GrandVJ and Livid’s Ohm64.. Even better
Jan/100
Back in October we blogged about the guys from Livid blogging about GrandVJ 1.2 beta natively supporting their Ohm64 controller out of the box through Generic MIDI Feedback. Since then, we have been exchanging ideas with them by e-mail and we even met them at the NAMM a few days ago, and indeed we share the same view about how our products should be: open and expandable.
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:
GrandVJ 1.2b4 with support for audio
Dec/090
We’ve been a bit quiet lately but we’ve been working hard trying to move sound support from the old system (based on QuickTime) to an implementation using FFMPeg. This is because the QT support is getting worse and worse and we think it’s important we move to a more controllable medium.
The Beta 3 released last week on our forums contained the first result of this implementation but wasn’t very smooth or even stable especially with backward/forward playback.
The Beta 4 fixes the backward playback bug and relies on a new FFMPeg build that supports AC3. This means you can now drop VOB’s & MKV and get proper audio running… If the vob is 5.1, we also do stereo mixdown.
Surf to the forum post for more details about this Beta and the download links..
DJ Ron’s VJ/DJ setup at Loggia-Sugarland
Nov/090
DJ Ron sent us this quick video where he’s presenting his VJ/DJ setup installed at Houston’s Loggia-Sugarland sports bar.
As you can see it’s all very organized; thanks to the laptop stands he only needs a small table to fit everything and be ready to mix both music and visuals in sync.
Allowing this kind of very mobile setup is exactly what we want to achieve by making GrandVJ a lightweight but powerful video mixing software that can very easily produce great visuals even on a laptop. Actually, it’s so easy that DJ Ron – which was primarily a DJ as you guessed – had no problems to add VJing to his skills without sacrificing his DJ talent..
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.
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.
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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