Grand VJ is it worth switching to ?

[rayrik]

I tried when it got released but wasnt all that much impressed, missed FW out and waited for VJ midi update, the Beta is going since 15 months so I am giving up, I guess Arkaos is probably giving up the VJ midi and will focus on Grand only.
Arkaos VJ is slow to make projects, OK for some artistic stuff or very well paid but costs too much time for not so demanding casual work.
So I am considering either getting NuVj which has advantage of integrated controller with feedback or getting Grand VJ which from what people say is kind of NuVj with a boost.
Anyway would love to hear from Arkaos users, after few months there might be some conclusions. Do you use Grand or after some time went back to VJ midi or perhaps some other software. Are you happy with Grand VJ.
let me be clear, it is not about creative, ground breaking artistic experiments and experiences but more about normal work, earning money. How reliable it is, as compared to VJ midi (which as I am concerned is 100%), how fast in preparing shows ( no searching , getting visuals, only working with your own archives) saving show templates, changing, deleting, replacing clips, all that is PITA in Arkaos Vj midi.
Is Grand VJ step ahead from VJ midi or I better spend my money and time on some other software ? I realised that VJ softwares as compared to any other I use, visual or music. is very "expensive" not the initial price but the time it requires so before I invest any want to take maximum factors into consideration.
Thanks in advance

[bluehairedcat]

For practical purposes, playing solid gigs, Grand VJ is slick and reliable. It is very easy to set up- After I put together a bunch of new content for a gig, it literally just takes a couple minutes to set it up within my GVJ banks.

Arkaos VJ is good for some more radical content creation with the use of all the freeframes/feedback and high quality rendering options, but also takes a lot more time to set up and is arguably more clunky in real-time performance. However, GVJ is streamlined for fluid real-time performance, and at that it excels. You'll want a hefty MIDI controller to take full advantage of the real-time mixing. It helps to have MIDI controllers linked to each of the 8 mixer layers' parameters such as opacity, speed, blending mode, RGB balance, effects, etc. I use a UC-33 and a UC-16 paired together. And it's nice to have master controls linked for brightness/contrast, bank select, layer select, etc. to minimize the use of the mouse during performance. Just load up your (high quality) content, make some adjustments to the clip playback properties, map the MIDI controllers, and then you can have countless hours of expressive mixing fun.
As much as I would LOVE to have more bells and whistles to play with in a live performance app, GVJ works fine for now, and it gives me time to concentrate on making high quality content, which is what matters the most.

[rayrik]

Thanks, sounds interesting. That is what I mainly wanted to know, if it is time saver as compared to 3.6 midi.