DIY, you tool!

Playing around with the Neuromixer AVmixer lite last night. And It could be a video mixer solution for AnimeHELL. I have been looking for a simple video mixer that I could use for doing a live show. The problem with most video mixing software is that it's geared for doing VJ sets, where the emphasis is on the music and is treated separate from the visual element. That's great if you're playing a rave, but not so great for playing video clips with their audio tracks intact and without a pounding drum loop underneath (or over) it.

AVmixer lite is a cut down version of AVmixer Pro. Which means it doesn't have the fancy video effects and trippy filters and stuff that your typical VJ wants for his visuals to go with his phat beats. This is great news to me. I don't need that stuff and all it does is put a drag on the computer processor. So that leaves us with 2 video players and a crossfader inbetween them. And that'd be a basic simple video mixer. Holy crap! I can load up the playlists for both video players, preview the video in the monitors and see what the live feed looks like. Damn. This is exactly what I was looking for. AND IT WORKS.

There's buttons for goofing with the audio and looping or bouncing the video, too. You can slow down or speed up the clips, too. And you can trigger the clips on the keyboard, too. Not that I'd be using this stuff much at a show, it's nice that it's there. I guess.

If that weren't enough, it's free for the asking. (But there is a donate button in case you're feeling generous.) And you don't need to install it into your computer. It runs outta your RAM. So, unfortunately, it does suck up the resources to run the video clips. I'm thinking I just need to tweak the settings or re-encode the video clips to help it along. I may actually have to try using this for the next HELL. (After I practice with it and test out all the clips in my playlist. Don't want any surprises at the show.) It doesn't do exactly what I'd like, but it's close enough. I'd love to be able to superimpose some text on the screen occasionally, but I think I can live without that. If only it had a star wipe, it'd be in heaven.

So, there you go. A simple video mixer that you could use to make a video presentation at your next meeting. Or your next HELL.

animehell