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Visual Control Done Right: Ohm64 Automaps to GrandVJ

by Peter Kirn

Arkaos Grand VJ Ohm64 Template from Livid Instruments on Vimeo.

What’s your favorite controller of choice for live visuals?

Jay Smith from Livid points us to this lovely use of their Ohm64 controller, right out of the box with ArKaos’ GrandVJ audiovisual software for Mac and Windows. It’d be great to see some of this eventually working with OSC, given that GrandVJ (and other tools) now have an excellent OSC mapping many people are exploiting with devices like the iPhone. But MIDI works well enough here, and the integration is thoughtfully set up.

The Ohm64 is actually bundled with Cell DNA, but I think it’s even better to have choice. In this case, the folks at ArKaos have set up the Ohm64 so it can automatically, intelligently map to controls.

Ohm 64

Grand VJ

Speaking of live visual control, Johnny de Kam has, as usual, put together a killer rig. Think think Vidvox’s VDMX meets the Ohm meets heads-up preview displays, as seen on Flickr. Johnny, hopefully you can get us some other details.

My own last set I decided to do with just an iPod touch and TouchOSC, for some minimalist control, but I do miss having tangible input – there’s something about that tactile feeling of actual, physical control. So, next time I’ll push the airplane luggage weight limit a little harder. (Hey, it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere.)

What’s your controller of choice?

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14
  • gilhoo

    Korg NanoKontrol + TouchOSC for x/y surface interaction

  • TweakingKnobs

    Custom made osc controller built with arduino ,  sends data back and forwards from  laptop to vdmx and ipad ,

     

     

    Nah , just kidding…

     

    XD

  • http://www.vimeo.com/laserpilot Blair Neal

    I use two trigger fingers, a nanopad, nanokontrol, a usb numeric keypad and in the future i'll be incorporating a wacom tablet and hopefully some kind of touch screen/ipad/ipod thing and a peregrine gaming glove in the future…i'll probably simplify later, but I like the ability to experiment for now…anything to keep me off the laptop! It's nice to figure out what sort of 'feels' right for a certain kind of effect or visual control instead of getting locked into a button or a knob..the gesture has to feel natural to it's output if it's going to feel like an instrument.

    A few things keep me away from more commercial VJ applications and their use of MIDI or OSC mapping, although I could also blame the hardware manufacturers. I like being able to use Jitter for the fact that I can segment my controls, use almost any input data format, and do whatever kind of math I want on the inputs (splitting it into ranges, toggles based on velocity, etc). Yes many apps have pretty good flexibility, but sometimes they miss a few key things in exchange for ease.

    Here's to the future where all input devices use a unified hi-res data format (osc?) so that I could easily use a trigger finger, wacom, peregrine gaming glove and whatever else and put it all into whatever program does the job…

  • massta

    Bottom 8 buttons do not light up? (8 buttons relating to the 4 clips on either side of A-B fader)

  • Mudo

    …

    Vestax VCM-100 (but planned ar+pd=vj arduino shield diy mixer) or mixman dm2 (in windows).

    Arduinome rgb (but I will use it in monochrome mode forced but NO patches ready and nobody who wants to patch/share) or 2 Icon iStage (200 € booth).

    Stribe controller or Icon iCreativ (again 100 € each one) for fx and mixer channels

    Custom DIY hid footcontroller with arcade buttonpads for looping (50% finish).

    Ms. Pinky vinyl maxipatch AV with turntable for scrubb/scratch (waiting for Jitter Video implementation and/or OSC to VDMX or Resolume from Live directly). Workshop planned.

    Maybe hack my macbook into modbook with http://www.magictouch.net/ resistive sensor or wacom… but I need to finish first some of priority stuff.

     

    That's all (and I'm not kidding)
    ;)

    …

  • Mudo

    …

    Sorry! the right link:
    http://www.magictouch.com/
    Somebody could erase the previous?

     

    …

  • Subtiv

    I use my Wacom & Trackpad for live-drawing,

    (maybe Bamboo Touch for the future?).

    For midi-controll it's an Evolution UC 33. And a Wii-controller as well.

    I used to do OSC on  iPhone, ofcourse this

    was before i broke it :) . 

  • mark

    novation remote zero sl.  if someone could just get automap working with vdmx i'd never leave the house.

  • Tom Sweeney

    I tried out the demo version of GrandVJ: nice machine, shame about the lack of recording/rendering…….unless I missed something, and I'm hoping I did

  • http://www.malaventura.net Malaventura

    Take a look of this….

    http://vimeo.com/10938718

    Using Novation Launchpad + Ableton live + Quartz Composer in a live performance.

  • http://www.cstng-shdws.xom CSTNG-SHDWS

    We just ordered a couple of the some customized ohm64s. Can't wait to map these babies to VDMX.

  • Pingback: Create Digital Music » Round-up: What Can You Do with Livid’s Custom-Friendly Controllers?

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  • Lucien

    my fave rig is 2 live camera feeds (one static spycam and one handicam i use to zoom on stage or dancefoor or monitor for feedback and thrashing the in-cam digital effects,) panasonic WJ-MX50 analogue mixer, ps2 running Ministry of Sounds VJ software, dvd player, VHS player.

    if its an important gig, also 16mm projector with a looped film and slide projectors.

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