Software updates December 2011
There has been a few notable software updates the last week.
Coge 1.2 with Christmas offer
CoGe is one of the VJ softwares I’ve been keeping my eyes on since it has been developing very rapidly, especially since it went commercial.
The news for version 1.2 includes:
- Major increase of performance – Up to 80% increase in playback of HD files and layer blending.
- Renaming gadgets – If you have several gadgets of the same kind, you can now rename them to keep things in a neat order.
- MIDI and OSC sending with Buttons and Sliders – They can now talk back to your MIDI and OSC able devices.
- Layer Groups – A new gadget for grouping layers. A layer group can also be sent over Syphon.
- Auto Player Select – This makes it easier to play different kinds of media files.
CoGe has a 20% christmas discount until January 5th. That should mean a low $79. Read more about it on the CoGe blog.
Resolume Avenue 4 and Resolume Arena 4 has now been released for Windows and OSX
These are the news for Resolume 4 (didn’t some of them exist in version 3 already?):
- Audiovisual Playback
- Generative Content with the help of Flash, Quartz Composer compositions and FreeFrame GL plugins.
- Audiovisual Effects with VST and FreeFrame plugins.
- 3D OpenGL Accelerated Compositing – position, scale and rotate clips, layers or the entire composition.
- Global BPM tempo – everything can be linked to the global tempo.
- MIDI & OSC – In both directions, so Resolume can talk back to your MIDI and OSC abled devices.
- Auto pilot – Play clips in sequence or in random order while you go to the bar.
- Clip transitions – Automagically fade between clips.
- Native Blackmagic Capture Support – All BlackMagic cards are supported out of the box on both Windows and OSX.
- Audio Analysis – FFT analysis to make any parameter bounce to the music.
- Crossfader – Assign any layer to the A or B bus of the crossfader and mix DJ style with audio and video.
- Output and Preview Monitors – Preview clips and layers.
- Language support – the Resolume interface is available in Català, Deutsch, English, Español, Français, Haags, Italiano, Magyar, Nederlands and Português.
Arena 4 is basically Avenue 4 with some added advanced features
- Screen warping & video mapping – Slice and transform your composition to your liking with the help of bezier tools (even curved beziers).
- Soft Edge – Create seemless widescreen projections with two or more projectors.
- SMPTE Timecode Input – Sync your composition with lights, lasers, fireworks, etc.
- DMX Input – Control Arena from a DMX light desk. Input can be done via ArtNet or an Enttec DMX USB Pro.
Plus several more smaller news and enhancements, read it all on the Resolume site.
The pricing confuses me a bit but there is a rebate until January 1st and there is also a generous 50% educational discount.
TouchVizz VJ app for iPad2 and TouchOSC updates
Hexler has been keeping busy. They recently released a VJ app for iPad called TouchVizz. You will need the power of an iPad 2 to be able to run the it.
Here’s the pretty impressing feature list:
- Import up to 125 videos into your set via iTunes File Sharing or from the iPad’s library.
- Playback and mix two channels of video with independent playback speed control.
- Display the output on an external screen or projector using any iPad-compatible video-out adapter.
- Use the iPad’s front and back-facing cameras as input to integrate live footage into your set.
- Apply one of 17 effect filters to each channel and the master output.
- Control effect parameters using the multi-touch enabled preview area.
- Preview the output in full-screen on the iPad.
- Save and load your set to recall, backup or transfer sets between iPads using iTunes File SharingConfigure the interface layout to your preference.
- 10 demo clips by hexler and pixeldelay included.
- CoreMIDI support allows full control of TouchViZ wirelessly using OS X CoreMIDI Network sessions, using iPad MIDI interfaces such as iRig MIDI, iConnectMIDI, MIDI Mobilizer II, Yamaha i-MX1, or by connecting a compatible USB MIDI-controller using the iPad Camera Connection Kit.
- Open Sound Control support allows full control of TouchViZ over WiFi from any application that supports OSC such as Max/MSP, PureData, Max4Live, TouchOSC and others
- Built on the latest iOS 5 and OpenGL ES 2.0 technology
Hexler has also released an 1.8 update of TouchOSC including a little software called MIDI Bride
First the list of update and fixes in TouchOSC version 1.8:
- Added MIDI Bridge connection
- Toggle button behavior problems fixed
- OSC Network connection and Bonjour advertising now enabled at application start-up
- New layout: Jog-On for NI Traktor by digitaldjtools.net
- New layouts: ViZPad and ViZPod for TouchViZ
At fist I thought the idea of an a MIDI bridge software sounded silly since TouchOSC already sends MIDI over Apple’s CoreMIDI. But Rob at Hexler was kind to let me know that the software was foremost made for Windows user who doesn’t have an easy way of connecting to TouchOSC over MIDI. So for Windows users this is a really simple “plug & play” package that doesn’t need any other MIDI drivers.
It was so easy to make a version for OSX that Rob thought “why not”. But it also solves a problem that many users were having where they need to re-establish the CoreMIDI connection when restarting the TouchOSC app, which of course is less ideal during a live performance. With MIDI Bridge the connection will be automatically restored.
The upcoming version of TouchOSC for Android will support the MIDI Bridge as well.
