Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre

Last updated
Performance by BEAST at the CBSO Centre in 2009. Beast Concert 1.jpg
Performance by BEAST at the CBSO Centre in 2009.

Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre, or as it is more commonly known, BEAST, is a sound diffusion system specifically designed for the performance of electroacoustic music. It consists of a set of loudspeakers connected to a computer, usually controlled by a diffusion console. It is a long-running project of the Electroacoustic Music Studios at the University of Birmingham, founded in 1982 under the directorship of Jonty Harrison. Since 2014 BEAST has been directed by Scott Wilson, with Annie Mahtani as co-director from 2020. James Carpenter was technical director until 2018. The current technical director is Simon Smith.

Contents

The loudspeakers

BEAST can consist of up to over 100 channels of loudspeakers, often arranged largely in pairs or rings, and includes ultra-low frequency loudspeakers (bins) and custom-built trees of high frequency speakers (tweeter trees) which can be suspended above an audience.

BEAST was originally designed as an acousmonium-style system for the diffusion of stereo work. [1] The minimum set-up that BEAST would ordinarily use for stereo diffusion comprises a set of loudspeakers which Jonty Harrison terms the Main Eight. [1] [2] These four pairs of loudspeakers, using BEAST nomenclature, are termed Main, Wide, Distant and Rear. The Main and the Wide speakers together form the main, frontal sound image, the Main speakers being placed to act somewhat like the stereo loudspeakers in a typical studio, and the Wide speakers acting to stretch that sound image out across the audience's sound stage. The Rear speakers, which are behind the audience, provide immersion and the possibility of movement around the audience. Finally, the Distant speakers, which are positioned to hold their image behind the Main speakers, create a sound whose perspective is distant to that of the Main pair. Other speakers are added to this Main Eight to allow additional possibilities for sound movement and differing sound perspectives. More recent work with BEAST has explored the possibilities offered by 'massively multichannel' approaches to composition, and 'n-channel' work. [3]

The diffusion console

BEAST is a dynamic system: during a performance the performer operates an often custom-built console, called the diffusion console, with which he or she can individually and dynamically control the level of each loudspeaker, or groups of loudspeakers. This enables him or her to actively articulate the piece's implied spatial sound detail within the real space of the performance venue, in order to realise and interpret the composer's intentions. [4] The system also includes equipment for the live processing of sounds so that, for instance, the sounds of a live violinist can be processed and incorporated into the soundstage.

The BEAST diffusion console has developed significantly over the years. The earliest systems depended on those commercially available mixing desks which had direct outputs from each fader. The stereo input signal from, for example, a tape-machine was split passively into the input channels on the desk, alternating left and right. The direct output from each channel fed the amplifiers for the loudspeakers, thus giving the individual control of each loudspeaker required for diffusion. The main disadvantage of this system was that it offered very little flexibility, making it difficult to move between sources in different formats (for example, quadraphonic, octaphonic or pieces with live input). In some situations complicated rewiring would be required for each source format used, which could be prone to errors particularly during the stress of a performance. [5]

The first custom built console BEAST developed was still based on a commercially available mixing desk, but which had been extensively modified, adding a matrix input section and balanced outputs. The matrix input section allowed a number of inputs to be assigned to any fader input using a series of push buttons. Where multiple sources were used during a concert, this allowed each work to have their assignment preset on the matrix. BEAST's positive and negative experiences with this experimental desk led them to design a new one: their last analogue desk, called the 3D. This was a fully custom built console with an extensive matrix input which was very easy and flexible to use.

With the electroacoustic community's renewed interest in multichannel formats, and in particular octaphonic set-ups, came the need for BEAST to address how such pieces should be diffused. The diffusion of multichannel formats was too complex a task for the standard BEAST console, even the 3D, and BEAST turned to software solutions to solve these problems: first MAX/MSP and most recently, a system created in SuperCollider by Scott Wilson and Sergio Luque. Now, rather than using an analogue desk, a digital multichannel sound interface is used, and controlled via specially written applications using MIDI faders. This offers the maximum flexibility, with one fader, for example, being able to control only one loudspeaker, a stereo pair or an octaphonic circle depending on how the system has been configured. Using this system, multiple octaphonic groups, placed in different positions around the audience, can be used to diffuse octaphonic source material in a manner similar to that used for stereo. In this case, each fader controls one octaphonic group. [6] A new set of three fully digital desks, using the Open Sound Control protocol, were made for BEAST by Sukhandar Kartadinata based on his GLUI platform. Clones of these desks have been adopted by other users and systems. [7]

Performances

Since its debut in December 1982, BEAST has performed hundreds of concerts in the UK and Europe, both on its own and in joint performances with musicians from all over the world. BEAST has appeared at many notable festivals and concerts, including the Edinburgh International Festival, the Inventionen Festival in Berlin, [8] Hello Digital, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Multimediale 2 in Karlsruhe, in the Purcell Room and the Royal Festival Hall, The Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, the Adrian Boult Hall in Birmingham and the Henry Wood Hall in Glasgow. It was acclaimed when used as the concert sound system at the 1990 International Computer Music Conference held in Glasgow, and at the Aspekte Festival in Salzburg.

