Your #1 VJ Software

[DocSavage]

What's your favorite proggie to use?

For me, it's gotta be VLight because it's a nice combination of stability, speed, and simplicity. I don't need my monster computer to run it, and I don't need a new scan converter, dual monitor, or vmixer if I want to set up an extra projection rig in a second room or something.

[MoRpH]

Personally I like SVi cause I have input into the features..... and it can do pretty much everything I need @ the moment and lets me concentrate on material instead of the software itself. And its FREE!!!!

That said I also quite like resolume (can't use it live cause of the output window though :( ) and Meimi (also free)..

[many2]

I completely fell in love with visualJockey R2 and with the release of vJo R3 I am now a (small) part of the visualight team - now I know where it leads to love an application so much ! I still haven't received any money from this adventure as this is not my goal, I just want to help people learn how to use it and help the programmers making it better everyday.
I do have many reasons to love vJo R3, (and to be proud to be on the team). In my opinion it is the photoshop of VJs and I can't even consider making a show without it.
Learn to use it to its true potential and it will be hard to come back to any other VJing app you've been performing with before. :)

There is only one bad thing coming with the love of visualJockey R3 : if you tell to everyone you'll soon be considered a fanatical vJo-vah witness ;)

Many-2

[MoRpH]

Well I used v2 and didn't have a problem coming back to SVi....

As I said I'm sure v3 is better and has far more features than SVi but $$$ vs FREE....

[eXhale]

Myself I love Resolume because it's intuitive, stable and does exactly what I need :) See my review on VJC for more details heh...

http://www.vjcentral.com/software/show/90

[hamageddon]

and i praise the day when channelthree's svd-1 comes back to life again......

[Anyone]

I'm still stuck with vJo R2

dont get me wrong, I've downloaded R3 and paid for a legal
version and all...
but It seems my VJ style was forged with R2,
and for now thats good enough for me...

VJ Anyone

[Meierhans]

My absolute Favorite is Visual Jockey R3.
But for mixing i also like Svi and Arkaos, because you can use dual-monitor.

I know what you mean, some things could be done very easy in R2, and are a bit more complicate in 3.
New freedom doesn`t always make life easier ;)

[unjulation]

I agree with X, Resolume for me has got to be the best straight loop mixing software, with the added bonus of s-fx and overlay s-fx, but i am now after anouther prog to run of my laptop to go with resolume on my desktop, somthing with some 3d capabliites and maybey some visual eye candy and no morph i'm not talking avs :p
in fact i don't realy know what kinda efects i'm after yet, monster had some interesting stuf but i herd it had stability problems, don't know if this is true and now i've got win2k I carn't try the demo again. :( + it's got to work on a low level lappy.

Morph, i,ve started playing with svi but for the life of me i carn't seem to get any clips asigned to any keys don't know if i'm beeing stupid but it wont drag and drop, but hay I'm an asrtist not a technichian :D

[MoRpH]

Drag and drop clip assignment and multiple keyboards will be in the next version ;)

To assign a clip to PC/midi keyboard right click on the clip in the clip DB and select add to keyboard and press the key you want to assign it to.... then click view clips to see them on the keyboard layout.

Personally I haven't had any probs with the full version of MooNSTER being unstable... but i'm on win98.

[bbface]

We are using resolume and vjo r2. I think togeother are better then simple vjo or resolume.

[MoRpH]

Yeah if you can incorperate more than one computer/software into your rig can be great.

Personally I have done it a couple of times with SVi and Meimi as I think they are quite complementary in nature with SVi focusing on mixing and triggering and Meimi on straight FX on clips and distortions.

I think the key is selecting complementary softwares where each has its strengths and weaknesses and playing them off together to create more than the sum of the parts :)

I can definately see how Resolume and VJo, being soo different in focus and methodology would be a great complementary set

[LEVLHED]

I'm (still) stuck on Miemi. Can't beat FREEEEEE!!
No, it doesn't do much, but what it does, it does very well.


unjulation, have you checked Aestesis?

and does anyone know the status of their new app (electronica)?

[MoRpH]

Yeah I have checked it out.... interesting setup, but pretty useless with anything other than midi controls...couldn't get it to do much

[eXhale]

bbface, you're using vJo and resolume on 2 computers right? i think they could work well together. different styles can be complementary.

