Karlax: the ultimate controller for Digital Arts
Apr/100
If NAMM 2010 had nothing new for the control and integration of music and video it looks like innovation was in Frankfurt, at the MusikMesse. Yes, the old continent brings a new and very innovative controller to the market: the Karlax. And one of you lucky guys will be one of the first to perform with it! (More info at the end of this post).
DA FACT introduced the Karlax at MusikMesse 2010 as the first controller for digital Arts that re-establish the artist’s body at the heart of the performance. With it’s revolutionary ergonomic design, this instrument transmits the artist’s own natural movements wireless (using radio-waves and MIDI trough USB) to a computer, giving musicians and digital Artists freedom on stage.
GrandVJ and Livid’s Ohm64
Oct/094
Jay from Livid just blogged another video where he’s trying out GrandVJ 1.2 Beta, this time with the gorgeous Ohm64 MIDI controller (you know, the one with the super-nice hand-finished wood body..)
And guess what? Setup was easy as 1,2,3 and it works great, just like with his Block he tested a few days ago.
As soon as we can get our hands on these cool toys we will prepare a nice little mapping template to include with the next release of GrandVJ.
GrandVJ works out of the box with Livid’s Block
Oct/091
The guys from Livid Instruments just blogged about GrandVJ 1.2b1 compatibility with their controllers, they posted a cool demo video to show how easy it is to setup GrandVJ with their Block controller right out of the box.. No need for setup or configuration.
“Now in the latest beta Arkaos GrandVJ add MIDI output and after never using it I was able to make a quick demo to show you how easy it is. They also have OSC support, which is really nice to see. This works the same on the Ohm64 and Block as shown in the video below.” (Read more..)
GrandVJ 1.2b1 supports Flash AS3, Quartz Composer, APC40 and more
Oct/0915
We just released a new beta version of GrandVJ, you can download it from our forums:
http://www.arkaos.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=6828
This version has many new cool things which are detailed in the forum post, here is a recap:
- New ultra smooth engine
- Support for Akai APC40 & Generic midi feedback
(also for Behringer BCR2000/BCF2000, Livid OHM, ..) - Quartz composer player (Mac OS X)
- Support for Flash Actionscript 3
- Cell layer assignment
- Mixer state saving
- Added master blackout button
- New enhanced soft-edging algorithm
- Added vertical/horizontal position presets for TripleHead2Go
- Several Bug fixes.
- New fullscreen option (PC)
We plan to ship the final version at the end of this month so we encourage you to check if this new version is working fine and to report any problems or suggestions by creating a topic in the GrandVJ forum.
Happy testing, we hope you will have as much fun using this version as we had to code it!
How To: Master output fade in GrandVJ
Sep/091
Some users have asked on the forum how to do a master output fade or a blackout button in GrandVJ.
In mixer mode, you could always assign a black image and assign it to layer 8 but people using the synth mode (or if you simply don’t wanna waste an additional layer) have to use some tricks to acheive it.
The key is to use the master brightness and contrast on the master: If you pull the brightness to zero and the contrast to the maximum, all output will be blackened.
So we want to go from the “normal state”:
To the “black out state”:
Using a single controller or key.
“PixelFucker Plexiglass Controller” by LoopLight
Aug/090
LoopLight sent us this video from what they did at Nature One festival on the “House of House” floor.
They have setup a very creative system to trigger visuals involving a NuVJ, a video camera, a MediaMaster controlled from a GrandMA console and.. a custom controller made of a simple plexiglass panel with duct tape, the so-called “PixelFucker controller”..
Charlie Mars, the Videomaker from outerspace
Aug/091
Here’s a very funny video we found on YouTube from Charlie Mars, a French artist which qualifies himself as “Videomaker from outerspace”.
Charlie is the guy with the funny colorful hood, of course we spotted the GrandVJ software interface on his laptop, with the Korg Nano’s..
So we sent him a little message to know more about him; read the full post for his explanations below the video.
Create a clip with GrandVJ and Tenori-ON
Jul/090
Blindskunk, an ArKaos GrandVJ user from Australia we found on Twitter has made an interesting experience about creating an audio/visual clip using GrandVJ and Yamaha’s Tenori-ON.
The interest of this experience is that Blindskunk uses the musical instrument capabilities from the Tenori-ON to produce the music and at the same time its MIDI controller capabilities to trigger GrandVJ visuals in sync. To do so, he has linked every channel and button from the Tenori-ON to a visual in GrandVJ, and got that visual to play in time to the changes.
He has kindly shared with us a detailed log of his experimentation further below, including a MIDI template to use the Tenori-ON with GrandVJ.
But before you read any further, for those of you who don’t know about the Tenori-ON, here’s another clip from Blindskunk where you can see him using it as controller for GrandVJ:
Sharing MIDI templates in GrandVJ
Jul/090
With GrandVJ, it is possible to import and export template and share controller mappings with your friends.
Since it’s a handy feature but that the process is not totally obvious (although documented :), we’ll recap quickly here how to do:
- Create a template for the controller of your choice
- Save the template by choosing the ‘File/Save Mapping Template…‘ menu.
Give it a name and a description.
Hit ‘OK‘. - Now choose ‘File/Load Mapping Template‘. The dialog will show you all the available templates, including the one you just saved.
- Select your template and right click on it. Choose ‘Export…‘
- Enter a file name and save it.
At this point, you will end up with a .vjt file that you can take with you / send by email to the person you want to share it with.
On the other computer, fire GrandVJ and select ‘Load Mapping Template…‘. At the bottom of the dialog, there’s an ‘Import...’ button. Click it.
Select the file you exported and the template will be loaded into the library.
Happy sharing.
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