Swedish VJ Union » midi

Two new tutorials

The MIDI Thief — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:14:59 +0000

I’ve made two new Modul8 tutorials. The latest one covers a question that I get asked very often, how to animate still images and videos to the beat (bpm) in Modul8:

The other tutorial teaches you how to connect TouchOSC with Modul8 over Core MIDI with MIDI feedback. It was made in conjunction to one of my workshops at the audiovisual program at the University of Dalarna:

I’ve also launched a Vimeo channel for my tutorials at vimeo.com/channels/tmttutorials.

The new Twitch controller

The MIDI Thief — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:08:16 +0000

Novation has just announced the Twitch controller that has been developed together with Serato. It’s a hybrid of a conventional DJ controller and controllers made for softwares like Ableton Live. It has also been inspired by the Monome and the controller hacking communities. It’s not in the stores yet so we will have to wait and see what people really thinks of it. The price tag is expected to be $599. Personally I think this could be an interesting controller for audiovisual DJs. Even for audiovisualists that uses Live but there are already so many controllers out there and I’m not sure this one will top them. The compactness of this controller really speaks to me and that it has an onboard sound card.

This was spotted on the Futuremusic blog and there is a nice longer piece about the history of this controller on CDM.

New beer proof Midi controller

The MIDI Thief — Mon, 17 May 2010 12:11:10 +0000

I was chatting with Andreas Apelqvist from Starstladd who just came back from the Mapping Festival in Geneva. We had heard rumors previous to the festival about a new VJ geared Midi controller from Codanova that was supposed to have controls similar to the first iPod. This funny teaser movie premiered during the Mapping festival and was uploaded to Vimeo earlier today. Andreas says he heard further rumors that Codanova are planing to release the controller in a month, “but they’re French, so I don’t trust ‘em”, Andreas added. I’ve contacted Codanova about this and they say that they will release it in September. No word on pricing yet.

It looks like it’s somewhere between a touch interface like the Lemur or iPad and a traditional controller with regular buttons, knobs and faders. The only similar product I can think of is Stanton’s SCS 3 system. The layout of the VMX Activ8 is made specifically for the Modul8 VJ software but I’m pretty sure that it will work with most VJ programs. I’m not sure if this controller is as tactile as I want it to be, but hey it’s beer proof god damn it and I’ll probably buy it, or as Andreas said, “you’d buy anything with a midi logo on it”.

Andreas will write about their Mapping Festival adventures within the next few days, stay tuned!

Steim releases Junxion v4 for OSX

The MIDI Thief — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:56:33 +0000

This is a program I’ve used a lot in the past to connect different game controllers to the computer so that I could control my VJ softwares. JunXion translates the game controler’s signals to MIDI. One of my favorite projects was running the video projections with a dance matte.

I haven’t used the software for quite a while, but today I got an email from Steim saying that JunXion has been updated to version 4 and that they have added support for a lot of techniques: MIDI, OSC, HID (joysticks, mice, touch screens), audio, Arduino and video tracking. It seems like a program that could kick OSCulator’s ass.

For me this is an early christmas gift. I’ll get back after trying the new functions. Read more about JunXion V4 here.

The Interactive Institute’s 10 year anniversary

The MIDI Thief — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 10:18:22 +0000

On wednesday december 3 the Interactive Institute celebrated their 10 year anniversary with a big party at Enskilda Galleriet that I had the honor to produce. Together with a party committee from the institute we created a really successful evening. The people of the committee were Tina Finnäs, Tomas Rydell (who also is one of the producers behind NMM in Norrköping), Erik Sjödin, Aurora & Alice (interns from Italy who among other great things did a neat UV installation). We also got great help from CJ Rosén (from TII and VJ Union) and Kristoffer Karlsson (fLiM). Here are some clips from the performan

Lights
Our friends from Physical Interaction Lab did a fine tuned perfomance with their latest project, “Lights” held by Patrik Axelsson. “Lights” is build on music and light bulbs that are turned on and foo. The project includes Ableton Live, Open Frameworks , a DMX dimmer and some hanging light bulbs. You can read a more detailed description on Pysical Interaction Lab’s blog.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Carl-Johan Rosén
CJ was VJing with his survailance cameras. He had rigged three cameras in the facilities. To pick camera source, CJ uses a video switch that he controls via serial data from a program that he has written in Open Framworks. The music was mixed by DJ Dust.

Click here to view the embedded video.

