Hard-core VJs have long known about Motion Dive. This VJ app is so rock-solid, intuitive, and flexible that people were willing to import it from Japan and use it with all-Japanese menus. Weirdly, it was easier to use that product in Japanese than many others in English. Now, Roland division Edirol is handling US distribution, and good things are happening. The menus are in English, for starters, and this week Edirol announces the motion dive .tokyo Performance Package, complete with a very practical-looking custom hardware controller. (What I’d like to know is whether it sends MIDI; the absence of simple crossfader hardware has meant almost everyone relies on the X-Session; it’d be nice to have another choice. I’ll let you know if I find anything out.)
But what if you want to run visuals while you play? Here’s another Edirol/Roland extra: the software now supports V.Link, the company’s initiative to make it easy to trigger visuals from music hardware. You can use your existing Roland/Edirol hardware (like the Fantom-X series keyboards, MC-909 sampling groovebox, SP-606 sampling workstation, and Edirol PCR series (PCR-30/50/80/M1/M30/M50/M80/A30), and run visuals, without manually mapping controllers. Very cool.
I expect to take a closer look at this soon, so stay tuned. CDM 5 words: VJing for musicians gets easier.