Via Nat Lecude, here’s what the Fingertapps application platform looks like on Dell’s obscenely-affordable Studio One 19 desktop. (Try a whole computer with a multi-touch screen for US$849 and up.)

There are a few concerns here:

• I’m not quite sure why there appears to be so much latency in the demo. That could have any number of sources - latency is a complex issue - or could simply be intentional interpolation on the part of the software.
• I’d love to be able to take off the Dell’s stand and use this at a more humane 30-45-degree viewing angle — which, if you think about it, is what we should be doing anyway, for the sake of our backs and necks!
• Of course, open source frameworks are preferred.

All of that said, though, there are some really compelling ideas here. And imagine having physical hardware controllers combined with touch manipulation in your visual rig. Okay, at least, I’m drooling here. Heck, if you need more horsepower than the Studio One, you could connect it to a rack with more muscle. (The Studio One itself ain’t bad, with up to a quad-core CPU and standard 7200 rpm drives even on the cheaper multi-touch models. Now, if you only weren’t limited to just the 9400M for graphics, it’d almost be a must-buy.)

You can bet we’ll be watching this evolution. Anyone who doubts it, multitouch is coming fast, after a long wait.

Another video for you of Fingertapps:

What happens when digital cinematography meets a favorite desktop video editing app for mortals? When our friend Nathanaël Lécaudé, also a talented multitouch developer, said he had encountered some work with RED, I was really curious to know first-hand what the experience was like. Sony Vegas is a curious creature - it’s the name you hear least when talking about desktop video editing, until you talk to users, at which point this Windows-only tool gets near-cult status. It’s especially big among visualists because its original developers built it from a musical perspective. Throw in the RED camera’s digital cinematography, though, and something interesting happens. -PK

While I’m not rich enough (yet ;)) to own a RED camera, I’ve been pretty curious to see what the editing workflow is like with different apps.

When Sony Vegas 9 came out, the first feature that got my attention was RED support. I have always loved Vegas for its simplicity and excellent workflow, so I wanted to learn if it would still be beautiful with the huge RED files. I downloaded a couple of R3D files from http://www.redrelay.net. Here are a few observations:

• You can open Vegas and just drag the r3d files, they will scale to the project resolution you are in. No need to convert the files or use proxies.
• If you want full 4k support, you need to change your project settings for 4k (there’s already a preset for that).
• I was able to achieve 12fps playback on my Core 2 Quad CPU, which seems pretty good. [Ed.: For the file size, I'd say that's really terrific - and Nat's PC wasn't an expensive machine, either.]
• You can set your project resolution lower (to 720p) and realtime playback will bump to full framerate (24fps).
• Audio will be imported as 4 separate tracks (this is great as Vegas’ audio tools are very good).
• At 4k, you can do a lot of cropping before losing quality, which is very nice.

What was really impressive for me was the ability to change the RED raw settings directly from Vegas. Among other things, you can set white balance, exposure, custom curves, color space, all within Vegas. You can see the result in realtime. I do a lot of RAW photo editing
with tools like Adobe Lightroom, and being able to do the same with video files is magical.

I tried the same thing in Premiere Pro CS4 but wasn’t able to get the files on the timeline (Premiere would say the files were not of a recognized format). Now, I’m not a Premiere expert, so it might be my fault. [Ed. Still, the ability to get Vegas' speed and workflow here to me is a huge boost - and the fact that Vegas, even with RED, still can run happily on modest machines. -PK]

There’s a very good article about all of this here :
Going one better: RED editing and what Vegas 9 has under the hood [Broadcast Newsroom]

Ed.: I hope Nat forgives me for doing this, but I have to post this shot of him with the RED camera. This thing is just huge. It looks, at least, like a friendly robot. The idea that anyone would go out and buy a car when they could have one of these instead just baffles me. -PK

Apple giveth and Apple taketh – again.

FireWire, back on the whole line. First, off, the good news coming out of Apple’s hardware refresh today: FireWire is again on the 13” MacBook, which is now confusingly called the MacBook Pro. It’s a FW800 port, too, which can be nice for fast storage. That means you can get a US$1199 machine with FireWire, a new SD card slot, and a decent if not dazzling NVIDIA 9400M. It seems that Apple heard the loud chorus of people frustrated with the lack of FireWire. My Canon HV20 HDV camera thanks you, Apple.

