New Footage Releases: Program patterns
Greetings programs! Hop on your lightcycles and enter the grid because this time we've got three absolute bangers for you.
WTFlow gives a new spin on a familiar theme. The slight offset on the color animation gives this pack a deliciously organic feel.
Get Metalive from Resolume Footage
Unit44 is back with the sequel to Pattern.
Get Pattern 2 from Resolume Footage
And Ostwerker gets in on that Tron action.
Get Trontastik from Resolume Footage
WTFlow gives a new spin on a familiar theme. The slight offset on the color animation gives this pack a deliciously organic feel.
Get Metalive from Resolume Footage
Unit44 is back with the sequel to Pattern.
Get Pattern 2 from Resolume Footage
And Ostwerker gets in on that Tron action.
Get Trontastik from Resolume Footage
Resolume Blog
This blog is about Resolume, VJ-ing and the inspiring things the Resolume users make. Do you have something interesting to show the community? Send in your work!
Highlights
Visual Pixation with Rick Jacobs
Our quest for excellence in the visual space has now brought us to Rick Jacobs of RJB visuals.
Touring currently with Nicky Romero, and the man behind the operation and visual design of his entire show, the stuff that Rick does is epic of massive proportions. [fold][/fold]
What do we love about him?
He makes some great, heavily detailed content which is then displayed perfectly in sync with what Nicky is doing on stage. I, personally, love the magnitude & depth with which he portrays infinity, space and the inexplicable wonders of it.
We reached out to Rick to talk to us, and throw some light on the great work he is doing.
What is touring with Nicky like? When did this great journey begin & how would you say you have grown with it?
It started 4 years ago, my first show with Nicky was Ultra 2013, the Main Stage. I was so nervous, everybody at home watching, my friends, family. Before that I had vj’d at clubs with just 1 output always. So, for Ultra, I brought 2 laptops to handle multiple outputs - being the newby I were back then ;)
Nicky and the team were impressed with that first show and offered me to tour with them. I chose to finish school first, because it was just 3 months left. I graduated as a game design and developer and missed my graduation ceremony as I went straight to Vegas to tour with Nicky.
When I finished the tour I started RJB Visuals and teamed up with my brother Bob who was studying game art. Our teamwork was put to the test, immediately. We needed to conceptualize and create a 5min intro visual in 3 days!
Nowadays, we plan 1 month for an intro- This has become kind of our signature.
Here are links to some intros: Novell & Omnia
It’s been a really awesome journey so far, Nicky and the team trust Bob and I with the whole visualization of the show. When I started, they more or less had just the guy fawkes mask, so I had the freedom to design and develop a whole new visual style for his shows, which was really great!
Here is a sneakpeak into the latest intro for Nicky:
You and the LD do a great job live. How much of a role does SMPTE play in this & how much is freestyle?
The first 2 years that I toured with Nicky, we didn’t have a LD. After that, Koen van Elderen joined the team and I couldn’t have been happier! The guy is great, he programs really fast and we come up with new things while we are doing the show. We just understand each other immediately.
The whole show is freestyle, we never use SMPTE.It keeps us focused. Also, I don’t link all visuals to songs. One day this song has these visuals the next day you’ll see something different, it depends on what colors Koen and I yell at each other.
For all lyrics I use cue points so as soon as I hear Nicky mixing in a track with vocals I’ll ready up the visual and start cueing it.
From on point strobes, to perfect transitions, to super color changes- there’s gotta be a lot of concentration, communication & practice involved between you and Koen.
Like I said, Koen and I are just really on the same page. We make up new stuff during the show and remember it for the next show.We normally don’t receive a playlist or a lot of info on his set so we often get some nice surprises and have to come up with something, along the way.
It usually goes something like this:If you take the TISKS I’ll take the BOEMS.. Sure thing..Or whenever there are really powerful accents in a song we look at each other and ask “do you want to take these or shall I take them?” Haha!
It’s fun to change stuff around now and then.
Also at each outro of a song we turn to each other and one of us will say the next color and we change it at the same time, when the song changes over. Or, if it’s a familiar song with its own visuals we both already know what to do or I make hand gestures of the visual that is coming up next so he will know the color. Sometimes, I will be stone faced visualizing a sea with my hands and he will know which visual is coming up.
What are your favorite effects & features on Resolume, that you would encourage VJs to incorporate into their show?
Mostly my effects are small flashy clips linked to buttons on my MIDI panel, but my knobs are linked to various screenshake/twitch/strobe effects. Mainly all sorts of small effects to highlight certain melodies or accentuate the bass.
What brief/ thought process do you follow while designing content for the show. We see a whole range from nature to space to waterfalls to abstract.
We try to create contrast between drops and breaks by changing the color scheme, style and pace while at the same time try to have the transitions be as fluid as possible. Break visuals for Nicky Romero's show are often desaturated/black-and-white realistic looking visuals while the drop visuals are full of flashing neon colors and abstract shapes loosely based on the realistic styled visual. Putting these completely different styles together in one song works as a great crowd booster.
The risk of mixing these completely different styles after each other is that it could lead to too harsh of a transition. We're not a big fan of fade ins so several visuals have an actual intro clip that will autopilot to the next clip which is a loop. They're sort of a 'special fade in' to a loop starting of black and having the visual's scene unfold in a smooth transition.
Here are some Intro Clips:
Talk to us about your go to software & hardware (both for content creation & operation).
Most of our content is created in Cinema4D with the Octane renderer. For all the intros we use Autodesk Maya, since we have a history in game design and development we were pretty used to working in Maya or 3ds Max at school. It just has a little bit more extra options to get that exact look you want for the intro.
When we started creating short visual loops we soon realized Cinema4D is much more straight forward for creating visuals.For post we are using After Effects. And, of course, for vjing Resolume!
As for hardware, I’m using an MSI GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro and the Akai APC40MK2.
Tell us about your studio. What gear is an absolute must have, and what would you like to change/ upgrade?
My studio isn’t that great actually, haha, we have a small office in Limburg at my parents place. One of our employees is also from Limburg so half of the week we’re working in Limburg and the other in Utrecht.
We have a small setup in my apartment in Utrecht, my brother lives with me so it’s easy to work from home. In the near future we’re planning to get an office as we’re expanding and looking for new people to work with.
As for an upgrade, I really need more render power, haha, with these 4k visual content rendering is a nightmare.
Any words of advice for budding visual artists out there?
Less is more! Don’t layer 6 completely different visuals on top of each other and mix them every beat. It can become chaos really easily. Also black is your friend, leave enough black space to make your visual really pop out.
Is there anything else you would like to talk about? We would love to hear it.
Our most recent development is that we’re starting a co-operation called Visual Lab with Hatim. Hatim was the reason I started vj’ing for Nicky and over the years we built a great bond as he is Nicky Romero’s tour/production manager.
As probably all of us here know, talking and arranging gigs/assignments is the least fun part of our job so it seems like a great idea to have someone do that for us. It also seems like the next big step for our company and will lead to us hiring more talented vj’s and content creators.
Also, recently we’ve been working on creating a more generic visualpack we would like to sell on Resolume.
It’s interesting creating visuals that are not for your own use because normally we create pretty specific visuals for certain parts of the show. Now we need to forget about that and create visuals that can be used by anyone in any situation. It’s a good practice. I think we have come up with a pretty cool style of modern styled visuals and classic kaleidoscopic visuals for your enjoyment. :)
And, on a last note ,we are working on a VR horror escape room game in between all the visual work related stuff. Got to keep those university-skills going! :D
If you’re interested we’ll post something about it on our social media in the future.
