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Photo: Vello Virkhaus with Red Hot Chili Peppers in London (thanks, Vello!)

Live visuals for keyboardists? Absolutely: if you’ve got MIDI chops, slick new tools can help you tickle projected imagery while you tickle the ivories. There’s just too much to say about VJing to fit into one story, so when I wrote up an introduction to live visuals for Keyboard Magazine’s Laptops Live special, I ran out of space fast. Here’s a quick roundup of some of the gear and tools you’ll need to pump out live visuals at your next gig.

CDM Sister Site: Incidentally, thanks to all of you who sent in thoughtful feedback about where VJ content belongs here at CDM, or on its own site. After careful consideration, I have decided to launch a new visual performance site towards the end of the year. But don’t worry: those of you who want to occasionally read VJ content will be able to follow the new site here on CDM, and thanks to a bunch of volunteer writers, I expect both sites to grow, not languish. More on that in December . . . now on with our VJ roundup.

Jackie Passmore is a talented VJ touring with Ladytron (and, in spring 2006, Stereolab). There are some talented genes in this family: her brother was the lead programmer of Acid. (Sorry, not the other Acid I was thinking of.) Thanks to sponsorship from Korg, she accompanies her Apple laptop with a Korg video mixer and microKONTROL keyboard. The heart of the setup is the superb Vidvox GRID2 software; Vidvox has a great interview with Jackie. (Watch for our own profile here soon.)

Vidvox Featured Artists: Jackie Passmore

Below: Jackie in China with Ladytron, showing off her rig. (Thanks, Jackie!)

“For me, it’s like a music video,” says Holly. “What I do has more to do with go-go dancing than a DJ. I am the video equivalent of a go-go dancer.”

My story on NYC VJ Holly Daggers (of Eyewash fame) is now available online from Keyboard Magazine:

VJ Holly Daggers: Go-Go Music Videos Go Live [Keyboard music/picture]

Links and story background [CDM]

The key to Holly’s go-go effect is a hardware rig with a camera, Korg Entrancer sampler, and multiple Edirol mixers — no computer. (Check out the rig diagram.) So when the folks at Livid talk about expensive hardware rigs, this is what they mean. On the other hand, a computer can neither replace a camera, nor sample video fast enough for what Holly’s doing, so it’s more of a matter of choosing the right tool for the job (or the tool you can afford) than which is better.

Anyway, enjoy the story, and watch for more VJ coverage; there’s a wide range of aesthetics and appproaches out there.

Thanks to everyone who’s writing in about VJ Day. It’s funny, conventional wisdom is that musicians don’t care about VJing, but here among the hip technorati of CDM, of course, things are different. And with VJing moving out of the “psychedelia” area into a range of aesthetics and styles, I expect you’ll hear more soon. Our friend James Polanco of the superb Fake Science Lab Report podcast writes in to tell us about some rising VJ superstars:

Mat Hale is a very close friend of mine that I have worked with on multiple events here in San Francisco when I was djing out all the time. Mat has also worked with his friend Vello on a ton of projects down in LA (and internationally). Sting’s tour, Jay-Z, etc. Vello is one of the founders of OVT out of Chicago that handled Rabbit in the Moons shows, all kinds of rave’s in the 90s and MOMA’s yearly event. Vello and Mat also did vid and installation work for Cirque Du Soleil & Zumanity Orchestra and Club Ice in Las Vegas. Vello is doing a ton of touring right now (just got off being Sasha’s VJ) and Mat is doing some local gigs around LA. Both are amazing, amazing producers that are creating next level content.

Indeed, for a great overview of what VJing is all about, check out Apple.com’s writeup of Vello. Thanks, James — other lurking VJs or Friends of VJs, give us a holler!

New Yorker "imagineer and visualnaut" Melissa Ulto, aka VJ Miixxy, is interviewed by Vidvox,
developers of GRID and VDMX VJ software. Melissa chats about her latest
gigs (Museum of Modern Art, Madame Tassauds Wax Museum, Broadway, The
Ramones, and a Pilates vid for MTV enough variety for you?), and her
dreamy rig: Edirol V4s, Canon video cams, and of course Vixvox's GRID. (If you can't afford all that, GRID2 is just US$75 for Windows and Mac!)

Mixxy is working on a documentary on VJing; stay tuned here and we'll bring you news once that's out.

If you're in NYC tonight, Mixxy is playing Eyewash downtown
along with other fine folks. You might even see me, if we're both brave
enough to risk going out in this freakish late-March snow-and-sleet
storm!