Regine reports from Cybersonica on a “manual input” method for controlling sound and image — no, really “manual,” as in hands — on Near Near Future. Golan Levin and Zachary Lieberman have developed a system that analyzes hand movements above an overhead projector. Projected imagery combines the direct output of the overhead (i.e., they shine the overhead at a screen) with digitally-modified projections. Their use of the technology is strikingly simple and elegant — check the photos and videos on their site. I’m looking forward to Regine’s report!

Cycling 74’sMax/MSP and Jitter offer awesome power for developing interactive multimedia, but building everything from scratch can get time-consuming fast. Part of the draw of reusable objects is the ability to incorporate time-saving pre-built tools rather than reinventing the wheel with each new project. That’s the idea behind the insanely-cool bundle of Max goodies, Electrotap’s Tap.Tools. Newly-released version 2.0 has over 150 “externals” (objects for Max) for tasks like:

Audio effects processing (reverb, pitch shift, dynamics vocoder, new delays and envelope substitution)

Audio filtering (including new filters with LFO-driven FFTs)

Signal analysis, number-crunching, and conversion

Helpers for building your own plug-ins

Jitter graphics processing, including motion tracking

Still want more? How about ADSR envelope generators, buffer processing for loop recording and playback, XML file utilities, MIDI mapping, random number generators, AppleScript loading (on Mac), and fancy, reusable interfaces for envelope generation and parameter control, among others?

Here’s more good news: Tap.Tools is cheap enough for artists, with a US$65-99 license. Pay the US$99 and you can even build your own collectives, standalones, and plug-ins, and distribute your creations to whomever you want. (Definitely worth the extra $34!) You even have access to Source Code. Since my C++ skills are nonexistent, I’m planning to print it out and use it in my decorating, but programmers will be glad. As for the non-programmers, we’ll be building new plug-ins with motion tracking! (Check out Electrotap’s other stuff, too, from sensor hardware to its performance-oriented Jade software.)

Keeping up with acquisitions these days is darn near impossible. We wake up this morning, and Adobe has acquired Macromedia.
A few humble suggestions from the digital music / interactivity / VJ
side of things (and, no, one of them is NOT "bring back SoundEdit" –
you'd be amazed how many times I hear that, weirdly):

• Kill Director, PLEASE. What we need is Flash that's more
  interactive, not two programs with slightly overlapping capabilities.
  In fact, what we really need is for you to
• Add MIDI to Flash. Why this wasn't added natively to Director or Flash eons ago is beyond me. It's time. Can it really be that hard, Adocrodobia?
• Add OSC to Flash. If anyone could back the OpenSoundControl initiative, it's Madocromedibe; flosc is a decent start. (OSC is a networked-based successor to MIDI and oh so much more.)
• Beef up Flash Video. Flash could be the ultimate
  interactive - programmable - live audio - live video system, with some
  development resources. Imagine a Flash - After Effects love child.
  Okay, probably not going to happen.

So, come on, Acrododia. You have competitors for every product
except Flash and Director (right?), so that's where we'll be expecting
the action. Don't let us down.

Don't believe Flash could be relevant to music? Check out the insane beat/looping Web app Beaterator.

Sure, Edirol's fascinating new CG-8 video synthesizer,
due in July, costs a whopping US$5295 — enough to make most of you
(and us) to lose interest until we find a higher paying job (see our story and follow-up and more follow-up with sticker shock).

That doesn't mean that:

1. this gear isn't really cool to dream about, and, more importantly that
2. being sad about the price should keep us from having fun watching engineers dance.

"What you say?" says you? Why, it's Edirol's promised video footage
of the CG-8 launch party at Frankfurt's Cocoon Club. Aside from visuals
that are just tantalizing enough to intrigue while not nearly clear
enough to have any idea what the CG-8 actually does, one of the VJs is CG-8 lead engineer Kazuki Yoshimura. If the few seconds of him doing some strange punching dance
and "I've got soul!" air waving gets you as excited as it does me,
you'll be first in line to sign up for the free DVD Edirol is
promising. (I think SOME of the hand waving involves the infrared
sensors . . . I think.)

Wave your hands in front of the DVD and pretend you can buy this. Don't mind me, I'm writing some grant applications.

