In this article we’ll explain a little bit more how you can use Syphon in combination with MediaMaster and GrandVJ, then we’ll give you some inspiration from those who have already started using it..

About Syphon

As explained on the official Syphon web page: “Syphon is an open source Mac OS X technology that allows applications to share frames – full frame rate video or stills – with one another in realtime. Now you can leverage the expressive power of a plethora of tools to mix, mash, edit, sample, texture-map, synthesize, and present your imagery using the best tool for each part of the job. Syphon gives you flexibility to break out of single-app solutions and mix creative applications to suit your needs.”

Practically, a Syphon client application receives video frames from one or more syphon server application(s), and because the Syphon-compatible applications share texture resources within the graphical card, there’s almost no latency between the server and the client applications.

GrandVJ or MediaMaster as Syphon server

Prior versions of GrandVJ and MediaMaster were already able to act as Syphon server, but it required loading the Quartz-Composer Server patch on a dedicated layer.

GrandVJ 1.6 and MediaMaster 2.2.5 are now native Syphon server applications. The usage is pretty straight forward since there’s no configuration at all: the software will start sharing its output frames as soon as it detects a Syphon client application.

GrandVJ output in Syphon Simple Client

GrandVJ or MediaMaster as Syphon client

GrandVJ and MediaMaster can also act as Syphon clients thanks to the Quartz-Composer Client plugin and patch provided by the guys behind Syphon. You can get these from the Syphon Implementations page (grab the file named “Syphon For Quartz Composer” of course. It’s currently in beta but that’s ok). The installation procedure is detailled in “Read Me.rtf” file you get in the .dmg but basically you first need to install the plugin before you can use the patch.

So, once you installed the plugin, grab the Quartz-Composer patch (.qtz file) and either import it in your MediaMaster media library or drag & drop it on a bank in GrandVJ so you can use it with our software.

Syphon Simple Server in GrandVJ

Note that, by default, the patch will display the frames of the first registered Syphon server application. If you want to use a server that’s not the first, or to to mix between several servers, you will have to get your hands in the dirt and launch the Quartz-Composer application (that you get with Xcode from Apple) to modify the “index” value in the patch (the default value zero being the first server)..

Modifying the “index” value in Quartz-Composer

Oh, and if you don’t want to fiddle around with Quartz-Composer you can simply download the alternative patches we’ve modified for you (yeah, we’re like that..).

Remark:
You cannot use GrandVJ or MediaMaster as Syphon client if you have not first started a Syphon server, if you try to do so you will notice that MediaMaster / GrandVJ creates an infinite visual feedback, its output frames being shared with the layer that runs the Syphon layer!

If you intend to use GrandVJ or MediaMaster as a client, you should either start the other Syphon server application first, or you can use one of the alternative Quartz-Composer patches mentioned earlier in this article.

Some inspiration from those who have already started using it

All this seems a little too abstract for you? No problem, let’s see concretely what you can achieve with this new feature..

Koen de Puysseleir – Tiësto Club Life tour

It all started with Koen de Puysseleir, Creative Director for Tiësto and owner of Light in Motion, a Belgian design and show control company. Koen already worked with MediaMaster for the previous Tiësto tour (the Kaleïdoscope Tour) and this time he got challenged with some difficult video setups involving split screens and side screens for Tiësto Club Life performances. He needed a solution to output MediaMaster to MadMapper and thus contacted us to inquire about how to achieve it.

We immediately understood that something cool could be done here and so we started working on developing this feature and then sent Koen a custom version of MediaMaster with Syphon support for him to test.. Below is a video from the show at the Home Depot Center in Carson, you can read the complete story here on our web site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfGpTW8h36I

Koen’s laptop running MediaMaster and MadMapper

Momo the Monster – The Glitch Mob Live show

Visual Artist Momo the Monster has been using MediaMaster Express as a Syphon client to drive LED panels on The Glitch Mob Live shows this summer, read the full story at CreateDigitalMotion

Charlie Mars recording mixes in GrandVJ

France VJ champion Charlie Mars explains (in French) how he is using GrandVJ and Syphon Recorder to record his mixes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5J-eqx1kEI

Conclusion

As you can see, Syphon support in MediaMaster or GrandVJ really “gives you flexibility to break out of single-app solutions and mix creative applications to suit your needs” just like they say on the Syphon web site!

Ok, ok.. I can already hear some of you complaining it’s again a Mac-only solution.. But don’t worry Windows users, we’re working on a similar solution for you too..

Thank you Syphon creators, interoperability is the future!

Meanwhile we have released GrandVJ 1.2 and we took the time to include a special template for the Ohm64 in this release. As we did for the Akai APC40, this new dedicated template allows even more bidirectional communication between both products and takes advantage of all the control and feedback possibilities offered by the device.
It’s just like if your GrandVJ was made for your Ohm64.. and vice-versa :)

And thus, below is a new video from Livid showing their controller in action with 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.

In this tutorial, we’ll suppose you want to use a midi controller to go gradually from one to the other, providing a master fade functionality.

Let’s start by mapping the brightness control. Right click it and choose “Midi mapping…”. This will bring the MIDI mapping dialog:

Click on “learn” and start moving the knob you want to assign to the master fade out. By default, it will control the brightness to it’s full extent (0-100%) over the controller range. However, our “normal state” needs the brightness to be at 50 percent so we’ll tweak the range so that the Max. Value is 50.

Close the dialog. Now moving your controller will move the brightness slider from 0 to the default position.

