Stuff folks are sayin
... As for MAT, well, it was flawless in Manila. We are currently setting up in Brazil. Thanks again for all your help, I think the program is fantastic!
Jacob "JP" Pennywell
Cirque du Soleil "Varekai"
Head of Sound
...Thought I'd throw my 2 cents in: MAT is a lifesaver for me and (more importantly) for our show and Mike Atwood is my new hero for making it possible. It's just so clear in terms of how it works and how it facilitates total navigation around a given score - just so damn LOGICAL and a perfect graphic representation of how our minds (well, mine at least) work in the course of conducting a cirque show. Can't say enough good about the system and about Mike for creating it - and for his commitment to MAT's evolution and further flexibility with Ableton...
Richard Oberacker
Conductor for Cirque du Soleil "KA", Cirque du Soleil "Dralion", Walt Disney "The Lion King"
"[MAT] provides an extremely powerful and elegant interface to something like Ableton Live, and I don't believe anything else exists at this point that can do what it does for this type of application."
Mark Dennis, Head of Audio at Cirque du Soleil's "KA" at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas
From FOH Magazine March 2010 Issue
Musician Friendly "Ableton Live" Interface
MAT functions as the heart of a theater or show, track playback system based on Ableton Live. It provides the intuitive, simplified interface that a musical director, conductor or musician needs to navigate a complex show.
MAT is a cross platform (Mac or PC) runtime application that functions as an alternate graphical user interface (GUI) for Ableton Live. It was written using the MAX/MSP programming environment from Cycling '74 by Michael Atwood, who currently works as an audio technician for Cirque du Soleil's "KA" at the MGM Grand Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas.
MAT works by re-mapping the keys on a typical midi controller to different midi channel/note combinations based on which song is currently loaded. This allows the user to trigger an entire show's worth of scenes or clips in Ableton Live very easily. It can be used as a show cue system for sound effects or to play back complex musical scores.
Programming of MAT is done by creating very simple text files. The user creates a 'songlist.txt' file that tells MAT the names of all of the songs in your show and what MIDI channel should be associated with each song. Then a text file is created for each song that tells MAT which midi notes should trigger the different scenes or clips in that song.
MAT Rig at KA

Mike Atwood and Yianni Epivatinos show off the new MAT-Ableton Rig at KA.



