VJ-ing on mac
Since two to three years I have been playing around with a couple of VJ-ing tools and have performed on a couple of gigs. During my first experiences with vj-ing I was struggling allot with all the different tools that are available. I am a mac user so I limited my choices to the mac software (though I have checked pc software like resolume which is real nice) and eventually I ended up with four choices for purchase:
- ArKaos
- Grid Pro (no longer available, replaced by VDMX 5)
- Modul8
- Motion Dive Tokyo
Arkaos
I started off checking out ArKaos. They had a downloadable demo with performing limitations (30 days trial if I recall correctly). Looking at the features I must say it quite a decent application, it runs stable, it had a bunch of filters and effects, you could do all the basic vj stuff. But then the interface… simply horrible. They start of by using this bright shade of blue that just dominates the global look, then you have these windows looking buttons that map you keyboard (and believe me mac users don’t like apps that look like windows apps). Next annoying thing is that they use floating windows, this is not strange on a mac, but not desired when you are using a dedicated application like VJ-ing software. So in general I must say that this application can generate stunning visuals and really gets allot of performance out of your hardware, but it handles and looks quite ’shitty’.
Grid Pro
Next stop was Grid Pro. At my internship company I met a video editor that was doing some VJ-ing on weekends. He told me that he was using VDMX 4 from vidvox. VDMX, later to be merged with Grid Pro is a modular vj application that allows the user to connect any data output to an input. When I fist saw the application I didn’t get it at all, it had allot of confusing similar looking sliders and somewhat reminded me of the MAX/MSP interface. While browsing the vidvox website, I found out that there also was a more understandable application by vidvox called Grid Pro. It had a widescreen optimized interface that was fullscreen and it delivered nice visual results within a couple of minutes. I really liked the simplicity of the interface and soon found out that the application was capable of allot of things. One of the things that really stood out was the audio and video analysis. You could select an input source and then filter within this input a certain region that you wanted to use (so in audio you could isolate the bass or a high hat). The other great thing about this application was that the demo was for an unlimited period of time, it only stopped showing fullscreen after 20 minutes, so you could keep on playing with it for quite some time. A negative aspect of this application was that it crashed allot, but at the time I was testing this software it was still in Beta so this was somewhat understandable.
Modul8
While I was searching for the most suiting VJ application a company called garageCube launched their application called modul8. As the name suggests it is a modular VJ-tool with a 2-way mixer with for each channel five layers. I was amazed by the performance of this application, it was capable of allot of live layer effects/blending and also did some 3d rendering. Though this application was quite stunning I really missed some features like the audio analysis and some effects that I couldn’t easily reproduce with this program, also the media bin was way too small and limited to a maximum number of video’s.
A big plus is that the product provides an API that allows users to write their own components, building a community and expanding the product’s capabilities.
In conclusion, a versatile VJ application with allot of potential, it is only missing out one some key features though this can be solved by getting the right plugins.
Motion Dive Tokyo
Motion Dive Tokyo is the most straightforward VJ-tool I have seen. The interface consists of a two way mixer and a media bin and some additional effects. The effects a quite limited and the performance relies on the quality of your VJ material, not the live effort. As limited as it is, it does allow anyone to get into contact with basic VJ-ing and the use of it feels like you are DJ-ing.
A major flaw of this app is the performance when using 640×480 px (photoJPEG), the sample video’s provided with this app are all 320×240 which runs just fine, but as soon as you add 640×480 material and start blending, the output just starts stuttering. Another negative aspect is the pricing. You have to pay $349,- for the software (special offer) for a piece of software that is very limited compared to its competitors and hasn’t been update for three years (they still recommend a G4…).
VDMX 5
I spent allot of time on exploring the Grid Pro application and really liked the filters and effects that came with it. At the time I was working with Grid Pro, it was still in Beta (I also believe it never became RC). I didn’t found any serious bugs until I started to create complex compositions with lots of combined effects. From that moment, when interacting with the interface at the wrong moment, the application would completely crash. I always brought two laptops and a mixer to make sure that I was able to switch when one laptop crashed. After this a few updates came, but fewer kept coming and the application kept crashing.
Then all of the sudden vidvox announced VDMX 5, with the aplha version available for download. I downloaded the alpha version, and tried to experiment a bit with it. The interface was a mess and stuff had not really been labeled yet, the positive thing was that it looked quite stable and was able to do allot of simultanious effects. Couple of months later the beta is released, it now had a nice organized interface with allot of features.
Because I purchased Grid Pro earlier I got a free serial for VDMX 5, which was quite generous of the vidvox team but also fair in a way since Grid Pro wasn’t really a finished product.
I needed some time to get the hang of it, but when understood how to builda Grid Pro like setup, I really started to love this application. I believe VDMX 5 is one of the most versatile and powerful VJ application I have ever worked with and can be used in very many ways cause of its modular interface. VDMX in contrary to other VJ software allows you to create you own interface with technically unlimited scalability options (as long as your hardware is capable of rendering it). Which when using a Mac Pro can really handle allot of mixed effects.
You are not limited to a 2-way mixer setup like in most other applications, you can add unlimited sources and use blending effects in the layering. The downloadable demo comes with a limited number of filters, but has full program capabilities to allow users to explore the possibilities.
A feature that I thought really stood out is the MIDI device setup. When using external hardware to control your components you simply hit the midi detect button in the context menu of the desired parameter and dial your knob on the MIDI controller to set it up. Also the latest version supports wii controller input.
The full version also comes with a wide variety of filters and effects that are all optimized for intel based macs and gets more of them each update of the application.
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