Venezuelan VJ set-up!

[vjrei]

This is the set up I used this last saturday the 3rd.
I used 3 Macintosh computers, one of them mine, a Videonics MX-Pro a midi interface and a Roland JV-90 controling the Arkaos VJ demo (full feature and expires in 20 days). In the other computer I used MotionDive 3 and in the 3rd computer (the iBook) I was using Videodelic conected to a video camera via Firewire to capture the DJ in real time while processing the colors.

Both of the black computers are Powerbooks G3 500 with 256 MB of ram and 10GB of hard disc.

The small monitor in the middle is a black and white tv, it was the best I could find.

[LEVLHED]

wow, that looks nice and neat and professional!

I guess my rigs end up in more the "mad scientist" style with stacks of gear and piles of cables everywhere....I should really take a pick of my studio right now and show you...its unbelievably messy...

[konsumgrafik]

Just as massy as my desk I think. What about a thread or an archiv with pics from vj-desks?

[LEVLHED]

my thoughts exactly!

I'll start the thread......everyone should post pics/clips of their kit...not the screens/dj/etc...

[vjrei]

Guy, I like everything simple. I do not like to carry stuff around, if I do that my job/hobbie is gonna end up like a nitemare.

One Powerbook was mine and the other Powerbook and the iBook from some other friends.

All I need was 2 cables per computer, the power cable, the video out and in the case of the iBook a firewire cable from the camera.

My set up is really easy. I have 4 types of dynamics (or topics).
1. Is a DVD, I like the Underworld DVD for the background, that way I can have a 20 minutes brake.

2. The video in with the camera pointing at the DJ. That is very nice because almost no one knows who is actually playing, DJ's love that (and I'm interest in that). I place the effects with the real time video effects of the Videodelic, that software takes about 4MB of ram. Now, the out put is not full size, not even 640x480, So, I have to pull down the screen size to that resolution to get a full screen proyection. I looks perfect.

3. In my computer I was using MotionDive 3, is a very nice software, I recomend it as a primary software because you can set it up in auto mode and it will play the clips by it self. It comes to with the best character generator you can imagine, so, I can play de video with the DJ and at the botton showing his nick name with the character generator.

4. A real time performance, I do it 3 times during the night. I use Arkaos VJ and the best (and only worth it) effect is the tunel effects that transform any picture or movie into a tunel and I can control the speed of the tunel from sliders (vian midi controler #7) of my Roland eyboard.

The down side of the Arkaos is that I can not leave the software playing in auto mode, I can but is not as good as Motion Dive. The excellent good thing about Arkaos is the capacity of plaing at real time, Motion Dive plays a 10fps or less, Arkaos plays about 30fps at 640x480.

That is about it.

I do not care about video sintesizers, those are not reliable, soft like the Vid Box and those things are not good as a primary software. Pleople like to watch clips in real time, not just one clip in different colors. With the Vid Box I can not punch videos in real time, lots of fancy controlers but that would be good for a secund or third soft and to fool around for a while.

In my experience I owuld get Motion Dive 3, it comes with the best footage, and then Arkaos VJ. For get about buying Arkaos Fottage, most of it is made with Artmatic Pro. Armatic clips are not that good for the public, they are nice but they need to run faster, with a bit of work very interesting things can come out.

About the video console, the MX-Pro is fine, I wouldn't never get something more expensive than that unless I'm producing tons of money. It does the job well, very reliable, I could use anything that offer me crossfade transition and 4 video imputs, that is it.