[elbows]

visualJockey R3, but plan to use another PC running other software (eg resolume) fed into video in on visualJockey PC. Also planning to use realtime sound->midi, video->midi and midi sequencer software on another pc to control visualJockey via midi, as well as using midi controller boxes to do the same! Too many possibilities :D

[vjrei]

I'm using MotionDive3, it is very good but I think Rythmic Circle Fuse would be better if were faster.

[unjulation]

morph' i'm even more stupid than i thought but how do i get my avi clips from my hd to the clip datat base and then asinge them to my keys, yhe i got the last bit sorted.

:)

[MoRpH]

OK to load clips into your clip DB just open an explorer window select the clips and drag and drop them into the clips DB window :)

[spark]

See the review over at VJC.

[vjpixylight]

I use Vidvox profit if I am doing audiovisual mixing, and/or use Motion Dive 3 because of many advanced features and fx's..
I want to start using Flow Mo as it uses Director inks and overlays, and has some nice fx's as well.also looking into resolume but havn't done much with it...:)

[isobrown]

Originally posted by Anyone
I'm still stuck with vJo R2

dont get me wrong, I've downloaded R3 and paid for a legal
version and all...
but It seems my VJ style was forged with R2,
and for now thats good enough for me...

VJ Anyone

I had the same impression that you the fisrt month r3 came out...then I decided to restart with r3 from the beginning (of course r2 work was backuped and burned on cdr archive).
And now I feel that my style was forged with vjr3 !

[FullFusion]

Im using Motion Dive 3. Its interface is nice and streamlined but lacking a beat matcher. Guess you can't have everything.

[murph]

for live performance, I like resolume the best, with SVi as a close second, but I'm really itching to get my hands on a copy of VJo R3, but for production, not live. (at least yet)

[vjpixylight]

Motion Dive 3 doesn't have the tape tempo anymore, but it does have knobs for speed adjustment of each of the clips...

[edibleplastyc]

plastyctoy (my own) customised to me. :)

[MoRpH]

SHow us what ya got, what ya really really got...... :p

[eXhale]

singing a spice girls song morph, eh? :p

are you sure everything is alright? :D

[MoRpH]

Alright, alright, everythings gonna be alright..... hey some east17 for ya too :p

[edibleplastyc]

hmmmm???
www.plastyctoy.com
peace

[FullFusion]

:o Motion Dive 3 does have clip speed control knobs but they can only be set in three positions: slow, normal, and fast. Unless theres something I'm missing. Perhaps you read better Japanese than I do. :scared:

[MoRpH]

Hmmm that mix vid was quite good, I like the conent style... none of that swirly kaliedascope crap :)

Would be nice to see a screen cap video of the software UI in action to get a better idea of what its actually doing....

[edibleplastyc]

the software doesnt have a user interface... :) you just gotta know what each key does.. ;)

[MoRpH]

Hmmm ok full screen (to cheap to buy a scan convertor huh?? :p) so does your software have FX built in or is it just essentially a fullscreen clip triggering/layering program???

[edibleplastyc]

yup... too stingy for the convertor... ;)

yeah it has effects, not many but i dont need that many... all eplaind at

www.plastyctoy.com

[MoRpH]

Yeah saw all that the other day, so yeah mainly a clip player/layer..... cool I think its great all the ppl creating there own software in things like director and flash... great stuff :)

[edibleplastyc]

i think that it is imperitive that some ppl move to designing there own software in the director or flash... its inexpensive and all you really need is a laptop that can run flash and director (which is just about everyone).

morph... there is also scale, rotate and colour changes as well...;)

but thats all i need really

[MoRpH]

Yeah saw that :)

[2Bit]

We use VJamm & Meimi.
VJamm is great for triggering (v low response time & v responsive back/forwards/chop[/speed functions).
Meimi is superb for fx (so many fx (& variables) that would take ages in prem/after fx) & its free.

