audience participation II

[Steve Ridley-MV]

Some more ideas.  You could gaffer tape some piezo transducers 
to the floor, maybe with thin pieces of rubber to protect them
from heavy feet, spilt beer etc.  Feed the outputs to a trigger
to MIDI interface, or gate and buffer them and drive an envelope 
follower or a trigger I/P.  One or two diodes should give a workable 
threshold unless the audience are dancing with boots on.

Pressure mats used in home alarm systems may work too.  The ones 
I've seen give a contact closure when stood on - an S trigger. 

You could try placing some LDRs or phototransistors low down at
the edge of the dance area. Their output would change with the
lights and as people moved between them and the lights.

Make some boxes with a pot and a switch.  Screw them along the 
front of the stage to generate CVs and triggers.  (You can step 
on peoples fingers if you don't like what they're playing.)

Trigger events using ultrasonics.  Keep it simple - use
dog whistles. You may need to roll off the top end of
the PA. 

What sort of place are you playing?  Is it worth making
something to trigger off spilt beer,  throwing up or
fighting.  Maybe use one of those airport metal detector
things across the front of the stage to trigger synths 
if the audience start throwing cans :-)


STEVE RIDLEY

PS - The Theremin thing I mentioned was called a Terpsi-
something (Terpsichord?).