I often think that a dynamic gain control for the visuals would be a good idea, like a Voladjust but for the visuals only. What do people think? Is it possible? Is it something that the Empeg guys have thought about? Has anyone else thought about it? Am I mad? Should I go and lock myself away somewhere nice and dark?... The answers to all these questions and more will appear in the next episode of...

Hmm... I dunno about voladj, but I would like a simple "sensitivity" or "adjustment factor" to be definable in config.ini for each visual so that the user could compensate for visuals which appear too static. This idea could be taken one step further for other user-definable settings for visuals... Anything from the # of stars in StarDust to the frequency range for the various spectral plot visuals. It could also be used to "hard code" in some of the settings that are now randomized or changed with the "select mode" button.

All of these suggestions fall into the "It Would Be Nice If" category, but the Empeg team is known to throw IWBNI stuff in when circumstances warrant. So we might as well ask.

Of course, the REAL solution for all of this is a Visuals / Plugins API, but that idea is probably deceased.

Your 'sensitivity factor' idea would certainly help with the apparent differences between visuals but wouldn't help boost the quiet bits. I do agree though, the 'Casualty' visual in particular seems to need a good kick up the arse. Maybe a combination of the two is needed. I'm surprised more people haven't commented on it.

Get some good psychadelic trance on your player (maybe some Shpongle, Astral Projection or Logic Bomb) and flick through your visuals. You're now seeing them as god (OK, Toby) intended.

I don't mind too much because that's pretty much all I listen to anyway

Rob

Just to throw in my two cents:

I think the visuals work great, even if the players isn't playing dance music. The visuals, in my experience, react just fine to everything but the most quiet passages in the music. Even classical and acoustic folk music seem fine for me.

Shpongle!!!!!!! What the f***. I mean, what kind of a name is that???

It's a legendary name - the great Raja Ram (TIP records) and Simon Posford (Halucinogen) come together in the most unique, entertaining, inspiring, uplifting, thought provoking and essentially psychadelic artistry of recent Trance.

I got down to a fantastic Raja Ram set at Liquid Connective (EQ Warehouse, London) last month, and I was going to see Simon Posford mix at Human Being (The Depot, Bristol) tomorrow, but sadly it looks like I won't make it. Never mind - I saw them both at the wonderful VooV festival in Germany this August.

So, show some respect man

Rob

Sorry to disappoint Rob, but those names don't mean anything to me. Now if you'd said names like Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Jimmy Page, Dave Gilmour, Keith Emerson... etc (sorry to all those rock legends I missed out ) I might have known who you're talking about. As you can tell I'm not into any of that new fangled Trance malarkie. Give me good old fashioned Rock anytime. Probably the nearest thing to Trance I listen to would be Tangerine Dream and I don't think that's all that close . So anyway, if that's what Toby 'tunes' the visuals to, maybe you need someone else there to test it with proper music (ooh, ouch, I can feel those stones already ). Now... who do I know that listens to proper music...? Anyway getting back to the original topic; I'd still like a Voladjust type thing for visuals so that the quieter passages actually show something. I'd also like this feature to be tunable because some of the loud bits just make the visuals go too mental and OTT so I'd like to be able to reduce their FSD as it were. I can't believe I'm the only one that wants this.

...test it with proper music...

Yes... like Beethoven or Mozart or Bizet.

tanstaafl.

proper music...

Yes... like Beethoven or Mozart or Bizet.

Ah yes, Ride 'Em Carmen by the Bizet Boys. Absolute classic.

Peter

I do agree that Classical music too is 'Proper Music' although I don't listen to much of it. I've only recently got some on my player and just learning about what I like & don't like really. I was just winding Rob up really .

Heh, I once got flamed really bad for saying something like that inadvertently...

I was at a big LAN party once (a PlanetQuake "Beatdown" held in San Francisco... 200 attendees), and they had a DJ booth where some folks were spinning records and doing a little mixing.

Afterwards, one of the news reports about the event used the phrase "Live Music", and I asked on the mailing list if I'd missed a band because I was asleep at the hotel. Hoo boy did I ever catch hell for that one.

Somehow, when I wasn't paying attention during the 90's, the formerly-opposite terms of "DJ" and "Live" became blurred with a gray area in between them. When did this happen?

Now, I will say that a good DJ doing mixing and beat-matching etc. is an individual with talent. However, to call that "live music" I think is going a little too far. To me, live music still requires musical instruments with things like strings and keys and sticks and mouthpieces.

LOL. Hear, hear.
On a slightly related note; my Nephew was doing a Music & Media Studies course at college and believe it or not the Turntable is now a recognised musical instrument. He happens to be a pretty good Guitarist but his chosen instrument was the aforementioned Turntable. Weird if you ask me.

Hey Tony, I think we're going to get into trouble if we're not careful .

Hey Tony, I think we're going to get into trouble if we're not careful

Don't get me wrong, I like Techno and a good rave as much as the next guy. My only complaint was the usage of the term "live" to describe the DJ experience. To me, the two terms will always be mutually exclusive.

I've never been to a rave. Can't think of anyone I know that's been to one either. I just don't get off on the type of music they play. Old fuddy duddy I guess. Still, life would be boring if we were all the same wouldn't it.

proper music...

Yes... like Beethoven or Mozart or Bizet.

Ah yes, Ride 'Em Carmen by the Bizet Boys. Absolute classic.

In that direction I stop at Fans by Malcolm McLaren...

In reply to:

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I think the visuals work great, even if the players isn't playing dance music. The visuals, in my experience, react just fine to everything but the most quiet passages in the music. Even classical and acoustic folk music seem fine for me.

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I respectively disagree. The genre of the song does not make any difference. It's the volume they were either recorded or ripped? at.

My songs have not been normalized so some are definately quieter than others, and therefore register less on some visuals. For example, on my favorite visual, SpectroLog 128, it barely registers on some songs (I only see the audio peaks), so I have to switch it to some other visual like hula-hoops. Even with the hula-hoops I'd like to have the ability to lessen their sensitivity sometimes. That visual looks really good during (normally) quiet sections when it paints little whisps across the screen with the occasional circle. Of course the difference in volumes between these tracks is alleviated by the auto-volume adjust, thank goodness.

And while we're on the topic of visuals, I'd like to reqest a new one: A simple all screen flash whenever the bass drum hits (to light up my interior ). That's it! Very simple.

In reply to:

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And while we're on the topic of visuals, I'd like to reqest a new one...

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I wouldn't hold out much hope of getting any new visuals. I've tried to pursuade the Empeg guys to do a Lissajous visual using the Left & Right channels for x & y but without success. Has no-one ever done this with an oscilloscope? I used to hook up the Left & Right channels to the x & y inputs & watch it for hours when I was in my teens. How about it Empeg guys? Please, please can I have this visual.

Well, I'm kind of surprised that this didn't get any responses. This type of thing doesn't affact anyone else? Just download the newest Paul van Dyk live set from TranceAddict.com and you'll see what I mean!

personally, use mp3gain w/ the maximize feature, and you'll always have consistent visuals. its cool that theres a fellow TA over here, tho i've been posting to DTF lately.

Cool, but what's the "maximize feature"? And what's the URL for DTF?

mp3gain -> options -> advanced -> check "enable maximizing features".

now, you can do modify gain -> apply max no-clip gain for each file

and dtf = dtf-dance.com