What if you took an iPod, a drum pad / controller, and a
high-end VJ mixer, and put them together? You'd get something like the
new Korg Kaptivator. Here's what it does:

• 40 GB hard drive for storing video clips
• Two LCDs for watching what you're doing
• Manipulate clips with an Akai sampler-style touchpad, cross-fader, ribbon controller
• Built-in video effects
• Live video and audio input
• Video, audio, DV/FireWire, MIDI ins and outs, including separate preview video outputs

Details and pictures are on the Japanese-only site Pixdisc;
apparently this was shown at a dealer conference in Japan, so all
availability/specs/price are unknown. Stay tuned, because you can bet I
want to know when this thing comes out in the States! (via vjcentral)

Do any of our readers read Japanese? Contact me (or comment here) if so.

Updated: As a reader points out in comments, there's a lively discussion on vjcentral. (Flip straight to page two
for a fantastic lineup of Akai/Boss-style 4×4 drum pad triggers and . .
. ooh, sorry, my heart stopped beating. Ah, the MPC1000 . . .)

FreeFrame
is an open-source, free, standard plugin format for video and VJs, an
open means of developing your own real-time video effects. It's
supported in a wide range of VJ and interactive video applications, and
even in big-league applications like Director and After Effects via a
wrapper. Even if you're not a programmer, check the participants and downloads page for a wide range of effects.

The SDK was released on Friday.

Once commercial software, a powerful audio/video editor is
now still supported, but at a new price of — nada. Our friends at Samplepoolz report that Arboretum has turned HyperEngine-AV into a free download. Better yet, the code is open source, so we could see some exciting developments with this program. (Programmers out there?)

HyperEngine-AV is a compositing application for text, video and audio.
As opposed to more rigid track-based programs, you can composite clips
wherever you want via a freeform interface. If you're in need of a
video editor and your budget is tight, this is a must-have, but there
are some good reasons to get it for audio, too. You can record or
import both video and audio, making HyperEngine an effective
multichannel audio editor. You have to pay for most of the audio effect
plugins, but a number of useful plugins from ring mod to hall reverb
are included free.

There are features missing — no standard VST/AU plugin support, for instance
– but this could be useful to many people, and it's really nice to see
software being released free with full tech support and an open-source codebase rather than being killed.
(Cough, Opcode/Gibson, cough!)

Download for Mac OS X. (11 MB)
OS X's built-in ZIP support doesn't work for me — try StuffIt Expander, which works fine. -PK

At long last, one of the most beloved and unusual Mac sound
creation applications has made it to OS X, with vastly expanded
features. The brainchild of Bryce creator Eric Wenger, the first
version of U&I Software's MetaSynth was popular with the likes of
Aphex Twin for its far-out, one-of-a-kind sound production and the
ability to generate audio by painting or importing pictures. This
builds on that tradition:

• Completely new Image Synth architecture for creating sounds from images with new signal sources and plenty of other changes
• Image Filter 'room' that takes all the features of Image Synth and applies it to filters
• An entirely new synth built on spectral granular synthesis, unlike, well, anything you Earth creatures have yet used
• Envelope-controlled DSP effects (wild granular effects were one of the most underrated features of MetaSynth 2)

Existing users will be glad to know there's finally real-time editing,
full-fidelity preview, up to 24-bit performance, and save-to-disk
capabilities, correcting annoyances in the previous version. And while
the software appears to have a steeper price, built-in MIDI and audio
multitracking mean you don't have to buy a separate app like Xx (though
those are due for an update, too, say U&I).

See the MetaSynth product page, or check out full details on what's new. More when I get some time with it; there's a demo available.

Cost: US$499 (16-bit); $599 Pro (24-bit, audio recording
Compatibility: OS 9/X; Pro is OS X-only
Availability: Now