Sublime is a science concert by teacher and songwriter, Charlie Marshall.
The first concert was held at the Spotted
Mallard in Melbourne on June 6th.
When Charlie Marshall asked me about visuals for his science event, I had not been near so ambitious as what we’ve now produced.
I had a few ideas of who might be able to make this and if it came down to it, I thought I knew enough to do something very simple myself. Thomas Ingram has long had a big interest in science, but before now hadn't had the opportunity to incorporate it directly into his craft. Thomas has now taken the project to unimagined lengths, and we have high calibre music visualisers, usually seen on much bigger stages and after a much bigger team.
When Charlie Marshall asked me about visuals for his science event, I had not been near so ambitious as what we’ve now produced.
I had a few ideas of who might be able to make this and if it came down to it, I thought I knew enough to do something very simple myself. Thomas Ingram has long had a big interest in science, but before now hadn't had the opportunity to incorporate it directly into his craft. Thomas has now taken the project to unimagined lengths, and we have high calibre music visualisers, usually seen on much bigger stages and after a much bigger team.
Inspiration
Together with Charlie, we have brainstormed iconic visuals and concepts to draw out of each of song in Sublime. Below is a list of each song, and the visual we have decided to match:
- I Have Landed - Particle Collider
- Almighty Carousel - Planetary Magnetic Fields
- Curious Minds - Radio Waves
- Chaos Calling - Weather Patterns
- Walk Lightly On The Face Of The Earth - Elemental Planet
- Caught In The Spotlight - Roads and Vehicles
- Cruel Machine - Robot Petri Dish
- So Many Ways To Begin - Biome Slice
Technical Production
Live, we take output from the sound engineer’s mixing desk. This goes to our “audio computer” which
converts the audio in to data the “visual computer” understands.
We have split the workload, as this allows us to control each role separately and on the fly, live. From the audio computer we can amp up signals or effect them (with EQ, reverb, and delays etc.) using Ableton Live music software. Which then allows the visual code in Unity to focus solely on that, rather than extra effects or analysis.
In Unity, we are able to assign each data stream (instrument) to different parts of the scene. Each musician controls parts of the iconic scientific concepts. A guitarist controls rain in a biome, while the bass player carves mountains. Particles are thrown into the Hadron Collider at each drum beat. The band as a whole bestow life and movement into the dynamic and multi-leveled performance environment Thomas and I have helped to create.
We have split the workload, as this allows us to control each role separately and on the fly, live. From the audio computer we can amp up signals or effect them (with EQ, reverb, and delays etc.) using Ableton Live music software. Which then allows the visual code in Unity to focus solely on that, rather than extra effects or analysis.
In Unity, we are able to assign each data stream (instrument) to different parts of the scene. Each musician controls parts of the iconic scientific concepts. A guitarist controls rain in a biome, while the bass player carves mountains. Particles are thrown into the Hadron Collider at each drum beat. The band as a whole bestow life and movement into the dynamic and multi-leveled performance environment Thomas and I have helped to create.