DIY Video Synthesis

[justin3am]

I've been very interested in visualization of music for almost as long as I've been making music with a computer. I've always wanted a way to create abstract visuals to accompany my music with some interrelationship between the two. Today is a very exciting day for me!

I just finished building a 3TrinsRGB+1c from gieskes.nl. It's an analog video synth/processor with CV inputs. It can also generate it's own sound.

So the build was pretty simple. There wasn't much documentation but a video covers most of process...

and there are some additional details here. The board layout is interesting... and due to the density of parts in some places, there were some resistors I missed on the first pass.

PCB

As you can see, there are SMT parts and some headers which come pre-installed.

Parts


Front panel


Getting started, stuffing resistors


The rest of the passive parts, transistors, sockets, ect...


Getting jacks and pots lined up with the front panel.


Then the rest of the pots, switches and LEDs.


All done.




Here is a pretty poor quality video I did of my first experiment. Audio and CV come from my DIY Eurorack synth.


I will use this thread as a general resource for DIY video synth projects but I also plan to share my own experiences as I go along.

[deastman]

Glad to see that you're having fun!

I've really had to fight the urge to get into modular video synthesis. I work as an animator and motion graphics artist in a video production group, so its an obvious match for me. But I have enough expensive hobbies already without adding that one to the mix. I did use to play around with stuff like that in the 80's and early 90's, chaining various consumer-grade video effects processing boxes together like stomp boxes and using them in a video feedback loop with my camcorder filming the TV. That was always good for hours of entertainment.

I'll be following along and enjoying this vicariously.

[justin3am]

Here are some other DIY video synth projects.
Geiskes.nl:
Oscilatoscope1
Schele Mixer

LZX
LZX DIY
Bitvision

BPMC
DIY Fritz Telegraph Mini (circuit bending video processors)

North County Radio:
Video Palette 2

[justin3am]

Glad to see that you're having fun!

I've really had to fight the urge to get into modular video synthesis. I work as an animator and motion graphics artist in a video production group, so its an obvious match for me. But I have enough expensive hobbies already without adding that one to the mix. I did use to play around with stuff like that in the 80's and early 90's, chaining various consumer-grade video effects processing boxes together like stomp boxes and using them in a video feedback loop with my camcorder filming the TV. That was always good for hours of entertainment.

I'll be following along and enjoying this vicariously.

A big part of my plan is finding some older broadcast/consumer video gear and cameras for feedback and hopefully better capture. I've gotten a lot of information from the Video Synthesis section on the Muffwiggler board.

Like you, I was worried that the costs would add up quickly if I got into this stuff. For now, I'm limiting myself to DIY stuff and out-dated gear, as there isn't as much out there and the few kits available are pretty cheap. The 3Trins kit was ~$230. The Bitvision kit is >$150. I'll probably be pretty limited as to what I can do but I've got a lot of learning to do before I'll be able to get the most out of this stuff.

[whyterabbyt]

Ive got a couple of kids video toys with RCA PAL video out and a Panasonic WJ-MX10 mixer that I always meant to have a play around with and never did. But you just made me buy a WJ-AVE5 as well.
FWIW, I suspect the Pi Zero is a stupidly-cheap way of generating programming generated PAL video. There's no RCA jack like there was on the original Pi, but the points are still on the board. Seems like an Arduino can produce some simple output as PAL too, must try that.

[justin3am]

Ive got a couple of kids video toys with RCA PAL video out and a Panasonic WJ-MX10 mixer that I always meant to have a play around with and never did. But you just made me buy a WJ-AVE5 as well.

Yeah, I've been looking at those video mixers and a few others. If I can get something for less than $100 than I think I can justify it. I'm trying to resist the temptation of an Edirol V-4 or a Korg Kaptivator.

FWIW, I suspect the Pi Zero is a stupidly-cheap way of generating programming generated PAL video. There's no RCA jack like there was on the original Pi, but the points are still on the board. Seems like an Arduino can produce some simple output as PAL too, must try that.

The Bitvision uses an arduino to animate 32x32 pixel images and output NTSC and is pretty well hackable. I like the idea of having a platform (which I don't have to design) to experiment with. In the long term the Pi Zero could be the thing I need to trigger video clips with MIDI or gates. That would be a long term project though (i.e. the kind that doesn't ever get finished). I'll have to find out if the Pi Zero can be configured for NTSC.

[justin3am]

Andromeda is not impressed by drones. She wants to play.


I'm starting to get the hang of the controls but I'm still a bit baffled by the patch points. This thing is crazy fun!

[deastman]

Ive got a couple of kids video toys with RCA PAL video out and a Panasonic WJ-MX10 mixer that I always meant to have a play around with and never did. But you just made me buy a WJ-AVE5 as well.
FWIW, I suspect the Pi Zero is a stupidly-cheap way of generating programming generated PAL video. There's no RCA jack like there was on the original Pi, but the points are still on the board. Seems like an Arduino can produce some simple output as PAL too, must try that.

