I’m slowly assembling my first video rig, planning for the following:
Strange loop / Hypno / Structure / Syntonie cvb001
I’m thinking to mix strange loop to one side and hypno + structure to the other, and wondering if a dirty mixer or edirol lvs 400 would be a solid mixer for this. I know dirty mixers are cheap and easy to build, but I have seen some good quality builds with extra blending triggers available. lvs 400 because it’s the only video mixer I have found on the used market here in the country I live in, otherwise V4 would be the way to go I bet!
Side note, wondering if anyone has used syntonie cvb 001 as well as lofi future t420. I’m curious if the overlap is considerable, seeing as with a dirty mixer as well things might get a bit too chaotic with glitch for these detailed video inputs. As always I appreciate any and all advice!
Sounds like you just need a good clean mixer to unite that dirty chaos – there’s a lot more out there (and likely leagues more accessible/affordable) than Edirol stuff if you’re looking for vintage and just need something for basic transitions or simple effects at the end of the chain. Far too many specific units for me to list off here, but there are many threads in the forum on this topic already that would be helpful to look through to determine what features check the boxes for your mixing needs (number of channels, connector types for ins/outs, wipes, keying, UI, physical size, etc etc). But off the top, I’d recommend searching eBay or local markets for classic electronics brands like Panasonic, Sony, JVC, Videonics, Datavideo or other companies that may have produced TV production gear in your country/region.
I’d also recommend that you try to look for a mixer that has a good time base corrector (TBC) to sync those bent signals and avoid dropouts/interruptions on modern displays. As nice as it feels to rock a V4, it can be notorious for blanking out with particularly mangled video sources. Haven’t used the LVS 400 before, so can’t speak on that one in regards to TBC, but I’d personally be weary of it for that reason. Standard definition-era video mixers from any of the brands listed above would probably be a more solid choice for your current use case than shelling out a premium for an Edirol, which tend to be relatively overpriced at the moment imo. Cheers!
I have a Videonics MxPro and it has a very solid TBC, especially compared to my Edirol V8. I actually pass some things through the MxPro first before sending them to the Edirol for this very reason. It was not terribly expensive on eBay.
…i have collected some information from sites that partially still exist in the wayback machine and similar places - there is also a lot of information about mixers and TBCs to be found:
…copied from an deleted Karl Klomp FAQ:
Here’s a list of cheap, second hand (out of production) video mixer that mix two non-synchronized video signals.
Thanks everyone whos sharing, this is super helpful. I found a beatup looking datavideo se500 that im debating compared to edirol. The datavideo has some very dated swiping type switching fx which im not sure will integrate like what a v4 seems to do. Anyone have experience with datavideo stuff?
imho, any “good” (feature-rich or hi-quality) mixer can be almost useless if the video signal you feed to it is heavily corrupted / glitchy / distorted
my tip is similar to @zawa 's : keep reading this forum until you find out why the Panasonic WJ AVE-5 is one of the best choices if you have very glitchy signals
then decide if you need that mixer - alternatively, if you can find cheap CRT TVs and cheap cameras, you can feed the TVs with glitchy signals and then rescan
I currently have a V8 + an WJ AVE-5 and I’d be sad if I had to choose one of them. Edirol mixers are great for performing live, but they suck at taming glitchy signals; the WJ AVE 5 is the other way around.
Maybe my Wj-ave5 just isn’t working properly but almost always do I get completely frozen screens with it, although it rarely blanks out it can be quite annoying.
highly reccomend ordering gravity waaaves from andrei jay. by far the best end of chain mixer you could possibly ask for. plus it digitally upscales the analog signal. super small and portable too, i have mine in a mini vintage suitcase with a t420. It takes video synthesis to a whole new level. i have sima sfx 10, edirol v8, panasonic mx10, and none of them even come close to the mix/key effects on gravity waaaves.
