This is a product that I would really like to see developed. A video sampler. you could capture clips from different sources. movies, TV, DVD, whatever... And loop the samples to run endlessly, then add other clips and specify transitions or distortion effects on the fly. The device would be all digital and centered around a DSP chip. The device would be approximately 12" x 12" wide and 3" tall, with the face of the device sloped so it would be convenient to use while sitting at a desk. It would have a large hard drive, like 20-50GB's to store the video clips and to save production data. Think ultimate video portable production capability. The device would have a 9" LCD screen split into three areas. First you would have a portion of the screen that would show what the device was outputting, that is the current video being shown, if you were to add any transitions, blend with another clip or alter the video being shown in any other way it would show up here. Then there would be a preview section, this would be used to preview other video clips before they are added into the mix, also when you sample clips from a source, the video input you are sampling from would show up here as it is received, then you could just tap a button on the device to capture the video you want. Then there would be a third window with operating system commands, here is where you would select effects and transitions and navigate the menu structure. The third area would also have a time line where you could specify how many time to loop each clip, set up different options for playback. Additionally the device could be setup to accept MIDI commands, then you could trigger specific video clips at important moments during a performance. The device would have a pad bank, that would look like ten buttons aligned in 5 columns, 5 rows. When ever you create a sample it would be stored to one of these buttons, to play it in the preview window, simply hold the button down, to drop it into the mix, hold it down and tap a button on the device. There would be graphical menus controlled by up, down, left, right, enter buttons. there would be also a pitch controller of sorts to speed up or slow down the playback speed of the clips in real-time, either modifying the video in preview so you could alter the sample to always playback at the modified speed, or just to tweak the main display to funk it up. you could go slow mo on anything, or take it back, hit it again, like a record scratch. You could even plug in a video camera, and add real-time effects to the live image, intersplice a clip from the pad bank drop in a transition, and let the mix live on. I don't know if I have adequately explained how I envision this thing working. If anybody else knows what a Roland SP-808 is or does, it would look and function a lot like an audio sampler, only it would be processing and sequencing video. You can do all this with audio, why not video?
-- ecolonsmak, Jun 24 2002

Korg's Video Kaoss Pad Review http://www.dottocom...rchives/001292.html
[jadi, Apr 29 2005]

You can do professional-quality video editing on a PC or Mac with a video capture board or DV interface, neither of which is very expensive. You can even do this on a laptop: [ecolonsmak] wants a portable system, but a PowerBook or Sony Vaio notebook PC with firewire (and optionally video out port) would let you do video editing.
-- pottedstu, Jun 25 2002


I kinda was hoping for something more performance oriented than a laptop computer.
-- ecolonsmak, Jun 25 2002


That's "performance oriented", and what could be a more performance oriented hardware platform than a laptop? Witness endless corporate sales pitches with animated demonstrations and Power Point(less) presentations. I also see desktop (so why not laptop?)computers much more frequently on stage these days. It's no less convenient than the form factor you suggested.

Take an ordinary laptop computer, add a large hard drive, as much memory as it can hold, and a video interface card. Add MIDI support through the serial port or a dedicated port on the video interface card. The rest is all software.
-- BigBrother, Jun 26 2002


lol.... this whole idea stemmed from a conversation with a friend of mine about how we thought having laptops on stage looks cheesey. Even though many big names do it all the time, Moby, Orbital, Chemical Brothers.. etc. We were saying how hardware sequencers do essentially the same thing as laptops running cubase, then we got into the video aspect and formulated the video sampler idea. DJ's who use video during thier sets really can't mix it themselves since there is no tool which places all the tools right at your fingertips; ie with knobs and dials, like music gear. Normally there is someone else running it, which impedes artistic control. anyways... I digress.
-- ecolonsmak, Jun 26 2002


And (from BigBrother's remark) call the program: "PowerPointless"
-- pashute, Jun 26 2002


There are - and have been for years - video samplers available. Have a look at EBN's (Emergency Broadcast System) work from the mid-1990's on (including a stint with U2 on the ZooTV tour). MIDI and other interfaces control video playback in realtime for live performance. Their work was published by TVT records, and the videos - for one: Electronic Control Behavior System - say it all. I did work with them on the live systems as well as adopting the concepts for gaming systems, and it works - we also worked on developing a hardware-based system (rackmount or integrated keyboard) - honestly, it was just way ahead of its time. Perhaps the time is... now. Find and contact Josh Pearson or myself at jmeisellmisc@yahoo.com.
-- thulsadoom, Jan 17 2003


Shouldn't a 1 GHz pentium be able to sample ALL the television channels at the same time using an audio sampling program written for the original 4.77 MHz PC? The answer is yes, but for Win-Slows fans that does not compute!
-- mr2560, Sep 19 2003


I've actually been working with Max/Msp with the Jitter plug-in to try and write a program that does exactly that. The glory of Max/Msp is that you can set up all the faders and multi-tracks that you want. I've been able to set video clips to key strokes and move between them as easy as playing notes on a keyboard. If you are interested in working on something like this I highly recommend jitter, it's MUCH more powerful than editing suites. There is also a Korg Kaoss Pad that is geared to video. I've not seen it or used it but I guess its very cool. It's more useful for effects after the sampling, but with the memory intesity required of video sampling it may be neccessary for smooth performances.
-- jadi, Apr 29 2005



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