recommend a good vj software anyone?

[pepezabala]

A friend of mine wrote Isadora
it's very very good if you like building your own customized VJ interface without too much hassle.

you can make your own effects and make you own interface all pretty easilly. Although it looks a little bit like a head-scratching MAX type interface, it is a lot easier than that. He actually wrote it for dancers to use, IE non-technical types in general.


that's the construction mode, there is an 'interface' which you would actually use in performance. You can make your own interface exactly how you want it. There's a basic example with the demo


http://www.troikatronix.com/isadora.html

It's very, very flexible. But I guess it depends what your needs are.
I'm not really a VJ type, but I am turned off by the simplistic Archaos type interfaces "drag an effect onto a clip" . I prefer making stuff which is customised to my needs.

I don't do that much visuals on my own, but from people I have worked with I heard only the best about Isadora. The visuals for our two last shows have been done by Margot van Ham using an Isadora-patch from friends ("pixelbirds"). We have live cam, videoclips and efx, and apparently it works perfectly.

So if you know the guy who wrote Isadora, give him some props from the people in Barcelona!! hehe.



The crazy thing about visuals during our concerts is that I really would like to interact with them, but I never look at them while playing. I am really too occupied with playing music. So most of the times I have to rely on what friends tell me about the visuals lateron.

One time we had this crazy guy who screened bizarre japanese fetish videos, while we were doing improvised electronic music, and later everybody would come and ask me what kind of freaky stuff we were into.

[Kaizen]

+ 1 for www.youcanbespecialtoo.com

Unbelievable piece of kit!

[ava]

Im not sure if visuals will be the future, I know very few people have seen the results of our lighting plugin system in action but I can promise you, you won't want to look at a TV Display. Add smoke machines and you won't be able to see a TV display at a distance anyway. OK for launges and chill-out rooms though.

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=71817

[orgul]

I'd like to jump on the thread since I have been thinking about getting into visulas (video) for a while too.

What I would love to do is more to create "visuals" that are directly related to my music. I' d like to have a programm that can be rewired to live. It would want to create parameters that link the musical content to the video. Say routing Live Midi-Track 1 to a video track and make the midi notes (pitch changes) control a video parameter (say greyscale or wahatever). I would not be so much interessted in "race tunnel" effects, but more like looping and manipulating existing video material.

arkaos looks the most promissing for my needs.. Right?


thx

[rikhyray]

I'd like to jump on the thread since I have been thinking about getting into visulas (video) for a while too.

What I would love to do is more to create "visuals" that are directly related to my music. I' d like to have a programm that can be rewired to live. It would want to create parameters that link the musical content to the video. Say routing Live Midi-Track 1 to a video track and make the midi notes (pitch changes) control a video parameter (say greyscale or wahatever). I would not be so much interessted in "race tunnel" effects, but more like looping and manipulating existing video material.

arkaos looks the most promissing for my needs.. Right?


thx

Arkaos is exactly what you talking about but getting into visuals be warned it it will cost you enormous amount of time to get anywhere. It is all about content.
Actually which software is secondary it is like having just 10 discs "to be DJ" would worry Vestax or Technics.
Creating, collecting editing material means hundreds and thousands of hours. It meant for me working on it for 6 months 8-10 hours a day, meaning neglecting other , audio work, difficult to do specially financially. Hardware cost are much higher then in audio world too.
Arkaos, Module, Resolume, Isadora or Flowmotion and other will do the job OK the main matter is what you show not the software.

[orgul]

thanks rikhyray

right: time, content and money are the key.

Since my music is mostly about sampling, I have started to collecting video content, like I do with audio. The idea of visualising the sampling aproch is very apealing to me. I liekd what Coldcut Did, but this is not my idea. My whole thing would not to try to "play video live" as in the idea of vjing but more to create "video only algorythms" that are directly related to my audio. I would be happy wih doing an arrangement , and then rendering it to avi. Arkaos lets you trigger and control loops and effects via midi as I understand it... I should check the demo...

cheers!

[itsthejayj]

right: time,

Just Add Music = double click, load some videos, your done! Automatic visual effects for lots of ableton live effects, automatic screen resizing per volume/crossfade. etc

content

Just Add Music = able to run 4 simultaneous 640x480 hi-res videos, preload 112 videos.

money

Just Add Music = cheapest out of all the vj gear mentioned above

I liekd what Coldcut Did

So do i! thats many why JAM was created because we all couldn't afford the dvj's

I would be happy wih doing an arrangement

Do it in arrangement view, Just Add Music visual controls gets recorded in arrangement view as well, so you can edit / tweak

I've been told a demo version is being released this week so hold on before buying anything and try JAM

[rikhyray]

That is where I am moving too, now that I can do OK the more traditional VJing editing, creating etc I want to get to another level. My objective is having video as integral part of any and all my new tunes.
I got into VJing because I was disappointed with people I had to work with. They mostly come from designer, video making, editing background are brilliant at what they do but have no rhythm, deeper understanding of music and I missed that badly. Same time I know that this is my biggest asset in that biz since there is no way to match their excellence in their field.
Arkoas has the best visual quality and one of the worst interfaces but that does not matter that much since we have Ableton that covers all that what probably no VJ software would be ever able to deliver.. Arkaos is not quick and easy like say Resolume that you can learn and use within half an hour, you have to think, consider, analise and do lots intentionally. It is not ideal for the style of VJing "monkey on ecstasy"- random, senseless, wild, quick image/clip juggling- impressive for 2 minutes but after while tiring and boring.

