so yeah, title says it all. If you are one, have done it or can, post your experiences, setup, video freebie links, etc....

I just wanna use this as a go to information, since stuff like this is spread out through TF.  If we get some good information on here, might consider this sticky.

http://www.vjcentral.com/
http://www.vjforums.com/

I've been messing around with Arkaos VJ and Numark Cue.  Arkaos is cool when its the only thing you do but I don't know if it just has a play video function.  Cue, is closer to like Vicar said, the DVJ's.  But I can't play videos that don't have music, which is something I want to do.

I would really (which will probably doing) is get pair of DVJ's.  Since I saw this, I'm hooked:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrfSmWghkj4

I actually have good bit of video, just from my video producing as well.

So if ya got cool links to free videos, info or programs, post them.

Man we gotta sort something out! i think im in the same process as u!

Im back from my retreat by the way!

Did u say u had serato? im trying to see which way to turn too! I been using arkaos for 2 months now. And i loved it at first but found the setting up was taking too long.
I had some patches that i saved. But i dont want to spend hours setting up both arkaos and ableton. Ideally id like to work in a vjing djing partnership!.

Also i got my own clips etc i could share too!

Currently, I'm running Final Scratch, Ecler NUO4 and Stanton turntables.

Late November, I bought Traktor Scratch, but problem is my laptop is minimum requirements and I have to use a USB2.0 card to connect my Audio 8.  Well, I've made it light as I can and I still get latency glitches while running Traktor.

So I've been looking and considering a new laptop and with recent interest in VJing and video, leads me to have to get either a Alienware or build my own.  So last night, I put together a pc that will run whatever I want.  So as weeks go by, I'll be buying parts here and there as i can afford them.  Then build it.  Except for Alienware having Intel chips and bigger L2 cache, this will run with them and be much cheaper.

So yeah, I'm learning for now and in transition.  Not settled on any VJ program, mainly want to test them on the new machine once I build it.

Though the VJ forums I've been looking at, this program looks cool:
http://www.resolume.com/

I think you'll like this, lee:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGP0eit23bY

Have you tried midi control from Live to Arkaos? yet....this video is on Live controlling Resolume through midi.

Ooh i do like that! Yes i tried it a bit!

The question i got is wether to go down the route of seperate tunes and seperate music. They are then arranged and performed to compliment each other or work together.

The DVJ approach pros are that u spend less time putting it all together. However not sure i want to be buying music videos! esp as 80% feature gal in the bikini!

The Alterntives to expensive DVJs are serato or cue! infact with cue u could use the new pioneer CDJ 400 and u would only need one!

MOST RECENT SET UP:

Powerbook G4, running arkaos. + BENQ projector.

Used this a gig i did at christmas 07.

However arkaos decided to crash half way through so had to restart which meant turning off the projector! Made me relise that i had made a mistake in selling my vision mixer.

A vision mixer would have allowed me to fade to another source whilst arkaos restarted and not made it  obvious to the dance floor! Managed to get round it quick but dont want to do that again!

only beef with Cue is that it won't play video without audio, threw couple of my dance music videos in there and worked fine.

Arkaos is great for when you are the VJ, but does it allow me to push play on a video and let me play until I want to fade into something else?

right now, Resolume looks good to me.

You can crossfade on arkaos if your using a midi controller but it isn'y automatic resolume has a lot more controlls and autiomations built in which is useful if your spinning as well. I used the demo and decided it had to many bells and whistles for me but then I only did one gig with both sound and music and controlled via a midi keyboard I usually have the luxury of only doing one or the other!

Yes i think one or the other sounds good!

My bookings are usually either or not both together even though id like to explore both togehter!

Ive seen a few good onesat rave in NZ.

Some computers and other bit and pieces.

Arkaos can play audio but would not have DJ features needed to beat mix


What BenQ do you have? I like the specs for the SP831 and am planing on buying one next month. Also planing on the V4 video mixer.

ill have to check what is.

Am Vjing this coming saturday at Lovejoy cafe one birmingham.

Gonna be using arkaos reluctantly!

Ok DJ VICAR VJ GEAR UPDATE

I decided not to use arKaos and instead used..