I could probably cobble something interesting together just with the old surplus-ready stuff we have lying around the office. A few years back we got rid of a ton of stuff- several edit suites full of decks, monitors, frame buffers, switchers, cg, paint, TBCs, you name it. But there's still some old Betacam decks, old 4:3 cameras, old switchers, and whatnot. And now that you mention it, we've got a Roland V-8 and some old Panasonic and Datavideo switchers which could be pressed into service. I think I still have one of my prosumer effects boxes from the early 90's stashed in my garage too.

[whyterabbyt]

Ive got a couple of kids video toys with RCA PAL video out and a Panasonic WJ-MX10 mixer that I always meant to have a play around with and never did. But you just made me buy a WJ-AVE5 as well.
FWIW, I suspect the Pi Zero is a stupidly-cheap way of generating programming generated PAL video. There's no RCA jack like there was on the original Pi, but the points are still on the board. Seems like an Arduino can produce some simple output as PAL too, must try that.

I could probably cobble something interesting together just with the old surplus-ready stuff we have lying around the office. A few years back we got rid of a ton of stuff- several edit suites full of decks, monitors, frame buffers, switchers, cg, paint, TBCs, you name it. But there's still some old Betacam decks, old 4:3 cameras, old switchers, and whatnot.

Pretty similar setup here before I started; since then most of the old gear got stored for years until it was finally binned to reclaim the space. Some of the the old decks etc are in use for an separate archiving/restoration project, but that's about it.

[xoxos]

dear god it took all bloody day for this page to load

i imagine you're much more up on the various technologies of today, but i had a thought, in case society has made itself stupid, like it seems to like to lately, and tell you an old person story:

back in the day

(also severed heads might be worth the reference, tom recently built a modern h/w "trippy visualiser" which ppl may enjoy reading about.. his uses ?? but it's based on an old method with mirrors)

wait, back in the day,

TOPY, for example, were purveyors of a method known to us eighties people, which i know includes this thread people, they termed "astral tunnel" really just video feedback.

i'd say it is a critical component of turning whatever dirtbox people build into something really nifty and alive..

hook camera to monitor. point camera at monitor. different technologies have different effects (remember those fisher price tape cassette black and white video cameras? remember corduroy trousers?) it was rumored that this would damage your gear. some cameras are kinda blah, some are awesome (i remember we had one that wasn't that great until we set the tv to display the channel # in the corner, then it exploded) and the best are beyond belief... amazing evolving amoeba mandala effects.... iirc there was some wax trax! artist that used this as the foundation for a vid.. this is the trippiest of trippy. and i imagine with some modern dsp, it would only be trippier.

if people who do/sell video synthesizers don't talk about this they are not your friend. as always, i'm just an amazing gift to you all

[xoxos]

gotta do other things than find the best example but this demos the caustics

*edit* and warning for the nescient people here (which is like most of you.. so innocent)

the cool black and white video with the fm synthesis sounding drones has subliminal material, use another soundtrack unless you're content with your subjugated, tool-like existence in society.

[deastman]

One word: Scanimate

[justin3am]

hook camera to monitor. point camera at monitor. different technologies have different effects (remember those fisher price tape cassette black and white video cameras? remember corduroy trousers?) it was rumored that this would damage your gear. some cameras are kinda blah, some are awesome (i remember we had one that wasn't that great until we set the tv to display the channel # in the corner, then it exploded) and the best are beyond belief... amazing evolving amoeba mandala effects.... iirc there was some wax trax! artist that used this as the foundation for a vid.. this is the trippiest of trippy. and i imagine with some modern dsp, it would only be trippier.

Thanks for the tips! I just found an old camcorder with composite video output on eBay for $27. Here's hoping it works! I'm really excited to start experimenting with video feedback. I remember visiting the LA Science Center when I was a kid and they had a interactive exhibit with a tv and camera setup in a feedback loop. I was totally baffled.

I hadn't seen anything like that again until I started reading threads in the video synth section on the MW forum. There are some folks talking about super high-end gear but that doesn't really interest me (who the f**k am I kidding? ). I've just been on a kick with the DIY stuff cause it helps me understand how this stuff works. Video stuff is totally alien territory but it's actually helped me understand how audio circuits work, from a different perspective.

if people who do/sell video synthesizers don't talk about this they are not your friend. as always, i'm just an amazing gift to you all

Yeah it can turn into a nightmare of consumerism but c'mon, I'm kinda part of that! It's too late for me.
But I think you'd get a kick out of Gijs' (the guy who designed the 3trins) other work. He's kind of an electro-mechanical artist. Check out his VU-Perc project. There are a lot of guys doing interesting stuff with just some ingenuity and simple tools.

It's interesting that people who are selling commercial products are making their cad files and source code available to the public. Like Mutable Instruments. Someone could (and people do) take the firmware and hardware designs to build DIY versions of the commercial products but others adapt those designs and modify the code to make something different. For example the Ornament & Crime projectI wrote a lot about that here.

Anyway, that's a bunch of rambling... perhaps open source hardware/firmware is an interesting topic for another thread.

[justin3am]

Some stuff I find really inspiring:


http://vimeo.com/85572481

[Aleatoriac]

This... is FREAKILY COOL

It has that old school weird video effect distortion mindfuckery going on, and I positively love it