PEACE! WELCOME TO 
Latest Post - May 25
BendWeDontBreak
(+ a fool's guide to video synthesis)
Before I start anything else and forget, I just wanted to say thank you all for the birthday wishes this month! Recently I been kinda laying low, to deal with some shit offline, and haven't been hitting the board like I used to. While everyone else is playing that new Drake and/or getting their IGs hacked, ya boy's been busy tryna save up to make sure he's comfortable for the rest of the year. Last show I went to was Swans nearly a year ago and I really gotta work on that. Some new equipment would be nice too. Life can be fun, but it ain't easy!
Been feelin' an air of guilt for not showing enough love to everyone who reached out to see whats up, even we just sent reels to each other. Always remember that even when ur at your lowest those are the people who believe in you the most. Allat means the world and a half to me. For anyone asking, I celebrated by daydrinking and eating carrot cake. I even tried a 40oz Steel Reserve for the meme and h-h-holy shit it's disgusting!
Speaking of holy shit...
GxFR - Don’t Get Scared Now (Daupe!), Earl Sweatshirt & MIKE & SurfGang - Pompeii/Utility (Big Love OBI), Zoloft: Understanding Depression (VHS).. and some tapes from the local Goodwill
Real oldheads know how slept on that Griselda tape is. Been saying I'm outta the vinyl game for a while, but who can say "no" to a heavy hitter?
now introducing...
A FOOL'S GUIDE TO VIDEO SYNTHESIS
Here's just a lil fun and extra thing to peep in the meantime. Few years ago I bought a CRT off Facebook marketplace for a VFX project I was working on with a few people. This project would end up falling through, but I still kept the TV.
I bought a set of boards to plug into it. During my time showing these off on TikTok, I've been met with a few people asking “what is all this?”
JASCO CamGear
These boards are known as video enhancers, or video synths depending on who you ask. Think of em as guitar pedals for your TV. Depending on the type of board, they can do different things to the visuals being displayed on the screen. Some are more basic and just have a few knobs to adjust the colors, while others have a lot more options to play with.
In order to get the most out of these, you must differentiate the types of equipment you can use as they all serve different purposes in how the visuals are handled. The most common ones you'll see are mixers, which have more than two video inputs, let you transition between multiple video sources. A video enhancer, decked out with hella knobs and dials, allow you to manipulate the colors, which adds effects that are being displayed onscreen. Some, like the one shown above, can do both.
The glitch effects (aka the fun part) comes from bending the circuits inside. Old video enhancers that are repurposed for this. These are open to grab on Etsy for pretty cheap, such as the ones by DJBajaBlast which I have vouched for in the past. For those really tryna embrace the DIY , some of these sellers have included kits on how to assemble it yourself. The options are pretty vast but definitely range in price.
For those really tryna be a VJ, there are also more expensive options like the Recursion Studio which act as a video sampler. That $1600 can understandably be intimidating to some, which is why there are also cheaper alternatives like ____. I haven't personally used either but from what I've seen it's pretty powerful and can do a lot of cool things.
It goes without saying that in the world of analog video, my equipment really isn't that much. using an old RCA VCR with an Orion 1326BW, don't even have a remote! As someone using an older model with RF, I couldn't recommend using a CRT with RCA inputs more.
For the best picture quality, you're gonna want an RGB CRT, but good luck tryna find one for a good price. This would not be a real hobby if you didn't have people circlejerking with these awful prices.
"that shit says 649 dollar shipping.jpg"
Once you have a CRT the mixer(s), you just gotta connect them to separate video sources. Like I mentioned getting a sampler is out the question right now so for my setup I usually plug it into my laptop, which is playing most of the visuals with it. The other port is hooked up to my VCR, which isn't as visible but is still the most important part of the operation. I got VHS tapes that go through, and when hooked up to the mixer it displays traces of whatever is being displayed on it, and depending on the content it’ll display something cool like a face or text onscreen to be played with. If you hit rewind on the VCR, that will also be visible.
"The Jester's Chain"
I have my setup like this. Laptop/Ps3 plugged into HDMI to AV converter, which is output to my main radioshack board which has the most knobs/dials meaning the most effects. While this is going on, I have the larger JASCO board hooked up to my VCR. Radioshack and JASCO board to go a separate video mixer with two inputs, and is output to the RF modulator.
When everything is hooked up, you'll have a fun set of visuals to play with! And adjust accordingly
...
If you have a mixer with a lot of options, it can be pretty overwhelming at first. But once you get the hang of it, it's pretty fun to just mess around with the knobs and see what kind of effects you can create. It's also a great way to add some visual interest to your videos or live streams.
One more tip: make sure to use a power cord for your mixers that won't hold too much voltage. depends on what you’re using but 12V should do the job. Had to learn this the hard way a few months back when I tried one with 25V and it ended up frying one of the components:
(artist's rendition)
Thankfully it still works for the most part but that shit was terrifying!
this concludes...
A FOOL'S GUIDE TO VIDEO SYNTHESIS
(talk about music here idk)
In other news I also uhhh:
- REVAMPED 'Gallery' page! (New UI + moved images to CDN for faster loading)
- Added search bar to 'Videos' page
- Improved video descriptions
- Improved Taskbar (again)
- Tweaked with the CSS a lil
In tandem with all this work, I have also started using statcounter.com to track activity on the site. I have been relying on Neocities for the same purpose just to find out it's not the most accurate.
In the age of the surveillance state, I gotta reiterate that I have NO interest in collecting any personal data; it's all basic information like what country you're from and what sites linked the page. Hopefully this explains the extra trackers on here in case anyone was wondering, but I assume anyone who cares enough would be using an ad blocker.
