Pix Jam – Roland MV-8000 feature

OS 3.0 Pix Jam Feature

With the release of OS 3.0 for the Roland MV-8000 a new feature came along to combine visuals with your audio tracks. A total of 16 pictures could be used to be sent out to the VGA-output.
I searched on the internet/YT and didn’t find any examples of other users, so I started to study to do it myself. I downloaded the 3.0 manual from the Roland Website where all info is explained about using Pix Jam. (https://static.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/MV-8000v3_OM.pdf)nt out to the VGA-output.

Making Slides

According to the manual the MV can read pictures files of the BMP and JPG format with a maximum size of 640×480. I started up Keynote, adjusted the file size and started creating 16 different pictures. To make sure the transformation was not too big I decided to have the same background with a changing picture on the foreground.
After exporting the files as JPG I started the USB connection on the MV. Copy -pasted the files to a folder named Pix Jam and then used the Import-function of the MV to load up the pics into the memory.

Tracking the pics

Now I had to create a MIDI track and assigning the output to PIX. I hit record and while hitting the pads, the MV recorded the hits. Nothing was seen on my VGA screen….until I read that I had to do SHIFT+EXIT to exit the sequencer screen on the VGA and yes…there was my first Pix Jam track playing 🙂

Copying MIDI Tracks to Pix

Then I decided to record a drum beat with TR-808 sounds. After recording I copied the track to the PIX track to see what happened. And yes…the Pix track played of course the same ‘notes’ as the drum track. NICE!!!
I had also created a pic with just a back ground to bring more stability in the sequence. I used the drum grid to fill in the ‘only BG’-pic and then the sequence became more ‘silent’.

Strobe FX

In Keynote I created also a black pic and a white pic with the idea to create a kind of strobe effect. For that I used the Step Rec-function with hitting the pads with a 16th note. Faster than 16th was impossible for the MV, I noticed later. Too hot too handle 😉

Pix Jam Pac Man 8-Bit Video

As an huge fan of Pac Man I created a small track with some beats and of course the title song of this a’maze’ing game.
Here is a link to that video! Hope you like it!