A couple of weeks ago I produced a music video, using multiple Vixid feedback loops to turn live footage into an explosion of light and colour.

I’ve posted about the project on CreateDigitalMotion, but I thought it might be worth showing the “Director’s Cut” here, as it gives a more detailed look into how the VJX can be used to control and build feedback loops.

Edward Guglielmino – Settle Down With Me (Director’s Cut) from Jaymis on Vimeo.

The “trick” here was using a Kaoss Pad Entrancer as a delay on one of the feedback loops, which softens the camera feedback and helps it to morph and develop, without turning into a strobing nightmare. There’s a couple of points with no Entrancer delay, notably during the guitar solo around 2:00 in the video.

If you don’t have an Entrancer, you could build a similar delay effect by routing an input through a video capture card and some VJ software effects.

Exciting news for VJX users. You may have noticed the posting frequency dip a little over the past few months. We’ve been working hard on getting Noisepages to a public release stage, as a platform for artists to write, share, and collaborate.

In collaboration with the Vixid crew, we’ve started a Vixid User Group on Noisepages.

We hope that this will be a place to share techniques, work on creating programs and tools to extend your VJX, and to learn and develop together.

So please join us! Sign up for a Noisepages account, and then join the Vixid User Group!

As a followup to the stills from Pastorale, Vixid have been able to film and release some footage from a performance of the show!

Opera Pastorale – Gérard Pesson – Video scenography by Pierrick Sorin from VIXID on Vimeo.

This really does have all of the good stuff. Live chromakeying, compositing of virtual sets, miniatures and models, puppetry, multi-camera rigs, and most importantly, multi-Vixid control!

Yes, the 5 VJXs used in this performance were all controlled via a single computer, using some modules for Isadora designed by Vixid.

We may not all have 5 Vixid mixers available to us, but soon we will have this control system, as the Vixid team will be releasing it for free! Head code honcho Vince is currently on holiday, as I have been for the past month, but when he returns we will be breathing fresh life in to Vixid.noisepages, with new tool releases, new posts, and a Vixid user group hosted right here on Noisepages!

Stay tuned.

An exciting sight, to be sure! Following on from the Stuff Happens theatre projection, the Vixid team have supplied 5 VJXs and assisted Perrick Sorin in his stage design and video scenography for the opera Pastorale.

We’ll have some more technical details on the setup for Pastorale soon, but in the meantime, the photo set on Flickr is fascinating.

Perrick Sorin’s work on live theatre is mesmerizing. His previous work on La Pietra Del Paragone utilized live chromakeying to incredible effect:

These illusions are truly wonderful. Video operator Eric Perroys has some additional clips (including the fantastic cooking scene) and technical information on his site.
6 6000 lumen projectors.
32 input/output matrix switcher.
16 single CCD cameras.
5 triple CCD cameras.
3 Ultimatte chromakeyers.
27 video monitors.
1.3Km of coax cable.
700m of S-Video cable.

That’s right. No VJX on that project! We’re happy to talk about how some projects use different gear.

(… and next week we can talk about how the VJX does it all much better)

Fresh news from the Vixid team. The VJX is currently being used in an innovative setup for the French production of Stuff Happens, the political play by David Hare.

The VJX is combined with a reflective keying rig, to key the actors in to backgrounds and title overlays to reproduce the look of news broadcasts and events depicted within the play.

There’s some beautiful combinations of virtual floor sets, multi-screen outputs, live camera and live keying, some of which are showcased at the beginning of this production video:

Also production stills in the Vixid Flickr photostream:

For one of the final Game On performances, Melbourne spiky-pop band Flamingo Crash rocked up, and rocked out to a Vixid + Live Cameras setup.

After the gig, they liked the footage so much that they asked me to remix the live performance recording as a video for one of the studio tracks on the album: Sister Sister.

Flamingo Crash – Sister Sister from Jaymis on Vimeo.

The vision mixes live security camera feeds with visuals created live by VJ Simulcast with a Tagtool.

I should be clear that the quality of the camera feeds on these videos I’ve been posting is an aesthetic choice. I’m using these cameras specifically because of the lofi look they give. Of course the VJX has an extremely high quality output. If you’re using great quality sources – good cameras, DVDs or computer outputs – it will still look fantastic.

Recently I got the chance to take my VJX along to a performance which didn’t involve plastic instruments or Stormtroopers. As the show was outside in a very intimate garden setting, were were looking to document the performance, so the VJX was in a strictly production role, rather than projection.

The security camera setup was perfect for this performance. Their low light sensitivity let them see things that my HD camera couldn’t, and their small size let me put them up close to the performers and hide them in trees without disrupting the lovely aesthetic of carpets and lamps in a garden.

Edward Guglielmino – Crushed by a Late Night Dream (Live) from Jaymis on Vimeo.

The above video showcases the VJX’s blend modes in combination with effects from the Kaoss Pad Entrancer, and from 1:30 I also incorporated some feedback loops. The output for the Entrancer was set to “Preview”, which allowed me to select its own output as an input, giving me a quick, attractive feedback loop which could be combined with other layers.

The Vixid team have updated vixid.com to be clearer, prettier, and more complete, including an updated applications page, that you can point your accounts department, grant committee or spouse at to explain why you need a VJX as soon as possible.

Late last year I had a performance with local AV Turntablist Sampology which really brought the VJX’s multi-layer and blend capabilities to light.

Sampology at Game On – AV Turntablist Set (Part 1) from Herovision on Vimeo.

Being able to integrate and seamlessly blend live inputs in this way is the VJX’s magic bullet. Having never performed with Sampology before, I was amazed at how quickly I could react to his different clip selections, and to select different layering and blend techniques to integrate video feeds with his different clip selections.

Tonight we’ll be returning with even more geekly clips, more cameras, and a sexier venue for the Game Over party. This performance will be streaming live at Herovision.tv (which also has a countdown so you can tell when the show begins).

Vixid’s firmware programmer extraordinaire and software guru Vince has previously shared with us some PD patches to help control various aspects of the VJX in ways impossible when you’re just using the knobs, buttons and sliders on the unit.

The physical layout and control scheme of the mixer has allowed a huge amount of functionality to be packed in to a small space, and the preset system is robust for loading and saving layer setups on the fly, but it’s physically impossible to load more than one track preset at a time. Preset management is also one of the only VJX functions not controllable via MIDI, so you can’t quickly load an “entire mixer” preset.

Or perhaps I should say “couldn’t”, as Vince has come up with an extremely elegant solution which utilizes the free, Open Source, cross-platform patching language PD (Pure Data) to send and receive messages from the VJX, allowing you to save and load the entire state of the mixer.

Vixid Control Snapshot V2 (PD Patch. 16KB Zip File)
Note: This software is Beta, please get in touch if you have any problems or discover any bugs.

Along with PD, you require a MIDI interface with both MIDI-IN and OUT to allow your computer to talk to the VJX. If you don’t already have some MIDI hardware lying around the place, DealExtreme has a cheap one for US$17 (including worldwide shipping)

Once you have PD installed and your MIDI interface connected, open the TestSnapshot.pd file. Ensure that your MIDI device is active (PD Menu: Preferences > MIDI Settings)

The VJX sends MIDI out with every control or parameter you change. So with a MIDI interface active on both IN and OUT, the PD patch can listen to everything that happens on the VJX, enabling you to save or load the entire state of the mixer.

This is a great framework, but as PD is free and open, I think we can expect more. I’m starting to learn PD to help me control my VJX in new ways, and I’d like to share what I come up with. I hope other VJX owners will join me, so we can learn together and make all of our performances better.