A Music Director's Epic Tale: Les Miserables

Chapter 4 : Musical Gear

4.8 - Visual Monitoring

Why did we need this? Well, MIDI Maestro comes with a very nice visual representation of the measure number and beats. There is a bouncing ball and a large number to show what the beat number of the measure is (and the downbeat is colored differently than the others).

I used a video splitter (Kramer Tools VP-200N 1:2 Hi Res XGA DA) to enable two video monitors. The video output of the PC was connected to the splitter. My 17" flat panel monitor was connected to the first splitter output. The drummer set up a second 15" flat panel monitor in the pit so he and the bass player could also see the MIDI Maestro display. They could keep an eye on their music as well as the screen and didn't need to see me as much while I conducted. Due to the way we had to set up (I was the furthest back from the stage), the kids on stage could see me conducting, and my bandmates could either look at me or more often look at the screen, and we were able to stay locked together.