Just a quick update to the Live 2 Processing work…
Now with added colour.
…the main goal here was to get Processing to send messages back to Ableton Live. These come in the form of OSC signals, which bang out MIDI notes that I’ve assigned in the Max For Live patch. I also worked the percussion effected rectangles, so they are now responsive to individual drums (kick, snare and hats).
Whilst I’m still learning, it’s quite nice being able to use a graphical programming language, as opposed to a language-based code – flashy lights keep me more satisfied than sexy syntax. Once again, here are the patches for you to (mis)use as you will…
The other night, Gentleforce invited me around to help with the audio/visual collaboration between himself and Julapy, for his upcoming album launch performance(s). Gentleforce will be performing with Ableton Live, so it was a bit of an opportunity to start working with Max For Live, to get his computer talking to Julapy’s excellent live openFrameworks based visuals.
I don’t know a great deal about openFrameworks (other than it quickly becoming the tool of choice for many live/interactive visualists), but it does seem to have much in common with Processing, so whatever I work on should port fairly simply to openFrameworks. I’m still finding my way around Max For Live, so the wonderful (and free) Live 2 Processing plugin by Wiggle was a perfect place to start. It wasn’t long before Julapy weaved his magic with openFrameworks and was receiving peak audio values from Live via OSC.
It’s been a while since I posted. The Festival Of Scott began on November 19th and continued for around 4 days, pretty much making me incapable of coherent speech, let alone dispensing worthwhile blog posts. After The Festival Of Scott ended, The Vacation Of Scott’s Immune System began, then I quickly hit The Madness Of Finders Keepers Preparation, which brings you all up to date…
As part of the music stage I was running at The Finders Keepers markets, I decided to introduce some live visuals. I started building a basic video mixer in Processing, but after a few ill-advised incarnations (v2, v3, v4, v5), I was distracted by the flashy lights of the newly released MaxForLive. With Jitter being a part of MaxForLive, I thought it would be a good chance to dip my toe into the graphic-programming-language-behemoth.
It wasn’t long before I realised I was out of my depth. For anyone looking to MaxForLive/MaxMSP for visuals, don’t expect to be able to jump straight into the deep end. You really do need to start with the basics, which Max does provide with a truly excellent tutorial system. Even though it’s a graphic language, it’s certainly no easier than taking on something like Processing. In fact, I’d probably recommend starting with Processing – I personally believe learning the basics of code helps to understand some of the structures within Max. And there are excellent opportunities to combine the two on the way.
I’m currently putting the finishing touches on the music line-up for The Finders Keepers markets in December. I’ve been looking after the stage at the markets for a while now, and slowly we’re trying to make music a larger part of the event.
One of the ways I’ve tried to make the music more interesting is to take the same approach that the organisers have with designer applications: keep it fresh, different and interesting. I’ll put out the music line-up once I get confirmations from all the artists, but I am quite excited about this one: there are a lot of artists that will be new to the markets.
Also new for these markets is a set designer. Michelle McCosker is super-talented and will be putting together some larger-than-life set pieces for us. I’d better not go into too much detail about this just yet either. However, the addition of set design has also given me the prospect of adding some live visuals to the stage, which I can talk about…
There are plenty of excellent programs out there which handle live visuals. However, I decided to try my hand at putting something very simple together in Processing, just to see what I could come up with. I will put the code up as I progress, for any suggestions or advice you have – feel free to put it to use if you like.
For this project, I’m using the excellent GSVideo and GLGraphics libraries, which already seem to give Processing some much needed grunt in the visual department. I’m still quite new to the world of OpenGL, but it seems to be heading in the right direction for those of you interested in getting your hands dirty.
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