[orgul]

(..) My objective is having video as integral part of any and all my new tunes. (...)
not ideal for the style of VJing "monkey on ecstasy"- random, senseless, wild, quick image/clip juggling- impressive for 2 minutes but after while tiring and boring.

I am feeling you on both points!

Could you please elaborate on how you genrally set up live with arkaos. How do you set up midi to manipulate video? and what about audio to video?

Okay I know this is hard to explain in two sentences, but just a general perspective on your method would be highly appreciated!


Danke!

[rikhyray]

(..) My objective is having video as integral part of any and all my new tunes. (...)
not ideal for the style of VJing "monkey on ecstasy"- random, senseless, wild, quick image/clip juggling- impressive for 2 minutes but after while tiring and boring.

I am feeling you on both points!

Could you please elaborate on how you genrally set up live with arkaos. How do you set up midi to manipulate video? and what about audio to video?

Okay I know this is hard to explain in two sentences, but just a general perspective on your method would be highly appreciated!


Danke!

Give me a year and I will able to say something of value....
Hambone is the Arkaos/Ableton Guru, use search here and on VJforum.
The basic thing cannot be easier, set one or more midi tracks that send to Arkaos. 1001 times better then using Arkaos seq. Ableton can do everything and more, indeed infinite possibilities, user being only limitation.
I forgot to add apart from the best video quality,Arkaos beats everything else with the midi options specially assigning clips to midi notes. A basic unit called synth can have 128 patches and each of those all the keys you may like to use - in theory 128. All other softwares bank system was useless to me, too small.
BTW.The fanatics with the enthusiasm of US evangelists are such bores, on all those VJ forums you will read "my new software ( mostly still in alpha or beta)...will be the best known to mankind". Whoever, whatever asks the same guys will try to sell their VJamm is the best, VJO is the best etc.,etc...
There is no best, only what works best for you.

[beats me]

I don't think editing video has to consume 6 months of your life. More power to you if you want to do that but are you a musician/DJ or a movie producer? I think any visuals are welcome by an audience and nobody is going to find your music or show less appealing because you didn't have the perfect epic movie synced to your music.

[John Sweet]

About Livid's OHM - Tried it without it being plugged in, super disappointment. No encoders, STIFF faders (incl crossfader), pads seem like buttons, don't think they do velocity. It's fine for a VJ controller, but it has nothing to do with DJ stuff.

What's up with all the Latin on J.A.M.'s site?

"Consectetuer arcu ipsum ornare pellentesque vehicula, in vehicula diam, ornare magna erat felis wisi..."

[p8guitar]

...
What's up with all the Latin on J.A.M.'s site?

"Consectetuer arcu ipsum ornare pellentesque vehicula, in vehicula diam, ornare magna erat felis wisi..."

I suppose they use iWeb to create the blog. the latin is just a wild-card for text - they forgot to replace it.

I'm sure this will happen to me sometime, too...

[paradiddle]

It's one of your friend? Cool! This software is wicked. I've already tried the demo a while ago and like you said, it's easier to use than it looks.

This site has some nice tools: http://www.audiovisualizers.com/

A friend of mine wrote Isadora
it's very very good if you like building your own customized VJ interface without too much hassle.

you can make your own effects and make you own interface all pretty easilly. Although it looks a little bit like a head-scratching MAX type interface, it is a lot easier than that. He actually wrote it for dancers to use, IE non-technical types in general.


that's the construction mode, there is an 'interface' which you would actually use in performance. You can make your own interface exactly how you want it. There's a basic example with the demo


http://www.troikatronix.com/isadora.html

It's very, very flexible. But I guess it depends what your needs are.
I'm not really a VJ type, but I am turned off by the simplistic Archaos type interfaces "drag an effect onto a clip" . I prefer making stuff which is customised to my needs.

[rikhyray]

I don't think editing video has to consume 6 months of your life. More power to you if you want to do that but are you a musician/DJ or a movie producer? I think any visuals are welcome by an audience and nobody is going to find your music or show less appealing because you didn't have the perfect epic movie synced to your music.

Not exactly, as much I like movies and always like scoring, it is about something else. Finally the technology allow us to put Skriabins dreams and visions to practice.
It is about expansion into visuals, yet something entirely different then film making, it is playing the visual like you play musical notes, cant wait for that VST for lights to expand it and who knows perhaps holographic creations.
Working- creating, editing the visuals ,is pre production process - opposite of film editing- just like creating your own synth patches or rhythmic loops for use in live performance.
Live , I play the controller keys with assigned visuals just like musical instruments, I play Korg Entrancer (Kaoss pad with both audio and video FX) like a drum, using all my fingers like playing tabla or frame drum. I am dealing with time, filmmakers with timelines which are models of time, so they are more like painters in their creative process.