VJ-XY | Rod Sampera

Play the screen

VJ-XY brings live visuals into the same workflow as the music. Prepare a set, connect OP-XY, and use its keys, sequencer and encoders to play the screen.

I designed and built the app, bringing together the three things I spend most of my time doing: design, software and sound.

VJ-XY — a live visual instrument for OP-XY

Prepare. Connect. Perform. Watch on YouTube

One performance, one sequence

OP-XY is teenage engineering’s portable sequencer, synthesiser and sampler. Its keys, four encoders and step sequencer make it a very hands-on way to write and perform music.

VJ-XY gives that workflow a visual side. Notes trigger clips. The four encoders move visual effects. Record those movements into OP-XY and the visuals become part of the musical sequence, with no separate video timeline to keep in step.

The app handles playback on iPhone, iPad or a compatible Apple silicon Mac. The music stays with OP-XY; a connected screen or projector receives only the visuals.

From hardware to interface

The interface borrows the hardware’s visual language: four shades of grey, compact labels and a keyboard that makes the clip-to-note mapping visible. The relationship is there in the controls, before anything starts playing.

Interface component study showing four grayscale effect controls, loop and mix icons, scene rows and keyboard mappings — Building the interface vocabulary: effects, playback states, scenes and notes. View full size

Preparation and performance ask different things of the interface. Sets, scenes and clips give the preparation view its structure. In performance, the image takes over. Controls appear when needed for a quick correction, while OP-XY remains the main instrument in your hands.

Make the material, then play it

Video, photos and GIFs are one starting point. VJ-XY also has tools for making the visuals inside the app.

The matrix editor turns a grid of dots into frame-by-frame animation, drawn with a finger or Apple Pencil. Canvas clips take a different approach: layer stills and animated GIFs, arrange the composition, then give individual layers their own note triggers.

VJ-XY matrix editor on iPad, with a white dot animation, frame strip and drawing tools — Draw the loop frame by frame, then play it like any other clip.

Canvas editor with layered illustrations and an OP-XY image, plus individual layer controls — A composition becomes playable when its layers have notes of their own.

Both return to the same set of scenes and clips. Making something new does not mean learning another performance workflow.

An instrument that keeps growing

The connection can work in both directions. An optional experiment lets VJ-XY send MIDI back to OP-XY, putting mixer, mutes and effects on the touchscreen. Scale tools can find a key from a few notes and correct played notes into a scene’s scale.

These tools are off by default. They extend the instrument when you want them, while keeping the everyday visual workflow focused.

Performance layout explorations showing alternative arrangements for mixer, effects, tape and scale controls over live visuals — Exploring how much control belongs on the performance screen, and where it sits. View full size

VJ-XY performance view with OP-XY mixer, punch-in effects, EQ and tape controls over orange live visuals — The optional OP-XY controls bring the music back onto the touchscreen. The audience display stays clear of controls.

Explore VJ-XY · Read the user guide