[2021] An Overview of Video Glitch / Synth Gear Makers

Until now, there's never been a video that covers the many artists and engineers producing analog video hardware in the present day. This is intended for viewers both new and familiar with the analog video art scene, and will be especially helpful for those looking for custom analog video hardware for the first time.

I've divided tools into two categories: glitch processors (usually circuit bent) and video synthesizers (usually original circuits). Take with a grain of salt; there is definitely some overlap.

Don't overlook DIY Kits! It is always possible to build glitch gear and video synths yourself. Many of those mentioned even sell kits for you to solder together. I'd say before you rush into buying some expensive hardware, explore with what's possible with a kit, or mix and match video / audio signals yourself using basic, cheap, electronic components and some wires. You can achieve super cool effects just with an experimental attitude. Remember, there are no right answers, only creative ones!

== MODIFIED GEAR / GLITCH PROCESSORS ==

5:37 Tachyons+

7:10 Big Pauper Modified Circuitry

10:16 Mezkalin Lightshows' PAL hardware mods

11:30 LoFi Future's Panasonic WJ-AVE5 & Edirol V4 mods

12:22 Syntonie's AVEmod

== DIY KITS ==

12:58 Melted Electronics' Mutant Enhancer & Dirty Mixers

13:53 Karl Klomp Dirty Video Mixers
single knob mixers you can build yourself at almost no cost. The ones Statikstruments and some others sell are (in my opinion) overpriced, but to be fair Statikstruments also sells circuit bent colorizers and noise enhancers which are a bit more sophisticated... just know the difference.

15:12 Freedom Enterprise's MisMatcher

15:23 DIY Video Synths
The CHA/V by Jonas Bers is stupidly cheap to build. The 3TrinsRGB+1c by Gijs Geiskes and EC500 by 508 Loop Detected are a bit more involved

== ORIGINAL GEAR / VIDEO SYNTHESIZERS ==

15:45 LZX Industries' Modular Video Synthesizers

17:24 Erogenous Tones & other Eurorack Module makers

17:58 Software Synths Lumen & Cathodemer

18:25 Sleepy Circuits' Hypno

19:31 Andrei Jay's Raspberry Pi Processors

21:01 Melted Electronics' Strange Loop

21:27 Lofi Future's Video Feedback Synthesizers

22:39 George Gleixner's Custom Video Feedback Synths

Cat Full of Ghosts
unfortunately did not cover them in this video ;( but they make original video gear!

== HONORABLE MENTIONS ==

22:57 Critter & Guitari

23:53 Resolume Avenue

24:40 Synesthesia

If you like my work you can follow me here:

#videosynth #circuitbending #videoart

[YOVOZOL]

I'm trying to reduce the amount of "polite" but non-engaged subs I have, to help my channel in the algorithm. Thanks.

[DinkusPony]

Lars (LZX) has estimated that the niche for analog video artists is extremely small— like 1000 people worldwide. It’ll be cool to see it grow and vids like this really help :)

[arxaaron]

I'm an old school career TV techy come computer geek and Videot Savante who dove into the video art world in the late 80's and 90's, largely in conjunction with the digital art and demo scene enabled by the Amiga computer. Led me to teach electronic art and animation in the Amiga and video labs at Atlanta College of Art for several years. For a couple of those years, we did bi-weekly 4 hour video art broadcasts with live music tracking out of the cable local access studios using multiple Amigas that I (re)wired into the control room video switcher and patch matrix. SO KEWL to see this art form is seeing a renaissance! Thanks for bringing it up to radar level!

[lukelim]

I was a electronic musician/guitarist that went on an journey to become a cameraman and now i am super interested in combining these two world together with analog visual arts and sound.

Superbly grateful for this video.

[madel]

dude thank you for making this. even in 2024 it's so hard to find info on this subject. really appreciate you giving a beginner overview!

[YOVOZOL]

gear specific stuff might be better asked in the gear maker's DMs or in r/videobending, r/videosynthesis, scanlines.xyz, or your device's dedicated forum if it has one. I am busy and get a lot of messages so I will probably not answer.

[CynicSnacks]

As a beginner in this space I greatly appreciate this video. Thank you for your insight, but also for providing so many leads to further my search for knowledge.

[jjdmadn]

MAN YOU HAVE NO IDEA FOR HOW LONG I WAS LOOKING FOR THIS, i've been insanely interested in video art as a general form, but i always wondered how these glitchy effects were done, i only ever could manage anything similar by going through after effects and using like datamosh, and today i finally found what it's called and even better you telling me that there is a whole world of people selling gear for it

[enpugin]

I've been slowly finding some of these various companies/artists/etsy pages over the past year or so, but this video was an awesome way to reign it all in. Thanks for this

[harlekurtmusic]

just stumbled across this as first contact with this scene. INSANE! Thanks for improving my quality of life.

[ViKODiN_]

Big ups specially to Drew, dudes line up of glitch processors in insane. He also had top tier service. Bought a modded mixer from his line up, had some issues with it, and he totally resolved it with no issues and reimbursed my shipment back to him. Cannot understate his dedication to his products. Def agree with that he has the most unique devices and bends. His ave3 should be in electronic history books

[arktikfoxtrix]

This video is everything I've been searching for! but you already know that.. :)Thank you so much for your time and effort. Big ups!

[goobatroopa_]

Really appreciate this vid. I've fantasized about doing hand controlled live visualizations for a long time and this opened my eyes to a whole new world.

[cringelurker]

Didn’t really know the first thing about video synthesis when I woke up today. This is so informative! Thanks so much for putting this together. Great information makes for a great presentation. I just planned on saving to watch later and was hooked right away!

[admsmth_]

I got into glitch art/video synthesis around the same time you started posting these educational kind of videos and it’s been so helpful. You’re doing great stuff man, I love your work. Keep it up!

[sleeppattern]

Damn, comrade! This was solid information and I appreciate your drive to archive this... As i was writing this comment i absolutely lost it at "I'm just saying....*blink...blink...*" love how you covered a large variety of topics and kept everything flowing. Can't wait for the next deep dive.

[markusschmidt]

Oh, wow! I accidentally stumbled over your video while watching modular synthesis videos. This is so interesting and a whole new world is opening up in front of my eyes. Great stuff! Thank you for the overview.

[rodjack]

Just now watched this. I have some old stuff wanting to you!!!

[BGBSATX]

Oh boy this is the rabbit hole I’ve been looking for, thank you so much for doing this video. I’m about to do a really haphazard thing for a video but this is really the info I’ve been looking for.

[Eliphosys]

wow, thank you! I was hanging on to each word and will be revisiting this video. I'm interested to work with generative/glitch/synthesis video along with my music to create immersive experiences in live performance. What a wonderful world to explore, thanks again for breaking it down like this!