You can find the important information about how we performed our first network musical performance with an audience. "A Telematic Experience" was held on 4 October 2022 between Salen and the Portal, both located in the ZEB building on the UiO campus.

You can watch the full concert on the MCT YouTube channel at this link: https://youtu.be/IGkU3uVhr88

The performers and their instruments were as follows:

• Christian - Nord Stage electric piano with sustain pedal*
• Jack - Acoustic violin run through Arturia Chrous JUN-6 and Valhalla Supermassive plugins in Ableton Live
• Iosif - Electric guitar run through effects and amplifier simulation in Cubase
• Alex - Akai MPC + MIDI keyboard + effects pedals
• Kristian - Arturia Microbrute synth & E-Drums.

*We originally planned to use the Yamaha grand piano in Salen. However, we found that this was tuned slightly away from A=440Hz, therefore we used the Nord Stage electric piano instead.

• Violin and electric guitar on stage
• Lola feed from Salen on Sony TV facing performers
• Ximea camera behind and over the TV, facing towards Portal performers

• Piano, Akai MPC, MIDI Keyboard, Effect pedals and e-drums on stage
• Portal performers projected behind using large projection screen included in NMP kit
• Ximea camera facing towards performers (this feed was not visible to the performers)

• 22.09.22 - First rehearsal
  • We gathered together and discussed what we like to play, who will be the konferansier etc. We also held the first rehearsal, sharing musical ideas to begin building up our setlist.
• 27.09.22 - Second rehearsal
  • For the second rehearsal, we focused on playing together and learning how to communicate together in a hybrid environment.
• 29.09.22 - Third rehearsal
  • For the third rehearsal, we used the two rooms we would host the concert and involved technical setup in our concert. We checked audio and video settings and got prepared by playing in these two rooms.
• 03.10.22 - Final rehearsal
  • Final rehearsal was a preview of the concert. We set up everything as it should be in the concert and did a dry run.
• 04.10.22 - Concert

• 10.00 - Meet at Salen & Portal
• 10.30 - Sound/network check
• 12.00 - Doors open
• 12.15 - Performance
• 12.45/13.00 - Concert ends
• 13.00 - Equipment break down & load out

We used 2 laptops to process sound before it was send out to the mixing desk.

• Jack's violin mic was connected to his laptop via a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 audio interface. The audio was routed into an audio track in Ableton Live, and processed using the Arturia Chorus JUN-6 chorus plugin and Valhalla Supermassive reverb/delay plugin. This audio was then routed to the Midas interface via the line outputs on the Jack's interface.

The music we have prepared for this performance was four instrumental, semi-improvisational pieces. A theme which emerged from our first rehearsal was a general trend towards “soundtrack” feeling music. Each were lead or have originated from different members of the group. Piece 1, 2 and 4 are original compositions, whereas piece 3 is an interplay between two themes from Howard Shore's score for Lord of the Rings. The pieces will be played in the following order:

• Have You Ever Seen a Supernova - led by Alex, based on a compositional idea from Alex
• Arpeggio - led by Kristian (clean cut afterwards, no time for applause etc, straight into next one), based on a compositional idea from Kristian
• Lord of the Rings main theme into Nazgul Theme - led by Christian and Jack, composed by Howard Shore
• prog 1 - [Cmaj7, C#m7(add4)], led by Iosif, prog 2 - [Emaj7, Cmaj7(b5), C#m7(add4), Ammaj7] - led by Christian, based on a compositional idea from Iosif

Christian also had the role as "konferansier" and explained the concept of the concert to the audience.

• The latency in YouTube was higher than the Lola, therefore from the audience point of view the sound was clearly coming several seconds after the video. It meant that the YouTube audience saw the violin starting to play and then heard the sound of the violin several seconds later.

• The sound was lost after the concert started on YouTube and we still don't know the root cause; however it could be something we did and muted ourselves by mistake. However, we are able to restore the sound as Olve recorded a multitrack of the whole concert.

• Looking back, the telematic setting for the final concert had little influence on the creative process. The only time we had to think outside of the box in terms of a standard concert situation was when we talked about cueing each other. We decided on giving expressive cues and looking at each other at the right moments to signal a transition, which worked flawlessly in the end due to a stable network. Apart from that, the composition process happened within one room in a classic rehearsal setting. The location of the performers was of a technical nature rather than of a telematic one.

• We were really lucky that all systems were stable so we did not need to rely on the 'Just-make-it-work' backup plan. In case somebody got sick we would have rearranged the pieces in an appropriate manner since they still work in case some or two instruments are missing.

• Before the concert, we agreed on elongating the song in case an instrument fails mid-concert. As a matter of fact, Kristian's E-drums shut down right before transitioning into part 2 of piece 1, so we managed.

• Latency was imperceptible during both the final rehearsal and during the concert, and it always felt like playing in the same room.

• It was difficult to communicate verbally during the final rehearsal. If one of us had something to say we needed to give that microphone priority and pause the rehearsal, which overall slowed us down and made the rehearsal less efficient. A dedicated talkback microphone in the Portal may have helped with this.

• Learning how to communicate through Lola was very important. However, we did have good communication thanks to the rehearsals and time we spent practicing. We had also decided who was going to cue which pieces and sections while we were rehearsing in the same room, making the transition to Lola easier.

• We took the time to hold plenty of rehearsals together in the same room the week before the concert. This meant that the pieces worked well from the first run-through with LOLA, which minimized the amount of time required for rehearsing over the network.

• Ultimately we did not execute all the marketing ideas we presented in our presentation due to time constraints. It may have helped with attracting a larger in-person audience if we had shared the event more widely with printed posters and sharing through email lists.

• We were very pleased with the music we were able to create together in only three rehearsals. The pieces were varied and made good use of all the instruments we had available.