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Photo: Vello Virkhaus with Red Hot Chili Peppers in London (thanks, Vello!)

Live visuals for keyboardists? Absolutely: if you’ve got MIDI chops, slick new tools can help you tickle projected imagery while you tickle the ivories. There’s just too much to say about VJing to fit into one story, so when I wrote up an introduction to live visuals for Keyboard Magazine’s Laptops Live special, I ran out of space fast. Here’s a quick roundup of some of the gear and tools you’ll need to pump out live visuals at your next gig.

CDM Sister Site: Incidentally, thanks to all of you who sent in thoughtful feedback about where VJ content belongs here at CDM, or on its own site. After careful consideration, I have decided to launch a new visual performance site towards the end of the year. But don’t worry: those of you who want to occasionally read VJ content will be able to follow the new site here on CDM, and thanks to a bunch of volunteer writers, I expect both sites to grow, not languish. More on that in December . . . now on with our VJ roundup.

Jackie Passmore is a talented VJ touring with Ladytron (and, in spring 2006, Stereolab). There are some talented genes in this family: her brother was the lead programmer of Acid. (Sorry, not the other Acid I was thinking of.) Thanks to sponsorship from Korg, she accompanies her Apple laptop with a Korg video mixer and microKONTROL keyboard. The heart of the setup is the superb Vidvox GRID2 software; Vidvox has a great interview with Jackie. (Watch for our own profile here soon.)

Vidvox Featured Artists: Jackie Passmore

Below: Jackie in China with Ladytron, showing off her rig. (Thanks, Jackie!)

Dan Phillips with Korg Research & Development is one of the designers behind Korg’s ultra-premium Korg OASYS keyboard, among many other projects. In addition to getting to design electronic musical instruments for a living, Dan is an electronic singer-songwriter, writer, composer (Fox TV, As the World Turns), consultant (Santana, Emily Bazar), producer, remixer, and even amateur photographer. Dan shares with CDM how the OASYS was born, some of his favorite (non-Korg) synths and software, and how he got what for many of us would be a dream job.

[Updated: Had the wrong record label -- it's not Muti, it's Pretension. Though Pretension is also cool.]

I asked readers to brag about their work, and, wow, does Cynthia Bruyns have amazing things to brag about:

She’s a DJ — check out her mixes

She’s working part-time with Apple’s Interactive Media group

She’s involved with a really cool electronic record label

She’s been busy modeling instruments in 3D

The Vibration Lab is a sophisticated 3D modeling app for the Mac that accurately models percussive sounds. (Digitally-modeled cowbell? Not so far-fetched, after all!) See the project page for audio samples. She presented the work as part of a three-member team at SIGGRAPH and recently completed her Master’s thesis on new instruments. And yes, she’s looking at commercializing the technology.

Still more information:

Lab Notes: Modeling the Sound of Music [Research from Berkeley Engineering]

Vibration Lab Models Music [Daily Californian; though see her site for corrections]

Thanks, Cynthia. Now . . . uh . . . I’ll have whatever coffee you’re having.

“For me, it’s like a music video,” says Holly. “What I do has more to do with go-go dancing than a DJ. I am the video equivalent of a go-go dancer.”

My story on NYC VJ Holly Daggers (of Eyewash fame) is now available online from Keyboard Magazine:

VJ Holly Daggers: Go-Go Music Videos Go Live [Keyboard music/picture]

Links and story background [CDM]

The key to Holly’s go-go effect is a hardware rig with a camera, Korg Entrancer sampler, and multiple Edirol mixers — no computer. (Check out the rig diagram.) So when the folks at Livid talk about expensive hardware rigs, this is what they mean. On the other hand, a computer can neither replace a camera, nor sample video fast enough for what Holly’s doing, so it’s more of a matter of choosing the right tool for the job (or the tool you can afford) than which is better.

Anyway, enjoy the story, and watch for more VJ coverage; there’s a wide range of aesthetics and appproaches out there.