Now let’s tweak the Contrast. Right click it and select again “Midi mapping…”

Click “Learn” again and move the same controller you assigned to the Brightness. GrandVJ allows you to map the same controller to multiple functionalities, so that not an issue.

Now you want that when the brightness is full (the controller is to its maximum value), the contrast is to zero and that when the brightness is zero, the contrast is full. That means you want to invert the behaviour of the contrast. To do so, it’s very easy, simply put 100.0 as Min. Value and 0.0 as Max. Value.

Now press ok on the dialog and you will have a dedicated control to fade the master output.

Of course, you can also assign this to a note event or a key and you will have a black out switch instead of a gradual fade…

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”..

Philipp from LoopLight explains his creation:

Installation schema

I have setup ArKaos MediaMaster, ArKaos NuVJ and grandMA ultralight in one network session. The headlights were Jarag-5 in a matrix with par30 and 52 Movinglights with CMY. I made a led mapping patch in MediaMaster to control both the Jarags and the CMY of the movinglights.

MediaMaster was fed with two input streams:

The first input came from a camera filming a plexiglass panel divided in two areas, the left side was for Jarag and the right side for the CMY.

The second input was fed with the output of a NuVJ that I used to trigger SD Clips.

In MediaMaster I scaled my live input from the camera to match only the left part of the plexiglass and configured different effects like Edge detect, Greyscale and Contrast so that, by moving my hand vertically and horizontally in front of the camera (behind the left part of the plexiglass that I was using as guide), I could dynamically create visuals in combination with the SD Clips played by the NuVJ.

For the CMY, I prepared four large Colourwheels in different bright colours so just by moving them in the right half of the plexiglass I could change all CMY in the moving lights.

As you can see it’s a great example of creative processing involving video, lighting and a good dose of creativity.. And that’s exactly what the guys from LoopLight are known for!

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:

1. Record Audio and Midi

Yamaha Tenori-On

Blindskunk composed the piece entirely on the Tenori-ON and recorded it internally using the original sounds.

Steinberg Cubase Studio 4

Then, he exported the whole piece using Steinberg Cubase Studio 4 to record the output as MIDI then splited the MIDI into its 10 individual MIDI channels (with Cubase MIDI dissolve option)

Propellerhead Reason 4

Blindskunk remixed the audio output in Propellerhead Reason 4 to produce a better sounding and mixed track which he saved as a WAV.

That WAV was introduced as a track of Audio in Cubase and aligned to the MIDI, in order to get a proper synchronization while previewing in GrandVJ.

2. Produce a midi-synchronized Video track using ArKaos GrandVJ:

ArKaos GrandVJ

In GrandVJ every MIDI channel and all 16 buttons were linked to a 16×16 matrix.

Various visuals including some presets and various sources from around the web were attached to the 16×16 grid (however, not all of the cells were filled with visuals). The spinning Tenori in the background was recorded playing the actual piece and the video mapped to a cube inside  GrandVJ.

Playing the piece in Cubase produced the Video output, by sending MIDI notes to GrandVJ through Rewire.

Here’s a link to download Blindskunk’s GrandVJ MIDI template file: Download VJT file Zipped

3. Create the final sequence

ACA Capture Pro & Morgan MJPEG Codec

Blindskunk then recorded a 640×480 resolution video (30fps) straight from the GrandVJ Master window using the screen capture program ACA Capture Pro (with Morgan M-JPEG codec). The resulting file size was 1000Mb

VirtualDUB & DivX

He converted the file using VirtualDUB to a high quality DivX (smaller in size than Morgan M-JPEG Codec) – The reason for this process is that while the DivX is fast, it cant keep up on high quality in real-time. The resulting file was then 70 Mb

Sony Vegas Pro

Blindskunk finally synchronized the DivX and the WAV file from earlier with Sony Vegas Pro, added his intro and extro Graphics.

4. Upload to YouTube

The final result is the video below:

About Blindskunk:

Home of Light Hearted Electronic Music

• Home page
• About Blindskunk
• YouTube Channel
• Twitter

Since it’s a handy feature but that the process is not totally obvious (although documented :), we’ll recap quickly here how to do:

1. Create a template for the controller of your choice
2. Save the template by choosing the ‘File/Save Mapping Template…‘ menu.
   Give it a name and a description.
   Hit ‘OK‘.
3. Now choose ‘File/Load Mapping Template‘. The dialog will show you all the available templates, including the one you just saved.
4. Select your template and right click on it. Choose ‘Export…‘
5. 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.

As a part of their creation process they make a very advanced use of ArKaos software’s blend and mask modes to map visuals on onto architecture or objects.

They have once again caught our attention with one of their latest installations, a stunning visual show in Breda’s cathedral. It’s a beautiful mix of painting projection, light sculpture, perfect mapping and great music made by a team of very experienced professionals..

But enough words, have a look at the video; it’s really worth watching to the end!

Credits goes to Yannick Jacquet (Legoman), Joanie Lemercier (crustea), Romain Tardy (Aalto) and Olivier Ratsi (Emovie) from ANTIVJ. Original music is by Thomas Vaquié, played on organ by Gerard Maters and the lighting design is by Giacinto Caponio.

Finally, we couldn’t resist adding another video to this post; the TV report from Dutch television where you can see the ANTIVJ team interviewed while setting up the show and explaining their background and how they evolved to this concept (the presentation is in Dutch but the interviews are in English). It also briefly shows some of ANTIVJ’s other very interesting realizations.

For more, be sure to check out Crustea’s YouTube Channel, ANTIVJ on Vimeo and the ANTIVJ Blog.