Vjing!?
VJing seems to be the in thing right now and I’ve stumbled across this when I was look up my dj wifey<3<3<3
Does anyone do this? What programs do you use? Any advice to get started and where I can find/buy a rig?
I’ll preface this with while I don’t do it, I’ve thought about it a lot. I almost made the choice to go with VJing software/hardware instead of DJing hardware (though it can be somewhat interchangeable depending on the application).
It turned out my friends (whom DJ) aren’t really pushing themselves at clubs, and so that made me decide to go with DJing. But VJing definitely is one of the most overlooked aspects of a good night.
Serato has a plug-in called video-SL. Which allows mixing of videos alongside while you mix the music. Great concept and it’s something I’m going to mess with at some point.
Virtual DJ also does the same thing, and it doesn’t cost anything extra. It’s probably the most widely known and easily accessible for VJing/DJing.
Resolume is probably one of the higher recommended forms of software that I’ve heard about. It looks like really robust software, but I’ve not bought it, or messed with it.
I’ve also played around with Cell DNA. Which is Livid Instruments original focus, and is one of the great thing about their controllers, which can be easily mapped to both ableton and their VJing software.
Personally, I liked Cell DNA a lot. If I were JUST VJing, I’d take a much harder look at resolume as well. Serato Video-SL and Virtual DJ are neat ways to take your own DJing up a notch as well.
It’s a really interesting thing to start looking into. I wish I had the time to pursue this along-side work/school/music.
I would be interested to get into this. There was a video floating on here of a drum & bass producer who had the db4 output midi to vj software that corresponded to what he was doing on the mixer with music, wish I could find it.
Music videos have no interest but I would love to be able to incorporate cool video effects. i wonder though, where do people get the videos and effects they use? Also how do people make custom effects and graphics for their video sets?
Resolume is absolutely amazing.
You could also do a bit of this shit in ableton.
Xonetacular- You can buy VJ loops like people buy tracks. You can also produce/record/edit your own, just like people produce/record/edit their own tracks. The effects come from your software, just like with digital DJing. It’s just like using traktor/ableton really.
is it practical to do this while also DJing a set or is that too much to do? would you want another person to be doing video for you?
just for some vdj inspiration here is arguably the worlds best vdj dj Yoda. he used to use to dvj 1000 decks, a svj 5000 mixer and 2 technics running off serato. now he uses a rane 68 running the bridge with 2 technics for the video decks. the reason he said he changed was that it was alot more portable and rane gave him the mixer and he loved it
heres some vids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPaGNbVOZs4&feature=player_embedded#!
One of my favourite nights has recently pretty much only started booking DJ/VJ sets for the headliners and I can’t stand it. It just doesn’t work well in my opinion.
They don’t focus on their mix enough so it suffers and they are so into this new toy of visuals that rather than do what a lighting engineer or VJ would normally do and compliment the music and atmosphere they make it the focus of their performance. The result is a set that is more suited to sitting down and watching while nodding your head than actually dancing.
Also the best VJ sets are not about having good loops and using the effects well (which DJs never do, it’s just random youtube vids and explosions randomly cutting into each other) it’s about turning up the day before the gig and customising the visuals to the venue by building installations to project onto and cutting a mask for your output so it sits nicely onto whatever your projecting it onto.
Bad VJs and DJ/VJs just throw up a white square sheet and treat the side of the stage like a cinema which honestly sucks. I’ve seen a guy make it so only the vinyl has the visuals on which was cool in a small venue.
A good friend of mine build a huge cube around the DJs on stage, stretched a mostly transparent piece of cloth over it and then cut a mask so it looked like they were in this crazy cube thing made of lasers and shit 
The other way to go about it is to make your own set of visuals and loops so you have a style, like this music video.
@ tombruton69
I honestly could not disagree more. Oh wow look it’s some random youtube mario video and it shutters a bit as he scratches. Wow totally amazing.
This is what a real VJ does:
the fact that he is a top notch turntablist and has world famous mix tapes. he did say that wen he toured in america they where all a bit confused. and the camera was a camera from an audiance member not a pro
@MrPopinjay I understand where you’re going with that, but there is a distinct difference in doing visuals with a large budget operation, and doing something in addition to a small night at a club/bar.
While I really do appreciate those epic visual sets when I’ve seen them, there is something to be said for a bar/club that has SOMETHING going on in the background as well.
I think a good VJ can set an equally important part of the tone/feel of a night. People may come there for the music, but they’ll keep coming back for the “overall” performance of a night.
The VJ is the red-headed stepchild of most nights.
yeah I agree with this
I don’t think VJing should be dismissed unless you are putting on a huge show
It definitely adds a cool atmosphere element to a place that will keep people there or coming back
I have to agree with popinjay and say that was a little underwhelming. I don’t doubt that he has the ability, but those videos seemed to be a little boring. The produced one was decent, but that wasn’t a showing of what he does live. If he were cutting it up a bit more, I’d be impressed. I’ve seen a good friend demo the serato video plugin and cut it up DMC style with music videos. THAT was what I was expecting, and those videos were far from it. I’d def like to see some more stuff with the possibilities of video being exploited a bit farther though.
I think you guys are seriously overestimating how hard it is to create something like the amon tobin one. You don’t need anything at all, it’s just about showing up before you open and spending an hour or two cutting shapes out on the computer so only whatever you want is projected onto. And if you do wanna make something you can make any shape surface you want with a bit of stretchy cloth, some cable ties and some bamboo sticks. It could just be a bit of the booth, it could just be the bar, it could spell out a word on the wall. Maybe it could be on the logo for the night?
Either way throwing up a sheet doesn’t cut it. Yoda is a badman DJ but a really shitty VJ.
Again, a good friend of mine does things just like the amon tobin setup and the cost of the installation is practically nothing.
don’t most of those production live acts have a separate person or visuals team controlling all that stuff?
Which ones? The ones I’m talking about? Yeah generally but the actual performance requires practically no effort. You can pretty much just turn it on and ignore it. Maybe play with some effects and change the loops when you have some free time if you want to.
All the effort is preparation. There’s no reason a DJ can’t do it, spesh if they are not beat matching, but it’d require them to show up earlier and actually do some work.
well this sounds like something I would like to do… what kind of gear would I want to look at? Do most people run visuals off a separate laptop of what? seems like it would be a lot to plug into one computer.
Well you could try them both on one computer and see how you like it. I mean laptops are so powerful these days I don’t see why you couldn’t. People are happily running traktor and ableton on one machine.
As for gear I’m not entirely sure. Why not download the resolume trial and play about with it? I believe my mate has some crazy ass external graphics card, a bunch of projectors, a midi keyboard, a lighting deck that runs midi (?) and touch os on his iphone.
VJing = Veejazzling. Discuss.
Virtual DJ is the best for this.
Now think of doing that while spinning music. That would make for a fairly shitty DJ and a horribly boring set. Same thing applies to VJ’s.