Videosync for macOS and Windows remains one of the easier ways to transform your Ableton Live set into a live VJ or audiovisual set or music video. Version 2.1 just landed with critical features like a video recorder and video monitor, plus new visual tricks like gradients. And if you’re new to the tool, here are some tips on where to get started learning.
Live VJing and AV aside, one of the best things about these tools is how quickly you can create some distinctive animations and visuals, because of that live workflow. So resist all this generative AI stuff with its aesthetic and moral uncanny valley, and make something that looks like you. That’s what our friends over at Showsync did with the launch video.
I’m lost in the dot…
Gradients are great — you could build a whole set around that. But I’m probably most happy to have the record feature. That’s essential for making animations and promos just as it is for documentation. “Oh yeah, we have a camera. I mean a person with an iPhone. I mean we forgot / lost the recording / left the country mysteriously.”
And there’s a lot of little but essential additions to this point-one release:
- Video Recorder, which can record inside a track or chain (for quick sampling), or on the Main Track for the whole session — and it records audio with video. Instant AV documentation/music video. And you can also select external input or other tracks as audio.
- Video Monitor, an essential from VJ software, but here, too, it works on any chain or track you want.
- Color Swap. 4 independent channels, absolute and relative modes, video sidechain integration (for some tricks that aren’t possible with other VJ tools), chrome/oklab/YUV modes, and per-channel edge control (blur, contour, softness).
- Gradient with linear, conical, and radial modes.
You can also now key with YUV and there are tweaks on everything fro the External In to Video Simpler.
2.1.0 New features and improvements
For Max fans, there’s also a plugin SDK. And actually, the guide I’ve been writing for Max for Live, even though it’s focused on sound and Ableton DSP, will also demystify some basics to allow you to tweak this stuff, too, as it’s all Max for Live.
Since I first started writing about Videosync, there have been some great video guides on how to get up and running. Seed to Stage is always an exceptional resource:
The mighty SIDEBRAIN just checked in a few days ago:
But my favorite content is any spider-related content:
Go check it. There’s a free trial available.
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