AV mixer from neuromixer.com
Alesis Midi keyboard
External Harddrive (for video clips)
NEC mini projector

I decided not to use arkaos cause it froze on me and it was obvious! Had to turn off projector. So spent the last month looking at alternatives. and looked at

Modula 8
Motion Drive
Numark NUVJ (only supports numark controller)

I use to use neuromixer which is the free version of av mixer! Its not a bad set up for free and is very easy to use. But Av mixer gives higher output resolution and more control over effects.

I think ill be sticking with av mixer for now.
I have also decided not to VJ while im DJing. For now anyway!

Just a quick note re freeze on arkaos it is having problems with Quicktime 7.3 and 7.4 which is causeing it to fall over. If you go back to Quicktime 7.1 it works.  It's a known issue and 7.3 was fixed in a beta release but then quicktime 7.4 came out and still crashed it!!!!! The price of progress!!!

H

Thanks for this!

Yes apple have done something the same with their airport extreme update

How would you compare AV mixer to Resolume?  So far, I like Resolume but gonna try out AVmixer today.  This is something to use until ultimately I can get DVJ's one day.

on another note, looky at what dad and I just bought....

(http://i5.ebayimg.com/01/i/000/d3/ab/4ea4_3.JPG)

july and december, we did a 6 disc dvd project for this guy and made enough to get this.  Now I can focus on more video projects and also make more of my own videos for whatever, including VJing.

Nice. 8)

Have used one before as funnly enough my Dad owns one!

U will get some really nice stuff with that!

I don't know how resolume comapre with avmixer as resolume is not available on a mac.
Coming soon apparantly.

The main thing i like about it was the ease of setting up to my midi controller. For me the controll is important!

nice, I can't wait til we get it.  If you or your dad have any wisdom to impart on this camera, let me know.  Also any companies that make good lens, filters, etc.....  We're now looking for a good tripod.

Also any books on the whole cinematography subject would be good as well.

I'm gonna try both programs back to back and let you know what I think of them.

on any of these programs, how would I output the video onto my tv monitor?  I'm using a firewire Pyro interface.  Its switched to digital, tv is on right channel and in program it recognizes the interface, but no output?

Not sure what if mean. The output window?

Do want your visual mix to appear on yr tv?

With arkaos, arkaos will detect which monitors/tvs are available and then u can select it.

With AV mixer you will need to drag the video window the tv display and then click full screen!

Presuming that yr pc is picking up the tv display?

Make sense?

that's it, my tv isn't connected to the video card but to a video interface.  It picks it up but doesn't show anything.

Yes depending on the application you are using you will need to specifi it as the one u want to use.

With av mixer just drag the video window onto it! and then click full screen

I think I'll go with Resolume.  I won't be running it on it, but it ran pretty good on my old laptop.  I like the interface, I can do three instead of two videos and can automate with midi.

Good choice. ( even from an arkaos stallwart!!!) Anyway sorted my QT problems my upgrade to Arkaos 3.6.5 beta 3 hadn't worked properly so a quick uninstall/reinstaal today sorted that.

Was on visuals in York minster again on Sunday here's the link.-

http://web.mac.com/malcolm.wallace/iWeb/Visions%20webcasts/Webcasts/92AC65CB-3163-44B4-AA3E-EFB7D97CD92F.html

H

Thanks

So arkaos all good for you now! Which quicktime u on then did u say u went to an older version?

Bought it up to 7.4 the current version and all working fine had it running 4 clips and 3 effects for over an hour this afternoon so it satisifes my needs now just need to get some more gigs.

Hope you get more gigs! Am sure u will! if i can get you down here for anything ill send u a message!

Your post makes me think that we should discuss style as well as gear. I mean with djing you have things like beat matching transitioning and key clashes etc.

Would be good to share how we are preparing for a vj set? might have a think and post again!

sure.

I like Arkaos but Resolume will do what I need.

Have any of you used the edirol video mixing software?  How does it compare?

And what about numark's video mixing equipment? 

motiondive tokyo is low res 320x240 only which is ok for some graphics but not real video if you use it blown up on a large screen/projector.

The numark mixers are'nt up to the quality of an edirol v4 but suffice if you just want to mix between music video's and use the same board for your audio dvj style but their dvd players aren't instant start and dont do seamless looping either although they loop. I quite like their 3x rack mounted screen unit though!

Seen this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROmPEdlHlUE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROmPEdlHlUE)

Have now thanks not my style though

Maybe the musics not mine either but the mixing is.

