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R/E/P => R/E/P Archives => Budget? Budget? We Don't Got No Steekin' Budjet => Topic started by: gtoledo3 on December 05, 2008, 07:34:48 PM
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I used to be on these forums quite a bit, but I've kind of dropped off because I've been spending so much time on music and visual programming...
I wanted to share this because this is THE forum all about low budget!
I've been spending a great deal of time working with interactive visual programming. There's something that's bundled with OS X, for Apple computers, called Quartz Composer... but you have to install the Developer folders on your install disc.
It is an environment for visual programming that is seemingly pretty limited at first... but the reality is that you can "roll your own" plug ins, and that there are many extra "plug ins" and "patches" out there. It really is somewhat analogous to audio systems in many ways, and one of the interfaces is very much like a big old style synth, where you are connecting "cables"... You even have lfo's to control the visuals, for example.
After some time messing around with it, I realized that you can use it to program basically any kind of "media" and kind of warp them all together. You could use it for just visual, or make things that play back audio, you can incorporate pre-recorded movie clips, make light displays... If you are familiar with Augmented Reality, interactive art displays... this can basically do all that and more if you add the right patches.
It can be a great thing for bands, coupled with a projector to get some interesting light shows.
You can use it just as a "video filter".
With mods, you can make 3D art, load audio, and make the "objects" interact with your movement in front of a camera, for example. You could make a "music video" which responds to the viewer moving in front of their laptop, or hovering with their mouse... the sky is the limit, basically... if you have the patience to actually figure it out. My goal, personally, has been to use wrap up the files as little applications, and use it as a new form of music/visual media.
And it is HIDDEN, just lurking there... so if you have an Apple, get at it!
This video animation part of this thing was done with Quartz Composer Developer tool...the recording was a mackie, a sm57, a beta 52 and a rode, whatever the basic model is. It was one pass, guitar, vocals and drums into Cubase. Then bass and some more guitar and some vocals.
http://www.vimeo.com/2390953
I "rendered" it to video using something that a company called Kineme makes ... http://kineme.net ... The people at that company are really cool, and specialize in making a lot of work arounds for Quartz Composer. That only costs $14 !!!
So this was done with a FREE (yes you DO have to have an Apple) program, and the basic Macbook.
The thing that amazes me about the whole experience of having been messing around with programming with this is... consider the sheer amount of money that the record labels blow to take something to this point of production. And I've worked with better audio equipment, and don't think it's some super duper pristine thing, but does it really matter? Everything sounds so friggin the same nowdays that I think it is all relative...
And to my ears, I do hear all the things that were "misses" believe me... it is hard to have objectivity, but to my ears the naturalness outweighed wanting to punch in and actually change anything. There are the aforementioned overdubs, but the recording and mix took a couple hours tops.
I'm throwing this out there because I was always had visual ideas with my music, and this has been a good, fairly budget (but with a commensurate amount of required tinkering and work), way of actually achieving that. It isn't necessarily simple or for everyone, and it took about a year of messing with this before understanding/refining how to get it to do many of the things I'm doing with now...
So I don't know, if this doesn't belong in this forum feel free to move it, and I understand that many people feel that music video was the death knell to the music business (ironically I am one of them!). I thought that budget minded people might be interested in this...