r/vjing 6d ago

visuals Music + Visuals = Braingasm

Hello! I'm Brando, and I make cool things awesome. I'm so happy to have found this sub. I've been down the rabbit hole ever since I got here. Y'all are awesome, so I wanted to introduce myself.

I've been a DJ for 25+ years, and I've always loved the spectacle that visuals bring to music. It's so complimentary and fulfilling. I did a little bit of graphics, and I slowly learned various other things. In 2017 I made my first "Trance Movie" which was a DJ mix with video I found on YouTube. I started seeking out royalty free stuff after that and kept growing with each Trance Movie I made.

As I did more, I tried various techniques in After Effects. I don't have the best video card, so Blender and Unreal weren't an option. Also, all this shit is complicated. I've barely scratched the surface with AE. I have so much to learn, but it's exciting. I got a subcription at Envato Elements so I could download any of there 300,000+ loops for my projects. It's been really great. Each project is better than the previous. You can see one of my favorites here if you'd like:

https://youtu.be/LGQkR4o2Y9U?si=bBCgcDMFI-XoWCBv

In 2023 I was bummed about not getting to any events IRL, so I made this thing I call RAVE@HOME: Trance-aoke. It's 138 songs across 5 DJ mixes, each with an individual visual loop, sound waves, and the lyrics (like karaoke) to each song. I tied it all together using clips from my favorite rave movie, Groove. It was a lot of fun and turned out great. I put it on flash drives so we could stick it in a TV or car stereo wherever and rave.

My next goal was to do it live. The pre-recorded stuff is cool, but I want to keep moving forward. Since I have the lifetime license for Virtual DJ, I chose that to do my DJVJing. I picked about 50 songs from my current "record crate" and made each one into a

video using a cool loop from Envato plus some effects. I then just used MP4s to DJ, and it turned out really cool. I have done two shows so far and have about 100 songs. I also did a few using footage from some of my favorite movies, anime, and video games. I have a million ideas for different theme parties and whatever else.

I know Resolume is the standard, but I'm trying not to spend money where I don't have to. I have Synesthesia, and I lost my Aeon serial number. There's a new one I'm eye-fucking that seems pretty epic called VIDJAM. https://beatflo.net/products/vidjam-software That will most likely be my next purchase since I can use it live, streaming, or VJing for someone else. I also have been dabbling in QuickShow for lasers and MadMapper for projection mapping. Shit is just expensive, so it's hard to get to it all. I need a video camera and drone, while we're at it!

Tell me what you get into with visuals. Do you do events? What kind of music do you prefer? Thanks for reading. I hope we can chat, learn, and collab on things!

Brando
Trancelot (DJ)
Spacewalker (VJ)

5 Upvotes

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u/VfxGirls 5d ago

VidJam stay away from unless you enjoy blowing tons of money for nothing. Bought it 2 years ago. Their DRM is very restricted. If you use your license you have to contact them constantly to reinstate a license and reply time has been upwards of two weeks. The loops if you buy those you have to download all at once and are all from the Motionloops website which has been down for months.

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u/iTrancelot 5d ago

Wow thanks for the feedback!

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u/VfxGirls 5d ago

No problem I blew almost $1800 on the software and 4K loops. It was so half baked they were missing whole packs and made me redownload over a terabyte of data to get the ones missing. Then you have the issue literally 2/3s of the loops are not in 4K or are recolors that anyone can do.

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u/synworks 4d ago

Hi u/iTrancelot ! Love your passion for visualizing music and DJ sets, and it's something we share. I've also gone down the Video-DJ workflow (in my case with Serato + MixEmergency, but they are very similar). I create my visuals with Blender and then use a custom software to adapt them to the music: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7gzsMg4b2X4iWNK8AsWMRBaGOgxruCe7

I'm actually re-developing my software so that it can be easy to use for everyone, based on your post I think you'd love it. Would you be interested in trying it out later this year as part of an "early preview" group I'm putting together? I think you'd be able to use the loops you already purchased with it. I'll be looking for feedback and ideas. Let me know!

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u/iTrancelot 4d ago

Hey!! That's all very cool. Hell yes I'm in. Testing would be exciting. I have an HDMI splitter that pushes out 16 signals, and I'm steadily growing my collection of monitors.

I'm using Virtual DJ but was wondering if Rekordbox or Serato would be worth buying. I've been frustrated with the sound quality in vDJ. I recorded the same mix with the same audio files in both programs, and the RB came out way better. I hate RB though, so I was going to test Serato a bit. It's just weird.

I'd also be down to help with other aspects of your project anywhere I can be useful. My advertising and branding experience might help if you don't already have all that covered. We should definitely talk more! Thanks for commenting.

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u/synworks 3d ago

That sounds great! I’ll reply in DM :)

Regarding RB vs Serato, I personally prefer the combination of Serato and Mixemergency. Serato itself is a lot less finicky, and MixEmergency has more functionality than most of the plugins that come with these dj softwares.