VJ Heaven

ArKaos offers VJs, installation and event artists the ability to work with their own image and movie files along with loads of different effect types and sequences to make great live VJ performance. In other words, ArKaos will help you visualize your music. This is a professional VJ tool for just about anyone - VJs, installation or events artists etc - that allows you to work with still and motion pictures, as well as a seeming endless array of effects and sequences. ArKaos is created by the same company that created visuals for artists like Daft Punk, M People and U2. Fatboy Slim and the Chemical Brothers have also used visuals created directly from ArKaos software.

Arkaos supports QuickTime movies (.MOV), Windows Video (.AVI), MPEG and Flash animation (.SWF). This program is very easy to use. Its ‘drag and drop’ capabilities allow the user to quickly select clips and effects from the main interface, with instant results. There’s a bank of movie clips and stills for you to use, called demosynths, which can come in quite handy if you forget your DV camcorder. But the real fun to be had with ArKaos is through real-time effects control. This is as simple to use as clicking a box and, when activated, triggers your images to move to the preview window in time with the percussion and bass of the music that is playing. It’s a very cool feature. The best way to imagine ArKaos is that you’re using a music sequencer, but now arranging and manipulating video.

External MIDI devices can be used to trigger patches of images, movies or effects. This can be from a MIDI keyboard, giving you more hands-on flexibility (and up to 128 patches), or from any MIDI sequencing device or sequencing software. Overall, ArKaos is a great semi-professional program, particularly useful with VJ demanding real-time video. That’s not to say a novice can’t get just as much enjoyment from it, because the software is very simple and intuitive to use.

You can find more about ArKaos here