"Music video" for live web performance...

[EightString]

Long time lurker, first-time poster.


I've been doing live music performances over the web for a while now, with the following setup:

All guitar/vocals performed live by me, into a Mac, hosting Reaper, Reason, and Waves GTR-3 (for guitar tones).

So in other words, my current "live" Reaper project has well over 100 songs all sequenced up through MIDI, running through virtual instruments, with only the vocals and guitar remaining to be performed live.

From there, I run the digital audio out to both a live monitor system, and a second computer to feed the audio to the streaming service. I've beem using USTREAM. The second computer is also responsible for video capture and any simple video fx.

Up until now, I've been using crappy "consumer" webcam fx software, but I've been feeling the "lameness" of this for a while now. It sucks to have to leave the fx set on just one or two overlays for an entire song. Lame.

Over the past few weeks, I've been exploring ways to step up my visual game, and finally settled on Elektronika as the VJ software that works best for me. I now have this running on my PC and have it rigged up to accept MIDI from Reaper the first computer (Mac).

The last piece of the puzzle was added today when I picked up an Evolution UC-33e. This afternoon, I quickly got it configured to record events to a Reaper track (one track per song, of course). In both recording and playback modes, the MIDI is passed along to the PC running Elektronika.

I recorded a couple of "video tracks" for a couple of songs, and it worked like a charm. I can now create exciting "music videos", synced to the music, and when I perform live, my live camera video is integrated seamlessly. The great thing is, once I record the video track for a song, I don't have to touch a thing.

Each song will have it's own unique video track on a MIDI channel. A rock song will look COMPLETELY different than a ballad, or some 80s new wave.

I'm also planning ahead, where I can swap out fx, images, and video clips in the Elektronika rack, so the same song from week to week will keep evolving visually, even with the same source MIDI track.


The difference is pretty dramatic, and I can't wait to 'go-live" with this stuff for my next webshow.


Cheers.

[subpixel]

That sounds wicked.

I used Reaper to create a MIDI track to control visuals for a video clip. Took me ages because I don't usually sequence, had never used Reaper and I was trying to match a pre-recorded MP3 audio track.

Where do you do these webcasts?

-spxl

[EightString]

Originally Posted by subpixel

That sounds wicked.

I used Reaper to create a MIDI track to control visuals for a video clip. Took me ages because I don't usually sequence, had never used Reaper and I was trying to match a pre-recorded MP3 audio track.

Where do you do these webcasts?

-spxl

Hey subpixel,

If I were only going to do one or two tracks, I guess I would consider entering the video control MIDI by hand. But with over 100 songs to "direct", I needed something with sliders, knobs, and buttons to record my moves. It's a little bit of a pain to set up initially, but once everything was configured, it became as easy as pressing "RECORD" and twiddling knobs, and the results have been astonishing.


But it's getting even better now. I thought the Evolution U-Control might have been it for a while in terms of VJ purchases, but today I was bumming around in BestBuy, and saw the Microsoft HD webcams on sale for almost half-price. So I picked up 2.

Since these cams do their basic image processing processing (color correction, lighting, etc.) in the camera's hardware, they free up software cycles for more Elektronika stuff.

I tried them out, they look FANTASTIC, and Elektronika absolutely DOES run a lot better now, with a smooth framerate.


As for the show itself:

I was using ustream.tv, and casting out of my little studio, but seems like ustream chokes on Elektronika output. At least on my machine.

Plus, ustream connections have been spotty, suffering from periodic signal drops during my shows, which is frustrating for me AND my viewers.

So the other day, I made a justin.tv account, tried out Elektronika with it, and it seems to rock. My tests are showing much more stable transmissions, and much less lag overall. I also like the simpler UI at justin.tv, and I think my listeners will too.

Anyway, once I have everything configured and I'm ready to start up my shows again, I can post a link for anyone interested.


*goes back to play with multi-camera input ...*

[EightString]

Ugh.

Both justin.tv AND ustream.tv need so much in terms of resources (gee, thanks, Adobe ) that while Elektronika runs smoothly enough, there isn't enough horsepower left over to actually capture and stream the output smoothly on the same machine.


So I did what I sort of KNEW I would have to do all along: I set up a computer to do NOTHING except run Elektronika.

Too bad I now have to have THREE computers running, one for audio, one for visual fx, and one for streaming to the web.

Plus the video has to go into the analog domain to get it from one computer to another.

But at least everything now looks smooth enough in my streaming tests, and the audio doesn't cut in and out any more.

Getting close to being able to use this stuff live...

[asterix]

What software do you use to stream your audio. Sounds like cool fun anyway.

[EightString]

Originally Posted by asterix

What software do you use to stream your audio. Sounds like cool fun anyway.

I downloaded and configured Flash Media Encoder Live 3. This handles encoding and streaming both video and audio for me, and seems to work really well.

[EightString]

For anyone interested, here is a simple architectural diagram of my current setup:

[newdendrite]

Eightstring,

This really look interesting. Is there any way I could view one of your performances?

Thanks,
Michael

[EightString]

Originally Posted by newdendrite

Eightstring,

This really look interesting. Is there any way I could view one of your performances?

Thanks,
Michael

Absolutely. I usually do a live 4hr show every Saturday, 5PM to 9PM US Pacific.

http://www.justin.tv/cogcode#r=wcws70Y~

:wave:

[RayV]

Welcome to the forums.
It does looks interesting and surely gives an appetite to see n hear it !
Thanks for sharing the work flow
it was /is interesting read
keep em coming and best of luck