Don’t get me wrong, FFT analysis is a fantastic feature in Resolume—but it has its limitations. Without the ability to stably and correctly host an audio routing plugin, like Wormhole, to route audio from your digital audio workstation (DAW) into Resolume, you are pretty much stuck performing FFT analysis on what is going in and out of your audio interface pre-DAW (unless you want to get into complicated cable routings). I’ve come up with a fairly simple solution to completely change that, so that now you can use the audio levels of ANY track in your DAW (pre, mid or post-effects) to control parameters in Resolume. You can automate Resolume parameters to sync with your DAW as well. Here’s how!
Please keep in mind I am doing my audio and video on one (admittedly fast!) PC. To do this between an audio PC and a video PC, you will need a way to transfer MIDI between the two. There are many ways to do this, and I won’t get into that here.
The solution is in a free, discontinued VST I found made by Blue Cat Audio called Digital Peak Meter (now replaced by the for-cost Digital Peak Meter Pro, which has more options and may work even better). You can find this free VST at: http://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Pr ... PeakMeter/
This VST converts your track volume to MIDI data (on that grand old 0-127 scale). All you need to do is assign a MIDI CC value to the OUT::Envelope parameter in your DAW, and assign the same CC value to whatever parameter (or link) you would like to affect in Resolume. With the flexibility of Resolume, this means you can control anything—clip opacity, saturation, whatever—with the volume on any given track in your DAW.
Got it? If not, let me explain how I did this in Ableton. I opened the parameters (by clicking the little editing arrow of the VST) and entered MIDI mapping mode in Ableton. I clicked the OUT::Envelope parameter and I turned a knob on my Novation Remote SL 37 that I had assigned to a given MIDI CC value. I then entered Resolume’s MIDI mapping mode and mapped the same CC value (by turning the same knob) to the parameter I wanted to control. I send the MIDI signal from my DAW to Resolume via a MIDI Yoke channel. (http://www.midiox.com/) Got it now? If not, feel free to ask.
In Digital Peak Meter, be sure to adjust the settings so that they work correctly with your effect (decay time). I’ve found putting limiters, compressors and more before the peak meter plugin to be very handy in keeping the track volume, and therefore the video effects, fairly even and responsive.
Try out putting the VST before and after effects! If you are still finding things too jumpy, there’s another great solution: ghost tracks.
Ghost tracks are my name for audio clips that are not sending to your master out. I just route them to an audio interface output that doesn’t go anywhere. So, route your main audio track (be it guitar, synth, whatever) in your DAW to your master out but also double it as a ghost track that doesn't go to your master out. Add a lot of reverb and/or compression to the ghost track. People will never hear this ghost track, but it will have smoother volume changes than the track they are hearing. By putting the Digital Peak Meter here instead of on your track people are hearing, you are smoothing out your visual results as you smooth out the audio.
Ghost tracks also have another great function: sync and automation. You can make any sort of clip you want that no one will ever hear, yet syncs up with effects in your visual work. If you think about it, you could just automate and map any MIDI parameter to an effect in Resolume on a ghost track without worrying about analyzing the audio. But using Digital Peak Meter is a quick and easy way to toss things in quickly live. For example, say you have a drum loop you are slowly bringing up in your DAW, but you want the visual reaction to start before the volume is decently audible. Duplicate your loop onto a ghost track and leave the volume up… your effect will be going once you start the ghost track loop, no matter where the volume is on your actual drum loop during the performance.
The possibilities are endless using peak metering. I won’t get into what is possible even with just two musicians, effects and sidechaining, but using your imagination will take you places. If you have new ideas or approaches, please share! I'd love to hear them.
Disclaimer: I have NO relation to Blue Cat Audio, Ableton or MIDIOX. I just spent a long time looking for a solution like this and it was the only one I had success with! After countless hours of frustration with the Max for Live beta and with dozens of other VSTs, I thought I'd share my success.
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