Good GPUs, still premium. Here’s the bad news: while there’s now a US$1699 MacBook Pro 15”, you still don’t get a really good GPU – the NVIDIA 9600M GT – until you jump up to the US$1999 price point. Given that you can get a pretty nice PC for half that, that means there’s a significant additional investment to go Mac for GPU-dependent visualists.

ExpressCard – 17” only. Adding an SD card slot is nice, though not such a big deal given you can add one via a USB device for about ten bucks. The bad news is that ExpressCard is now available only on the 17” MacBook Pro. Its price is down to US$2499, but that’s little comfort to people who like smaller machines – and could be a good reason to hunt down a used or refurbished 15” model. ExpressCard offers some very nice video capture opportunities. Again, this is standard equipment on cheap PC laptops.

Few ports. You also still need to get a 17” MacBook Pro to get three USB ports; everything else has just two (except for the Air, which has one).

About that battery… Those unibody Macs are gorgeous, but what’s the price? Apple now has a terrific battery that recharges “1000 times” and lasts for 7 hours. The catch here: it’s not user-replceable. I’m not sure where the 1000 number comes from, but that sounds like trouble to me. On the other hand, if it does die, I expect you’ll just cough up the service fee to have someone replace it for you.

Bottom line: pretty as these machines are, the previous models with user-replaceable batteries and ExpressCard slots remain solid workhorses, even back a couple of generations. If you love working with Mac OS, you still get an amazing experience out of your computer. And yes, these machines are damned pretty. You just don’t get a big leap forward with this generation versus the last-generation Macs, and functionality-wise, not that much more than the generation before that.

I happen to like really ugly computers, so I’m going to move on. And yes, choice is good. If you buy a Mac because you think you have to, you’re doing it for the wrong reason. Have a look at the competition, and you’ll be happier with any decision.

MacBook Pro [Apple]

In other Apple news, the iPhone 3GS does look really lovely as a photo and video camera – something devices from makers like Nokia have tried before, but at astronomical prices. So, to my beloved Google Android platform, I have to say – uh, can you get on the ball in the handset department? Please?

If anyone gets a 3GS, I’m sure readers would love to see what kind of photo/video output you get.

As inspired by mememamo’s Visual Space Music, I bought some Ikea Saxan curtains last year for DIY rear-projection experiments.

Initially these were used for a series of pixel-cloud shaped screens at the Game On opening night.

The Saxan curtains (US$4) were great for this kind of shaped, temporary screen. The white PEVA material is bright and contrasty when rear projected through glass, and we used a black PVC “Joining and Sealing Tape” to create our screen shape, projecting the cloud on the curtain and then applying the tape directly to make the outline.

We’d initially planned to use gaffer tape, but quickly changed out minds as the first test piece stuck unevenly, and tore the curtain when we tried to move it. The PVC tape we found felt like thin, wide insulation tape, and was somewhat repositionable, while still sticking firmly and providing some structure to the thin curtain. After our shape was outlined, it was a quick and simple process to cut out the desired shape with craft knives.

Ohm64 Backlight Control from Livid Instruments on Vimeo.

It’s been a long time since I touched Livid’s VJ software. But when it comes to hardware, they’ve been doing unbelievable work that could have Resolume and VDMX and Processing and vvvv and Max users turning their heads.

The Ohm64 looks simply fantastic. It’s got an ideal configuration for a lot of live visual applications, with 8×8 triggers and plenty of faders and knobs to go along with them. It’s also finally a controller that’s well-made but doesn’t cost a fortune – you get a well-crafted device made by the people who designed it in Texas, but at $599, it’s still affordable.

Visualists are doing all kinds of new things to expand their performance, so I believe having a truly open controller is essential. The Ohm64 delivers, with a chip and editor software that have extensive open support. That means that, as with the brilliant monome controller, you should see a community that experiments with creative ideas for how to use it. (Nor do I think this is necessarily monome competition – the monome is still beautiful for its minimalism, whereas this should appeal to people who ignored the monome because they needed knobs and faders for additional parameter control.)

For visual software increasingly using OSC, a future firmware update should provide native OSC support (and possibly even DMX in the near future). For everything else, there’s MIDI support now. And unlike the Akai APC40, that means real MIDI support, with actual MIDI in and out ports and endlessly customizable controller assignments and LED feedback, instead of the Akai’s single USB port and permanently-fixed layout. And this is fully bus-powered, so you’re not screwed if you forget your power brick.

I did a full preview for CDMusic. But next week I should get to try one in person, which is the real test.

Livid Ohm64

http://www.lividindustry.com/culture/ blog with more videos