Music Visualization

[Paul Strohmeier]

Hi Everyone

In short, my question is: How would you go about generating visuals for a music video?

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I have been playing around with using processing for music visualization. Up until now, I have been doing everything in real time: i.e. analyze the spectrum and create graphics based on that data.

This works fine with simple graphics, however as things get a bit more complex (i.e. when I try to combine two different visualizations) the software begins to lag. I miss frames, there is stuttering in the playback etc. This also means that, depending on how much is going on at the same time I catch more or less beats, which significantly alters the style of some of the displays.

I am not a very meticulous coder - my code probably is terribly inefficient. Also, my laptop is ~ 5 years old. However, I think the real problem is that Java/Processing is simply not suited for doing this stuff the way I am.

Alternate approaches would be to somehow do everything frame by frame - creating and exporting individual images, however I somehow don't like this solution, as it would prevent me from doing quick previews etc.

The other thing I thought of was using open frameworks. However I have never used C++ (except for Arduino) and am sort of scared that it might be a steep learning curve. If you think this is the way to go - which compiler would you recommend?

My other thought was using max/msp/jitter or pure/data. Any suggestions on that?

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Ok, hoping somebody can give me some advice.

Thanks

p.

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paul strohmeier
          [web] paulstrohmeier.info

[blog] fkeel.blogspot.com
[mail] paul.st...@gmail.com

[Dimitri Moshkoff]

Paul,

In general, I think you have to sort of set your goals as to what you are trying to achieve.
There are plenty of plugins and software to generate visuals.
There are Hardware and software solutions, commercial and open source, analog devices that allow you to warp the live or pre recorded video stream.

All depends on what you are trying to achieve and for what purpose.
Live or in the studio; software based or hardware based, or combination of 2.


There are few websites:

www.vjcentral.com
www.createdigitalmotion.com
Plenty of projects and articles to read.

I also like the new Livid Instruments Brain 2 platform that might be sufficient to be used with the software with their new approach to modular controllers.
http://wiki.lividinstruments.com/wiki/Brain_v2

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[Paul Strohmeier]

Lets see. I want to create a music video. I do not want to spend more than one week on it.

I want to work with software and generated graphics. I would prefer not to use dedicated VJ software (as I am afraid that, as a beginner, I will only be able to produce rather generic stuff...) and I will not buy (or pirate) any commercial software. I am using windows 7.

I have a prerecorded track which I am working with - so it need not happen real time. 

Does that make my requirements clearer? Do you have any specific recommendations? 

Currently browsing the VJForums...

Thanks

p.

[Dimitri Moshkoff]

Paul,

But writing VJ software from scratch, without trying out tons of other products, its sort of like starting to compose music, without studying the classics ( whatever they might be ). In my opinion,  you could try what is out there, get demo versions, or find your ways through, at least for the Windows Platform, and see what you could do with it, if you feel comfortable working on the Windows Platform.

Otherwise, you would be chasing the dog's tail.

For the music video that you are working on, you could outsource whatever effects you have in mind to a 3D studio or Post.
Let me know if you need some help with that.

[Paul Strohmeier]

Hm. I am not looking to write a VJ software. I am looking to 'manually' generate visuals from sound. I do not intend to work with any video sources.

Here is something I did a while ago:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C7AD688xWs ... nothing exciting, but just to describe the type of stuff I want to do.

Ideally I am searching for some object oriented programming environment, where I can generate visuals based on sound input. Is there any VJ software which does that?

Regards

p.

[Paul Strohmeier]

anyway. guess I will give Pure Data a shot. 

[Dave Pentecost]

There might be a space left in the Marius Watz workshop on
"Sound-responsive visuals in Processing" this coming Saturday if you
are in New York:

http://workshop.evolutionzone.com/workshops-in-new-york/#three

Maybe there's something in Processing that you haven't tried yet.

Dave

[Paul Strohmeier]

Damn. Wish I where. I bet there is lots in processing I have not tried...

Sadly I am about 6k miles away at the moment. :-( ... thats *exactly* what I need right now.

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[Andrew O'Malley]

Hi Paul,

Based on the video you showed, a couple things come to mind.

I haven't worked with Minim in Processing too much, but perhaps you could do some some initial pre-analysis of the audio and then render the video?  Something between frame by frame analysis and real-time generation.  Flight 404 has some interesting blog posts about his music visualization process that you may find interesting: http://www.flight404.com/blog/?p=111

The other thing could be to record various versions of simple real-time visuals from Processing, then use VJ software to edit/compose them together in real-time.  The results could be really unique, mixing algorithmic visuals with real-time mixing.

Good luck w/ you vid, please share your results!

Cheers,
Andrew

[Andrew O'Malley]

Ooops, sorry, meant to address the original poster . . .