Currently thinking about buying Arkaos tho'

[koifish]

Has anyone used Soak and Movement? I am very curious about this piece of software...
bom

[mondo]

motion dive 3 and vjamm with some wikkid clips to feed the beasts
:-a:nod:

[soobaaaa]

I really like Isadora. It's fast, reliable (even though it's still in beta), and flexible. The interface is modular but intuitive-straightforward, unlike NATO, and it's designed for live interactive. Not promoted as a "VJ" tool but I think could do that kind of work very well.

http://www.troikaranch.org/troikatronix/isadora.html

[vjaca]

I?m using moonster whit xp. nice software i like it ,no problems.
trying use midi seq in future..:D :cool:

[goodship11]

vdmx2 from vidvox -- pack up my powerbook, borrow a projector from school.. so easy :) prophet can be fun too ... hook up to drum machine and make beats with video

i was wondering, how many of you use pc and how many mac? I hadn't realized pc had such a strong base of video artists, thought all the artists stick with the mac ;) nah, stereotypes are funny, but seriously, what kind of split is there? so far me and spark are the only one's i hear talking about macs, anyone else?

[robotfunk]

video apps are generally pretty resource hungry.
so for this reason alone a lot of ppl tend to go for pc instead of mac

[sneakyimp]

I still haven't done a show yet, but Resolume gets up and running fast, is very intuitive...has effects, allows midi control, 3 layers...very stable as far as i can tell. you can continuously adjust the speed of all videos.

only downer: no eyecandy generation...you can search the web for nice abstract images, but it doesn't have a generator.

[DogBoy]

MD3 feeding into Aestesis live video feed.

The reason they removed beat tapper from MD3 was because it is a doss to tap beats:

use the big reverse button... tap-tap-tap

or select the point on the timeline... tap-tap -tap

... unless it had live music response (suffers from latency), this technique is just as effective as the old tapper.

MD3 is the daddy... a selection of 288 clips on the dex, and 50 clips in the overlayers + flash text layer, and effects :)

Instead of using text, just use straight flash animations... leading to up to 4 layers running smooooooooove, plus effects.

[vjpixylight]

yea Dog boy I agree about MD3...
It is a Director (Macromedia) based program that uses a different approach to layering, and is extremely well built....
the only reason it doen't get alot of attention on this forum is because of the lack of Japanese on this forum..

[videotechno]

Originally posted by koifish
Has anyone used Soak and Movement? I am very curious about this piece of software...
bom

yup--i've got soak. it's simple & easy to learn. definitely a good starting point. soak is the clip player.

if you want to buy more clips from the same company, there are three packs of "movement."

soak comes with 80 clips ready to use in the default banks [lots of the clips are very useful, and they throw in hi-res versions the clips for use in editing software--like premiere, etc.].

soak switches your screen to 640x480 and has a 320x240 window towards the upper center of the screen. the Esc key toggles it to fullscreen mode [or use the little button that looks like an envelope]. bonus--if you accidentally mouse over the 320x240 window, the pointer disappears [helpful especially if you're zoomed in with a scan converter instead of using fullscreen mode].

2 banks of 40 clips each. switch banks via the tab key [it's quick!]. each of the 40 clips in each bank are immediately selectable via the keyboard [up to 3 at a time]. you may also replace the banks with other folders of quicktime movies*, but you'd better have a mixer to go to another source first...

all clips either:1) play as long as you're holding the keys down, or 2) loop until you re-press the key. hitting the enter key toggles this.

9 effects--up to 2 at a time. can be selected with the function keys. [fast color cycle, reverse play, flip horizontal, sepia, zoom, flip vertical, locus/trails, quad, invert]

if you're jamming at home, it's got a little CD player control thingy. there do not seem to be any audio-responsive effects/features though.

sometimes keys get "stuck" - if you try to retrigger the same clip a couple times in a row, it occasionally will refuse to play it. weird.

also, pretty much everything can be selected with the mouse if you're not in fullscreen mode.

[yawn] hope that helps!
-rick

*it doesn't seem to like AVIs, just MOVs.

[videotechno]

all that rambling about soak behind me, i like fuse. it's neato--and not too pricey either.

i also like visual jockey a lot--it's just that it wants more time from me than i can devote to it. if only it were more idiot-proof... >:O)

[MatFx]

I'm using Resolume and Vjo R3. For now only Resolume live, but looking for a second pc or lappy to run Vjo live.

