I’ve had a bit more time now with my (still shiny, still new) Numark AVM02 - or “Avmo” as it’s been dubbed by my bandmates - and have some more thoughts to offer, if you will hear them. If you haven’t heard the original thoughts or seen the unboxing photos you may like to check out my “First Impressions” review.

Obviously the biggest question I’m going to get is “how does it compare to the Edirol V4″, so I’ll come out straight away and disappoint those who are looking for that comparison: This article will focus mostly on the AVM02’s own strengths and weaknesses, and while some comparisons to the V4 and other video mixers may be drawn, you’ll have to make your own conclusions at this stage. I will be doing a full head to head features-and-quality shootout vodcast in the coming weeks, so I’ll save the serious V4 comparisons until then.

Unit Specs

The AVM02 combines a basic DJ mixer with what I guess could be described as a “DJ Style” video mixer, and is able to combine 4 Video channels and 4 Stereo Audio channels, mixing with independant (but linkable) Video and Audio crossfaders.

I have just received and unwrapped my shiny new Numark AVM02 mixer. Unfortunately way too late for the 3 gigs I had over the weekend, so it will be a week or so until I have a hands-on, performance review. In the meantime though, I have plenty of first impressions.

It’s shiny. It’s big (19″ rack standard). Build quality is very solid - no surprises there - and all faders, knobs and buttons feel like they’re attached to a professional mixer. The crossfaders are a little slow, needing to be pushed all the way across rather than travelling there with a flick, and the lack of ”transform” buttons rules out some fun mixing tricks which can be performed with the V4, but perhaps this will encourage me to develop better crossfader technique.

It has many inputs and outputs. Ignoring the audio stuff for now (which is so passe darlings) we have 4 S-Video and 4 Composite in (not switchable, not sure how it selects between them). 2 S-Video and 2 Composite out, and 4 composite monitor outs.

Put it next to the V4 and one thing is instantly apparent: You’re getting a lot of mixer for your money.

Was 2006 the year that manufacturers really started paying attention to visualists? Sure, the DVJ-X1 has been out for 3 years now, but prices of video mixers and custom video hardware like the DVJ mean it’s not really a tool for aspiring VJs to dip their toes into the form. So purpose-built VJ hardware has been the exclusive domain of established, touring VJs (or DJs adding video to their performance). The VJ-in-training-and-on-a-budget has traditionally been confined to either off the shelf DVD players and a cheap video switcher, or shoehorning midi control into a laptop based, software solution, and praying like hell that nothing crashes.

This situation seems to be changing with increasing speed. While in previous years there has been a trickle of midi controllers and hardware, the flow is now increasing. We now have VJ-specific gear from Pioneer and Numark joining the flow of cool new stuff which can be shoehorned into controlling your favourite VJ app.

So in the face of this impending revolution of awesomeness, here comes the first NAMM VJ announcement for CDMotion: The Numark VM03-MKII.

Hoorah! It’s just like the VM03, but with slightly bigger screens and individual image control settings for each. Kind of like the M-Connection MC-100NP but 50% more expensive!

Can we talk about new cool stuff now please?

Numark launched their NuVJ VJ product, a combination of a DJ-style MIDI controller with software from Arkaos, back at Musikmesse in April. The hardware is now nearing release, and it’s priced at only US$300.

The gear is aimed at DJs, but it may appeal to anyone who wants a hardware controller well-suited to live electronic music and VJing. With driver support for both Mac and Windows and full MIDI support, it has the compatibility apparently lacking in Behringer’s BCD-2000, as reviewed here on CDM.

Numark NuVJ

The control surface itself looks terrific: two banks of 9 trigger pads each (for a total of 18) for triggering clips, big, solid-looking DJ mixer-style faders, knobs (which appear to be endless encoders) that should be useful for effects, and most importantly, two large wheels for scratching, speed control, or other effects.

The software side is a Numark-branded version of ArKaos VJ, the tried-and-true VJ software for Mac and Windows. No word yet on if or how this might differ from the full release, but there are a number of reasons why ArKaos may be a good choice on Numark’s part. Unlike motion dive .tokyo, the software bundled with Edirol’s competing hardware/software combination, recent versions of ArKaos support graphics card GPU acceleration, which is essentially for getting higher resolutions and framerates. ArKaos isn’t the only software to do this (Livid Union is one example), but it is to me an essential feature. ArKaos has gotten a bad rap among some VJs because it’s been used for a lot of really cheezy effects over the years, but if that were the standard, I don’t think we could talk about any software. With full support for FreeFrame effects (the open source effects standard) and Core Image plug-ins, this could be a strong VJ software choice, and US$300 is a new low in cost for software/hardware bundles. Good news for Intel Mac users: this app is already Universal.

Of course, there’s nothing saying you have to use ArKaos; this is still a competitively-priced controller even if you throw away the software and just use MIDI to control something else.

You might be confused by Numark’s product site; many of the features mentioned (camera input, BPM sync, effects) are in fact features of the ArKaos software, not the hardware itself. The NuVJ hardware is just a MIDI interface; there’s no onboard video processing of any kind. But no complaints here: the price is right, and this hardware could be a fantastic controller for both music and visuals alike.

I hope to test this hardware so we can see if it lives up to its claims; stay tuned.

Updated: Here’s a closer view and a complete list of controls, a number of which you could easily reassign if you don’t want these particular functions or if you use other software: