VJ: It's not a disease

Projection

First and foremost, you’ll need a projector. Good projectors are not cheap, and are one of biggest expenditures you’ll have to make. Fortunately, many venues now have house projection systems, and this will only increase as the VJ boom takes off. But if you really want to make video performance a regular part of your show today, you’ll probably need your own projector. There are two basic projection technologies: LCD and DLP (digital light processing). LCD projectors work just like the display on your laptop, but the backlight is brighter, the LCD element smaller, and there’s a hunk of glass to throw the image.

Generally speaking, DLP is both better and more expensive than LCD. A good choice in upper-midrange DLP projectors is the NEC LT240K, which can be had for about $1,500. It can project at 1,600 x 1,200 and has outstanding image quality. Another interesting option is the recently-announced Mitsubishi PocketProjector, scheduled to ship in July 2005. It’s also DLP, but uses an LED light source that lets it run cooler and fit into a much smaller chassis than a conventional projector. LEDs also last much longer than the usual high-output bulbs, which can cost hundreds of dollars to replace. The PocketProjector can throw 800 x 600 pixels, weighs just 14 ounces — way cool — and has a suggested retail price of $699.

For the budget-conscious, there is a very interesting alternative to ready-made projectors: Tom’s Hardware shows you how to build an LCD projector for $300! The idea is to get a used overhead projector (the kind your high school math teacher used) and throw a gutted LCD desktop monitor on it. Surprising as it may sound, such setups are capable of superb image quality. Overhead projectors are very bright, and according to Tom’s Hardware their bulbs are much cheaper to replace than the ones normally used in digital projectors. Meanwhile, 1,024 x 768 desktop monitors are very affordable, and their larger pixel size makes fewer demands of optics. The main drawbacks to this approach are size and weight.

Reflection

While you’re geeking out over projection technology, don’t forget the surface on which it’s going to shine — this is every bit as important as the projector. Even the most expensive DLP lightbox won’t excel opposite a black wall. Or would it?

Surprisingly, Sony has recently demonstrated a black screen that works much better than traditional white screens in non-dark rooms. It reflects only the particular bands of red, green, and blue light produced by projectors and absorbs everything else. The first product based on this technology is the Sony ChromaVue HCS-W80, an 80” screen that weighs 17 lbs. and is expected to retail for less than $2,000. Though music venues are typically dark, where this technology has little advantage, one notable exception is churches. One caveat: It’s unclear if this screen requires projectors that are specially-tuned to work with it.

Whether black or white, quality projection screens aren’t cheap, and setup can be a pain in many venues. But don’t resort to projecting on a wall. A set of cheap white sheets is a highly portable solution that offers flexible setup and much better results than just about any kind of interior paint.

Connection

Though just about all the devices in a modern VJ setup are digital, connections between them strangely remain analog. Though the excellent Digital Visual Interface (DVI) standard is now commonplace in desktop computing, very few projectors or mixers support it. That leaves the analog realm of S-Video and RCA, of which the former is far superior and fortunately widely supported. Resolve now to create a setup employing as few RCA cables as possible.

The centerpiece of any video rig is the video mixer, which lets you mix signals and apply effects just like an audio mixer. The de facto standard video mixer is currently the Edirol V-4 ($1,195). It has four channels of analog input (up to two S-Video) and three of output (one S-Video). Its fader can be assigned to any pair of inputs, and can affect 200 different transitions (dissolve, wipe, etc.). Internally, the V-4 digitizes video at DV quality, and has two channels of digital effects. My favorite effects are the kaleidoscopic mirrors. Unfortunately, the V-4 only offers mirrors at right angles. Five- and seven-way mirrors would be nice.

Many of the V-4’s effects can be synced to MIDI, or to a tempo via its tap tempo button. It also supports V-Link, Roland’s MIDI-based protocol that connects controls and effects in an intuitive way — for example, you could perform transitions from the D-Beam on your Roland V-Synth as you simultaneously do a filter sweep or reverse a loop with the same hand gesture.

Expert VJ and software guru Scott Draves offers us two quick tips on the V-4. First, video feedback (the kind of fun you can have pointing a video camera at a TV to which it is attached) can be achieved by using a short cable to connect one of the V-4’s outputs back to its inputs. You can create wild fractal-like structures by applying an effect like picture-in-picture in the feedback loop. Second, though the V-4 ships with its fader in a vertical orientation, it can be easily turned to move intuitively from left to right across the mixer’s input sections by removing the four screws on the V-4’s front panel.

Election

Now that you have the power to project and control video you have to decide what to show! Like DJs, VJs often work with samples of existing (and sometimes archaic) video footage. You can shoot your own with a camcorder and plug it right into your mixer, or probe the boundaries of intellectual property law by cutting up existing movies on your computer. Many VJs keep a library of DV tapes, and travel with two or more DV decks. But now that S-Video outputs are commonplace on laptops, with an external hard drive and MPEG4 video compression (QuickTime, DivX, etc.) you can leave the hassle and expense of tape behind forever — cue up your video clips with the click of a mouse, and never worry about rewinding.

Another option is to generate abstract visuals in real time with a computer. You’ve probably seen the visualizations that come with iTunes or Windows Media Player. But if you haven’t seen the new visualizations in Winamp 5, check ’em out. They’re easily the best of the bunch. Best of all, Winamp includes a scripting language that lets you write your own visualizations — start from scratch or edit one of the included programs — and hundreds of home-brew programs are available for free on the web. No, the underlying beat detection isn’t any better than with iTunes or Media Player, but this is the easiest way to get up and running, and you can’t complain about the price: Winamp is free!

Scott Draves has written two programs that generate abstract visuals, and they’re both open source. One is Electric Sheep a distributed-computing application that generates mind-blowing MPEG2 movies of evolving fractal “flames.” You can download the client, which runs as a screen saver, use the resulting movies in a show, or edit the code for your own purposes. Electric Sheep doesn’t sync to audio, but its smoothly-morphing eye candy works behind almost any kind of music. Bomb is an earlier program of Scott’s that runs a variety of artificial life algorithms in time to beat-detected audio.

The final frontier in realtime visual/musical manipulation is Max/MSP with Jitter. Max/MSP is a programming environment by Cycling 74 that runs on Windows and Mac OS X, and Jitter is a “library” for it — a collection of 133 little programs that you can build on to make powerful audio and video processing software. Max/MSP and Jitter aren’t free (the trio costs $850), but they come with documentation and support. This software is becoming increasingly popular in the VJ community, according to Beau Casey, a VJ from the San Francisco Bay area. It enables any type of digital signal (MIDI, audio, video) in your computer to be modulated by any other in just about any way imaginable.

The open source alternative to Max/MSP is Pure Data, or Pd for short. It’s the brainchild of Miller Puckette, who was also the main author of Max/MSP. Pd is a younger product than Max/MSP, and its documentation is less mature. And whereas Max/MSP comes with telephone support, you’ll have to rely on mailing lists and user forums to get help with Pd.

Wave of the Future

Intense or subtle, visuals can enhance any musical performance. At Keyboard, we believe video will be ubiquitous in all genres of musical performance in just a few years. That’s why we’re going to provide periodic coverage of the latest techniques and gear from a keyboard player’s perspective. Future articles may explore the nitty-gritty of using MIDI to control video, reviews of gear and software, and interviews with artists who use video. If there are any particular topics you’d like to see covered, write to us at keyboard@musicplayer.com.