It’s no secret: the once wildly-popular ArKaos VJ software has been looking a bit long in the tooth lately. And upgrades only get you so far: sometimes, as software matures in its life cycle, you have to redo the foundations. That’s what ArKaos has been working on, and the results, renamed GrandVJ, are due out soon (quarter 2). The new version emphasizes a re-worked, cleaner interface, multi-threaded graphics, and lots of effects and generators.

ArKaos GrandVJ Announcement

It’s up against some stiff competition. There’s the ground-up rewrite VDMX5, with some powerful semi-modular capabilities, the beefed-up Livid Union 2.5, Modul8, Resolume, and new generative app 3L. (See why 2008 will be a big year for VJ software.) That said, of these, only Union is cross-platform.

One differentiating feature in GrandVJ, as partly inherited from ArKaos VJ before it, is its “synthesis mode.” This maps sources onto a virtual music keyboard; combined with effects and generators that could retain ArKaos’ place as an easy, instrument-like visual tool.

The generative idea is nice, as well, but even with Flash support, I wonder how ArKaos will hold up to other generative competition. 3L has powerful tools for building 3D graphics in the software, Processing is gaining support among coders, Quartz Composer has native support in software like VDMX for custom patches, and Salvation has its own generative tricks, to say nothing of Jitter, Flash/Flex, and vvvv. On the other hand, ease of use can make a big difference in the market, and ArKaos’ interface is uncommonly clean. And then there are the ArKaos loyalists, who could find a compelling, friendly upgrade. (If you buy ArKaos now or bought it after March 1, the upgrade is free.)

We’ll have more details when this ships.

We’ve got some additional details on the Edirol V-8 mixer. Pricing will be set at US$1995 list. For comparison, the V-4 lists for US$1029, but has a street price pretty close to that — perhaps due to the unit’s popularity rather than any minimum advertised pricing restrictions.

The V-8 is shipping within a month. I’ll make sure CDMotion is high on the list as far as evaluation units. While I hear the criticisms — and some of you have moved beyond hardware mixing or now rely on high definition signal — there’s very little that can outclass the V-8 for what it is in the same price range. If it delivers, it could easily remove the justification for buying a V-4, even at half the price. Watch for our hands-on report.

Edirol V-8 Mixer [Worldwide product page]

Edirol V-8 Preview on CDMotion (with a little pro-HD trolling, to boot!)

The Edirol V-8 mixer is the big story as far as new VJ gear at Messe, but the P-10 “Visual Presenter” is an interesting piece, too. It’s a video sampler, basically, as was the now-discontinued Korg Kaptivator. The P-10 has a number of advantages over the Kaptivator that could make it a big hit for sampling. First, it’s more compact: you get 12 pads and a tidy control layout in a small space that you could easily pack with a laptop. Second, while Roland hasn’t announced official pricing, we expect it to cost less than the Korg. But most importantly, the P-10 uses a standard video format (MJPEG, or JPEG stills) stored on removable SD media. That means you could shoot video and stills on a portable camera that supports MJPEG and JPEG and drop the card straight into the P-10 — hot stuff.

Basic features:

• MJPEG video, JPEG stills
• Built-in display
• Capture audio and video live via onboard inputs
• 12 triggers, effects dials

Edirol P-10 Product Page [ Worldwide Site]

There’s also V-LINK support and a slide-show function. But for me, sampling + removable MJPEG is the real story. The image we’ve got is a prototype and is expected to change by production time. Price and ship date TBD; stay tuned.

While we wait, I may have to whip up a little applet that automatically loads and catalogs stuff I shoot on my Canon digicam, along the same lines… I can see getting through some paid gigs this way.

The Edirol V-4 has been the standard mixer for years, leaving people desperately wanting a sequel. Korg tried with the KrossFour, but what they came up with was mainly a V-4 wannabe — a welcome DJ-style crossfader couldn’t make up for the lack of differentiating features, and the V-4’s elegant layout. And Edirol’s own HD-resolution V-440HD wasn’t priced for mortals.

The Edirol V-8 promises to change all of that.

First, Edirol has wisely copied the satisfying control layout of the V-4. Hate on the V-4 if you like, but I think we take for granted how cleanly-designed and intuitive that layout is. The V-4 isn’t a perfect mixer by any means, but by encouraging mixing flow, and creating an affordable mixer that worked well for a broad audience, they did create a major hit.

What’s great is that the V-8 adds what the V-4 lacked:

• Computer inputs: two “RGB” inputs with standard D-Sub 15-pin inputs (what most people call VGA jacks, even if that’s not strictly correct); a switcher for selection
• More inputs all around: 7 composite ins, 4 S-Video jacks, for a total of 8 simultaneous input channels (i.e., you can use up to 4x composite and 4x S-Video simultaneously)  … oh, yeah, and BNC jacks
• More outputs: 3 output channels, and monitors for inputs 1-7, channel B (monitoring either S-Video or RGB computer in), and the main preview output jack
• Independent, DJ-style vertical faders instead of those inconvenient V-4 knobs, plus better preset buttons — and an output fader, not a knob (finally!)
• Internal scan converter and time base correction

This is no VJ mixer. The Edirol CG-8 is a high-res 3D motion graphic synthesizer, taking synthesis concepts from audio and applying them to video.

• Integrate with music: You can use audio to trigger video
  live, with VLINK/MIDI connections for further music integration,
  especially tight integration with Roland and Edirol gear.
• Sample motion: Grab video for instant recording/resampling.
• XY and drum pad triggers plus dual infra-red D-beam for control and triggering
• Work from still images with photo and stamp effects and real-time overlaying of titles and graphics
• Modulation: Borrowing from the concept of modulation in synthesis, you can modify images in real-time, apparently even beat-synced
• 640×480 VGA resolution

Strange, but interesting. This is clearly geared automatically
integrating with music — VJ gear is increasingly shifting towards the
music market. No price/availability yet. Stay tuned.

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.