[burstingfist]

me

[Amukidi]

In an ideal world (ie one where I could have the facilty to learn programming!!) I agree with edibleplastyc. I'd LOVE to have the ability to create my own application - sadly my brain is just too Right-sided! I use "Flashmixer" and occasionally "VLIGHT Ctrl". as a flash animator (no actionscript - see above) these packages work very well and are nearly what I want. The textural limitations of "Flash" animations can be overcome by propitious mixing of video material, as I was recently shown at a gig in Naxos, where Robin Brunson (Hexstatic) was mixing his AVIs with my Flash movies!!
edibleplastyc, what's the chances of me having a look at your app?? its gotta be worth a humble apology for my outbursts on your earlier posts and an olive branch?!

[Anyone]

is anybody using Composite Station ?

[krezrock]

max/msp

objects:
nato.0+55+3d
auv-i


modular is the way to go. similar to pd/gem and jmax.

[syzygy]

It doesn't have the bells and whistles of more recent software, but I still love using MidiVid.

(See my review of it on VJCentral for both the good and the less good sides)

We're going to play with some of the newer applications when we get our new laptop (real soon now, Dell allowing...) but unless any of them have all the good sides of MidiVid and some extra things that we want, we'll be sticking with the stripped down efficiency of MidiVid.

It's efficient, provides us with midi-controlled scratching and is freeware!

Some of the newer applications just feel too toy-like for my liking.

Dan.

(SyZyGy Visuals)

[murph]

Finally got my hands on VJo R3, and after a while of creating with it, I use it as my primare app now... love it! (just gotta get another machine for clip triggering now)

[orx-qx]

Yes, Composite station is pretty cool, a friend of mine uses it heavily although he has only demo version :)

At the moment I use only videoplayers like ZoomPlayer and mix it live with another computer or VHS.

why
CompositeStation - great, plays all videos without a glitch, dont have full ver, MIDI triggering doesnt work in W2k
Midivid - plays distorted videos in W2k, cannot blend, some functions shoot it down
VJo3 - not very good for live video mixing, maybe preparing abstracts
Resolume - doesnt play my avis in w2k, division by zero
VJamm - freezes vith bigger divx or xvid videos
...
and so on

Are the only stable apps on Mac? Maybe ill have to try it, the VDMX2 loox interesting.

[Anyone]

How about Isadora?

[murph]

I'm finding that if you know how to tweak it right, you *can* perform with VJo, though having a midi controller makes it about 10x easier.

Also, I've found that the biggest problem with VJ apps is when switching between file formats. If everything is encoded with the same codec, most run flawlessly, especially Resolume.

[karmavideo]

I'm addicted to Videodelic. I can't wait until I can afford a new Powerbook & a digital camcorder to use it with a live video feed.

John - Karma Video

http://www.karmavideo.organiccrap.com

[holly]

Yay, Vidodelic. I thought no one else knew about this app.

Are you using it with MIDI? How are you triggering? I reviewed it here (http://www.vjcentral.com/faq/show/1928), but your comments would be most welcome.

[AetherPan]

I use flashmixer, very good freeware Flashtool.

And Flowmotion.

[karmavideo]

Videodelic is definitley one of my favorite mac-vj apps. :love: Impressive to me to find a mac app that when triggering via the keyboard (wish I knew more about midi, I'm sure it is much faster) it is very responsive...almost immediate. That is, of coarse assuming that the movies you are triggering are of reasonable size.

I also own Arkaos, which I also like (the tunnel effects rock), but I find it very slow when using the keyboard to trigger in live performances. Not good.

Anyway, I use Videodelic on an almost daily basis & continue to love it.

I ran across Videodelic at Macworld SF in January of 1999.

Lets pray for more dope vj apps for the Mac.

check out some of my videodelic output images (http://www.karmavideo.organiccrap.com) :nod:

[elbows]

Holly's link to her videodelic review doesnt work, perhaps it was moved to the software section from faq section, but anyway here is a link that works:

http://www.vjcentral.com/software/show/1928

[burstingfist]

Originally posted by orx-qx
...Midivid - plays distorted videos in W2k, cannot blend, some functions shoot it down
VJo3 - not very good for live video mixing, maybe preparing abstracts
Resolume - doesnt play my avis in w2k, division by zero
VJamm - freezes vith bigger divx or xvid videos
...
and so on

Are the only stable apps on Mac? Maybe ill have to try it, the VDMX2 loox interesting.