DadaLife
Great to finally see this live. I’ve done Dada Life’s tour visuals but since they never performed this set live in Sweden, I never had the possibility to see it. The whole project depended on having a pre made automized VJ set that they could travel with since they can’t afford traveling with a VJ. I have created a set in Modul8, that runs on MIDI data from Abelton Live. I also programmed representations of effects the boys uses in Abelton Live. The concept was to have a very minimal amount of graphics, only a few sound has graphical representation. A pretty good concept considering I had very little time to create. In retrospect I wish I had some more time to put on the graphics but it is very effective. The simple naive style went well with Dada Life’s happy go lucky style with dadaistic under tones. The MIDI reactive elements turned out really well in a way that wouldn’t be possible to obtain as a live VJ.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bete Rum
Once again we were featuring our friend from Brazil who ended the evening to music mixed by Adrian Lux & Oscar Wedrén.
The evening also included visuals from Bertrand Gondouin to the tunes of DJ Kristoffer Karlsson and a performance by Yoshi Akai who was playing his Lego sequencer.

Muti-touch controller from Stanton

The MIDI Thief — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 07:31:29 +0000

Stanton will soon be releasing the SCS.3d, a muti-touch MIDI controller at the wallet frienly price of $299. It would be nice to see what this control could do for a VJ. We will see if we can can get our hands on a SCS.3d for testing.

There is a good report at Future Music (I really recommend to subscribe to their news letter if you want to get the latest news about new midi controllers), so it feels unnecessary to write more here. There is also more info at Stanton.

There are more products within the same SCS range: The midi dj mixer SCS.1m and the player SCS.1d which are also looking delicious. For people making music, the SCS.1m also has a built in FireWire sound card. But what makes me happy as a VJ is that both units seems to have 4 endless encoders. But I don’t believe it until I see it with my own eyes.

Updates from iTouch Midi

The MIDI Thief — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:33:32 +0000

Yesterday iTouch Midi released some updates in their range of midi applications for the iPod and iPod Touch. They have improved the xy-pad app and changed the name to iTM Pad and they have also released a new app called iTM Tilt that is using the gyro.

I tried iTM Tilt together with Modul8 but I thought it resulted in jerky motions. iTM Pad, on the other hand, works perfectly. It has preset functions where you can set different start points. It has a spring function that will let the object return to the start point when you stop dragging it around. Finally, there are tree function keys that also sends MIDI to your computer. They are good for switching graphics in your VJ software.

The iPhone as midi controller

The MIDI Thief — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:27:32 +0000

It has started pop up some interesting midi applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch now. iTM MidiLab from iTouchMidi is the most interesting one for the time being. If you buy the program form iTunes App Store and downloads the software to your computer (Mac), you will get access to the following:

Midi button matrix (4×4 and 8×8)
Midi keyboard (C-2 -> C8) with pitch bend
XY pad (that sends CC 18 & 19)

iTouchMidi also has an application coming up called iTM Tilt that that uses the iPhone’s gyro but it seems to still be in a beta.

Mini Midi Maxi

The MIDI Thief — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:43:20 +0000

Before summer Futuremusic dropped some interesting news that Korg will release their new Nano series around christmas. The Nano series is three midi controllers in mini format. Who hasn’t longed for something smaller to lug around? The price is estimated to a low $100. The only disadvantages I can imagine are that they are too light weight and will move around and that you can’t connect several Nano products to each other so you will need one free usb port per Nano unit. I’m also wishing for that there are endless encoders on the nanoKONTROL unit, but that might be pushing it…

nanoKEY: 25-key touch sensitive keyboard.
nanoPADS: 12 “drum pads” and a xy-pad.
nanoKONTROL: 9 faders, 9 knobs, 18 buttons

All info on Korg’s web site.

If you want to do the opposite and maximize your midi controller you should go for a real midi organ, check this out!

UC44+Beer=True

The MIDI Thief — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:30:22 +0000

We had a gig at a LG party together with the club Ficks at F12 last week. A drunk buddy succeeded in the art of poring beer in to our Evolution UC33 midi controller. Anders noticed that it started to behave a bit strange and that the faders were wet. He yanked the usb cord quickly and turned it upside down to dry on top of a t-shirt. I tried the UC33 again a couple of days ago and it worked as normal. Apparently it had been worse if it had been wine, Coke or salt water. What gear and what fluids have you combined with a good result?