The final hurdle

In recent years music and video have become increasingly linked in various different forms. With DJ’s (disc jockey) performances now often accompanied by a visual element usually performed by a separate VJ (video jockey) artist who works with the musician to create a visual experience that enhances the music.

This project is an audio and visual composition and perform­ance software tool developed in Max/MSP/Jitter. Its primary function is to allow for the creation and mixing together of audio and visual elements in real time.

The core features of the software are:

• Visual:
  • Creation of drawings using a graphics tablet to one of 6 ’sketch pads’ each with a unique color.
  • Each sketch pad can optionally have a background image or video to be drawn on top of.
  • Mixing together of two sketch pads at a time to a single output video with various effects available to merge the images/videos.
• Audio (6 channels to manipulate):
  • Synthesis of sound from each sketch as it is drawn.
  • Ability to record the synthesis to an audio track associated with the sketch pad which is then looped.
  • Selection and manipulation of VST effects to be applied to each audio channel

Because each of these features are controlled via a graphics tablet and can be controlled at the same time I believe this will lead to some interesting audio video mixes where the audio and video are linked together and effecting one another due to the control mechanisms being linked.