Union was our first product, and launched our way of thinking about media and media control, and came from our exact performance needs for live video. We were one of the early entrants to the live video software market, and it’s what defined us for many years. We took musical ideas, and appropriated them for controlling pixels, but this move has proven more circular than progressive, as the broader thinking about media control has infected the audio world.

As our focus and efforts have moved to making hardware that speaks more to music, we’re dedicating more of our time and energy to that world. Given the crossover between Union and DNA, and that DNA occupies a more distinct niche in the live visuals world, it made cruel sense for Union to get the “deprecated” label.
We’re pretty excited, though. We can focus on making simpler software and better hardware that can be tied together in creative ways. With less proprietary software to maintain, we can open up more code so people can learn and expand for their own unique expressions. And because DNA is pretty easy to extend, we can also port over some of the cool features that Union has, like sound trigger, recording, automator, and waveform modules.

For current Union users, we are offering a $25 crossgrade to DNA. For Union purchases over the last six months, it’s free. We’ll still support existing users of Union for some time, too.

Looking forward to 2010.

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news by Peter

Ocular Noise Machine is an experimental multimedia ensemble consisting of Tony Lannutti (guitar, Live, laptop) and Jay Smith (Viditar, Ohm64, Union, laptop). Tony and Jay are members of the rock band Sinch http://sinch.net and have been performing together as Ocular Noise Machine since 2001. Combining real-time video and musical performance, Ocular Noise Machine creates unique live interactive audio and video experience.

This post was submitted by Jay Smith.

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projects by Jay Smith

This version of union adds better support for our own hardware, including MIDI out from on-screen actions and templates for the Ohm64 and block. This will also work with the APC40, Launchpad, or any device that accepts MIDI input to control lighting. The MIDI out provides MIDI talkback for these devices.

Other fixes and adds:
• Added sound recording, including recording of sound from video clips. Please see manual for important information about this new feature.
• Added CueStore and SpeedReset to the MIDI-controllable features in the Movie Modules.
• Fixed Bank Changing in Automator and improved file-changing by validating the files when counting the files in a bank.
• Authorization gets rid of Demo mode. If authorized, then it runs as authorized. If not, it runs as Demo. This means the Demo download from the site can be authorized by paid users. If you install the Demo on a computer authorized to run Union, then it will open as a registered version.
• SoundInput panel properly reflects on/off state of DSP engine.
• Fixed MIDI Template creation.
• Fixed triggers so if slider is at 0, trigger will send max value.
• Default Cues are equal segments of clip, rather than entire selection.

To download 2.5.6 go here http://www.lividinstruments.com/

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news by Jay

In between launching the Ohm64, making the editor, examples, and working on instruments for it, I’ve been gradually updating and fixing up Union as requests come in from users. We can now announce version 2.55! This fixes some bugs related to the Clip Bank, recording when in fullscreen, LFO sync, Freeframe effects layering, MoreKnobs module, BPM sync, captions, palindrome loop mode works when recording, and probably a couple other little things.
There’s some minor new features, too. Keying can be toggled on/off with MIDI (found in the MIDI setup panel in the Functions), and the Sync menus in the Movie panels can be controlled with MIDI, too.
In Video In, there’s a new feature that will records a measure (BPM dependent) of your video input to a specified clip bank slot. This provides a simple way to remix live events as they occur.
There’s also a new Control Element “LoopCueKeys” that re-assigns keyboard presses to control loop selections and cues.
If you own Union, you can use the link you received in your email to re-download the update, or send and email with your email receipt and/or serial number to contact@lividinstruments.com.
Enjoy!

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news by Peter

Livid Union user Faisal Anwar is concocting a multimedia mix on which I recently gave a small assist.  As part of Toronto’s 175th anniversary, he has a project called 360extended that invites people to geo-locate their stories of their city. This web-based project will then be part of an installation for the anniversary party on March 6th at Nathan Phillip’s Square, where he mixes these stories with video of the city and realtime stories delivered in an intriguing way.
He emailed me wondering if he could mix web-based flash content with video in Union. Well, in theory, yes, but in this case, no – his particular example wasn’t working, and even had it shown an image, it still would not have been satisfactory. What was so intriguing about this flash movie was that is generated from SMS messages sent during the performance.
This was too good of an idea to let cave to technical reasons. I coded up a Max/MSP Jitter patch to parse the xml file where the SMS messages are compiled, post the most recent 20 or so messages, and animate and mix them with existing video content in Union. Take a look.
Of course, you can have a much better look as he projects ACTUAL text messages on a building during Toronto’s blowout, so if you are near the city, pay a visit to experience a nice piece of temporal civic art.
Oh, and he’s looking to expand this to your city – so keep an eye out for it so you can tell your story.

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news by Peter