See also

Related Research Articles

Musique concrète is a type of music composition that utilizes recorded sounds as raw material. Sounds are often modified through the application of audio signal processing and tape music techniques, and may be assembled into a form of sound collage. It can feature sounds derived from recordings of musical instruments, the human voice, and the natural environment as well as those created using sound synthesis and computer-based digital signal processing. Compositions in this idiom are not restricted to the normal musical rules of melody, harmony, rhythm, and metre. The technique exploits acousmatic sound, such that sound identities can often be intentionally obscured or appear unconnected to their source cause.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loudspeaker</span> Converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound

A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A speaker system, also often simply referred to as a speaker or loudspeaker, comprises one or more such speaker drivers, an enclosure, and electrical connections possibly including a crossover network. The speaker driver can be viewed as a linear motor attached to a diaphragm which couples that motor's movement to motion of air, that is, sound. An audio signal, typically from a microphone, recording, or radio broadcast, is amplified electronically to a power level capable of driving that motor in order to reproduce the sound corresponding to the original unamplified electronic signal. This is thus the opposite function to the microphone; indeed the dynamic speaker driver, by far the most common type, is a linear motor in the same basic configuration as the dynamic microphone which uses such a motor in reverse, as a generator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mixing console</span> Device used for audio mixing

A mixing console or mixing desk is an electronic device for mixing audio signals, used in sound recording and reproduction and sound reinforcement systems. Inputs to the console include microphones, signals from electric or electronic instruments, or recorded sounds. Mixers may control analog or digital signals. The modified signals are summed to produce the combined output signals, which can then be broadcast, amplified through a sound reinforcement system or recorded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quadraphonic sound</span> Four-channel speaker audio

Quadraphonic sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for the reproduction of sound signals that are independent of one another.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surround sound</span> System with loudspeakers that surround the listener

Surround sound is a technique for enriching the fidelity and depth of sound reproduction by using multiple audio channels from speakers that surround the listener. Its first application was in movie theaters. Prior to surround sound, theater sound systems commonly had three screen channels of sound that played from three loudspeakers located in front of the audience. Surround sound adds one or more channels from loudspeakers to the side or behind the listener that are able to create the sensation of sound coming from any horizontal direction around the listener.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sound reinforcement system</span> Amplified sound system for public events

A sound reinforcement system is the combination of microphones, signal processors, amplifiers, and loudspeakers in enclosures all controlled by a mixing console that makes live or pre-recorded sounds louder and may also distribute those sounds to a larger or more distant audience. In many situations, a sound reinforcement system is also used to enhance or alter the sound of the sources on the stage, typically by using electronic effects, such as reverb, as opposed to simply amplifying the sources unaltered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aux-send</span> Electronic signal-routing output

An aux-send is an electronic signal-routing output used on multi-channel sound mixing consoles used in recording and broadcasting settings and on PA system amplifier-mixers used in music concerts. The signal from the auxiliary send is often routed through outboard audio processing effects units and then returned to the mixer using an auxiliary return input jack, thus creating an effects loop. This allows effects to be added to an audio source or channel within the mixing console. Another common use of the aux send mix is to create monitor mixes for the onstage performers' monitor speakers or in-ear monitors. The aux send's monitor mix is usually different from the front of house mix the audience is hearing.

Andrew Lewis is a British composer known mainly for his acousmatic music, that is, electroacoustic music heard only over loudspeakers, though he also composes some chamber and orchestral music.

Jonty Harrison is an electroacoustic music composer born 27 April 1952 in Scunthorpe, and currently living in Birmingham, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acousmonium</span> System for the public playback of electroacoustic music

The Acousmonium is the sound diffusion system designed in 1974 by Francois Bayle and used originally by the Groupe de Recherches Musicales at the Maison de Radio France. It consists of 80 loudspeakers of differing size and shape, and was designed for tape playback. As Bayle wrote in a CD sleeve note in 1993, it was

Another utopia, devoted to pure "listening" … as a penetrable "projection area", arranged with a view to immersion in sound, to spatialised polyphony, which is articulated and directed.

Yamaha Pro Audio, Inc. is a division of the Yamaha Corporation that offers a complete line of beginner professional audio products for the live sound and sound reinforcement markets. It has a long history of introducing significant products for the professional audio market such as the PM-1000 modular mixing console, the REV1 and SPX90 digital signal processors, and the 01, 02R, 03D, PM1D, PM5D, QL5, M7CL, CL5, and PM10/7 Rivage digital mixing consoles.

