Meeting notes from 9/11/08

Ned led our meeting tonight.
Ned unveiled the Matrox MXO2 – which ships tomorrow.
He’s had one under wraps for 2 months! [Ned - Where's the love? Share sooner - I thought we were close.   ]

Matrox gave him special permission to show it at our meeting and we were the first group to see it in action.

Major features are portability (12volt power source), multiple formats, multiple input/outputs (HDMI, HD/SD SDI, Analog)
From the website:

the first truly portable device that gives you broadcast-quality input/output, monitoring, and up/down/cross conversion to streamline your workflow with Apple Final Cut Studio 2. It’s MacBook Pro and MacPro compatible, fits in your laptop bag, can run for hours off a field battery, and weighs under 3 1 lbs. It lets you work seamlessly in any format you want.

You can read more about the MXO2 at http://www.matrox.com/video/en/products/mxo2/

Ned also told us about a recent SxS card hack for the Sony EX1 and EX3. He took a $36 Kensington 33407 7-in-1 Media Reader for Expresscard Slot (that makes an SD card fit into an express 34 slot) and an SDHC Class6 card - and now he is recording 8GB on his Sony EX1 for less than $60. (The Transcend SD cards are working)

This is compared to the $500 8GB Sony card.
I’ll try this one tomorrow!
Note – you must have the latest firmware for your EX camera.

Ned also gave us a demo of Abaltat’s Muse software $495 (Get it for $295 if you use the promo code “DALLAS” and order within one week of our meeting)
From the website:

Abaltat Muse™2.0 enables anyone, regardless of musical ability, to compose royalty-free, multi-part soundtracks that are perfectly timed and aligned to edited video. Now, Abaltat continues the evolution of video driven soundtrack creation with the release of  Abaltat Muse™2.0. New features including dual compostiion methods, new bands with presets, easy to use User Interface and much more, make short work of composing temp to final soundtracks – and all 100% royalty-free.

Choose music genre and tempo, complexity level and how repetitive.
It will generate the music based on color, light levels, or manual settings. You can keyframe points in the video to have it change tempo, instruments, or style. You can keyframe on color (every time red is on the screen play the guitar, etc…)
On the website it calls the software a “digital composer complete with band, composing a customized soundtrack to your edit picture sequence”. It composed royalty free music for your videos. It works with FCP and avid.

Next meeting with Oct 16 – third  Thursday
Meeting with be all Red.
Footage, shooting, acquisition, & color correcting