Free

Onyx – an open source video performance tool

I have been testing and using a number of live video mixing software and Onyx has to be one of my favorites.  This open source visualization software was created by Daniel Hai and is powered by Adobe Air.  With 5 Video banks to mix between the possibilities are endless in the combination’s of visuals you can create.  You can also use the crossfader to fade between mixed channels.

Because Onyx runs on Adobe Air you are going to need to convert any media you want to use to Flash format.  Onyx can use both FLV and SWF video or image files so your going to need to convert any media to this format to utilize it.  Luckily it is very easy to create a new document in Flash and import whatever video or image your trying to use.   Then export your project as a SWF or FLV file and move it into your Onyx library. Or you can get this easy to use FLV converter!

If you have a camera or video input on your computer Onyx will allow you to utilize this device.  Its rather impressive when you mix a live video along with visuals at a show.  Onyx also has a BPM meter.  You click the meter to the current tempo and then the program will use your input to time some of the effects.  These effects will move the video around or make it blink randomly to the pulse of the music.

I have noticed a bug in the software with FLV files so I would recommend converting files to SWF.  I have noticed that you cannot adjust the video play rate or clip video that is rendered as an FLV.    One other bug I have noticed is when a folder in your library has too many video clips (over 40) the program will sometimes freeze when opening that directory.  There are also a couple filters that don’t seem to be working correctly.  Since this is a free program these are very minor complaints and I’m sure a bug fix or update will be available eventually.

There are a couple features I would like to see in a future version of Onyx.  It would be nice if you could have the flash files change depending on tone or BPM.  That way you could have the visuals automatically beat to the music without having to create the effect manually.  It would also be nice if the BPM meter could automatically configure itself based on microphone input.   One last complaint is that the max video output resolution is 640 x 480 and I would like to be able to output to a higher resolution.

For being free software I’d have to say Onyx is one of the best and I give it 10 Stars.
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© 2009 Soft Thoughts.