Part of what makes Resolume Avenue so compelling as a live visual solution is that it can mix, mash, and loop audio alongside video, in ways often resembling Ableton Live. But that, of course, doesn’t make Resolume nearly as deep a live sonic tool as Ableton. So, to combine two great tastes – live video in Resolume Avenue, plus live audio and elaborate sequencing control in Ableton Live – the folks at Resolume have assembled a recipe that allows Resolume to be controlled via Live using MIDI.

The basic process:

1. Route MIDI from Resolume to Ableton, using the IAC Driver on Mac and MIDI-Yoke on Windows.

2. Make a MIDI sequence in Ableton that controls clips in Resolume.

3. Add some audio clips and scenes in Live for some live audio goodness.

4. Link parameters and sync for effects and icing.

Controlling Resolume Avenue with Ableton Live

This does nothing to stop a fantasy I’ve heard other folks discussing of late: imagine if we had an OSC (OpenSoundControl) sequencer? OSC is by nature time-based as a protocol, and you could even still sequence MIDI events (using MIDI over OSC) – or arbitrary events that wouldn’t be restricted by overly rigid event types like the MIDI Note? Does anyone know if such a thing has been tried? (Maybe it’s time to write one.)

Live Plus…?

That’s not to take away from the beauties of Ableton Live in this sort of setup. Combining Live and visuals, whether to add audio or sequence visuals or both, has been an ongoing theme on this site.

Live + Resolume (like the above tutorial, but + Ethernet) Tutorial: Ableton Live + Resolume with MIDI Over Ethernet, Free on PC (Linux, Mac Soon)

Live + Isadora + Max + The Karate Kid: Karate Kid AV Remix – and a how-to using the awesome Lucifer plug-in (which could also be nice with Resolume): AV Cutup Secrets: Using Lucifer & Live

Live + Isadora: Ableton Live + Isadora: Slicing, Syncing Audiovisual Tutorials

Live + VDMX: Toby *spark and Live Cinema: Ableton and VDMX, Soundtrack and Narrative

Live + robotic mirrors on projectors: DMX For Dummies: Controlling iCue Robotic Mirrors with uDMX and Ableton Live

Live + Jitter: Christopher Willits on XLR8R with Live Jitter, Ableton Live Visual Setup

Live + robotic cameras: Interview: Josh Cardenas’ Robotic, Midi Controlled Cameras and tour with DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist

And one instance of Live failing to be the tool for the job, only to be replaced by Max: Progress Report: 8 Cameras Plus Vixid Plus Patching Gives Craziness (Pd would work, too, which would be nice for a Linux netbook)

Now that Bart has gotten the ball rolling for Resolume, though, I suspect we’ll see a lot more ideas for combining Resolume Avenue with Ableton Live, or using Avenue as an audiovisual tool in itself; it just makes sense. If you work up your own setup or add your own twist after following this tutorial, let us know!

Putting complex political issues into the form of art sometimes falls on its face. But art’s unique power to personalize and make big issues specific can be a powerful asset. We were already big fans of the animation work of Beeple, but the latest, hand-animated digital creation is especially poetic. It’s an essay on consumption, and it doesn’t focus – as the news has – on the crisis itself. Instead, in watching the idea of shelter blown to absurd proportions, in simple graphics reminiscent of The Sims, it gets at a notion of consumer excess that goes well beyond just the immediate, topical news. It’s an urgent cry for simplicity.

subprime from beeple on Vimeo.

There’s also a fantastic score, and the composer actually calls our attention this. (Not surprisingly, it has spread virally online, but I had somehow missed it – and it’s definitely a don’t-miss.) Kyle Vande Slunt writes:

It’s called Subprime and is an animated musing on our current financial crisis. The tag line is: "Watch the American housing market spiral out of control".

The visuals were done using Cinema 4d and the sound design / music were done using Ableton Live 8.

Thanks to Kyle and Beeple. Inspiring stuff, indeed.

You know the ideal audiovisualist setup: two PCs, one running sound, one running visuals. But connecting those two machines can be less than ideal. Enter EthernetMidi, a completely free implementation of MIDI over Ethernet. It’s Windows-only for now – the Mac has its own free MIDI-over-IP implementation built into the OS. But there’s reason to root for EthernetMidi even if you’re not a Windows user primarily: the project is open source, and work on a Mac and Linux version means this could be the first tool to allow MIDI-over Ethernet between different platforms. (Pay no attention to the “LinuxSampler” name – they need a new moniker.)

Showing off how powerful this can be, pure_angles has put together a detailed tutorial for combining to favorite tools, Ableton Live and Resolume.

Musician Christopher Willits has an ongoing series for XLR8R Magazine in which he talks his own technical workflow. In the latest episode, he adds live visuals to his Ableton Live set using Max/MSP/Jitter. What’s nice about this is you see how some clever mapping can make visuals integrate neatly with music.

I’m somewhat insane, so my own setup often involves simultaneously running visuals separately with no communication with my music software. That allows me to set up less-direct relationships between visuals and sound.

But, while the techniques could be combined to a variety of setups, this also serves as a nice introduction to how you might use patching in Jitter alongside your music software.

Curious to know what you think of the presentation and content here, as I hope we’ll do more videos like this ourselves.

What You Talkin’ Bout, Willits? Part 10 [XLR8R]

I’ll give you a second to let that headline sink in.

Max for Live, announced at the NAMM music trade show, adds Max/MSP/Jitter to Ableton Live, including – in a move that really caught me by surprise – Jitter. In addition to the usual Max objects, Max for Live adds objects that allow Max to control and listen to Clips, Devices, tracks, and more, and that integrate it with the interface.

This means two really big things:

1. OpenSoundControl input and output will now be possible with Ableton. Still want to use vdmx or a separate machine running Processing or (whatever app you like) for visuals? Now you can build Max patches that transmit data to the visual app, either listening to the Live set or giving you new visual controls inside Live.

2. You’ll be able to create Jitter windows inside Ableton Live, so you can run video and live 3D inside Live.

This is really huge news, of course – but it’s also worth noting how huge the impact of better OSC implementation in other tools would be, as well. And if you don’t like doing your visuals in Jitter, you don’t have to. One of the things I always liked about Max was using it as “glue,” for doing smaller projects rather than expansive software.  What the Ableton announcement means is, basically, Max has become your glue and your API to Live. And that’s a wonderful thing.

A couple of people are also thinking about Processing integration. Processing in Max in Live – yum.

People have been asking for VJ-style features in Live. In a way, this is better: rather than some boring, prescribed way of doing visuals in Live, you can do whatever you want. Visualists could even write patches for their Max+Live-using friends that they can insert as Devices into their Live sets, with friendly Ableton-style knobs that they can use to adjust the data they’re sending to another machine doing visuals.

It’s going to be a long wait to later in this year when this all comes together.

Cycling ‘74 Reveals Max For Live: Make Max Patches that Integrate with Ableton

The Ableton integration is really the stuff we don’t know as much about – especially now with the revelation that the Max side is really the Max 5 and Jitter we know and love — so stay tuned to the CDMs for more on that.