Resolume Explained pt 1

So I figure it would be a good time to explain in detail what is going on with Resolume for my project, as this is one of the main area I( have developed skills for my project.

Resolume Arena is VJ software. As such, it's primary function is one of a video mixer and effector. At a basic level, it act's much like a DAW does. It has channels, and multiple videos can be stored across them, it then has a range of functions to blend, fade, invert etc.

Above you can see what I'm talking about. It is laid out as a grid, with each Channel containing videos across the horizontal axis. As you can see, there are three Channels employed here, giving the option to have up to three layers of video making up the output.

So that's the top of the screen you see, but what about the bottom of the damn screen I hear you cry. Well, from left to right.... First you see the two mini screens. The top one and bigger of the two simply shows the output of the video mix. If you have a second screen or projector, this can be sent to them... But we shall get to that. the screen underneath is the preview window, this can be thought of as cue for all yu DJ's out there. Next you have the Master control section. Here you can adjust the overall tilt of the screen in all planes, spin it, flip it and you also have opacity controls. As the title suggests, these controls apply to the output video, not individual clips. For these controls you have to move left.

If you are familiar with ableton, then this section shouldn't feel too different. First off you have all the same controls you have in the master section, however this time on a clip by clip basis (select clip by clicking on it). You can do so much more here though, and to bring it to life we have to look to the last section on the right. Here is our browser, where we can search all media and tools related to Resolume. Obviously this includes your main system drives, however it also includes a range of video specific effects. These can be chained at will, again on a clip by clip basis, resulting in some truly spectacular video augmentation.

Next to the effects tab however, we find one called sources. This contains a range Generative graphics, based on the FFGL/OpenGL platform. These each have a range of control parameters, allowing for augmentation of the generative graphics. for example the "Lines" generator does exactly what it says on the tin. However the parameters allow control over the number of lines on the screen, the thickness of them, how sharp the edges are, their rotation, their opacity and so forth. On top of this, as with before, we can then chain as many effects as we desire or require after this. Effectively, resolume has a built in comprehensive, open source video synthesiser built into it.

In itself that is very cool, however ass I have touched on before, Resolume offers accurate FFT analysis of audio signals which can then be mapped to just about any parameter within Resolume, certainly all the parameters we are concerned with here. So the next few posts shall go into details of exactly how I have used these parameters to develop the space in my room. Unfortunately I don't have two computers, so for now I am just able to test my own tracks on the system (and any other track obviously) after they have been written. Tbh it is fun to take it out of the analytical environment of the DAW and then import it into Resolume and test it with the chains I have made so far. I have found it far better than just "looking away from the screen" to get an idea for how things sound. Anyways, I can show you in more detail exactly what is going on within the program, however I need to be up early to get the wood for the acoustic diffuser I am building to use as a screen for the projections! Exciting times.

Taken a while, but im getting there with the Arduino and LED side of things

So yeah, turns out learning electronics isnt as easy as I first thought it would be. The thing I have found most difficult has been the parts, I have now got three seperate things wrong simply through not fully understanding exatcly what things were etc....

I have now managed to build a HSV or HSL (depending on which you prefer) LED controller for my lightstrip, through following a tutroial here -

LED HSV Fade Controller

And here are the results.... I had a few issues in loading up the arduino... For some reason the COM porting was wrong at first and again, through inexperience it took me a while to figure out.

I have been playing around with the code and I have figured out how to change loop times of the fade through colours... Although inexplicably the red LED seems to just stay on through the cycle, going to be trying to figure that out tomorrow.

Having said that, hopefully my 880 pin breadboard arrives and I can forget about this and gett on with the audio reactivity!

Anyways, here are some photos from this little side project. It has definately helped in terms of building my confidence with electronics. For example, I have stripped a 12v power supply back to bare wires and am using it for prototyping. I have never really done anything like this beffore, so frankly its a miracle I didnt violently electrocute myself. Still plenty of time to go though! ;)

These still dont show it very well, but the arduino is controlling the light cycle of the He Saturation and "Value", which you can think of as intensity. The resulting effect isnt quite audio reactivity, but for my first shot at electronics, Im pretty happy.

Now that my confidence is there, hopefully I can complete the reactive project, although it is slightly more complex!

Lost for a While

I have definately had a few struggles over the last few weeks trying to re-engage the writing part of my brain and get a solid angle for the dissertation. I feel I have found one now though, so thought I should give a wee update on here.

I have decided that doing a questionnaire for producers and mix engineers is probably a good idea, I can probably get some pretty strong data about peoples creative experience and habits from this.

I will be sending the questionnaire out to my University peers, however I am also part of a few online communities that I can utillise for some extra data, from people who are actually earning a living from mixing and making music.

I will spend tomorrow (after the Formula 1, of course), constructing the body of the questionnaire and run it by Raz sometime next week. I will also be making a start on my literature review in the next couple of days.