*Shudders* Oooh this gave us chills.
Thanks for doing this interview Rick. We all look forward to those visual packs from you, and wish you so much success with Visual Lab.
With skills like that, you’re miles ahead already :)
Check out some more of Rick’s work here
Credits:
Rick and Bob, RJB Visuals + Visual Lab
Follow them on: Instagram & their website
Touring currently with Nicky Romero, and the man behind the operation and visual design of his entire show, the stuff that Rick does is epic of massive proportions. [fold][/fold]
What do we love about him?
He makes some great, heavily detailed content which is then displayed perfectly in sync with what Nicky is doing on stage. I, personally, love the magnitude & depth with which he portrays infinity, space and the inexplicable wonders of it.
We reached out to Rick to talk to us, and throw some light on the great work he is doing.
What is touring with Nicky like? When did this great journey begin & how would you say you have grown with it?
It started 4 years ago, my first show with Nicky was Ultra 2013, the Main Stage. I was so nervous, everybody at home watching, my friends, family. Before that I had vj’d at clubs with just 1 output always. So, for Ultra, I brought 2 laptops to handle multiple outputs - being the newby I were back then ;)
Nicky and the team were impressed with that first show and offered me to tour with them. I chose to finish school first, because it was just 3 months left. I graduated as a game design and developer and missed my graduation ceremony as I went straight to Vegas to tour with Nicky.
When I finished the tour I started RJB Visuals and teamed up with my brother Bob who was studying game art. Our teamwork was put to the test, immediately. We needed to conceptualize and create a 5min intro visual in 3 days!
Nowadays, we plan 1 month for an intro- This has become kind of our signature.
Here are links to some intros: Novell & Omnia
It’s been a really awesome journey so far, Nicky and the team trust Bob and I with the whole visualization of the show. When I started, they more or less had just the guy fawkes mask, so I had the freedom to design and develop a whole new visual style for his shows, which was really great!
Here is a sneakpeak into the latest intro for Nicky:
You and the LD do a great job live. How much of a role does SMPTE play in this & how much is freestyle?
The first 2 years that I toured with Nicky, we didn’t have a LD. After that, Koen van Elderen joined the team and I couldn’t have been happier! The guy is great, he programs really fast and we come up with new things while we are doing the show. We just understand each other immediately.
The whole show is freestyle, we never use SMPTE.It keeps us focused. Also, I don’t link all visuals to songs. One day this song has these visuals the next day you’ll see something different, it depends on what colors Koen and I yell at each other.
For all lyrics I use cue points so as soon as I hear Nicky mixing in a track with vocals I’ll ready up the visual and start cueing it.
From on point strobes, to perfect transitions, to super color changes- there’s gotta be a lot of concentration, communication & practice involved between you and Koen.
Like I said, Koen and I are just really on the same page. We make up new stuff during the show and remember it for the next show.We normally don’t receive a playlist or a lot of info on his set so we often get some nice surprises and have to come up with something, along the way.
It usually goes something like this:If you take the TISKS I’ll take the BOEMS.. Sure thing..Or whenever there are really powerful accents in a song we look at each other and ask “do you want to take these or shall I take them?” Haha!
It’s fun to change stuff around now and then.
Also at each outro of a song we turn to each other and one of us will say the next color and we change it at the same time, when the song changes over. Or, if it’s a familiar song with its own visuals we both already know what to do or I make hand gestures of the visual that is coming up next so he will know the color. Sometimes, I will be stone faced visualizing a sea with my hands and he will know which visual is coming up.
What are your favorite effects & features on Resolume, that you would encourage VJs to incorporate into their show?
Mostly my effects are small flashy clips linked to buttons on my MIDI panel, but my knobs are linked to various screenshake/twitch/strobe effects. Mainly all sorts of small effects to highlight certain melodies or accentuate the bass.
What brief/ thought process do you follow while designing content for the show. We see a whole range from nature to space to waterfalls to abstract.
We try to create contrast between drops and breaks by changing the color scheme, style and pace while at the same time try to have the transitions be as fluid as possible. Break visuals for Nicky Romero's show are often desaturated/black-and-white realistic looking visuals while the drop visuals are full of flashing neon colors and abstract shapes loosely based on the realistic styled visual. Putting these completely different styles together in one song works as a great crowd booster.
The risk of mixing these completely different styles after each other is that it could lead to too harsh of a transition. We're not a big fan of fade ins so several visuals have an actual intro clip that will autopilot to the next clip which is a loop. They're sort of a 'special fade in' to a loop starting of black and having the visual's scene unfold in a smooth transition.
Here are some Intro Clips:
Talk to us about your go to software & hardware (both for content creation & operation).
Most of our content is created in Cinema4D with the Octane renderer. For all the intros we use Autodesk Maya, since we have a history in game design and development we were pretty used to working in Maya or 3ds Max at school. It just has a little bit more extra options to get that exact look you want for the intro.
When we started creating short visual loops we soon realized Cinema4D is much more straight forward for creating visuals.For post we are using After Effects. And, of course, for vjing Resolume!
As for hardware, I’m using an MSI GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro and the Akai APC40MK2.
Tell us about your studio. What gear is an absolute must have, and what would you like to change/ upgrade?
My studio isn’t that great actually, haha, we have a small office in Limburg at my parents place. One of our employees is also from Limburg so half of the week we’re working in Limburg and the other in Utrecht.
We have a small setup in my apartment in Utrecht, my brother lives with me so it’s easy to work from home. In the near future we’re planning to get an office as we’re expanding and looking for new people to work with.
As for an upgrade, I really need more render power, haha, with these 4k visual content rendering is a nightmare.
Any words of advice for budding visual artists out there?
Less is more! Don’t layer 6 completely different visuals on top of each other and mix them every beat. It can become chaos really easily. Also black is your friend, leave enough black space to make your visual really pop out.
Is there anything else you would like to talk about? We would love to hear it.
Our most recent development is that we’re starting a co-operation called Visual Lab with Hatim. Hatim was the reason I started vj’ing for Nicky and over the years we built a great bond as he is Nicky Romero’s tour/production manager.
As probably all of us here know, talking and arranging gigs/assignments is the least fun part of our job so it seems like a great idea to have someone do that for us. It also seems like the next big step for our company and will lead to us hiring more talented vj’s and content creators.
Also, recently we’ve been working on creating a more generic visualpack we would like to sell on Resolume.
It’s interesting creating visuals that are not for your own use because normally we create pretty specific visuals for certain parts of the show. Now we need to forget about that and create visuals that can be used by anyone in any situation. It’s a good practice. I think we have come up with a pretty cool style of modern styled visuals and classic kaleidoscopic visuals for your enjoyment. :)
And, on a last note ,we are working on a VR horror escape room game in between all the visual work related stuff. Got to keep those university-skills going! :D
If you’re interested we’ll post something about it on our social media in the future.
*Shudders* Oooh this gave us chills.
Thanks for doing this interview Rick. We all look forward to those visual packs from you, and wish you so much success with Visual Lab.
