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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.

Now that this time I actually did my homework, more on Fabienne Serriere, the talented sound hacker who’s given us the two-part tutorial on custom MIDI control and Csound (see previous post.)

From whatthehack.org:

“multichannel audio specialist and futurist fabienne serriere (aka fbz) is a franco-american software, hardware and embedded interaction designer. she believes in a gorgeous technologically morphable future. her interests include hardware hacking, wearable computing, and large scale music system design. she currently resides in paris, france.”

And she’s got a fantastic backlog of projects:

Audio torrent of speech on pervasive multichannel; see also speech description
Projects page including hacked wireless speaker (pictured), circuit-bent / custom “dj mixer” for audio clips
Sharing keyboard and mouse cross-platform (not music-related, but something I was just about to work on).

Yet another addition to CDM’s all-star audio hall of fame. Fabienne, if you’re still there, feel free to expand. And I promise never to confuse Fabienne and Fabian again. Good grief . . .

MacMusic.org has a great interview with “rollerskating” Thereminist Pamelia Kurstin. Hear Pamelia’s insights on how she’s become a Theremin virtuoso. And if you can make it to North Carolina in August, you won’t want to miss Ether Music 2005, where she’ll be playing with other greats of Theremin music from around the world. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make the trip as I wrap up work on my book, but I’ll at least catch up with Pamelia here in NYC; she has a residency for the month of August in Brooklyn — more at her site.

Not familiar with the world of Theremin divas out there? Check out our diva roundup.

Thanks to everyone who’s writing in about VJ Day. It’s funny, conventional wisdom is that musicians don’t care about VJing, but here among the hip technorati of CDM, of course, things are different. And with VJing moving out of the “psychedelia” area into a range of aesthetics and styles, I expect you’ll hear more soon. Our friend James Polanco of the superb Fake Science Lab Report podcast writes in to tell us about some rising VJ superstars:

Mat Hale is a very close friend of mine that I have worked with on multiple events here in San Francisco when I was djing out all the time. Mat has also worked with his friend Vello on a ton of projects down in LA (and internationally). Sting’s tour, Jay-Z, etc. Vello is one of the founders of OVT out of Chicago that handled Rabbit in the Moons shows, all kinds of rave’s in the 90s and MOMA’s yearly event. Vello and Mat also did vid and installation work for Cirque Du Soleil & Zumanity Orchestra and Club Ice in Las Vegas. Vello is doing a ton of touring right now (just got off being Sasha’s VJ) and Mat is doing some local gigs around LA. Both are amazing, amazing producers that are creating next level content.

Indeed, for a great overview of what VJing is all about, check out Apple.com’s writeup of Vello. Thanks, James — other lurking VJs or Friends of VJs, give us a holler!

While we’re on the subject, it’s worth noting that a wide range of exquisitely talented women have taken up the Theremin as a serious instrument, continuing the legacy of Clara Rockmore and the instrument’s inventor, Leon Theremin:

The Classical great: Lydia Kavina has led the charge, tutoring students in mastering the instrument using techniques developed by herself, Rockmore, and Theremin. She even has an instructional video and regularly gives master classes and lessons. Kavina is a major globe-trotter, from Barcelona to Singapore just in the next few months, is a noted composer, and has performed with the likes of the London Symphony, BBC Orchestra, and Russian National Orchestra. Count `em: over 800 performances have made her the leading lady of the instrument.

The One on Roller Skates: Of course, classical seriousness aside, an occasional gimmick never hurt any instrument. (Sadly, the skydiving pianist isn’t with us to enjoy this one.) Pamelia Kurstina is the “rollerskating” Thereminist. She even throws in haircuts with her Theremin lessons. The New York resident is a regular at Tonic, but has also played a space few of us can say we’ve gigged in: the Rose Planetarium. Oh, and please don’t ask her if she has a boyfriend; she apparently gets that a lot.

The Performance Artist: Miss Hypnotique is both Thereminist and performance artist, as well as laptop musician. She’s produced radio documentaries, played caberet and avant-garde projects like Radio Science Orchestra, and lots of other stuff, too. See her interview with Synthtopia.com.

The Child Prodigy: Carolina Eyck started concertizing on Theremin at the age of eight; now just sixteen, she’s playing with groups like the HMH symphony orchestra Berlin.

Of course, I could go on. There’s everyone from Intissar, the “naked Thereminist” (see the description of how Theremin talk quickly sounds like sexual innuendo), and more virtuosas like Barbara Buchholz. And, oh yeah, many male players, too. The range is clearly from oddball to Classical masters/mistresses. And the ranks are growing. So, can anyone do the same with laptop computers? It took the Theremin decades to get any recognition and it’s still fighting — maybe it’s just a matter of time.

[Updated] Tom at Music Thing wisely points us to Alice Malloy’s Theremin bra. Hey, some readers over there complained, but I say you can build Theremins into whatever you want. (Thanks, Tom; forgot about that one!)

I’m obviously getting too much sleep. Are you? Quantazelle (aka Liz McLean Knight of Chicago), designer and creator of MIDI jewelry as mentioned yesterday, must not be. She’s:

a talented IDM musician/producer (take a listen — good stuff!)

creator/editor of the electronic music zine Modsquare

owner of the jewelry company Zella

founder, manager, and designer of the subvariant record label

Is the new trend in digital musicians multi-tasking? (Or is it just that we’re all doomed to spend every waking hour, and some non-waking hours, in front of our screens?)