Doing this also enlightened me to the amount of Chinese botnets scraping the site. What are they using that info for? Couldn't tell ya but fuuuck that
I can officially say this website (or portfolio, blog, whatever ya wanna call it) has been a work in progress for over a year now.
What started off as a revamp to my old webpage from middle school has become a new thing to eat up my time.
I'm still not fully satisfied with the website yet and prolly never will be because there's always room for improvement, and as a student of the culture there's always new things to learn.
Can't wait to show what I been cookin lately.
Before I start anything else and forget, I just wanted to say thank you all for the birthday wishes this month! Recently I been kinda laying low, to deal with some shit offline, and haven't been hitting the board like I used to. While everyone else is playing that new Drake and/or getting their IGs hacked, ya boy's been busy tryna save up to make sure he's comfortable for the rest of the year. Last show I went to was Swans nearly a year ago and I really gotta work on that. Some new equipment would be nice too. Life can be fun, but it ain't easy!
Been feelin' an air of guilt for not showing enough love to everyone who reached out to see whats up, even we just sent reels to each other. Always remember that even when ur at your lowest those are the people who believe in you the most. Allat means the world and a half to me. For anyone asking, I celebrated by daydrinking and eating carrot cake. I even tried a 40oz Steel Reserve for the meme and h-h-holy shit it's disgusting!
Speaking of holy shit...
GxFR - Don’t Get Scared Now (Daupe!), Earl Sweatshirt & MIKE & SurfGang - Pompeii/Utility (Big Love OBI), Zoloft: Understanding Depression (VHS).. and some tapes from the local Goodwill
Real oldheads know how slept on that Griselda tape is. Been saying I'm outta the vinyl game for a while, but who can say "no" to a heavy hitter?
now introducing...
A FOOL'S GUIDE TO VIDEO SYNTHESIS
Here's just a lil fun and extra thing to peep in the meantime. Few years ago I bought a CRT off Facebook marketplace for a VFX project I was working on with a few people. This project would end up falling through, but I still kept the TV. I bought a set of boards to plug into it. During my time showing these off on TikTok, I've been met with a few people asking “what is all this?”
JASCO CamGear
In order to get the most out of these, you must differentiate the types of equipment you can use as they all serve different purposes in how the visuals are handled. The most common ones you'll see are mixers, which have more than two video inputs, let you transition between multiple video sources. A video enhancer, decked out with hella knobs and dials, allow you to manipulate the colors, which adds effects that are being displayed onscreen. Some, like the one shown above, can do both.
The glitch effects (aka the fun part) comes from bending the circuits inside. Old video enhancers that are repurposed for this. These are open to grab on Etsy for pretty cheap, such as the ones by DJBajaBlast which I have vouched for in the past. For those really tryna embrace the DIY , some of these sellers have included kits on how to assemble it yourself. The options are pretty vast but definitely range in price. For those really tryna be a VJ, there are also more expensive options like the Recursion Studio which act as a video sampler. That $1600 can understandably be intimidating to some, which is why there are also cheaper alternatives like ____. I haven't personally used either but from what I've seen it's pretty powerful and can do a lot of cool things.
It goes without saying that in the world of analog video, my equipment really isn't that much. using an old RCA VCR with an Orion 1326BW, don't even have a remote! As someone using an older model with RF, I couldn't recommend using a CRT with RCA inputs more. For the best picture quality, you're gonna want an RGB CRT, but good luck tryna find one for a good price. This would not be a real hobby if you didn't have people circlejerking with these awful prices.
"that shit says 649 dollar shipping.jpg"
Once you have a CRT the mixer(s), you just gotta connect them to separate video sources. Like I mentioned getting a sampler is out the question right now so for my setup I usually plug it into my laptop, which is playing most of the visuals with it. The other port is hooked up to my VCR, which isn't as visible but is still the most important part of the operation. I got VHS tapes that go through, and when hooked up to the mixer it displays traces of whatever is being displayed on it, and depending on the content it’ll display something cool like a face or text onscreen to be played with. If you hit rewind on the VCR, that will also be visible.
"The Jester's Chain"
...
If you have a mixer with a lot of options, it can be pretty overwhelming at first. But once you get the hang of it, it's pretty fun to just mess around with the knobs and see what kind of effects you can create. It's also a great way to add some visual interest to your videos or live streams.
One more tip: make sure to use a power cord for your mixers that won't hold too much voltage. depends on what you’re using but 12V should do the job. Had to learn this the hard way a few months back when I tried one with 25V and it ended up frying one of the components:
(artist's rendition)
this concludes...
A FOOL'S GUIDE TO VIDEO SYNTHESIS
(talk about music here idk)
In other news I also uhhh:
- REVAMPED 'Gallery' page! (New UI + moved images to CDN for faster loading)
- Added search bar to 'Videos' page
- Improved video descriptions
- Improved Taskbar (again)
- Tweaked with the CSS a lil
In tandem with all this work, I have also started using statcounter.com to track activity on the site. I have been relying on Neocities for the same purpose just to find out it's not the most accurate. In the age of the surveillance state, I gotta reiterate that I have NO interest in collecting any personal data; it's all basic information like what country you're from and what sites linked the page. Hopefully this explains the extra trackers on here in case anyone was wondering, but I assume anyone who cares enough would be using an ad blocker. Doing this also enlightened me to the amount of Chinese botnets scraping the site. What are they using that info for? Couldn't tell ya but fuuuck that
I can officially say this website (or portfolio, blog, whatever ya wanna call it) has been a work in progress for over a year now. What started off as a revamp to my old webpage from middle school has become a new thing to eat up my time. I'm still not fully satisfied with the website yet and prolly never will be because there's always room for improvement, and as a student of the culture there's always new things to learn.
Can't wait to show what I been cookin lately.