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.

I’ve spent some time with the VJX user manual and converted it to HTML, so it can now be viewed online at Vixid.com.

Some sections which are especially useful for quick reference are:
Video Keyers (which I’ll have more on very soon)
Midi Functions
Transitions
Setting and Resetting Presets
Resetting Parameters of a track

After a simple introduction to controlling your VJX via PureData, Vince has shared with us a slightly more complicated patch, this one is for sequencing the 3 video outputs.

This patch initializes the VJX, and then allows you to sequence which of the four tracks is shown on which output, save and load presets, and change the switching speed via BPM. I don’t have 3 similarly sized monitors to show this off, so Vince was nice enough to shoot us a demo video from Vixid Headquarters:

Triple Output Sequencing – Vixid and PD from Create Digital Media on Vimeo.

It may look like a simple fruit machine, but this displays how fast and flexible the VJX’s routing controls can be.

As before, Vixid have kindly supplied the patch for others to use and modify to their own needs.
Download vixid-OutSeq-v3.zip (8KB).

If you haven’t used PureData before and are feeling nervous, you really should check it out. It’s free, cross-platform, and really will help you get closer to your Vixid. We’ll be releasing more PD patches over time, perhaps eventually combining them into a super-patch which rolls all of this awesomeness into a single Vixid uber-interface!

I’ve spent a bit of time on things which can be achieved with complex, precise MIDI control over the VJX, but as an artistic tool we can achieve similarly exciting results with random, ad-hoc controls. Here’s a look at some variations using 4 camera sources and the Crop effect.

Vixid Crop Effect Automation from Create Digital Media on Vimeo. Music by pornophonique.

For the initial crop effect I’m controlling the Crop L and Crop R parameters for the top three camera layers, bringing in control of Opacity, RGB and Blend Mode as the video progresses. Manually controlling all of these things at once would of course be impossible, so another time that the VJX’ full midi map comes to the rescue. As I was looking for a rough prototype to see how these type of effects would look, I turned to VDMX (previously on CDMo) to quickly put together some control routings.

What you can’t see from this screenshot is that the various sliders for Crop and Opacity (which was also used for RGB and Blend) all have various Behaviour Chains applied to them. This lets me take the extremely erratic and fast-moving “drunk” mode and turn it into something more fluid through smoothing, inversion, scaling etc.

For other VDMX users, I’ve uploaded the preset file so you can try it out yourself – vixid-cropmove – all you have to do is choose your midi interface in the Midi Destination on the two MidiOut modules, and you’re set! If you don’t have VDMX, you can try this project file out by downloading the demo.

The above video uses effects which have been exaggerated so you can see what is happening clearly and quickly. In performance these could be tweaked more subtly, triggered by audio or BPM, and combined with feedback, keying, or other tweaks to make a unique and artistic combination.

Recently I had two matched projectors for a couple of hours, so I decided to try and achieve a seamless scrolling effect with live camera sources.

Through luck rather than planning, all of my video cameras are from Sony, and they all have the same type of cable for composite analog-out. Looking for better quality, I picked up half a dozen of these replacement cables, which have both S-Video and Composite jacks. This allows me to send a single camera output to 2 separate layers, setting the stage for some multi-screen spanning.

The Setup

Put the VJX into Battle Mode (Menu > Video > Mixmode > Battle 2*2)
Set Outputs for separate projectors (Menu > Video > Outputs > Choose “Master 1″ for first projector, “Master 2″ for second)

Plug one output from each camera into each side of the mixer:
Camera 1:
Composite Output – Track 1, Input 1
S-Video Output – Track 3, Input 3
Camera 2:
Composite Output – Track 2, Input 1
S-Video Output – Track 4, Input 3
… and then hold down the “Input” button and select these inputs.
For each track in turn:
Enable Background Alpha
Enable Scroll FX

Midi Control

The VJX has a complete midi map, covering almost every function available (apart from saving and loading of presets). The VJX has a pretty intuitive control setup for the huge amount of options available, but it would be physically impossible to control independent parameters for 4 tracks concurrently, which is where external midi enters the picture.