Newbie Questions

Hello,
I’m a Eurorack customer since around 2008 with about 12U of audio modules. I’ve been lurking on the LZX sites for about a year, and am dying to take the video module plunge. I’d be so grateful for answers to a few questions in light of the new Orion Series modules coming out:

  1. Is Visual Cortex still the best module to start with, or will any of the Orion modules replace its core functionality?
  2. My goal is for video reactivity to audio…I’d like my Euro sounds to trigger wacky colors and shapes, and understand that Sensory Translator will serve that function. Do I wait for Diver, though? Will the Sensory Translator be made obsolete?
    Thanks so much —
    Jim
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to start with you need to get something that works as a video synch generator - so the options are visual cortex, memory palace, vidiot or cadet synch generator - and then you can expand from there

visual cortex, vidot and cadet are analog, memory palace is digital

vidiot has also audio interactivity

sensory translator takes a wide band mono signal and filters it into frequency bands that it generates envelopes from

Lars says that diver is better for extracting rythmic movement from say a bassline though

so the simple answer is get both they are complementary

but you can also reuse envelopes/lfos/vcos from your eurorack via either bridge or scaler

I have a slightly smaller eurorack than you do 6u 104hp + a bit more

I have the Visual Cortex and Sensory Translator along with a few other modules including bridge - some of which at least should be delivered this week - and I’ve built a few diy modules including scaler whilst I’ve been waiting

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Thanks so much for the response. I like the idea of manipulating video digitally, but could you or someone else explain whether I can start with the Memory Palace and expand from there with other suggested modules? I’d like to generate shapes, manipulate feeds from a camera and from online videos, and most importantly, sync everything to audio/rhythms. Newbie question!

from what I can remember Lars has stated previously that whilst the Memory Palace can be used as a centre of a video synth system, it’s really designed more as a final stage

just refreshing my memory of the specs I see that the only video inputs are:

Five 1V DC patchable video inputs for Aux, Alpha, Red, Green & Blue channels at 480i/576i SD resolutions.

so the big question the is can you support that??

what do you have in the way of video outs at the moment? & what can you get adapters for?

personally I have a macbook pro outputting either vga or hdmi, which I will convert to component using a cheap adapter (recommended somewhere on here though) and then into the Visual Cortex (this week I hope!!) which would give the 1v a,r,g.b outs for input into the Memory Palace - otherwise a tbc2 or perhaps cadet modules could do this (not sure about synching with cadet)

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Thanks Agawell. Can you or someone else let me know how best to get video out of a Macbook Pro and into the Visual Cortex?
Thank you–
Jim

if you search for what hardware is needed here you should be able to find it quite easily

as I stated above I’m going to go

macbookpro (lumen/praxis_live) -> usb-c -> vga/hdmi adapter to component -> visual cortex

back out though is visual cortext -> component -> crt tv -> webcam -> macbookpro ( lumen/praxis_live - so can record with syphon recorder)

visual cortex -> component -> flatscreen tv -> iphone

may look at a BM intensity shuttle (or 2) next year - one for input one for output