With skills like that, you’re miles ahead already :)
Check out some more of Rick’s work here
Credits:
Rick and Bob, RJB Visuals + Visual Lab
Follow them on: Instagram & their website
Ironed Out Resolume: Arena 5.1.4 & Avenue 4.6.4 Released
Ladies & Gentlemen! Please update your Resolumes. We have released Arena 5.1.4 and Avenue 4.6.4. These new versions fix a few crashes and iron out some wrinkles. Nobody likes a wrinkled Resolume while they're VJ-ing, so hit that download.
Resolume Arena 5.1.4 & Avenue 4.6.4
[FIXED] Crash when triggering clip before deck is loaded
[FIXED] Crash when contextual menu is open and active layer is switched
[FIXED] Crash when switching decks during transition
[FIXED] Desktop is shown for a moment when using cancel to exit the advanced screen setup
[FIXED] Invert toggle on AutoMask effect broken
[FIXED] Transition Mixer dropdown doesn't update when creating a new composition
[FIXED] MulitTask mixer no worky on 5.1.3 OSX10.10
[FIXED] Right clicking parameters in the advanced output changes their range to -1.0...1.0
[FIXED] Request for RGBAW color space in DMX fixtures
[FIXED] Right clicking a slice parameter resets it's value but does not apply it to the slice
[FIXED] Crash: Rotate a polygon slice in output map like a mad man
[FIXED] Distorted image when using odd sized image as a mask
[FIXED] Multiple point selection dragger gets perspective after dragging a perspective handler on a slice
Resolume Arena 5.1.4 & Avenue 4.6.4
[FIXED] Crash when triggering clip before deck is loaded
[FIXED] Crash when contextual menu is open and active layer is switched
[FIXED] Crash when switching decks during transition
[FIXED] Desktop is shown for a moment when using cancel to exit the advanced screen setup
[FIXED] Invert toggle on AutoMask effect broken
[FIXED] Transition Mixer dropdown doesn't update when creating a new composition
[FIXED] MulitTask mixer no worky on 5.1.3 OSX10.10
[FIXED] Right clicking parameters in the advanced output changes their range to -1.0...1.0
[FIXED] Request for RGBAW color space in DMX fixtures
[FIXED] Right clicking a slice parameter resets it's value but does not apply it to the slice
[FIXED] Crash: Rotate a polygon slice in output map like a mad man
[FIXED] Distorted image when using odd sized image as a mask
[FIXED] Multiple point selection dragger gets perspective after dragging a perspective handler on a slice
The Ultimate Guide to Multiscreen Output with Resolume
“I want to connect a dozen and then some screens, what hardware should I get?”
We get this question quite often.
The question sounds simple, the answer is always complicated. It’s the same as asking: “I want to buy a house, which house should I buy?”
Consider us your multiscreen real estate managers. [fold][/fold]We like to help you make the right decisions and find the house that’s right for you. After gathering lots of use cases, possible problems and possible solutions, we came to this document. This document will guide you through the overwhelming multiscreen adventure.
The adventure starts here!
You’ll find some essentials explained on the do’s and don’ts when using Resolume for multiple outputs. The different options are listed in order of preference and it even contains a flowchart. Yay. Just answer the questions and you will be guided to your ideal dream home. One click and you’ll be taken to all the essential information you need on that snazzy 3 story condo with all copper plumbing. We’ll try to avoid the shady parts of town, but if you like, we can show you some options in the extender hub ghettos as well.
Always remember, buying a large house is a big investment. Before going house hunting, you need to make sure your computer has enough pixel power in the bank to build that pretty picture. It would suck if you get all the gear together to run a beautiful 4 story pixel map and then realise your Intel Iris Pro chokes at more than a single bedroom NY apartment. When in doubt, check them benchmarks.
Here's that URL one more time, in case you missed it the first time
Make Some Noisia
Dutch electronic megahouse Noisia has been rocking the planet with their latest album ‘Outer Edges’.
Photo by Diana Gheorghiu
It was a wait. But one that was truly worth it. Essentially a concept album, they pushed the boundaries on this one by backing it up with a ‘concept tour’.
An audio-visual phenomenon with rivetting content, perfect sync & melt-yo-face energy, the Outer Edges show is one that could not pass our dissection.
[fold][/fold]
We visited Rampage, one of the biggest Drum & Bass gigs around the world & caught up with Roy Gerritsen (Boompje Studio) & Manuel Rodrigues (DeepRED.tv), on video and lighting duty respectively, to talk to us about the levels of excellence the Noisia crew has achieved, with this concept show.
Here is a look at Diplodocus, a favorite amongst bass heads:
Video by Diana Gheorghiu
Thanks for doing this guys! Much appreciated.
What exactly is a concept show and how is preparation for it different from other shows?
When Noisia approached us they explained they wanted to combine the release of their next album “Outer Edges” with a synchronized audio visual performance. It had been 6 years since Noisia released a full album so you can imagine it was a big thing.
Together, we came up with a plan to lay the foundation for upcoming shows. We wanted to focus on developing a workflow and pipeline to create one balanced and synchronized experience.
Normally, all the different elements within a show (audio, light, visual, performance) focus on their own area. There is one general theme or concept and everything then comes together in the end - during rehearsals.
We really wanted to create a show where we could focus on the total picture. Develop a workflow where we could keep refining the show and push the concept in all different elements in a quick and effective way, without overlooking the details.
What was the main goal you set out to achieve as you planned the Outer Edges show?
How long did it take to come together, from start to end?
We wanted to create a show where everything is 100% synchronized and highly adaptable. Having one main control computer which connects to all elements within the show in a perfect synchronized way.This setup gave us the ability to find a perfect balance and narrative between sound, performance, lights and visuals. Besides that we wanted to have a modular and highly flexible show. Making it easy and quick to adapt or add new content.
We started with the project in March 2016 and our premiere was at the Let It Roll festival in Prague (July 2016).
The show is designed in such a way that it has an “open-end”. We record every show and because of the open infrastructure we are constantly refining it on all fronts.
What are the different gadgets and software you use to achieve that perfect sync between audio/video & lighting?
Roy:Back in the day, my graduation project at the HKU was a vj mix tool where I used the concept of “cue based” triggering. Instead of the widely used timecode synchronization where you premix all the content (the lights and the video tracks), we send a MIDI trigger of every beat and sound effect.This saves a lot of time in the content creation production process.
The edit and mix down of the visuals are basically done live on stage instead of on After effects. This means we don't have to render out 8 minute video clips and can focus on only a couple of key visual loops per track. (Every track consists of about 5 clips which get triggered directly from Ableton Live using a custom midi track).Inside Ableton we group a couple of extra designated clips so they all get triggered at the same time.
For every audio clip we sequence separate midi clips for the video and lighting, which get played perfectly in sync with the audio. These midi tracks then get sent to the VJ laptop and Manuel's lighting desk.
We understand you trigger clips off Resolume from Abelton Live using the extremely handy Max for Live patches?
Yes, we sequence a separate midi track for each audio track. We divided up the audio track in 5 different elements (beats, snares, melody , fx etc.), which corresponds with 5 video layers in Resolume.
When a note gets triggered, a Max for Live patch translates it to an OSC message and sends if off to the VJ laptop. The OSC messages get caught by a small tool we built in Derivative’s TouchDesigner. In its essence this tool translates the incoming messages into OSC messages which Resolume understands. Basically, operating Resolume automatically with the triggers received from Ableton.