Sure, at MIT building interactive LED-powered disco dance floors is a good way to decorate your dorm and procrastinate. But, Chris O'Shea of pixelsumo
reminds me, for the designers at Lightspace, it's serious business.
Clearly, the MIT students' DIY project was directly inspired by the
Lightspace team that's . . . wait a minute . . . headquartered in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. Guess there's just something about Cambridge
that makes people want to build elaborate digital disco dance floors.
(See Chris' post on Lightspace)

Lightspace's interactive floors respond in subtle and ingenious ways,
which is why small children are so fond of them. (And, as we've learned
in the past on CDM, small children love heating up dance clubs.)

Off-topic, but this is just too cool to pass up — and there's a CDM tie-in, too. Regular reader Cris 'Atariboy,'
the musician/graphic designer who did the UI for music software
like Rax, Zebra, and Bidule, has been busy. Via plasq, the folks who brought us the Musolomo live sampler instrument, comes Comic Life, a new application for converting your iPhoto library or other image files into beautiful comic books. So, when will see the first CDM photo comics?
(read more)

While we're looking at cool interfaces and video hardware this week, we can't miss Pioneer's DVJ-X1
digital video turntable. The DVJ-X1 has been out for about a year, but
in case you missed it, this amazing virtual turntable spins
high-quality video and audio simultaneously. DJ Eldorado got his hands
on it at the Winter Music Conference — and watched the pros show it off. Click read more for the whole story. -PK

(see CDM's full WMC coverage for more on this electronic music & technology fiesta)

Edirol reports the CG-8 video synth
will be available in July and will cost (you may want to sit down)
US$5295. So, yes, those of you who aren't living off an enormous trust
fund or VJing in your spare time while you pull in six figures at your
day job might want to go the software route. On the other hand, I
expect VJ hardware prices will come down over time, and great gear like
Edirol's V4 mixer are under a grand.

Rob Read from Edirol tells CDM that, while the announcement of the new CG-8 video synth
is hours old, we can expect some video samples on the site soon. Better
news: Edirol hopes to show off this gear in person in New York,
possibly as soon as this summer. New Yawkas, I'll see you at Eyewash. As for Korg, we'll just have to wait.

Don't confuse these devices with the Viditar and Tactic, video fader boxes (one mounted in a guitar) with LCD and fancy carved-wood cases from Livid. (as mentioned on Ektopia)
Other than the LCD screens, the Livid gear is basically just a
controller (albeit a slick one); you need a computer and OS X software.
Neither piece is new. Both are custom-built and you must contact Livid
for sales info; when last we saw the Tactic was somewhere in the
US$2500 range.

And, of course, that's the other alternative here: if you can't afford
the expensive gear, get some basic VJ software and a cheap controller
like M-Audio's Trigger Finger.
I'm going the software route with my performances (got to do something
with that PC), so I'll have some reviews and how-tos soon.

While Edirol takes the synthesis approach with its new video box (at least from a marketing standpoint), VJ gear rival Korg is going the sampler route.

As reported here earlier,
the Kaptivator is a video sampler with a 4×4 Akai-style drum pad grid.
Now that we're not reading in Japanese, we've got some more details:

• It's a sampler for video: Here's the stunningly-cool bit:
  sample up to 800 clips, up to 10 minutes in length (though shorter will
  be more interesting) and play them back on the sixteen pads.
• It's a 2-channel mixer: Mix clips or (as expected) external video input and even DV camera connections.
• Watch the action on dual LCDs
• Create "style" routings and automation: Effects are
  bundled into routings called "styles," with 15 presets and 100 user
  settings, for everything from coloring to beat-synchronization. And of
  course, you can record and reproduce movements.
• Make it musical: Use MIDI, audio triggers, tap tempo, and even auto-detection of BPM for rhythm-synced effects.

All in a 5-lb. box with a 40 GB hard disk. What we don't know: price or
availability. A representative for Korg USA tells CDM simply that
products at Messe aren't yet announced in the US market, and even the
European models appear to be unreleased. Stay tuned; let me know if you
hear anything!

How does this differ from the Edirol CG-8? Some of those details will
become clear, but the emphasis of the Korg appears to be on longer
video clips (the CG-8 appears to be focused on short clips and stills),
and higher specs like the included LCD displays. We should know more
once we see these in person within the next few months.