Exavior
6th July 2004, 01:21 AM
This 4th of July I was invited to VJ at a friend's beach party. About 100 or people wandered in and out of the beach house, so it was not a huge gig, but a lot of fun.
My rig was basically this setup (http://www.exavior.com/vj/rig.jpg). Minus 1 preview monitor and the Korg MicroKontrol. I'm not comfortable enough on the Korg to use it live, so I just stuck to using a standard keyboard. I also used a portable DVD deck and a digital camera as additional inputs. Only real downside was the time it takes to setup, breakdown, load, and unload all the hardware. (1 PC, keyboard, mouse, preview monitor, LCD monitor, V4, portable DVD player, camera, laptop, projector & stand, switcher, table, and about two miles of cables.) I'm sure the whole process will speed up once I have done it a few more times.
I went in feeling a little bit unsure of how things would go. But it went about 100 times as well as I thought it would. I thought I was a little short on content, but after all the mixing of the DVD source and live camera I ended up only using about 20% of my prepared clips. I only wish I had a recording method so I could upload some samples. I was mostly mixing beat loops from old cartoons made in the 1920s-1930s and my custom flash. I was on for about 3-4 hours and had a blast. Had a lot of people come over with all the typical questions about what software I was using. After about the 4th person I wanted to reply with "Microsoft Office." One guy went on for about 5 minutes about how the "VJ" thing is the new wave and how DJing is passe. I found his attitude about the whole thing amusing, but it is good to know there are supporters out there. I also got about 5-6 business cards and invites to mix everywhere from San Fran to a couple local clubs... but I'm not really interested in setting up more gigs just yet.
As far as the skill side goes, I'm still quite far from where I would like to be, but I am headed in the right direction and I'm more relaxed about it now.
All-in-all it was a great experience and I had a blast.
My rig was basically this setup (http://www.exavior.com/vj/rig.jpg). Minus 1 preview monitor and the Korg MicroKontrol. I'm not comfortable enough on the Korg to use it live, so I just stuck to using a standard keyboard. I also used a portable DVD deck and a digital camera as additional inputs. Only real downside was the time it takes to setup, breakdown, load, and unload all the hardware. (1 PC, keyboard, mouse, preview monitor, LCD monitor, V4, portable DVD player, camera, laptop, projector & stand, switcher, table, and about two miles of cables.) I'm sure the whole process will speed up once I have done it a few more times.
I went in feeling a little bit unsure of how things would go. But it went about 100 times as well as I thought it would. I thought I was a little short on content, but after all the mixing of the DVD source and live camera I ended up only using about 20% of my prepared clips. I only wish I had a recording method so I could upload some samples. I was mostly mixing beat loops from old cartoons made in the 1920s-1930s and my custom flash. I was on for about 3-4 hours and had a blast. Had a lot of people come over with all the typical questions about what software I was using. After about the 4th person I wanted to reply with "Microsoft Office." One guy went on for about 5 minutes about how the "VJ" thing is the new wave and how DJing is passe. I found his attitude about the whole thing amusing, but it is good to know there are supporters out there. I also got about 5-6 business cards and invites to mix everywhere from San Fran to a couple local clubs... but I'm not really interested in setting up more gigs just yet.
As far as the skill side goes, I'm still quite far from where I would like to be, but I am headed in the right direction and I'm more relaxed about it now.
All-in-all it was a great experience and I had a blast.