This way of triggering videoclips was a result of an experiment from Martin Boverhof and Sander Haakman during a performance at an art festival in Germany, a couple of years ago. Only two variables are being used- triggering video files and adjusting the opacity of a clip. We were amazed how powerful these two variables are.
Regarding lighting, we understand the newer Chamsys boards have inbuilt support for MIDI/ timecode. What desk do you use?
Manuel:To drive the lighting in the Noisia - Outer Edges show I use a Chamsys Lighting desk. It is a very open environment. You can send Midi, Midi showcontrol, OSC, Timecode LTC & MTC, UDP, Serial Data and off course DMX & Artnet to the desk.
The support of Chamsys is extremely good and the software version is 100% free. Compared to other lighting desk manufacturers, the hardware is much cheaper.
A lighting desk is still much more expensive than a midi controller.
It might look similar as both have faders and buttons but the difference is that a lighting desk has a brain.
You can store, recall and sequence states, something which is invaluable for a lighting designer and now is happening is videoland more and more.
I have been researching on bridging the gap between Ableton Live and ChamSys for 8 years.
This research has led me to M2Q, acronym of Music-to-Cue which acts as a bridge between Ableton live and ChamSys. M2Q is a hardware solution designed together with Lorenzo Fattori, an Italian lighting designer and engineer. M2Q listens to midi messages sent from Ableton Live and converts them to Chamsys Remote Control messages, providing cue triggering and playback intensity control.
M2Q is reliable, easy and fast lighting sync solution. It enables non linear lighting sync.
When using Timecode it is impossible to loop within a song, do the chorus one more time or alter the playback speed on the fly. One is basically limited to pressing play.
Because our lighting sync system is midi based the artist on stage has exactly the same freedom Ableton audio playback offers.
Do you link it to Resolume?
Chamsys has a personality file (head file) for Resolume and this enables driving Resolume as a media server from the lighting desk. I must confess that I’m am considering switching to Resolume now for some time as it is very cost effective and stable solution compared to other mediaserver platforms.
Video by Diana Gheorghiu
Tell us about the trio’s super cool headgear. They change color, strobe, are dimmable. How?!
The led suits are custom designed and built by Élodie Laurent and are basically 3 generic led parcans and have similar functionality.
They are connected to the lighting desk just as the rest of the lighting rig and are driven using the same system.
Fun fact: These are the only three lights we bring with us so the Outer Edges show is extremely tour-able.
The Noisia content is great in it’s quirkyness. Sometimes we see regular video clips, sometimes distorted human faces, sometimes exploding planets, mechanical animals- what’s the thought process behind the content you create? Is it track specific?
The main concept behind this show is that every track has his own little world in this Outer Edges universe. Every track stands on its own and has a different focus on style and narrative.
Nik (one third of Noisia & Art director) compiled a team of 10 international motion graphic artists and together we took on the visualization of the initial 34 audio tracks. Cover artwork, videoclips and general themes from the audio tracks formed the base for most of the tracks.
Photo by Diana Gheorghiu
Photo by Diana Gheorghiu
The lighting & video sync is so on point, we can’t stop talking about it. It must have taken hours of studio time & programming?
That was the whole idea behind the setup.
Instead of synchronizing everything in the light and video tracks, we separated the synchronizing process from the design process. Meaning that we sequence everything in Ableton and on the content side Resolume takes care of the rest. Updating a vj clip is just a matter of dragging a new clip into Resolume.
This also resulted in Resolume being a big part in the design process (instead of normally only serving as a media server).
During the design process we run the Ableton set and see how clips get triggered, if we don't like something we can easily replace the video clip with a new one or adjust for instance the scaling size inside Resolume.
Some tracks which included 3D rendered images took a bit longer, but there is one track “Diplodocus” which took 30 minutes to make from start to finish. Originally, meant as a placeholder but after seeing it being synchronized we liked the simplicity and boldness of it and decided to keep it in the show.
Here is some more madness that went down:
Video by Diana Gheorghiu
Is it challenging to adapt your concept show into different, extremely diverse festival setups? How do you output the video to LED setups that are not standard?
We mostly work with our rider setup consisting of a big LED screen in the back and LED banner in front of the booth, but in case of bigger festivals we can easily adjust the mapping setup inside Resolume.
In the case of Rampage we had another challenge to come up with a solution to operate with 7 full HD outputs.
Photo by Diana Gheorghiu
Normally Nik is controlling everything from stage and we have a direct video line to the LED processor. Since all the connections to the LED screens were located in the front of house we used 2 laptops positioned there.
It was easy to adjust the Ableton Max for Live patch to send the triggers to two computers instead of one, and we wrote a small extra tool that sends all the midi-controller data from the stage to the FOH (to make sure Nik was still able to operate everything from the stage).
Talk to us about some features of Resolume that you think are handy, and would advice people out there to explore.
Resolume was a big part of the design process in this show. Using it almost as a small little After Effects, we stacked up effects until we reached our preferred end result. We triggered scalings, rotations, effects and opacity using the full OSC control option Resolume offers. This makes it super easy to create spot on synchronized shows. With a minimal amount of pre - production.
This in combination with the really powerful mapping options makes it an ideal tool to build our shows on!
What a great interview, Roy & Manuel.
Thanks for giving us a behind-the-scenes understanding of what it takes to run this epic show, day after day.
Noisia has been ruling the Drum & Bass circuit, for a reason. Thumping, fresh & original music along with a remarkable show- what else do we want?
Here is one last video for a group rage :
Video by Diana Gheorghiu
Rinseout.
Credits:
Photo credits Noisa setup: Roy Gerritsen
Adhiraj, Refractor for the on point video edits.
Photo by Diana Gheorghiu
It was a wait. But one that was truly worth it. Essentially a concept album, they pushed the boundaries on this one by backing it up with a ‘concept tour’.
An audio-visual phenomenon with rivetting content, perfect sync & melt-yo-face energy, the Outer Edges show is one that could not pass our dissection.
[fold][/fold]
We visited Rampage, one of the biggest Drum & Bass gigs around the world & caught up with Roy Gerritsen (Boompje Studio) & Manuel Rodrigues (DeepRED.tv), on video and lighting duty respectively, to talk to us about the levels of excellence the Noisia crew has achieved, with this concept show.
Here is a look at Diplodocus, a favorite amongst bass heads:
Video by Diana Gheorghiu
Thanks for doing this guys! Much appreciated.
What exactly is a concept show and how is preparation for it different from other shows?
When Noisia approached us they explained they wanted to combine the release of their next album “Outer Edges” with a synchronized audio visual performance. It had been 6 years since Noisia released a full album so you can imagine it was a big thing.
Together, we came up with a plan to lay the foundation for upcoming shows. We wanted to focus on developing a workflow and pipeline to create one balanced and synchronized experience.
Normally, all the different elements within a show (audio, light, visual, performance) focus on their own area. There is one general theme or concept and everything then comes together in the end - during rehearsals.
We really wanted to create a show where we could focus on the total picture. Develop a workflow where we could keep refining the show and push the concept in all different elements in a quick and effective way, without overlooking the details.
What was the main goal you set out to achieve as you planned the Outer Edges show?
How long did it take to come together, from start to end?
We wanted to create a show where everything is 100% synchronized and highly adaptable. Having one main control computer which connects to all elements within the show in a perfect synchronized way.This setup gave us the ability to find a perfect balance and narrative between sound, performance, lights and visuals. Besides that we wanted to have a modular and highly flexible show. Making it easy and quick to adapt or add new content.
