the side of your hand for volume.) Or you can stand a little ways away from the camera and hold your hands together in front of you to play. Or you can stand further away from the camera and use your hands at your sides to play. Or you could have two people stand even further away and have them climb up and down ladders (painted black of course) so that one controls pitch and one controls volume.
9) Watch the computer screen to figure out where the zone of air space is that best controls your InterOscitorTM. Projecting the computer screen with a video projector can be both a dramatic special effect and a good way to get visual feedback on your playing. An interesting effect is to project the image from the InterOscitorTM so that it surrounds your actual body! Even more fun is to project a huge image behind you so that there is a gigantic outline of yourself towering over you and moving when you move!
10) It is useful to set the volume range so that when you take your hand out of the volume zone the volume goes to zero. You can do this by adjusting the Loudest and Softest settings in the User Options window (called up from the Options menu.) This lets you kill the sound easily if necessary.
11) Arrange for silent moments in your part of the performance. This will give you a chance to rest your arms. It can be tiring to continuously hold them up in the air. Alternatively, play closer to the camera so less movement is required or so you can rest your arms on something.
12) One good way to get greater control and quick equipment setup and tuning is the following: wait for dark and turn off all the room lights (or work in a darkened/windowless theater or room). Using one or two simple light fixtures and a spotlight-like bulb (such as the Philips Director bulbs or indoor spotlight bulbs) shine light up at yourself from below (place the lights on the floor shining up to where your hands will be). The idea is to light up just your hands and not the background behind you, hence reducing the amount of background noise in the camera image. Adjust the lights to best illuminate only your hands and leave anything behind you in the dark. The more contrast the better. This can be an effective dramatic lighting effect for stage performances also since you can cast huge shadows high above yourself (just keep them out of view of the camera.) Placing lights shining down from above can achieve similar contrast levels.
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