Scott Wilson is a Canadian composer. He studied music and composition in Canada, the U.S., and Germany, and his teachers include Barry Truax, Wolfgang Rihm, Christos Hatzis, Gary Kulesha, Ron Kuivila, Alvin Lucier, Owen Underhill, Neely Bruce and David Gordon Duke. Since 2004 he has lived in Birmingham, UK, where he is Reader in Electronic Music and Director of Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre and the Electroacoustic Studios at the University of Birmingham.

Antti Saario is a contemporary electroacoustic composer and academic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stage monitor system</span> Sound reinforcement for performers

A stage monitor system is a set of performer-facing loudspeakers called monitor speakers, stage monitors, floor monitors, wedges, or foldbacks on stage during live music performances in which a sound reinforcement system is used to amplify a performance for the audience. The monitor system allows musicians to hear themselves and fellow band members clearly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Audio mixing (recorded music)</span> Audio mixing to yield recorded sound

In sound recording and reproduction, audio mixing is the process of optimizing and combining multitrack recordings into a final mono, stereo or surround sound product. In the process of combining the separate tracks, their relative levels are adjusted and balanced and various processes such as equalization and compression are commonly applied to individual tracks, groups of tracks, and the overall mix. In stereo and surround sound mixing, the placement of the tracks within the stereo field are adjusted and balanced. Audio mixing techniques and approaches vary widely and have a significant influence on the final product.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natasha Barrett (composer)</span> British composer (born 1972)

Natasha Barrett is a British contemporary music composer specialising in electroacoustic art music. Her compositional aesthetics are derived from acousmatic issues. In addition to acousmatic concert music, she composes for instruments, live electronics, sound installations, multi-media works, real-time computer music improvisation, has made soundscapes for exhibitions, and music for contemporary dance and theater. Since 2000 her work has been influenced by spatialisation as a musical parameter, and the projection of 3-D sound-fields. She currently lives in Norway.

The Variable Room Acoustics System is an acoustic enhancement system for controlling room acoustics electronically. Such systems are increasingly being used to provide variable acoustics for multipurpose venues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matrix mixer</span> Audio device that routes multiple audio signals

A matrix mixer is an audio electronics device that routes multiple input audio signals to multiple outputs. It usually employs level controls such as potentiometers to determine how much of each input is going to each output, and it can incorporate simple on/off assignment buttons. The number of individual controls is at least the number of inputs multiplied by the number of outputs.

Abe John Jacob is an American sound designer and audio engineer. Called the "Godfather of Sound", Jacob greatly influenced the design of sound reinforcement in modern musical theatre, and was one of the first persons credited in the role of sound designer on Broadway, with a sound designer credit in Playbill in 1971.

Sound diffusion is a performance practice in the field of acousmatic music. According to composer and theorist Denis Smalley, it describes the "projection and the spreading of sound in an acoustic space for a group of listeners" during a concert. These concerts can be seen as acoustic recitals without performers, where sound is exclusively generated by loudspeakers. In many cases, the sound diffusion is performed by the composer themselves, whose task it is to integrate and interpret the music within the concert space.

References

  1. 1 2 Harrison, Jonty (1998). "Sound, space, sculpture: some thoughts on the 'what', 'how' and 'why' of sound diffusion". Organised Sound. Cambridge University Press. 3 (2): 117–27. doi:10.1017/S1355771898002040. S2CID   62345549.
  2. ↑ Harrison, Jonty (1999). "Diffusion: theories and practices". CEC Journal: eContact!. Retrieved 2007-04-26.
  3. ↑ Wilson, Scott; Harrison, Jonty (2010). "Rethinking the BEAST: Recent developments in multichannel composition at Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre". Organised Sound. 15 (3): 239–250. doi:10.1017/S1355771810000312. S2CID   62738199 . Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  4. ↑ Harrison, Jonty (1988). "Space and the BEAST concert diffusion system". In Francis Dhomont (ed.). L'espace du son. Ohain: Musiques et Recherches.
  5. ↑ Austin, Larry (2001). "Sound Diffusion in Composition and Performance Practice II: An Interview with Ambrose Field". Computer Music Journal . MIT Press. 25 (4): 24. doi:10.1162/01489260152815260. S2CID   34007178.
  6. ↑ Mooney, James R. (2005). "Sound Diffusion Systems for the Live Performance of Electroacoustic Music". Department of Music, University of Sheffield. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
  7. ↑ "MOTORBEAST". Glui. 22 May 2008. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
  8. ↑ "Inventionen". Inventionen 10.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.