We started with the project in March 2016 and our premiere was at the Let It Roll festival in Prague (July 2016).
The show is designed in such a way that it has an “open-end”. We record every show and because of the open infrastructure we are constantly refining it on all fronts.
What are the different gadgets and software you use to achieve that perfect sync between audio/video & lighting?
Roy:Back in the day, my graduation project at the HKU was a vj mix tool where I used the concept of “cue based” triggering. Instead of the widely used timecode synchronization where you premix all the content (the lights and the video tracks), we send a MIDI trigger of every beat and sound effect.This saves a lot of time in the content creation production process.
The edit and mix down of the visuals are basically done live on stage instead of on After effects. This means we don't have to render out 8 minute video clips and can focus on only a couple of key visual loops per track. (Every track consists of about 5 clips which get triggered directly from Ableton Live using a custom midi track).Inside Ableton we group a couple of extra designated clips so they all get triggered at the same time.
For every audio clip we sequence separate midi clips for the video and lighting, which get played perfectly in sync with the audio. These midi tracks then get sent to the VJ laptop and Manuel's lighting desk.
We understand you trigger clips off Resolume from Abelton Live using the extremely handy Max for Live patches?
Yes, we sequence a separate midi track for each audio track. We divided up the audio track in 5 different elements (beats, snares, melody , fx etc.), which corresponds with 5 video layers in Resolume.
When a note gets triggered, a Max for Live patch translates it to an OSC message and sends if off to the VJ laptop. The OSC messages get caught by a small tool we built in Derivative’s TouchDesigner. In its essence this tool translates the incoming messages into OSC messages which Resolume understands. Basically, operating Resolume automatically with the triggers received from Ableton.
This way of triggering videoclips was a result of an experiment from Martin Boverhof and Sander Haakman during a performance at an art festival in Germany, a couple of years ago. Only two variables are being used- triggering video files and adjusting the opacity of a clip. We were amazed how powerful these two variables are.
Regarding lighting, we understand the newer Chamsys boards have inbuilt support for MIDI/ timecode. What desk do you use?
Manuel:To drive the lighting in the Noisia - Outer Edges show I use a Chamsys Lighting desk. It is a very open environment. You can send Midi, Midi showcontrol, OSC, Timecode LTC & MTC, UDP, Serial Data and off course DMX & Artnet to the desk.
The support of Chamsys is extremely good and the software version is 100% free. Compared to other lighting desk manufacturers, the hardware is much cheaper.
A lighting desk is still much more expensive than a midi controller.
It might look similar as both have faders and buttons but the difference is that a lighting desk has a brain.
You can store, recall and sequence states, something which is invaluable for a lighting designer and now is happening is videoland more and more.
I have been researching on bridging the gap between Ableton Live and ChamSys for 8 years.
This research has led me to M2Q, acronym of Music-to-Cue which acts as a bridge between Ableton live and ChamSys. M2Q is a hardware solution designed together with Lorenzo Fattori, an Italian lighting designer and engineer. M2Q listens to midi messages sent from Ableton Live and converts them to Chamsys Remote Control messages, providing cue triggering and playback intensity control.
M2Q is reliable, easy and fast lighting sync solution. It enables non linear lighting sync.
When using Timecode it is impossible to loop within a song, do the chorus one more time or alter the playback speed on the fly. One is basically limited to pressing play.
Because our lighting sync system is midi based the artist on stage has exactly the same freedom Ableton audio playback offers.
Do you link it to Resolume?
Chamsys has a personality file (head file) for Resolume and this enables driving Resolume as a media server from the lighting desk. I must confess that I’m am considering switching to Resolume now for some time as it is very cost effective and stable solution compared to other mediaserver platforms.
Video by Diana Gheorghiu
Tell us about the trio’s super cool headgear. They change color, strobe, are dimmable. How?!
The led suits are custom designed and built by Élodie Laurent and are basically 3 generic led parcans and have similar functionality.
They are connected to the lighting desk just as the rest of the lighting rig and are driven using the same system.
Fun fact: These are the only three lights we bring with us so the Outer Edges show is extremely tour-able.
The Noisia content is great in it’s quirkyness. Sometimes we see regular video clips, sometimes distorted human faces, sometimes exploding planets, mechanical animals- what’s the thought process behind the content you create? Is it track specific?
The main concept behind this show is that every track has his own little world in this Outer Edges universe. Every track stands on its own and has a different focus on style and narrative.
Nik (one third of Noisia & Art director) compiled a team of 10 international motion graphic artists and together we took on the visualization of the initial 34 audio tracks. Cover artwork, videoclips and general themes from the audio tracks formed the base for most of the tracks.
Photo by Diana Gheorghiu
Photo by Diana Gheorghiu
The lighting & video sync is so on point, we can’t stop talking about it. It must have taken hours of studio time & programming?
That was the whole idea behind the setup.
Instead of synchronizing everything in the light and video tracks, we separated the synchronizing process from the design process. Meaning that we sequence everything in Ableton and on the content side Resolume takes care of the rest. Updating a vj clip is just a matter of dragging a new clip into Resolume.
This also resulted in Resolume being a big part in the design process (instead of normally only serving as a media server).
During the design process we run the Ableton set and see how clips get triggered, if we don't like something we can easily replace the video clip with a new one or adjust for instance the scaling size inside Resolume.
Some tracks which included 3D rendered images took a bit longer, but there is one track “Diplodocus” which took 30 minutes to make from start to finish. Originally, meant as a placeholder but after seeing it being synchronized we liked the simplicity and boldness of it and decided to keep it in the show.
Here is some more madness that went down:
Video by Diana Gheorghiu
Is it challenging to adapt your concept show into different, extremely diverse festival setups? How do you output the video to LED setups that are not standard?
We mostly work with our rider setup consisting of a big LED screen in the back and LED banner in front of the booth, but in case of bigger festivals we can easily adjust the mapping setup inside Resolume.
In the case of Rampage we had another challenge to come up with a solution to operate with 7 full HD outputs.
Photo by Diana Gheorghiu
Normally Nik is controlling everything from stage and we have a direct video line to the LED processor. Since all the connections to the LED screens were located in the front of house we used 2 laptops positioned there.
It was easy to adjust the Ableton Max for Live patch to send the triggers to two computers instead of one, and we wrote a small extra tool that sends all the midi-controller data from the stage to the FOH (to make sure Nik was still able to operate everything from the stage).
Talk to us about some features of Resolume that you think are handy, and would advice people out there to explore.
Resolume was a big part of the design process in this show. Using it almost as a small little After Effects, we stacked up effects until we reached our preferred end result. We triggered scalings, rotations, effects and opacity using the full OSC control option Resolume offers. This makes it super easy to create spot on synchronized shows. With a minimal amount of pre - production.
This in combination with the really powerful mapping options makes it an ideal tool to build our shows on!
What a great interview, Roy & Manuel.
Thanks for giving us a behind-the-scenes understanding of what it takes to run this epic show, day after day.
Noisia has been ruling the Drum & Bass circuit, for a reason. Thumping, fresh & original music along with a remarkable show- what else do we want?
Here is one last video for a group rage :
Video by Diana Gheorghiu
Rinseout.