Was hoping i could download the software to use with a controller!

This months IDJ mag (march 08)

Has a 1hr dvj mix on it. Produced by dantait using a pair of dvjs and the pioneer video mixer.

Worth checking!

nice. 8)

I'm not a fan of the fast cuts I like mixing organically both my music and visuals. Will get hold of IDJ tomorrow thanks for the heads up.

YEs i like the cut up style! thats what im into. The Coldcut kinda style.

i found the idj dvd quite predictable. Will be interesting to see what u think!

The quaiity is good interms of the equipment used!

Got the IDJ DVD today.

I really liked it it's style is a bit more me although I use more layers 3-4 most of the time which doesn't work in the DVJ Scenario. I can really see what they have done working in a club with a busy light show though it has enough interest to carry the track taking into account what else will be going on in a club.  I think that I would produce something similar if I was working to a full light rig also otherwise you detract from the main reason people are there which is to dance (honest although many have another motive) The dj wont be too happy if no one is dancing coz they are too busy watching the TV's. Would this DVD make me rush out and buy a pair or trio of DVJ's and a pioneer mixer NO did it make me think about how to use words to emphasis the live nature of the VJing YES. So apart from just enjoying it for what it is I also got something out of it.

Thanks again for the tip I wouldn't have bought it without your post hope you make the thousand...... as for me I might make 100 one day.

Cheers man!
Thats a really good account of the DVJ dvd. having said what i said i did enjoy it. Some bits were really well done.

My comment saying about the mix being predictable, was mainly aimed at the visuals of timelapsed rush hour footage. But really like the fact that the visuals were mapped to the tunes and then mixed.


x2

I'll have to check that out.

not sure how i went this long without spotting this thread, but oh well...  :-[

most of what i do rarely involves fast mixing that would typically be associated with VJing, but i do background video loopy stuff at large youth conferences & concerts a few times a year.  every now & then there's a snooty fundraising gig for rich peeps (yawn).  the most recent one was "The Gathering" - http://www.gather4him.net/ (http://www.gather4him.net/) - got to toss up video stuff on 2 screens behind David Crowder Band and some other peeps - woot!

if you're windows-based, and don't mind investing some time into learning a (fairly huge) program, definitely check out Visual Jockey: http://www.visualjockey.com/ (http://www.visualjockey.com/)
i've been using it off & on for several years, and it's been very flexible & pretty darn stable for all i use it for.  best of all, the newest version is FREE!

most of the bigger events involve multiple projectors & screens, so i often run stuff off of my PC, then thru a Matrox external box (the Triple Head2Go, or at this last gig, the Dual Head2Go), then out to the multiple projectors... i love using Visual Jockey (vJo) for this, because it's really flexible with stretching out smaller clips to span the entire width (2048x768 or 2400x600--i drop down to 3x800x600 for the triple-wide stuff) of the screens.  but with vJo you can also setup comps that just tile multiple clips across, or that are the full res of your screens, whatever.  one BIG downside with the program is that it doesn't have a content management system.  anytime you want to just drop a video clip in there for playback, you have to build a composition & save it out.  so... with much flexibility comes much prep-work.

i almost always have a backup system in place for those multi-screen events.  didn't have a single crash at the last event, but the high-res stuff really does put your PC thru the ringer.  the backup system is essentially what i use when VJing smaller shows or parties... it's an Edirol V4 mixer with several DVD players running into it (with event logo loops & a bunch of other stuff burnt to DVDs). 

yeah... i've rambled on a bit too long.

Rick,

Didn't think you were rambling. Although I downloaded Visual Jockey I haven't got my head round it yet glad your getting some gigs though are you working outside the christian scene as well?

Glad you found the post anyway..

yea thats what im aware i need is a vision mixer. to be able to mix the different sources
Infact i had one but i sold it!

Gonna be borrowing a vision mixer over the weekend for an outdoor event. Also gonna be using a 15000 lumens projector. Will try and get some pics!

What short of budget for a Barco LED dayscreen!  ;)

How much for a led dayscreen?

