Entrancer entrances live performance gig

[djnada]

So I finally purchased a Korg Entrancer. The price dropped in the US finally to $599 US$. I found that the tactile interface was great for effecting a live cammera feed. I fed the camera through Modul8 via firewire into my G5 iMac. nearly zero latency there, then pumped into the entrancer.

this set up was nice because it allowed me to handle the camera for pans and zooms with one hand while tweaking the entrancer with the other. I used to have to dedicate myself to tweaking the computer, then bouncing back to the cam.

While messing with the entrancer the night before in the studio, I was, like, "OK, I wasted another lump of cash on a bogus piece of kit!"

Then, when actually using the thing at the gig, I found that several patches worked quite well and we pulled it off. People were really quite impressed.

So, bottom line, entrancer saves the day and can be a great addition to any VJ rig, IMHO.

[vjpixylight]

nice one! I want one for doing the A/V samples, but could see running a cam thru it when not doing A/V
where is it 600 bucks at?

[djnada]

check:

http://www.djdeals.com/korgKPE1.htm

I liked this one because they offer extended warranty. I got the five year one.

One problem I found is that when you switch from video input one to video in 2 there is a slight glitch. No TBC. So they force you to go for the Kross Four (now $499 at djdeals) or a more pricey edirol V4. So I think that I'll just pump the mac using Modul8, which has a bank slider control and BPM tap function, all the chroma and luma keying you'd ever want and just go computer soft into the KPE1 hardware.

[holly]

You could run a looping emergency-mix dvd on a cyberhome300 (which fits so nicely under the Entrancer and boosts it up so you don't get carple tunnel syndrome.... Not that I've ever seen Modul8 crash.... Anyway, it could give you a use for the second input.

Always remember: if the effect looks like crap, try the "fx balance" knob!

[djnada]

Modul8 occassionally DOES crash. But the problem occurs when you try to put a corrupted QT file into the loop bank. So it's a good idea to always pretest those QuickTime files before the show.

(For those of you who are not familiar with corrupted QT, sometimes they get F'd up when you drop a zillion files to a backup drive. Somehow certain bits of info get lost, and you've got a shot movie file)

Yes, the first test I did on this baby was running two DVD drives through it. But I kept mashing the video in 1 and 2 and noticed that glitch pretty quickly. But I think I will run a second DVD alongside the soft, just in case. Then I could sacrifice the occassional glitch for saving the show in case of a software crash. Good idea.

Yeah, and the "fx" balance. i ran an AV set night before, and thought "fx balance" was audio only. After reading the manual, not so. Very cool!

I also thought that the "combis" were preset and unchangable. But, according to the manual, I can route any of the audio effects with any of the video effects. THAT will be FUN!

Holly, thanks for the tips! Of course, I visited your web site at FMT a bunch before I finally decided to part with the $ and go entrancer! Now how's about them dualing entrancers? July 28th?

http://www.forwardmotiontheater.org/

[gpvillamil]

I'll be moving to New York in August, and have an Entrancer. Happy to participate in a battle of the Kaosspads.

[djnada]

Cool, we were actually thinking of running a couple of entrancers in series just to see what sirt of AV effects might happen if they were multiplied. Check the Eno interview on the Korg website:
http://www.korg.com/sbytes/article.asp?ArtistID=155

for his discussion of experiments in the aural realm with kaoss pads in series. Wonder what might happen with several entrancers in series in combi modes?

We'll be at Monkeyland in Brooklyn July 28th, Eyewash:
http://www.forwardmotiontheater.org/...ns/07/28/2006/

If you're in town, stop by and play!

[dvjprotohippy]

We do that quite often, use both of our Kaoss Pad Entrancers together. A lot of times we use 1 for our camera, we use multiple cameras through a switcher that has it's main out to the KPE, then goes into our V-4, we usually use the second KPE in the out from the V-4, before going to the projectors. Since we use a matrix, we only need one out coming from the V-4. A few times we have just used the KPE on seperate channels on the v-4, not on the out at all, so that we can effect players/laptops/etc. Have also used them to edit video for content, recording the video effected and then chopping into loops. I think that they are a great piece of kit and recommend them to everyone!! We found both of ours on E-bay (I know.......) for less than 500 bucks a piece, brand new in box!!! Just my 2 cents......!!