Credits:
Photo credits Noisa setup: Roy Gerritsen
Adhiraj, Refractor for the on point video edits.
New Footage Releases: Abstractacadabra
Because abstract gots that magic that looks good on all the screens all the time
Laak drops another rectangular banger with SQR.
Get SQR by Laak from Resolume Footage
Artificially Awake was up all night trying to get things into Focus.
Get Focus by Artificially Awake from Resolume Footage
And Ican Agoesdjam knows that fiber is good for you.
Get FiberGlitch by Ican Agoesdjam from Resolume Footage
Laak drops another rectangular banger with SQR.
Get SQR by Laak from Resolume Footage
Artificially Awake was up all night trying to get things into Focus.
Get Focus by Artificially Awake from Resolume Footage
And Ican Agoesdjam knows that fiber is good for you.
Get FiberGlitch by Ican Agoesdjam from Resolume Footage
Footage Release: Down the Rabbithole
A little late, but worth the wait. This month, we have 3 artists taking you down a rabbithole of dreaming computers, analog fuzzy feels and Wonderland itself.
Catmac taps into the electronic shapes of a dreaming AI in Virtual Memory
Get VritualMemory by Catmac from Resolume Footage.
Ghosteam makes your larger, and Ghosteam makes you small.
Get Wonderland by Ghosteam from Resolume Footage.
And Ablaze Visuals knows that texture counts.
Get Lights by Ablaze Visuals from Resolume Footage.
Catmac taps into the electronic shapes of a dreaming AI in Virtual Memory
Get VritualMemory by Catmac from Resolume Footage.
Ghosteam makes your larger, and Ghosteam makes you small.
Get Wonderland by Ghosteam from Resolume Footage.
And Ablaze Visuals knows that texture counts.
Get Lights by Ablaze Visuals from Resolume Footage.
Jammin' at the FOH with the A-Team
Bas Scheij & Angelo Isenia are popularly known as the A-Team.
Main men at the Front of House for Afrojack, they are widely considered amongst the best lighting & video team in the electronic music space.
Bas
Picture:RUDGR
Angelo
After closely following them live multiple times we have reached the conclusion that they have one mind.
We, here at Resolume, like to call them the Human Timecode.
[fold][/fold]
This blogpost we will try to delve into the workings of this destructive duo & let’s see if we can squeeze some secrets outta them. *wink
Thanks for doing this guys!
Give us a small background of yourselves.
How did you guys get into this & at what point did you realize- “this is it”?
Bas: It all started for me 21 years ago. I worked as a stagehand for several Dutch bands.
From day one I was inspired by lights and soon I realized this was it for me. I have worked for rental companies as a light technician, project manager and operator. In 2009 I became a freelance operator and continued touring with bands, operating festivals, joined The Art of Light for a while.
This January 2017, I started my new venture BASZ design & live operating
Angelo: For me it started when I was studying at HKU school of Arts around 10 years ago. My good friend and classmate at the time, Cheverno Leiwakabessy, introduced me to VJ’ing. We were geeking out a lot back in the days trying new stuff and learning new software.
I had that ‘it’ moment when we started VJ’ing for Eyesupply. We kept doing bigger and bigger shows. That feeling of standing in the front of house running a show is an adrenaline rush for me! From then on things developed pretty quickly. We were hired by Kevin, Carlo and Sander (Eyesupply/250K) to do what we love for a living.
I had my second ‘it’ moment last year when I decided to start freelancing and started my own company, Dvizion. I did this as a means of challenging myself to get better and cooperate with more people around me.
For how long have you both been working together? Was it love at first gig?
Bas: We are working as a duo since the summer of 2013, when André Beekmans (The Art of Light) and Sander Reneman (250K) introduced me to the team doing programming in advance for André, who was Afrojack’s main LD those days.Later on, he asked me to succeed him as LD for Afrojack.
We soon found out that there was a great vibe and a synergy between Angelo, Afrojack and I, as a team.
Angelo: We recently talked about this. The years fly by so fast. It has been almost 4 years since we were brought together for the Afrojack shows. We had a really good vibe from the beginning. What is important is that we could always tell each other if we didn’t like something which only kept pushing us these years.
Picture:Sunburn Festival
While on lighting & video duty, it is important to strike a balance. Not let one overpower the other. Do you agree? How do you keep that balance?
Bas: I totally agree. One of the main rules for us as a team is to keep the right balance between video and lights and let one not overpower the other. LED walls are very bright nowadays which makes it hard to keep the right balance in output between lights and video, live and for television. We mostly achieve the balance by controlling the brightness for video, a useful tool in Resolume.
Angelo: I totally agree, this is something we talk about constantly. We call it the 100%-limit theory, as in my video can go up to 100% and lights too. But, you never want to go over 100% together. During the show we tell each other “Hey, not 200%” so we instantly know we are pushing it too much. There is still much to learn but at least this way we try to balance it out. Also, what is really important is communication during the show.
What process do you follow during lighting design & content creation? And then for operation?
Bas: For festival shows we use the design which is made by the festival designer, and for solo shows, we use our rider design. For the operational part, we work very closely with Afrojack as he really knows what he wants for video and lights.
When we, Angelo and I, receive the songs he’s about to play, we start with analyzing each song, decide which colors we’re going to use and create solo moments for video and lights. Once this is done, Angelo and I practice a little & tell each other very specifically what to do and when. After this it’s show time! At the end of each show we try to find improvements we can implement in the next show.
Angelo: The visuals are made not only by me but also by Eyesupply. We worked on a moodboard consisting of mech robots, manga designs and technical overlays. During the course of 5 years I remixed and edited a lot, adding more abstract content. It all comes down to running shows, sit down to talk about it and go back to the drawing board to adjust where necessary.
Picture: MTV Crashes Plymouth
I remember a great conversation we had about “Music sensibility” and about how understanding rhythm & time is key. Can you tell us about this?
Bas: I think this is one of the characteristics you need to have as an LD to become a real professional. Afrojack decides on the flow, which songs he’s about to play and sometimes plays new tracks without telling us beforehand! “To keep them focused”, as he always says.
It’s important to feel the groove of the music to find out when the new track comes into the mix etc. To react on a break or accent in the music, timing is key to make the difference. I think this is something you can’t learn. It's something you have or not.It is important to hit the button or fader on the right moment to give the extra dimension to the show.
Angelo: Having a sense of rhythm is key to operating, in my opinion. People know me for being too caught up trying to catch every beat and drop, it’s like a blessing and a curse :-) For me it’s really important to mix the video according to the music because everything we do is live.
Here is a great video of Bas & Angelo slaying programming @ the Main Stage, Ultra Miami 2016:
And, here is a video of the outcome:
Everything you do is freestyle. No SMPTE. No MIDI. No Timecode. Any tips for achieving such levels of tightness in transitions & color changes?
Bas: Timing is key. When both understand rhythm and timing, you’ll have the base for tight transitions and color changes as a team. We always use intercoms during show. This is very helpful to call breaks and accents. Also, we spend a lot of time listening to the songs.
Angelo: Communication. We communicate constantly during the show. Although we’ve been doing it for years so we can also sense what the other one will transition to. We also like to nerd-talk about it after the shows. We ask each other “what if we do this or that”. Then, it’s back to the hotel (or home), hook up my gear and try to incorporate those ideas into the show.
