VJ Heaven

Isadora is a visual programming environment for Mac. It provides real-time interactive control over digital media and manipulation of digital video. Isadora is not really a ‘plug and play’ program but offers programming blocks that can be linked together in an almost unlimited number of ways, allowing you to follow your artistic impulses.

Over one hundred building blocks (called actors) are available within Isadora. The name and values of every ‘actor’ can be manipulated by the user. Actors and their inputs and outputs from within the program can be processed with any number of effects or tools. Some actors perform simple functions while others allow sophisticated functions such as applying an effect to live video in real time. By connecting several actors together you can change the image in any number of ways in a live performance. You can also combine a group of Isadora’s actors into a custom User Actor. But the best feature of Isadora is its multiple output ability, letting you control and output up to six stages (screens) simultaneously in real time, which is fantastic for video artists, although a bit heavy on CPU resources. Programmers can also create their own Isadora modules in C or C++. Other features that Isadora offers include:

* Native and Realtime Video Processing

* Hardware Accelerated Rendering

* Create your own UI

* Take snapshots

* Instant Compositing

* Multi-Channel Sound Output

* Record Output Feature

* Live Video & Sound Input

* MIDI

* Open Sound Control Support

Isadora can be downloaded here.

One of the biggest problems with being a VJ is finding footage to use. If you need some new visuals, Pixdisc is a fantastic compilation of copyright free visual materials that can be used with various VJ softwares. All the motion graphics come in half-size (320×240) and are recorded in two formats (Cinepak and Photo-JPEG). Cinepak format is for Pixplyer (VJ software) and the other one (Photo-JPEG) is for use in video editing. The materials are derived from the latest VJ artists, so you can feel blessed to be using them for your own VJing. Pixdisc can be found here.

Move over Windows, move over OSX. Pure Dyne is a high-performance, bootable Linux OS that has been modified for maximum Visual Performance and has been designed with Pure Data (Pd) as its central premise. Its a customization of the dyne:II core for realtime audio and video processing and is maintained by a growing community of media artists. If you are worried about installation problems on your current computer, you can just boot from a CD, USB key, or hard drive into your Mac or PC.

The allure of Pure Dyne is that it’s not just altering an OS to your needs - it’s taking your performance gigs with you without having to worry about OS problems. Pure Dyne comes optimized with software such as Jack, SuperCollider, Csound, Fluxus and of course Pure Data. Pure:dyne is entirely optimised for Pd, an open-source alternative to Max/MSP, and comes with an overwhelming collection of externals: PDP, PiDiP, Gem, GridFlow, RRadical, PixelTango. - all of which normally involve extensive installion time.

Pure Dyne is a pre-built installation OS. It’s like having a backup if your machine dies. But if you do want to install it as a bootable OS, then there is that option too. So, if you’re ready for some new visuals, its all here. Flash, now with the new Flash Player for Linux, can be integrated seamlessly into Pure Dyne. A custom Pd+Flash could be vj heaven for live visualist work. It all makes for a nice link between commercial releases and free software. Its a visually-tuned, custom performance and installation environment where many possibilities for creation are available.

Pure Dyne can be found at puredyne.goto10.org

If you are looking for a free and/or open source VJ tool, then Onyx is for you. This is an amazingly professional and flexible Flash-based VJ tool which allows you to mix video loops live. Its a great program and everything feels really intuitive. As a bonus, it now runs on both Windows and Mac. (Next stop, Linux/Pure Dyne) The latest release has some nice new features:

- Tempo filters can be turned on or off with a global setting

- Can sync tempo to specific beats.

- Mix files can now save display controls and filters

- Layers now have an anchor point for rotation or scaling

- Visualizers can be loaded in independant layers

- Tons of bug fixes and debugging tools</ol>

The latest release is 3.03 but 3.05 should be coming out soon (June) and we will keep you updated on the new features when it is released. Onyx is pretty much a must-have, even if only as a secondary / backup visual tool. This is a great free VJ tool. Kudos to the developers. I think it has a bright future.

You can download it here.

Greetings and welcome to VJ Heaven, your home for VJ and video art related news and developments. VJ stands for Visual Jockey and a VJ is a video performance artist who performs moving visual (video) art on large displays, often at concerts, nightclubs and music festivals. This results in a live, multimedia performance that can include music, actors or dancers as well as projections of live or pre-recorded video. The term originates from a parallel with DJs, although most VJs nowadays have more in common with video artists than with DJs. We hope you enjoy your stay.