Welcome to The ETC Television Center (or simply ETC to her friends)! Time is money so let’s get you up and running…
Along with this card, there are two main items in the box you just opened.
Follow these steps to make your sound visual.
Again, welcome to the world of ETC! As this video instrument has an inherent range and can work for different people in different ways, let us start by talking about what it is and where on Earth (or beyond!) it came from. We’ll then look at some of the basic concepts in play and make sure we are speaking the same language. Then we’ll close with a word on using this guide, preparing you to go forth and visually multiply. So back to our origin story…
We at Critter & Guitari (hello!) have released video boxes before, and we are still rather fond of those devices. Their intended use was simple:
While ETC preserves this “self-service” approach, a number of other modes and options are present.
Yes! Once ETC is connected and powered up (see chapter zero), it will automatically begin creating visuals with the factory presets.
Yes! You can cycle forwards and backwards through ETC’s current visual modes by pressing the two Mode Selector buttons on the bottom left of the front panel (around the eyeball icon). Each valid patch on the USB stick is loaded as a mode, and the preloaded factory content provides a survey of unique visual effects.
Yes! The knobs and buttons on ETC’s front panel provide direct access to the inner workings of ETC and each available visual mode. To expand your control options, you can connect a pedal to ETC’s Foot Switch port, or even wire up a MIDI controller to the MIDI In port, etc.
Yes! If audio is running into ETC, a couple of knob tweaks should get you a steady stream of responsive visuals.
Yes! The bottom row of ETC has a dedicated Screenshot button (with a camera icon). Pressing this button will capture the current output of ETC to an image file on the USB drive.
Yes! Modes can be made to use still images from within the mode’s file structure. A couple of the factory presets use this approach and are good examples if you want to explore this avenue.
Yes! All of ETC’s modes are written in pygame, an open-source Python library. This means that for the brave, every mode on your USB drive could be edited. And for the truly bold, new modes of your own can be created.
Exactly! ETC is a vehicle for creating visuals. You may want that in a live performance environment, or you might wish to capture and edit the output. Perhaps you want someone to operate ETC throughout your set, or maybe you yourself just lean over and switch scene presets ever song or two. You might want to get out a text editor and code a new mode, but you can just as easily download new modes that others have written. Any of these choices are valid as long as they serve your purposes!
Our introduction and the sticker on the back of ETC have already hinted at certain ideas and the terms we are using to express them. Let’s take a moment to be clear about the concepts in play.
An ETC mode is a method for creating visuals. In audio terms, you could think of each mode as a patch. The mode can be switched instantaneously from the front panel. Each available mode lives on the attached USB drive along with any support files it may need.
In building the initial factory modes, we have considered modes as falling into three broad categories:
Foot Switch, received MIDI notes, or something else altogether.As these descriptions indicate, there is plenty of wiggle room as modes can readily blend these ideas or go off in completely new directions. But thinking in this way may help you understand the factory modes — and even organize your own ideas for new modes or new categories.
As for the controls of ETC, we think of them as falling into a couple of categories.
An ETC scene is essentially a preset. Each scene stores which mode was being used and the setting of all four foreground controls.
The next chapter will explore how to put all of these ideas into action, but understanding modes versus scenes (and foreground controls versus background controls) will let us hit the ground running.
Certain chapters (such as this one!) are relevant to everyone. But depending on how you plan to use ETC, some information may prove more valuable to you.
Just realize that how you use ETC today may be very different from how you use it a week from now. This is to say feel free to skip information that isn’t of use to you today; you may find that later chapters appreciate in value over time.