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know what’s coming next so that I can
prepare for the next song, or for the next
section
in
the
current
one. If
you
need
more info to be displayed, you can load
a
background JPEG image for each scene,
with lyrics and prompts, or a picture of your
girlfriend if that’s what you need to get you
through the gig!
In addition to all the above, Forte offers
extensive MIDI translation features. You
can configure it to re-map and filter
channels, filter keys by range, transpose
notes and re-map
MIDI
controllers. Should
you
need
to do so, you can do this
independently for every VSTi in the rack and
every MIDI input port. To top it
all
off, you
can have a completely different MIDI
translation for
each scene. This is amazingly
flexible, and makes it possible to configure
and control soft synths in ways that would
be all but impossible using traditional
keyboards and
equipment. Another
useful
touch
is Toggle
mode, with which you can
configure a MIDI pedal to toggle a VST
parameter on and off. I use this primarily for
speeding up and slowing down the rotary
speaker effect within Native Instruments’
B4
organ, but there are many other uses for it.
More about monitors
In truth, the idea of not having a monitor on stage is
too scary for me, so I have two of them tucked away,
although you’d never know that if I didn’t tell you
about them.
The first is a seven-inch LCD mounted on the side of
one
of
my
keyboards. This
allows
me to
see
which
scene is active, and read which one is coming next.
However, this display isn’t big enough to edit scenes
or to make changes on the fly, so I also have a large
flat-panel display placed out of view for soundcheck
tweaks, or just in case an emergency crops up
during the gig.
On stage
Once I got to grips with
Forte
,
I found it a
dream to program, although it crashed a
number of times while I was setting
everything
up. The guys at Brainspawn
reassured me that it would be more
vulnerable to crashes during the programming
stage, because of the way in which different
software developers implement the VST
standard. This can be ‘loose, to say the least.
’
By this time I had also become comfortable
with computer-based samplers, so I ditched
my
Akai S6000 for Steinberg’s Halion, of which I
have three copies running simultaneously on
stage, all hosted by
Forte
.
One
of
these
provides sampled instruments such as pianos,
flutes and so on; one provides sound effects;
and
the
third
is
dedicated
to
loops. I
was
also able to bring my Minimoog out of
retirement in the shape of Arturia’s VST soft
synth, and I have two copies of this running:
one for me to play the widdly-widdly bits and
This view of Mark on stage from the side shows his flat-panel safety’ monitor, tucked away at floor
level but still available for visual feedback if anything needs tweaking mid-show.Photo by M Koolen.
controlled by MIDI bass pedals played by Pete,
our
bass
player. Of
course, Pete
isn’t
limited
to playing Moog Taurus bass-pedal sounds
(although there are lots of these during the
two hour gig), so — taking advantage of
Forte’s
MIDI Routing —
I have
configured
everything so that he can use the pedals to
trigger plenty of samples throughout the set.
This simultaneously takes some of the load off
me and keeps him out of trouble!
Nevertheless, none of this would be of much
use if I had to mix everything ‘live’ within
the
computer. I could
balance everything
perfectly in rehearsals, but that would be no
guarantee that things wouldn’t
need
tweaking
at
each
venue. Happily, this
is no
problem
at
all
in
practice. Using Forte’s
audio-routing capabilities, I can direct the
stereo output from each soft’ instrument to a
different pair of outputs on my Delta 1010
soundcard, and from there on to separate
stereo pairs on my Yamaha 01V digital mixing
desk. This has the
added
benefit
of
allowing
me to use the 01V’s on-board reverb rather
than
a
power-hungry
PC
plug-in. Let’s
face
it, I don’t want to drop out of real time in the
middle of one of the loud bits!
Once everything was configured, the
system
proved
completely
reliable.During
a
43-date European tour, followed by a further
15 dates in North America, neither the PC,
Forte nor any
of the VSTis crashed once. This
means that I never saw Forte’s safety feature.
Called Advanced Performance Recovery, this is
a separate Windows application that
monitors
Forte’s health by listening for a signal
from
it
every
few
seconds. If
APR
stops
detecting this signal, it will forcibly kill
Forte (if it
still exists in a running state) and restart it with
the last rack and scene it was using.
From version 1.4 to version 1.5…
The Marbles tour, in 2004, was performed
using Forte 1.4. However, as a result of several
conversations and a visit from the Brainspawn
»
May 2005 SOUND ON SOUND LIVE
15