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Recipe: Solo Hip Hop Performance with Visibox

Jeff Robbins

Introduction

Building beats and producing tracks in your bedroom is one thing. But figuring out how to perform them live is another. Visibox is an audiovisual performance environment that allows you to control and synchronize videos, images, cameras, and audio files during live performances. You can use it as a player for your beats and backing tracks. But it can be used to add a visual dimension to your performance. This guide will show you how to use Visibox to add visuals to your solo hip hop performance.

There are many ways to use Visibox. We’re just going to outline one way to get started. But you can use this as a starting point and then experiment with your own ideas.

What You’ll Need

  • A computer running macOS or Windows
  • A video projector or monitor
  • A MIDI controller (optional)
  • Visibox

Assumptions

  • You’ve already got backing tracks or beats that you’ll be performing with.
  • You’ve got video footage, images, animations, or complete music videos that you want to use as visuals for your performance.

Step 1: Set Up Your Visibox Project

Start by creating a new Project in Visibox. You can add multiple songs, each with its own set of media files. Visibox is set up like a set list with a chunky interface that’s easy to see from a distance on stage. Add Songs to your Project and then drag in your audio, video, or image files.

For each Song, you have options:

  1. Add One Video File With Audio: Create instrumental music videos in pre-production. Bring your instrumental tracks into your favorite video editing software and put together your visuals. Export the video and drag it into a Visibox Song. Visibox will play the audio and video together. Now, instead of just backing tracks, you’ve got backing videos – a virtual environment for each song. Put whatever you want in the video – scenes, animations, or just a cool visual vibe. Heck, you could add virtual dancers or a virtual band if you wanted to.
  2. Add An Audio File To The Song: When you drag an audio file to a Visibox Song, it “attaches” to the Song. You can then add a single looping video, or multiple videos and images and trigger them with the computer keyboard or a MIDI device. When you play the Clips within the Song, the audio will play too. This is useful if you want to play backing tracks and trigger visuals manually.
  3. External Audio: If you’re using a DAW or hardware player to play your beats and backing tracks, you can use MIDI to trigger Visibox to play your visuals in sync with your music. Here’s a recipe for doing this with Stage Traxx.

You can mix and match these options. Put together your whole set list in Visibox, or just add a few songs to get started. You can always add more later.

Step 2: Configure Playback

Visibox’s default settings will probably work well, but you may want to make adjustments.

  • Video Clip Looping And Retriggering - Visibox’s default setting is to loop video Clips. However, if the video runs the entire length of the song (and perhaps contains the backing track), you probably don’t want it to start over while you’re introducing the next song. In this case, select one or more Clips and right-click. Then select “When Clip Ends” and choose either “Stop” or “Cue Next Song”. This will stop the video when it ends and optionally cue the next song in your set list. You might also choose “When Retriggered” and select “Do Nothing” so that if you accidentally trigger the video again, it doesn’t start over.
  • Volume Levels - If you’re using multiple video Clips, you can adjust their volume levels relative to one another. This is useful if you have a video with a loud soundtrack and another with a quiet soundtrack. You can also adjust the volume of the video relative to your backing tracks. To adjust the volume level of a video Clip, right-click on it and select “Volume”. To adjust the volume level of audio attached to a Song, right-click on the Song and select “Volume”.
  • Audio End Behavior - If you’re using audio attached to a Song, you can set what happens when the audio ends. Right-click on the Song and select “When Audio Ends”. You can choose whether playing Clips will stop, cue the next Song, or play the next Song and keep the party going! This is useful if you’re using backing tracks and want to make sure the visuals end when the music ends. Cueing the next Song is useful because it’s one less button to push when you’re ready to start the next song.

Step 3: Present and Perform

You can control Visibox using MIDI devices (pedals, pads, keyboards, etc), an Elgato Stream Deck, or just the keyboard and mouse on your laptop. You can use an external audio interface, or just plug your computer into the sound system. You can control Visibox from the stage, or have someone else control it from the front of the house.

With your visuals set up, you’re ready to perform. Visibox is designed to adapt your Project to most video projectors, monitors, LCDs, and televisions. Visibox will quickly adapt your input content to your output format, cropping, scaling, and adapting 4:3, 16:9, 16:10, and other aspect ratios to fit your output device.

  1. Place Your Computer - Place your computer on stage or at the front of the house. Laptops are generally better for this because they have built-in screens and a battery so you won’t need to reboot if the power gets unplugged. Put the laptop somewhere where you can see the screen and control it easily, but where it won’t get in the way of your performance.
  2. Connect The Video - Connect your computer to your video projector or LCD. This can usually be done with a simple HDMI connector, but you may need some adapters. Bring long cables because you never know where the video projector will be located.
  3. Connect The Audio - Connect your computer to the sound system. This can usually be done with a simple 1/8” to 1/4” adapter, but you may need some adapters. Bring long cables for this too!

Tips

  • Test, Test, Test: Test your setup in a variety of environments. You may not know what kind of video projector or sound system you’ll be working with. You may need to adjust your settings on the fly.
  • Bring A Backup: Bring a backup computer, video projector, and sound system if you can. If you can’t, at least bring a backup of your media files on a USB stick. You never know when something will go wrong.
  • Practice: Practice your performance with the visuals. You may need to adjust your performance to fit the visuals, or vice versa. You may need to adjust your lighting to make the visuals look better. You may need to adjust Visibox’s settings or even re-edit your videos to make everything work together. You often won’t know what needs to change until you’re actually in the midst of it all.

Other Ideas

  • Create A Visual Theme: Create a visual theme for your set. This could be a color scheme, a style of animation, or a set of images that all relate to one another. This can help create a cohesive visual experience for your audience.
  • Create An Entrance Video: Hype your set with a video that sets the mood for your performance.
  • Lyrics: If you’ve got songs with great hooks, choruses, or chants, create a video and put the lyrics on screen. This can be a great way to engage your audience and get them to sing along.

Conclusion

Your music is your creative expression. Visibox is a tool that can help you express yourself visually. You can create a rich, immersive, expansive, visual experience – even if you’re just a solo performer. It’s a little more work to set up, but it can be worth it. It can help you stand out from the crowd and create a memorable experience that your audience will remember.