P.O.A. aparantley I know what a pea is a small round green thing like this  :hurt: without the face but not a POA 

Seriously each job would need wuoting individually because of travel distance power availability/ requirements

This company do them but google will throw up loads....

http://www.surtees.co.uk/products/display/outdoorledscreens

coolio... yeah, vJo takes a while to wrap your head around... how i typically use it only scratches the surface of what it can do.

as far as outside the christian scene...
well, i did visuals at about 5 shows with Pussycat Productions over the course of a year - http://www.pussycatproductions.com/ (http://www.pussycatproductions.com/) - starting when Shelby (Ellipse) came to Seattle for Accelerator [i think May'05?] - and ending with a party called PLURF that Brian Babinec opened up [i think May'06].  not much since then tho'... mostly because my main connection with them was Stephanie (used to post on here as Cattywompus), and after she & Mark (Heavyweight) divorced, it was trickier to keep in touch with Mark.  i emailed him a few times about helping out with their upcoming parties, but never heard back.  this was also right after a shooting in our area (lost a TF pal there--Chris), and i also had a bunch of weird family stuff going down at the same time, so i needed to take a break anyway.

the only thing i've done fairly recently in the Seattle-ish scene was to make a bunch of logo, etc. loops for the decibel festival - http://dbfestival.com/ (http://dbfestival.com/) - last fall.  one of my co-workers at Screenlife (the company that makes the DVD game SceneIt?) and i each made a bunch of video loops to be played in-between sets at the showcases.  would like to have VJ'd there, but at least we were able to supply the VJs with a bunch of event-themed content to throw in their sets. 

where are you guys from?  i'm in Seattle, Washington.  before my current job as a motion graphic designer, i was a media director at a church up in Everett (a little north of Seattle) for 7 years.  that was how i got connected with folks doing video stuff at youth conferences, etc.

the next event i'll be doing is a children's conference: http://www.northwestministry.com/site/start.php?news_id=234&l1=level_1_1&l2=level_2_48 (http://www.northwestministry.com/site/start.php?news_id=234&l1=level_1_1&l2=level_2_48) might link you there.  after that, it's just building content for a fundraiser/ladies tea (yawn) for a local zoo/aquarium--fortunately the lighting designer will be running all that content off of his grandMA & servers--i might not even have to show up!   :laugh:
the next one after that is a biggie: http://charlotte08.ag.org/ (http://charlotte08.ag.org/)

*ramble ramble ramble*

That sounds like one to stay at home for....

You sounded from your original post that you could be working more in secular places is it something your going to try to expand or is it just for fun and a few extra cents?  Haven't checked out the links yet.

As yet i have only vague plans to do other work as we are likely to move a distance from where we are now. I got into VJing through church where they have visuals every service I've posted this link before but as an example http://web.mac.com/malcolm.wallace/iWeb/Transcendence/Video%20Podcasts/921F2A0A-5396-4FAF-A395-4FD9E5C24173.html which was back at the start of february. I should get back doing this at visions in a couple of months giving myself time to get used to new baby first.

I currently live in Middlesbrough in the UK but as I said I am hoping my wife will get a new job soon and we will move back down to southern england. Once we have moved I will be looking at developing what I do at the moment I'm not sure what God wants me to do but I am kind of happy waiting till we move before something happens. Waiting is a funny thing because what I am doing is getting all the money together to be able to buy the equipment I need when I get to wherever we are going and getting experience wherever I can so I'm not really waiting more building ready for a busy time (hopefully)

anyway now it's me doing the rambling

Howard

oh--i've never actually gotten paid well for a secular gig--i'd like to expand a bit, but it would mostly for fun & connecting with peeps, etc. 

anywho, congrats on the new baby & good to "meet" you Howard  :)
-rick

Just got new lappy to run Arkaos on to get the hardware effects.......

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=120236735612&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=002


yummy

i expected u to be a mac user!

Afraid not did consider switching last year before I bought new studio computer but decided to stick with pc's  as I know my way round the os and the cost issues I've bought 2 lappies and a desktop in 12 months and several thousand pounds on software plus extra hardware too. It works for me.

makes sense then!

why switch!

Been playing with the new lappy and Arkaos with the hardware effect and an ADS tech video express converter. I Had my compaq laptop feeding the Video express into my dell in arkaos and had 3 clips with effect on the dell plus keying the video input from the compaq and a preview of the input not sure I'm going to need a mixer expcept for backup.  The video expess only cost me £50 a few years ago  8) several hundred pounds saved :)