With regard to vJo R3 not good for live mixing, I say HA! I use it all the time. Super fast clip triggering. I say there are few other progs that can match the clip playing functionality of vJo R3. Along with the live video feed, it's killer. Sure you can't drag in clips in realtime (ala Resolume), but the last thing I want to do at a gig is search for clips that I shoulda had ready before the show. If you still disagree with my assessment, please post the reasons why live mixing with vJo is not good...

[eXhale]

I agree dropping clips during the mix isn't very convenient but with Resolume I usually prepare and save full decks beforehand. Is it possible with VJo3 to have something similar without going through big hassles? I don't know but anyway the fact VJo has to run on full screen would probably make the use of decks difficult (unless you are able to remember the position of 20 clips... or put stickers on your keyboard ;)).

[wellREDman]

we use vjamm for clip triggering cos its the only one that will work with our hardware card
and winamp Plugins for swirlies and colourwashes cos they will run on the same machine at the same time
although having collaberated with elbows at avit I've definately fallen for Vjo as an fx box for a live input, just need to afford a second machine to run it on now :)

one love
red

[MoRpH]

Fist I don't question wether the functionality is there, of course it is (BTW fast clip triggering on a PC is easy wether its SVi, VJo or resolume, etc...) and yeah if you can remember all your keyboard short cuts and mapping then its fine, what about when you want to change patch??? sorry mate but I need/want a UI that I can tweek and get info from @ all times during a show, simple as that.

[fons]

I use Videodelic and Onadime (also Image/ine a bit) right now and will evaluate Max/MSP + Nato/Jitter/softVNS2 in the near future.

I'm a musician rather then a vj, but i have always been interested in performing audio and video together. I've been making music since 20 years (shit, is that a long time - i must be old?) and planned to go digital from the beginning, but i had no money when i had time and vice versa. :D Digital equipment was really expensive these days ...

About 1 year ago i took my money to get a digital project studio for audio recording - i decided to go for a mac (first time), and i did never regret this decision. :) I just wanted to see how things are going and make a decision about adding video later.

When i had produced my first tracks I played them back in iTunes and loved those graphics reacting to the music, but you cannot cutomize the visuals, cannot bring your own content ...

I was curious then. Started to search the internet for visuals software that:
- produces visuals that i like
- analyzing audio and midi controllable
- can take my own content (pics, video, live video)
- can render movies, too
- is not too expensive
- is straight forward to work with

When i recognized that there is plenty of software out there, that does exactly what i want, i said to myself: well, i'll invest some time in that, it's worth. I took me about 2 months to find the right places on the internet, find *all* the relevant software, download the demos for mac and pc, test the software on both platforms for my needs, make a decision, buy it, get it through the customs and finally holding it in my hands. :zzz:

The reason why i bought Videodelic is, that i wasn't really interested in AudioVisualizers and VideoMixers only (holly did a good categorization of visualizers in another thread recently). Videodelic is, as holly said, a kind of Video Instrument. One gets the impression to play an old analog synthesizer, producing fantastic pictures instead of sound - *great*. I use Videodelic for the "dirty screens" (crazy effects and colors) and Onadime for the "clean" ones.

I also wanted the software to take original material (pics and movies) an do all the effects in realtime according to the music playing and controller input. I don't want to edit the material with AfterEffects or Photoshop first and just play/mix the edited clips when performing. I will do editing at some next step of my project, when it's time to real make musc videos at high quality. A complete different way of working, but i can use rendered output from Videodelic and Onadime also ...

The Audio Analysis of the 2 apps is ok and can be cutomized. MIDI control is great. You can feed nearly everthing with it:
- patch change
- picture/movie change within the same patch
- effect speed
- opacity
- keying
- colors
- sizes
- rotations
- ranges
- ... stop me now ...