Picture:PHOTORIK @ Amsterdam MusicFestival 2015
A metal-head and a Salsa lover, what are your thoughts on the direction electronic music is heading - visually?
Bas: Most of the time a DJ is performing on his own on very big stages in front of thousands of people, which means that you have to reinforce the show visually. Stages are getting bigger nowadays and technique innovates constantly; so visually electronic shows will grow without limits.
Angelo: Haha it’s been a long time I danced! I must admit I never listen to EDM outside of work. I think visually there is much more to explore and improve upon. There are many more artists out there doing bigger and better shows than us so for me it’s always a drive to get better and better. I really look up to those trying new stuff and pushing the limits, take the Eric Prydz’ show, for example. Since I started VJ’ing I have always wondered how we can make the show more interactive - between the Artist and the Audience. This is something I would like to explore in the future.
What are your go to weapons for destruction?
Bas: For Afrojack shows I prefer to work on GrandMA 2, because of its endless possibilities and ease of operation. Nowadays it’s easy to connect Resolume to the GrandMA, which helps us push boundaries to innovate the show.
Angelo: I almost read “mass destruction” ;) For me it’s Resolume Arena hands down. I have been using it since version 2 and really like the simplicity, while having really powerful features like the Advanced Output. We are really close with the Resolume team and it’s a pleasure working out new ideas with them. For crazy new ideas is Joris my go-to guy at Resolume HQ. My MIDI controller of choice is the Akai APC40 mkII. This is the closest controller having all the bells and whistles I want. I still would like to have a better controller, maybe someday I can design my own :)
Picture: Amsterdam Music Festival 2016
Any advice you would like to give budding “FOH artists” out there?
Bas: Stay motivated learning new techniques and stimulate creativity by fueling passion.
Angelo: My advice is relax and enjoy it. It’s ok to make mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes in the past but in the end it all comes down to learning from that. Heck, I still make some mistakes haha. Also, always be friendly to your FOH buddies. In my opinion everyone in the FOH is equal so try to work together to make the best show possible.
Any last words before we let you continue being awesome?
Bas: I want to thank you guys, Shipra and Joris, for the interview. And, of course, Resolume for their support and collaboration, keep it up! Special thanks to Afrojack, 250K and The Art of Light.
Angelo: I really want to thank you guys for this fun interview, it made me think and reminisce about the past. Also, I would like to thank the Resolume guys for always being so cool with us and having a listening ear to our crazy ideas. I must also say that I wouldn't be standing here if it wasn't for Eyesupply and Afrojack. This only pushed me to perform better each show.
Ah. What a great interview this was. Straight from the heart and so much to learn.
Love your FOH buddies. Aw.
Show us some love now, guys. Come on.
Picture: Angelo's I-Phone, Times Square, NYC
Thanks. V much.
Main men at the Front of House for Afrojack, they are widely considered amongst the best lighting & video team in the electronic music space.
Bas
Angelo
After closely following them live multiple times we have reached the conclusion that they have one mind.
We, here at Resolume, like to call them the Human Timecode.
[fold][/fold]
This blogpost we will try to delve into the workings of this destructive duo & let’s see if we can squeeze some secrets outta them. *wink
Thanks for doing this guys!
Give us a small background of yourselves.
How did you guys get into this & at what point did you realize- “this is it”?
Bas: It all started for me 21 years ago. I worked as a stagehand for several Dutch bands.
From day one I was inspired by lights and soon I realized this was it for me. I have worked for rental companies as a light technician, project manager and operator. In 2009 I became a freelance operator and continued touring with bands, operating festivals, joined The Art of Light for a while.
This January 2017, I started my new venture BASZ design & live operating
Angelo: For me it started when I was studying at HKU school of Arts around 10 years ago. My good friend and classmate at the time, Cheverno Leiwakabessy, introduced me to VJ’ing. We were geeking out a lot back in the days trying new stuff and learning new software.
I had that ‘it’ moment when we started VJ’ing for Eyesupply. We kept doing bigger and bigger shows. That feeling of standing in the front of house running a show is an adrenaline rush for me! From then on things developed pretty quickly. We were hired by Kevin, Carlo and Sander (Eyesupply/250K) to do what we love for a living.
I had my second ‘it’ moment last year when I decided to start freelancing and started my own company, Dvizion. I did this as a means of challenging myself to get better and cooperate with more people around me.
For how long have you both been working together? Was it love at first gig?
Bas: We are working as a duo since the summer of 2013, when André Beekmans (The Art of Light) and Sander Reneman (250K) introduced me to the team doing programming in advance for André, who was Afrojack’s main LD those days.Later on, he asked me to succeed him as LD for Afrojack.
We soon found out that there was a great vibe and a synergy between Angelo, Afrojack and I, as a team.
Angelo: We recently talked about this. The years fly by so fast. It has been almost 4 years since we were brought together for the Afrojack shows. We had a really good vibe from the beginning. What is important is that we could always tell each other if we didn’t like something which only kept pushing us these years.
While on lighting & video duty, it is important to strike a balance. Not let one overpower the other. Do you agree? How do you keep that balance?
Bas: I totally agree. One of the main rules for us as a team is to keep the right balance between video and lights and let one not overpower the other. LED walls are very bright nowadays which makes it hard to keep the right balance in output between lights and video, live and for television. We mostly achieve the balance by controlling the brightness for video, a useful tool in Resolume.
Angelo: I totally agree, this is something we talk about constantly. We call it the 100%-limit theory, as in my video can go up to 100% and lights too. But, you never want to go over 100% together. During the show we tell each other “Hey, not 200%” so we instantly know we are pushing it too much. There is still much to learn but at least this way we try to balance it out. Also, what is really important is communication during the show.
What process do you follow during lighting design & content creation? And then for operation?
Bas: For festival shows we use the design which is made by the festival designer, and for solo shows, we use our rider design. For the operational part, we work very closely with Afrojack as he really knows what he wants for video and lights.
When we, Angelo and I, receive the songs he’s about to play, we start with analyzing each song, decide which colors we’re going to use and create solo moments for video and lights. Once this is done, Angelo and I practice a little & tell each other very specifically what to do and when. After this it’s show time! At the end of each show we try to find improvements we can implement in the next show.
Angelo: The visuals are made not only by me but also by Eyesupply. We worked on a moodboard consisting of mech robots, manga designs and technical overlays. During the course of 5 years I remixed and edited a lot, adding more abstract content. It all comes down to running shows, sit down to talk about it and go back to the drawing board to adjust where necessary.
I remember a great conversation we had about “Music sensibility” and about how understanding rhythm & time is key. Can you tell us about this?
Bas: I think this is one of the characteristics you need to have as an LD to become a real professional. Afrojack decides on the flow, which songs he’s about to play and sometimes plays new tracks without telling us beforehand! “To keep them focused”, as he always says.
It’s important to feel the groove of the music to find out when the new track comes into the mix etc. To react on a break or accent in the music, timing is key to make the difference. I think this is something you can’t learn. It's something you have or not.It is important to hit the button or fader on the right moment to give the extra dimension to the show.
Angelo: Having a sense of rhythm is key to operating, in my opinion. People know me for being too caught up trying to catch every beat and drop, it’s like a blessing and a curse :-) For me it’s really important to mix the video according to the music because everything we do is live.
Here is a great video of Bas & Angelo slaying programming @ the Main Stage, Ultra Miami 2016:
And, here is a video of the outcome:
Everything you do is freestyle. No SMPTE. No MIDI. No Timecode. Any tips for achieving such levels of tightness in transitions & color changes?
