Can the future of visualists really be a combination of programmers, VJs, DJs, filmmakers, animators, musicians, turntablists? Why not? In the meantime, given that menu of people and a tough market to crack, many manufacturers are betting on the DJs. Josh Randall points us to this demo video of the next version of Rane’s Serato Scratch Live:
(Video by MixRevolutionTV, via YouTube — thanks, Josh!)
Scratching video in and of itself is nothing new. Numark’s CUE pushes this, as well, and the whole Numark VJ approach seems to be pushing DJs to add visuals. Long before that, the Ms. Pinky vinyl system (see various CDMusic coverage) shipped out-of-the-box with video support for turntablists — and the ability to create custom systems, thanks to its Max/MSP/Jitter support.
But it’ll be interesting to see if Rane can do it right. And there is something to be said for hardware. More discussion over on VJForums:
Serato Scratch Live’s v1.8 video features…
I agree with the consensus there: great visualists and great footage make for great results using just about any controller or interface.
Will visual turntablism spread the planet, though, or just prove a niche crossover? We’ll be taking a closer look at Serato Live 1.8 (among other things) soon.