Northern Cold

Countdown: 27 days until the show.

Project goal: Perform a live DJ set with timecode synced custom visuals and lighting, that automatically trigger based on song cues.

Progress: I think got my lighting setup proof of concept working. This uses the Wolfmix WMX1 mk1 lighting controller, and an Entron EN4 ethernet to DMX gateway device. The hardest part about this was figuring out how to send Art-net signal to the EN4, so it could be correctly converted/sent as DMX to the Wolfmix.

I spent many hours troubleshooting some odd behavior. That was ultimately caused by Art-net signal loss. I realized I need to send a consistent stream of Art-net data to the EN4, otherwise it enters signal loss mode. Once I researched that more I figured out what to do here and now have it working well.

Will be integrated it more thoroughly into my A/V show software I’m developing to help run the A/V components of the show while I DJ my set.

Countdown: 35 days until the show.

Project goal: Perform a live DJ set with timecode synced custom visuals and lighting, that automatically trigger based on song cues.

Progress:
At the last progress update, I mentioned I was writing new software to replace the visual clip trigger source (Pioneer Pro DJ Link Bridge) in my timecode setup. I now have a working demo I can showcase. Watch the video to see how it works.

This workflow is based on controlled randomness. So every live show A/V performance is different, even if you played the same tracks. We start by defining the energy levels within the songs in our library, with a rating of 1-5, and storing that in a file for use later.

Then we head over to Resolume, and make a show file. We organize it so the clips with similar energy level are located near each other. For example deck 1, row 1, clips 1-10 are energy level 1.

To tie it all together, we make a little config file that describes our Resolume file. In this file exactly where in Resolume we can find clips by energy level.

Once connected to the Pro Link network with the CDJs and mixer, the software will listen for those events, realize which track it is, determine which bar location its on, then send a randomly selected visual clip trigger to Resolume based on the energy level of that point in the song.

The software only triggers clips that match the current energy level for that exact moment of the song. Each performance is random and can never be replicated. Giving you the accuracy of timecode visuals, but without delivering a static, pre-made performance.

None of this would have been possible without this amazing open source library called Beat Link (by Deep Symmetry). This does all the work of listening to Pioneer Pro Link traffic and decoding it, so I only had to write the code related to the config files and the custom event handling logic.

I’ve been working on some acid breakbeat tracks lately. Way different then my usual stuff. Will have a couple of these come out later this summer. Let me know if you want to hear some more like this! Will obviously keep putting out my main styles too.

Video by
Glitch FX by .visuals