Live Special Effects Console 

All projects come to life on the Live Special Effects Console

Experimenting with sound and the building of systems to use sound (and vision) in the theatre is very inspiring. A few different 'projects' have evolved up to now, this section is dedicated to them. An important side development is the 'Live Special Effects Console' that facilitates the use of the different systems in the theatre.

An ongoing action is the collection and construction of useful sound effects and visuals. Moreover there is some software in development. The aim of FoleySFX is to construct the ideal tool to search, validate and play applicable sound effects for live improvisation. We're in the process of redeveloping and improving this program for use under Mac OS X.

AcoustFX is in a league of its own but may blend with FoleySFX when needed. This is a complete set of acoustical, comical and percussive instruments to create spot effects on the fly. Both FoleySFX and AcoustFX can be combined on an amplified sound Console that can be used on stage.

The Console can be easily taken apart and transported to the theatre. There it unfolds to a comprehensive special effects tool, percussion support and audio-mood generator.
Depending on the current 'job' this effects chameleon may support a sampler, synthesizer, loop sequencer, several hundreds of ambient soundtracks and around 50 acoustic percussive instruments and special effects tools. Some of these are mounted (like the chimes on the back), some may be used 'free-form' on stage.

Nice theories... But does it work in practice? 

To find out which sounds and effects work best, if a specific sound device is a candidate for a spot in the flightcase and if everything can be operated just as it was imagined, there only is one way: Test as much in practice as possible. In the beginning of 2005, almost ten hours of testing the hard way could be realised in one week at the 'Polanentheater' and theatre 'de Balie' in Amsterdam during the 10th International Improvisation Theatre Festival (organised by theatersportvereniging Amsterdam). In total 10 different international improvisation shows where accompanied. Not only with the acoustical effects, but also with the ambient-sounds. The percussion instruments (timpani, bongos, brushes, agogo-bells etc.) were put to good use by supporting the five different musicians of the festival.

Needless to say this was a great way to test the console in practice and experiment some more with percussive and musical support. Below some photo's (by Mathieu van den Berk) of a pre-show soundcheck in theatre 'de Balie'.

Soundchecking before a show...