Frequently Asked Questions
If you want to quickly learn how Harmony works, then the Video Tutorials are the place for you. In five minutes you’ll be up and running. In 20 minutes, you’ll be a Master.
If you have a detailed technical question that can only be answered by the Gods of Harmony (e.g., VJ Chaotic himself), then you’ll definitely want to ask your question in the Harmony Forums. (Our support people are just mortals, after all.)
If all else fails and you have a question or comment about our products that simply cannot be handled elsewhere, then please send us a note using the form below:
A Few Q’s and A’s with VJ Chaotic
Q: What’s the difference between a Harmony Chaotic and the visualizers in iTunes and Windows Media Player?
A: You’re the difference! Conventional visualizers respond to fluctuations in the sound, but they don’t know anything about a song’s structure: the verses, chorus, bridge, guitar solos, drum solos, vocals, instrumental flourishes, etc. Harmony takes advantage of the most powerful computer in the room (yes, that would be your brain) to spot the interesting moments in a song and tune the animation to fit what you hear and feel. Harmony plugs the artist’s brain into the animation, and that’s how you get Music for the Eyes.
Q: How do I get started?
A: Dive right in! Harmony definitely doesn’t bite. Import a song, drop an orbiter on the timeline, twist it a few (dozen) times, attach a path or three to the music, sit back, relax, let the good times roll, etc. Or you could spend a few minutes watching the Video Tutorials. They will modify your brain. Legally, of course.
Q: What’s a Twister?
A: A Twister takes a basic animator and sends it into the next dimension. My personal favorite is the Rotator, but the Scaler, Translator and Twirler are fun, too. Turn ‘em on, crank ‘em up, and let ‘em loose. Pump it up X 5! Just remember: too much Twister can absolutely bury your CPU, and that’s a crime in some places. Also, if you do it too often you could go blind.
Q: Ummm… …these movies are HUGE!!! What can I do about that?
A: Yep. By default Harmony saves each movie frame as a Photo-JPEG image, but the default compression level is set for very high quality images. Depending upon the length and size of your movie, that can really add up. It is possible to compress the images more using the Harmony JPEG compressor, but frankly it isn’t all that good. It compresses just fine, but it can blur the images pretty badly. It’s not good.
However, there is a solution! You can shrink the file using a video compressor. I use a really great tool called MPEG Streamclip. It can convert and compress a wide range of video file formats, including MPEG (MPG), MPEG-4 (MP4), AVI, WMV, and MOV. Best of all, MPEG Streamclip is FREE: http://www.squared5.com
I usually use the MPEG-4 compressor at 50%, as that gives a very nice balance of quality vs. size. Your mileage may vary.
Q: Sometimes things look like they’ve been chopped off. What’s up with that?
A: It’s because they’ve done one of two things: moved outside the known universe, or moved inside the camera. The “known universe”, in Harmony-space, is about 100,000 units across. (Don’t ask me why. If I could fix it, I would.) When things get too big or move out of bounds, then the drawing software “clips” them. When things get too close to the camera – so close that they’re effectively inside the camera, then they’ll get clipped, too.
This problem is pretty easy to work around: if things are too big or moving out of bounds, then make them smaller, and the move the camera closer. Conversely, if things are running into the camera, then make them smaller and/or move the camera back.
Q: Grateful Dead or Phish?
A: Yes, please.