The reason there has not been any post's on the LED system is because despite TECHNICALLY having all the parts, my inexperience in any form of electronics LED me to buy a Breadboard half the size of the one required. Nice. The corrected sized one should be here sometime next week, and as soon as it is finishing that off is going to be my highest priority.

I have personally been using my resolume system to check over my own mixes and music and finding it very fun and inspiring. The only problem just now is that I lack two computers, and I run a PC. the only way to really utilise both Ableton Live and Resolume at the same time on windows based machines is with two separate machines

till my next post, here are some new LED Cube Analysers I have found on Youtube. Need to figure out how to do these on a bigger scale for after Uni!! Festival Soundsystems await....

Proper Projection mapping

So in this next video, I have painted some boxes and tubes that I have lying around white, and then stacked them on top of my speaker to give a muli dimentional surface to map video onto.

As with the first example, this is all generative graphics from within Resolume Arena using FFGL.

This has given me many more thoughts as to the type of envirnmental structures that you would want to map given the chance and I'm now going to be constructing some simple wooden shapes of a fairly large size in order to place in my show space during pressy week.

Here is the video, enjoy!

I am going to spend the weekend doping more research into the FFGL platform, as I have recently applied to become a member of their closed website community for developers - hopefully they accept me!

Audio Reactive and Generative FFGL Projection Mapping

So in my hunt for the most efficient way to convey the idea of colour and sound relating to one another, I have turned back to Resolume and a platform within it that until very recently I didn't actually know existed. FFGL is a framework related to Fireworks and Supercollider, which enables the use of generative graphics from within Resolume.

When combined with the hundred or so FFGL effects that come bundled with it, you can really create an astounding number of cool graphics. The beauty of this of course is that, as I have mentioned in previous blog posts, the parameters of these Generative Graphics and Effects can all be controlled with the on board FFT analysis that can be performed with Resolume.

So after a quick Sunday morning jaunt around the Matrix (Internet), I discovered a great series of tutorials covering the basics of projection mapping in order to set up the room in some semblance of what I have previously discussed here, all be it slightly roughshod (Sunday Morning, remember?)

Unfortunately the HDMI cable I have currently is only a meter or so long, I am going to go out this week and get a 5M one so I can get the projector fully back and square in my room, enabling me to map both bass traps on either side. As this video shows, currently I only have the left side of my room going, however I feel the results speak for themselves. I must stress that, when combined with my tutorial dig, I have spent three hours on this particular mapping.

I unfortunately discovered that I could have had this operating at a much greater resolution, which is annoying, as now I have to re-do the set in 1920x1080 for maximum impact come Presentation Week. As I said though, a couple of hours and I will be back to this stage full res. From that point on, minus the time I spend on the LED side of the project and written work, I will be focusing on building that set up to the point it can be run for hours and hours without experiencing the same visuals twice.

As I suspected to begin with, I have found that so far, the more dynamic the audio signal being fed into the system, the better the results. Before watching, I feel I must post a warning that this video contains strobing lights and music of a graphic nature. See what I did there? Please excuse resolution, a new one will be up tomorrow.

More tomorrow, see ya!

Nearly There!

So nearly all the parts for the project have arrived, I thought I would take this time to give you a little photo gallery of the parts I have received. The only parts I am waiting on are the button/switch, a bag of cables, the breadboard and the MOSFETS. Hopefully they should be here by the start of next week. If they aren't, I am going to go to Maplin and pay a little more to have them on that day. Anyways, here is what I have so far.

I am going to wait until its dark later on and show you the LED strip in a dark environment. As I said its not audio reactive at present, but a brief impression of what the environment is like is important; it is already a more productive and pleasant environment to work in, in my opinion anyway.

New Discovery

I had done a little research into Arduino "Shields" before starting this. They are nifty little devices that simply plug into the top of your Arduino and are pre-rigged for dedicated projects. All the projects I had seen using them were for things like motors and other sensor rigs for motion detection etc, I had never seen any that could be of any use in this context. Until now.....

It is actually just a video that came up in the suggested videos on Youtube, at the end of the last MSGEQ7 video I posted, that put me onto this, so here it is for you to have a look at.

As you can see, this is not exactly the same implementation, as there seems to be no recognition of frequency indicated in the colour spectrum, it is definately audio reactive though. My guess is that it is on a cycle of all colours, and the frequency of the shift between them is being modulate using the incoming audio. There is no detail of exactly what is being controlled in the description unfortunately. I did however find  a place you can buy this. So dependent on how things are looking in a weeks time as to the delivery dates of some of the more obscure items on the list I just bought, I may consider purchasing this is an added extra to the project. There is also a possibility that the Youtube user (who's real name I still need to get) who is helping me on this journey, may be willing to have a look at modding his code to work for this Shield.

For now though, I am off to do some more research as the links at the end of the video above also look interesting! TTFN.