I create visuals for live *bands* only (including mine), and the visuals are exclusively made for each single band, their current program and their "message". My workflow is to have first a discussion with the musicians, getting a recording of their current program they want to perform, collecting the footage, creating the visual patches, making a demo tape, discussing again with the "preview" and finally performing together with the band, just like another musician. The bands *love* it that way. Yesterday we had a first session with a new band, but we had their audio material before and could produce a demo tape for a couple of songs. We knew they were really critical, but they were blown away by the video after only 10 seconds. :D

The hardware setup i use looks like this:
MIDI Keyboard/Doepfer Pocket Dial
MOTU Fastlane Midi Interface
MOTU 828 Firewire Audio Interface (multiple audio in from mixer)
Powerbook800/1GB RAM (640x480 S-Video out to tv/vcr/projector)
(will need some 2nd device for "failover")
DV and USB camera

The software chain (for demo tape production):
Cubase (playing back audio, recording midi events, midi thru) ->
IAC bus (transferring midi events to another app) ->
Max/MSP (transforming midi events to what VDL accepts) ->
IAC bus ->
Videodelic/Onadime

Cubase plays back the audio and passes all midi events to Videodelic/Onadime. When i like the visual flow, i just record everything, proably edit the midi recording and play back the audio track together with the recorded midi track (perfectly in sync of course), watching the output of VDL/Onadime on TV, then recording to tape.

For the live performance the whole cubase thing is simply omitted and the MIDI instruments (sorry: controllers) are played live, of course. There is also the option to have Cubase synced to some MIDI equipment on the stage and having the musicians themselves triggering visual output. This way one can drink his beer, smoke a cigarette and talk about his work to the female audience. :D

I'd also like to bring in midi sensors to allow the audience to control the show. ;)

As the Powerbook has 1 GB RAM it can have loaded VDL and Onadime at the same time, switching between applications or only compositions in the breaks between songs. You can have kind of "Null-Patch" in each composition to avoid that the app in the background sucks CPU too much. Will have a 2nd computer and a mixer later.


Congratulations
You have reached the end of this post :zzz:

Fons

[disassembler]

MAC: Imag/ine, NATO and various other patches that have been given 2 me, FLash, VDMX, RCfuse.

PC: Resolume, Midivid, RCfuse.

I have used many other wares in the past but can't afford to buy everything. They all have their specific use.

Flash web vid----->

afsdadf (http://www.premiercrumusic.com/vid.html)

[burstingfist]

Originally posted by eXhale
I agree dropping clips during the mix isn't very convenient but with Resolume I usually prepare and save full decks beforehand. Is it possible with VJo3 to have something similar without going through big hassles? I don't know but anyway the fact VJo has to run on full screen would probably make the use of decks difficult (unless you are able to remember the position of 20 clips... or put stickers on your keyboard ;)).

I use the keyboard stickering quite a bit. The last show I did had 48 different Overlay FX triggered with the PC 1600x. For the main content I subdivide portions of the show, so if I am using 80 compositions, I might subdivide that into 8 folders in the playlist. This way I only need to use 8 keys on the keyboard. This doesn't give me the ability to pick and choose individual compositions, but I have so much stuff going on ( video cameras, audio mixer, video mixer, MIDI controller, mouse, joystick, and vJo) that I really don't care about that type of specificity. For vast quantities of AVIs, I might create compositions that have 2, 16 input mixers, mixed together. I control the cross fading with 3 MIDI faders and the bass frequency and maybe a function generator.

Yes, this is not the same as the deck paradigm used with Resolume, but I don't like burrying my head into computer interfaces when I am at a gig. The only screen I look at is the projection screen (and maybe the PSOne preview screen).

[eXhale]

Well you're lucky to have such a good memory then :)

[karmavideo]

wow, someone that uses Onadime! Fons, would you mind telling me why you like it, or in other words, giving a short review of Onadime.

just curious...I have it but have barely touched it

[MoRpH]

I saw Ender from tesseract messing about with it a bit a while back, pitty about that mac only part, he has gone onto VJo on PC now.

But yeah it looked like a pretty nifty app, I must say I do like modular apps.

A review of Onadime for VJC would be GREAT and VERY appreciated :)

[fons]

Well, you guys want to give me some work to do, eh?

OK, i'll try to post my impressions here, not to be a real review, as i don't think i could satisfy all your professional expectations - and i haven't explored all the possibilities of this application myself, yet.

Onadime Composer is a realtime multimedia authoring system, used to create so called compositions, that can later be played back with Onadime Composer itself or one of the Onadime Players. There is the Free Player and the Player Plus. At this point of time all products by Onadime are for noncommercial use only! Player Pro will be coming soon and may be used for commercial purposes also. The fact that all files belonging to a composition (e.g. movies) may be wrapped into a single composition's file makes it easy to distribute a composition and play it back on any computer using the Player only.

