From protoype to a complete live system

Yesterday I played/practised the beginnings of my new set again. The current prototype is a skeleton of the larger system that is both

• the system Master (aka G2 Master synthesizer) - the heartbeat, mixer, live performance captures, common sounds for any set, that can keep going regardless of anything else that can happen or go wrong during a performance (emergency loops and sounds)
  
• the individual Slave (aka G2 Slave synthesizer)- a song which contain internal tracks/loops, external sequences, sample triggering, and voice processing. I use a few of these song subsystems during a live performance (typically 3 for 4 for a 45 minute set). These songs are self contained and unique and can be loaded at any time. The tracks can be performed and now captured (looped via midi) in the system Master.

A thing I have found during the construction of my past sets, is the desire to keep playing my new creation/prototype and improve it, instead of moving onto other parts of the work that need to be done. The current Odyssey skeleton is now sounding quite credible and I have played it for a few friends and have gotten some awesome feedback, which means it is time to move onto the rest of the work, despite how much fun it is to happily tweak what I have.

---

Before embarking on my next part, I am taking inventory and modifying my work/project plan of the next large system that needs to be developed as well as beginning to solidify the structure of the full system.

This is very much like the process in interaction design, where one moves from prototype to designing of a complete information architecture map. This is an iterative (agile) process which repeats itself as more details are designed and tested, and alterations are made.

---

So for me, the next work at this point means

• refining the vision (the components and tracks and their elecments) of the entire system
  
  
• designing/plugging more parts into both systems (the Master) and Slave (which will require multiple songs), not to mention programming of my external synthesizers (like the Waldorf Blofeld). Work needs to proceed in both Master and Slave subsystems simultaneously as one relies on the other. Once a set of Master and Slave systems are finalized, new Slave subsystems (songs) can be written.

That is where it's at.