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Dave Pensado interviews Claudio Cueni on editing dialogue for a holographic performer.

At a recent incarnation of the huge Coachella music festival in California, a hologram of deceased rapper 2Pac “performed” on stage, including some introductory words. Someone had to do the work of sifting through recordings of 2Pac and cutting together the right takes to make a convincing performance. That someone was Claudio Cueni, who says he spent two and a half days just cataloguing every piece of 2Pac audio that had been made available to him. In this episode of the popular Pensado’s Place podcast, Cueni talks about that and other things—like the challenge of creating words that 2Pac had never been recorded saying.

  • October 27, 2015

Virtual choir: performance, and technology, and… wow.

Composer Eric Whitacre, known for stirring choral compositions, has for several years been doing an experiment he calls “Virtual Choir”. He makes a guide track available for one of his pieces—something to sing along to—and asks the public to record themselves singing their part on camera and send it to him. In this particular rendition, “Virtual Choir 3,” you are apparently hearing 3746 voices from 73 countries performing together. Whoa.

Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir 3, ‘Water Night’

  • August 20, 2014