I’m so far using Visual Cortex and Sensory Translator to generate some visualisations from my Mod, and I’m mixing picture from a digital source - Resolume Arena. So far, All I can get VC to output is horizontal lines, fat ones, thin ones, derived from the frequencies of my Modular synth. And, mixed with the output of Arena, I’m getting some pretty wild content, so far so good.
My issue now is, how to get some more interesting shapes from the VC. those scan lines are cool but I need more shapes to work with! …
If there is any way I can setup to generate different shapes with what I have, that would be great (spill the beans if you know how!!) … but otherwise, I guess I’ll be buying another module.
So, what’s the best one to go for? I probably can only afford one, or perhaps a couple of the cadet range…
I guess I’d like to either Mask shapes from the lines so that, perhaps I can have a circle or square of lines that stop at the edges of a defined shape, OR, I’d like to be able to mirror or offset the lines to create angles from them…
Arch and Bridge would open up a world of new shape possibilities.
Take a look at some of my recent posts in the Expedition Gallery. There is also a recent thread on creating a circle from ramps and patching variations on this technique can produce some wonderful shapes.
If this is obvious, forgive me.
have you tried mixing the ramp shape outputs with your audio signals in to the cortex key input? this would give you modulated circle, diamond, or ‘star thing’. if you use just the raw h or v ramps you get horizontal or vertical wave modulation. you could mix using just some stacking cables or something if you don’t have a module that can mix.
Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions. Next on my shopping list is bridge I think (it’s not too expensive at least!), I look forward to seeing what it can do =)
Also gonna try some mixing of ramps (no that wasn’t obvious to me Phil, thanks for that!!)
Also, I mentioned that I might want to mask certain areas of my output. Typically the outer edges of the frame, so that the visual content output of VC is a shape that doesn’t touch the edges of the frame, if you get me? In a darkened room, I like to have a black background on the screen, in which shapes can ‘float’ around, so that the viewer doesn’t see a rectangle, which is usually always defined by the edges of a screen.
At the moment, the horizontal lines I am talking about definitely indicate a rectangular frame. I want to get away from this. Which module can be my friend for this?
Thanks in advance Video Wizards! ;p
you could use the cortex shape output ramps to mask the horizontal lines. patch from the shape ramp outs to the VC input of the colorizer/compositor. play with the blend modes/rgb knobs to get your desired effect
oooh, sounds like a hot tip! … must check that out. =)
To be honest, I’m not getting into studio much lately (even though I would happily be there all the time!), so when I’m there, i’m trying to get music made as much as I am trying to get the visual side of things progressing. It’s like juggling plates or something. I’ve definitely not experimented enough with the VC so far (but I’m only a newbie on that!) so I really appreciate the advice.