Bas: Timing is key. When both understand rhythm and timing, you’ll have the base for tight transitions and color changes as a team. We always use intercoms during show. This is very helpful to call breaks and accents. Also, we spend a lot of time listening to the songs.
Angelo: Communication. We communicate constantly during the show. Although we’ve been doing it for years so we can also sense what the other one will transition to. We also like to nerd-talk about it after the shows. We ask each other “what if we do this or that”. Then, it’s back to the hotel (or home), hook up my gear and try to incorporate those ideas into the show.
A metal-head and a Salsa lover, what are your thoughts on the direction electronic music is heading - visually?
Bas: Most of the time a DJ is performing on his own on very big stages in front of thousands of people, which means that you have to reinforce the show visually. Stages are getting bigger nowadays and technique innovates constantly; so visually electronic shows will grow without limits.
Angelo: Haha it’s been a long time I danced! I must admit I never listen to EDM outside of work. I think visually there is much more to explore and improve upon. There are many more artists out there doing bigger and better shows than us so for me it’s always a drive to get better and better. I really look up to those trying new stuff and pushing the limits, take the Eric Prydz’ show, for example. Since I started VJ’ing I have always wondered how we can make the show more interactive - between the Artist and the Audience. This is something I would like to explore in the future.
What are your go to weapons for destruction?
Bas: For Afrojack shows I prefer to work on GrandMA 2, because of its endless possibilities and ease of operation. Nowadays it’s easy to connect Resolume to the GrandMA, which helps us push boundaries to innovate the show.
Angelo: I almost read “mass destruction” ;) For me it’s Resolume Arena hands down. I have been using it since version 2 and really like the simplicity, while having really powerful features like the Advanced Output. We are really close with the Resolume team and it’s a pleasure working out new ideas with them. For crazy new ideas is Joris my go-to guy at Resolume HQ. My MIDI controller of choice is the Akai APC40 mkII. This is the closest controller having all the bells and whistles I want. I still would like to have a better controller, maybe someday I can design my own :)
Any advice you would like to give budding “FOH artists” out there?
Bas: Stay motivated learning new techniques and stimulate creativity by fueling passion.
Angelo: My advice is relax and enjoy it. It’s ok to make mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes in the past but in the end it all comes down to learning from that. Heck, I still make some mistakes haha. Also, always be friendly to your FOH buddies. In my opinion everyone in the FOH is equal so try to work together to make the best show possible.
Any last words before we let you continue being awesome?
Bas: I want to thank you guys, Shipra and Joris, for the interview. And, of course, Resolume for their support and collaboration, keep it up! Special thanks to Afrojack, 250K and The Art of Light.
Angelo: I really want to thank you guys for this fun interview, it made me think and reminisce about the past. Also, I would like to thank the Resolume guys for always being so cool with us and having a listening ear to our crazy ideas. I must also say that I wouldn't be standing here if it wasn't for Eyesupply and Afrojack. This only pushed me to perform better each show.
Ah. What a great interview this was. Straight from the heart and so much to learn.
Love your FOH buddies. Aw.
Show us some love now, guys. Come on.
Thanks. V much.
A New Year, A New Resolume: 5.1.3 & 4.6.3
It's January 26 now this so it's probably too late to late to wish you all a happy new year, but, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Here is the first Resolume update of 2017. It has mainly fixes in the Advanced Output and some SMPTE timecode fixes.
Download and enjoy that zen moment of staring at a slowly moving progress bar. If you're in a hurry then download the installer without any demo footage, it's much smaller so it wil download faster. You'll find it in the dropdown menu at the bottom of the downloads page.
Resolume Arena 5.1.3 & Avenue 4.6.3
[FIXED] SMPTE value in status bar not working when SMPTE is set to 29.97 fps
[FIXED] High SMPTE Offset values are not picked up by GUI when SMPTE is set to 29.97
[FIXED] SMPTE offset calculation is broken when using 29.97 drop-frame timecode
[FIXED] When slices are snapped to the edge of the comp, edge blend wraps and gets applied on wrong part of slice
[FIXED] Disable Snap toggle button no worky for polyslices and output masks
[FIXED] Clip In and Outpoints can get reset on composition reload
[FIXED] Still image duration not remembered after switching deck
[FIXED] Slice snapper snaps to a weird snap result
[FIXED] Mask corner point selection cycles to other slice or fixture when clicked
[FIXED] Can not load an output preset when you've never saved an output preset
[FIXED] Output preset name doesn’t get updated after opening preset and cancel
[FIXED] Undo breaks the transformer widget's outline
[FIXED] Multitask transition has a single flash of white on the right texture halfway through the transition
[FIXED] Audio track that needs to be relocated, still shows codec info and duration
[FIXED] Polygon slice "match input shape" works normalized, it shouldn't
[FIXED] Slice name sometimes has outline.
[FIXED] Problems with Japanese font rendering
Enjoy!
Team Resolume
Here is the first Resolume update of 2017. It has mainly fixes in the Advanced Output and some SMPTE timecode fixes.
Download and enjoy that zen moment of staring at a slowly moving progress bar. If you're in a hurry then download the installer without any demo footage, it's much smaller so it wil download faster. You'll find it in the dropdown menu at the bottom of the downloads page.
Resolume Arena 5.1.3 & Avenue 4.6.3
[FIXED] SMPTE value in status bar not working when SMPTE is set to 29.97 fps
[FIXED] High SMPTE Offset values are not picked up by GUI when SMPTE is set to 29.97
[FIXED] SMPTE offset calculation is broken when using 29.97 drop-frame timecode
[FIXED] When slices are snapped to the edge of the comp, edge blend wraps and gets applied on wrong part of slice
[FIXED] Disable Snap toggle button no worky for polyslices and output masks
[FIXED] Clip In and Outpoints can get reset on composition reload
[FIXED] Still image duration not remembered after switching deck
[FIXED] Slice snapper snaps to a weird snap result
[FIXED] Mask corner point selection cycles to other slice or fixture when clicked
[FIXED] Can not load an output preset when you've never saved an output preset
[FIXED] Output preset name doesn’t get updated after opening preset and cancel
[FIXED] Undo breaks the transformer widget's outline
[FIXED] Multitask transition has a single flash of white on the right texture halfway through the transition
[FIXED] Audio track that needs to be relocated, still shows codec info and duration
[FIXED] Polygon slice "match input shape" works normalized, it shouldn't
[FIXED] Slice name sometimes has outline.
[FIXED] Problems with Japanese font rendering
Enjoy!
Team Resolume
First footage of 2017: Fabrics
This month it's all about fabrics.
RAW Designs returns from a long hiatus with the smooth DeepSilk:
Get DeepSilk from Resolume Footage
Ican Agoesdjam cuts his teeth on CrystalThorn.
Get CrystalThorn from Resolume Footage
And Artificially Awake rips the fabric of time and space with his Tunnels:
Get Tunnels from Resolume Footage
RAW Designs returns from a long hiatus with the smooth DeepSilk:
Get DeepSilk from Resolume Footage
Ican Agoesdjam cuts his teeth on CrystalThorn.
Get CrystalThorn from Resolume Footage
And Artificially Awake rips the fabric of time and space with his Tunnels:
Get Tunnels from Resolume Footage