garageCube

Haven't been used this feature much -

Anybody using it in an interesting way?

We use audio reaction constantly. At first I was grabbing an audio signal from the PA until I remembered that the mike picks up the sound as well. I imagine if frequency-isolated audio is supported eventually I'll have to line it in again as the mike input tends to be a bit "clunky".

Whats it good for? Well our style is very collage-based with about 95% of our footage having alpha. So its easy to set up an item to "bounce" with the audio signal using the scale's "sound in" but the recent preset idea of using "patch" to create an audio waveform gave me the idea to use patch with 2X2 polys, facing the camera, and making it audio reactive. This gives an object a bounce that also gives it a perky little Y-rotation. Its also good because its a patch, and therefore can be set and available as a preset (and therefore assigned to a key, etc), unlike auto scale which has to be tweaked every time one needs it on a new layer. (presets please guys...)

Boris's recent contribution of the "MOVIE TIME" module also allows for audio to control movie position, so that say you had for example, a clip of a glass falling and breaking, the glass would break when the audio peaked out. This is just an obvious example, but naturally you can use this with any clip. I like the way it looks with time lapse of plants growing, etc.

Audio reaction is also available with Auto Move, Scale and Color, although I get the impression that the audio level for my stuff is all set too high, because if I try to use these, I don't always get results that I can use. For example, when I try to use my bouncy patch setting and things are nice and bouncy, and then try to apply "auto color" with "sound in," just turning on a little color, actually makes things ultra- colorized! So an audio level that seems great for the patch setting, seems like too much for auto color, I'm going to try to use a lower overall sound input level next time I think.

Oh yes, theres also quartz composer with its own audio reactive abilities. I have a couple quartz movies, like dots that expand on different frequency levels, that I use in M8 with particles, or just as an item to frame something in the center.

Anyway, thats us with our particular style.
Give it a try, you can get some pretty unprecedented "syncing" effects!

Thanks for the tips - some stuff I've tried and some new ideas. I'll have to get into using Quartz docs in M8 sounds like fun.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=h ... id/184127/

I've been scoping out one of these as an external box to modify line-in audio. If you're having trouble with wide spectrums and not getting the response you need, this should help you isolate. And it appears to be tiny. Certainly on my hardware hit-list.

Dan

chromafresh - do you use the audio from the built-in mic? I have a Powerbook and am not able to get a usable audio input - the volume at the venue is way too laoud and the mic maxes out constantly. Do you have any tips?

Vibber wrote:the volume at the venue is way too laoud and the mic maxes out constantly. Do you have any tips?

Greetings,

You can do one of two things:

1. Turn down your internal mic sensitivity in the Control Panel.
2. Take a feed straight from the board and plug it into your line-in port (whose sensitivity can also be controlled via the Control Panel).

Cheers,
Justin

Yes, line in is def the way to go.
The inbuilt mic can work if you're short of time but is never totally satisfactory.

However you do it, balancing the gain once you are set-up is crucial.
As with any sound set-up you need to balance the gain from the sound desk
with the computer system settings and then with M8 settings, three variables which need to work nicely together.

Or try putting the sound desk feed through a little audio mixer and then to your lappy,
this means you can EQ the signal & isolate the bass, making any movement on screen much more distinctively synced.
That would then make 4 variables to balance!

I have also had the sound guy send a direct-out from the desk (if they can) for the one signal you want to use
- bass (guitar) not kick in my experience works best.
(I do lots of stuff with bands!!)

thanks for tips! will try

Excellent. Good idea on the mixer!

thanks guys.
Isolating the bass frequency is good for beat effects but we have had really excellent fun
using the mid/hi EQ with wind instruments; flute especially is good in ambient improv pieces,
let the flute player know they are 'in charge' of the scale effect (for instance) for a particular layer
and you get some great interaction between sounds and visuals.
This can really affect the way you play M8 also.

One problem with using music input is that some music is so heavily compressed (like electro/electro house/techhose that I often VJ to) that the input lacks enough contrast to generate good effects. I REALLY would like to see a builit in function or module that isolates the low, the mid and the high frequencies (about the only thing I miss from VDMX). Or is there a way to do that in Modul8 already that I'm missing?!

The new BPM modules are awesome however. Works great for me. Can't wait to use them with a DJ mixer that outputs a MIDI clock signal.

Or is there a way to do that in Modul8 already that I'm missing?!

Nothing available in 2.5 Fry_up sorry. Yes it would be great & save me carrying a mixer around.
I work mainly with live music so generally I can get an excellent signal.
If I'm on stage I get sent sounds via Live from the bass players
Macbook which can often be unexpected but is always interesting.

moonbase wrote:Nothing available in 2.5 Fry_up sorry. Yes it would be great & save me carrying a mixer around.

Ok, another approach then - is there a software (that is not to processor consuming) that can process the signal before reaching Modul8?

But having those functions in Modul8 would be so much stronger since you could trig things based on low, mid and high frequencies from the same sound input at the same time.

ya got
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=184127
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=182044

I'd go with the cheaper, easier behringer.
I'll buy it with my next gig's income...

Seems a better solution than
http://www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/index.php
which tends to clutter the process, and is not easy to calibrate live...