Onadime takes input from various sources via sensors, and the corresponding sensor data can feed parameters of graphical objects (pictures, movies, live video).

The possible Live Sensor Data Inputs are:
- Mouse/Trackball
- Computer Keyboard
- Graphics Tablets
- Audio CD's
- MP3
- Audio Input (Mic, LineIn)
- MIDI Controllers
- A/V Controllers
- Magnetic Resonance

The way to interact with Onadime Composer is OVALL, Onadime's visual programming language, which originally was designed as a media construction kit for children. So the concept is easy, but things can get complicated with large compositions. Everything is built by using Forms and Leads. A Form is an atomic unit, which consits of several "Leads". Forms are connected to each other by connecting the "Hot Leads" (red color) of a Form to the "Cold Leads" (blue color) of another Form, defining a data flow. So the Hot Leads can produce values to control the values of the Cold Leads.

A simple example would be to control the size of a picture by the intensity of the bass frequency coming from an audio input. One would place a form called "Sound Input" on the workspace, then another one called "Basic Picture". The Hot Lead "Booms" of the Form "Sound Input" can be connected to the Cold Lead "Size" of the Form "Basic Picture" then, et voila - watch the picure bumping to the live music.

The user interface is devided in to 2 windows, one to place all the forms for a composition and their connections, and the other to place several control items, as there are:
- Preview of output
- MP3 Player
- AudioCD Player
- Live Audio In control
- Live Video In Control
- Composition Chooser
- think i forgot one ...

The visual performance itself is displayed in the "Graphics Window", which replaces the Preview, when turned on, and can be placed on any connected monitor/TV/projector. It's possible to work with the user interface and have the Graphics Window display the output on a projector at the same time, while the performance is running. Pressing <ESC> enters Performance Mode, where only the Graphics Window is displayed, saving CPU resources for higher frame rates. The size of the Graphics Window can be customized to fit the resolution of the external monitor or any other resolution.

I always use the S-video out (Powerbook or G4/733 with ATI Radeon 8500) at 640x480 and millions of colors. The compression I use for movies is Cinepak 640x480, pictures shouldn't exceed 1024x768. For live video in i've experimented with firewire and usb, having better results with usb - you always have a delay. In a normal composition I use 2 layers at the same time only, combining 2 pitures, 2 movies or picture/movie. The performance is quite OK with my G4/733 (without L3 cache).

The most used inputs:
- Audio:
audio analysis is done by several Forms, each doing a different kind of analysis. I often use the Form "Slow Sound", which doesn't have that nervous peaks. You get the normal EQ-bands and things like "Booms" or "Sparkles". Everyone will find his favourite Form for audio, depending on how freaky he want's his
output. I you don't want the whole spectrum of - say - the bass, you can filter it through a compressor (another Form) to only ouput the values in a given range.

- MIDI:
works fabulous. Use it with Roland PC180A and Doepfer Pocket Dial or with IAC Bus and Cubase. There are multiple Forms for MIDI Input (and Output!). NoteIn, predefined controllers (PitchBend, Volume, ...) and controllers you define via controller#. And you get various transformers, e.g. PitchShifters, all available as Forms.

Once you have got that modular concept of Onadime using forms, and worked out kind of template to start with every new composition, it's just fun. Someone said: "Onadime is the LEGO for the VJs" - yes it is.

I've created a template i start each new composition with. It contains all availabe input forms of my interest in a column on the left side of the workspace, and some basic forms for displaying graphics on the right side of the workspace. So the complete input mechanism is already set up and i can immediately start bringing in the footage for the composition.

In Onadime you have to organize the footage you use in special folders within the application folder.
There are 2 folders for different usage:
- "Composer Media" is the folder where all your footage should rest. It has subfolders for movies/pictures/text and mp3 i think. Within the subfolders you can place your files/folders directly or
(what everyone will do) place aliases (shortcuts) to your library files. Everything in there will be scanned by Onadime when opening a composition or refreshing media content. So you should be aware of not placing too many files here, as scanning takes time. It's very handy, that you can put folders you don't
wanna use in brackets, so that Onadime ignores them - rather than removing and adding folders always. Also take care if you created a self contained composition for distribution: all files in this folder will be wrapped into the file! When Onadime finds subfolders here, it considers the folder to be a category, which can be adressed seperatly later, to switch "banks" of pictures/movies.

- "DropIn Media" can be used for this scenario: you distribute a composition, let's say for a club that want's to play it with the Onadime Player. Your composition has been wrapped into one file containing all the footage from the "Composer Media" folder. But you designed the composition to also use footage from the "DropIn Media" folder. So the club can place the additional footage he want's in the DropIn folder an play that single composition again and again, with different content each time - and you have never ever been there.

As composition layout (forms) can get rather complex, there is a great way to keep things clean on the worksheet: Macroforms. They can contain any number of simple forms plus their connections and representations of their inputs. And all in only *one* representation on the worksheet. you can zoom in and get the complete layout within that macrofrom on a new screen. I think you even can put macroforms within a macroform and zoom again. I use them to create kind of "scenes" of my composition. The advantage is, that you open a composition, look at the worksheet and see the list of scenes of your performance rather than a "wood of squares and lines". Another advantage is, that you only use special sensors (which eat CPU) only within scenes, that use those sensors. If you switch the scene off, Onadime doesn't need to compute sensor data. If you have sensors, that are used for most of your scenes, you will put them outside the macroforms and only define them once rather than in every scene. Btw, all forms (including macroforms) can be exported and sent via email to someone else.

In my current composition setup i use a form which accepts midi note in and translates each not into a on/off switch (Hot Lead). Each on/off switch is used to switch one or more scenes on and off (Cold Lead). This way, i walk through the scenes simply by pressing one key after the other, additionaly tweaking knobs as the specific scene accepts that.

The forms for displaying graphics (movies/pictures/video) all have a similar layout of leads. Let's take a "Basic Movie" form. Here some of the leads:
- movie category (subfolder in the media folder)
- movie file (movie within that category)
- left/right
- down/up
- size
- shape (square, circle, ...)
- front/back
- rotation
- opacity (0%-100%)
- mode (copy, add, difference, and, or, add warp, substract warp, ...)
- mask (chroma, luma, none)
- chroma key tolerance
- ...

All these are Cold Leads, that can be controlled via *any* Hot Lead. So you can:
- change pictures with the bass level, produces very fast changing pictures
- additional changing picture category every bar or via note in
- make picture shining through a movie going with the mids of the eq
- let a movie rotate once with each bar
- let a midi controller zoom a picture
- making a pic series appear in the left top, while 2 movies occupating different places on the screen
- change mode with booms of the music - freaky
- well, imagine yourself

(to be continued)

[fons]

(continued)

In Onadime you can use the complete set of quicktime effects. Additionaly there a some forms for graphic effects. Or you can put the "Flame" form on top of a movie and let it burn ...

Rendering is also possible. In a first step you do recordings vie hotkey start/stop, afterwards the recordings may be exported to a movie with the compression you like. The problem is, Onadime has to do recordings "online", while performing - so depending on the intensity of the performance and the speed of your computer, the recordings may by at low frame rates. You better print out to DV tape and capture all via firewire to use parts of the performance in a music video or something.

Well, there is much more - but i don't want to write a book now, and I simply can't remember all the available forms and so an, as i'm not writing this from my computer at home (where Onadime is
installed).

I use Onadime for "clean" visuals, when i simply want to show the pictures as they are, not messing around with strange effects: use Videodelic for that :) These 2 make a great combination for me.

Just download the demo of Onadime Composer and try yourself - you can do everything except saving compositions.

Fons

[MoRpH]

Mate, please cut and paste that into a review as it is seriously better than most of the reviews that are already up. Nice work :)

[karmavideo]

Thanks very much, that detailed review makes me want to break out Onadime and give it another shot.

Really appreciate it, again

[fons]

Made a review out of that now ... :)

Fons

[MoRpH]

Cheers mate, nice werk :)

[riesso]

hy

i am testing composite station @ moment

very nice app...you can use the tab to synch the beat like a dj do it on a beat counter
the preview-window is very big...and has a good res...

there are nice effects but they?ll not all working yet....
:rolleyes:

the coolest thing is the different usable modes to configure every layer...

so you can lay the same clip on different layers with another configuration...for example slower on the first and looped from the ?start to the middle and backwards very fast ...thats cool
there are many ?features on that prog which are not easy to find

try it out and post me reply

greetz :D :D