A established oddity of the music world, Jonny Wilson, aka Eclectic Method, has been confusing the music world for quite some time and yet booking gigs such as the Moscow Circle of Light festival, the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, as well as producing media for CNN, Vice Media, and even Monty Python.
Eclectic Method’s work blends the media of music and video and has led him to describe himself as a Video Remix DJ and Producer. If that sounds difficult to imagine, then picture it as music out of video samples that he DJs as videos. To accomplish this media mash-up, Wilson uses VEGAS Pro as a simultaneously as a digital audio workstation and video editing software.
An NLE as a DAW?
One of VEGAS Pro’s advantages is its media compatibility and ability to edit video in neither time nor frames per second (fps), but rather in beats per minute (bpm).
Wilson starts a project by setting the tempo on his timeline and then adding clips, which uses as samples and then plays around with them until his has useable sounds. Then, he tries out ideas in 2/4/8/16 bar cycles and loops them until he finds a completed idea which he likes. Finally, it’s a matter of building beats and melodies from those sounds, which eventually become parts of a completed song.
Setting up the Timeline for bpm
How do I edit video to synchronized to music in bpm? You can do this by changing the ruler of your video’s timeline. Here’s how:
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File > Properties > Project Properties
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Choose the Ruler tab
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From the “Ruler time format” drop-down menu, select “Measures & Beats”
Now, all you need to do is tweak your loop as it plays. “The number one feature for me in VEGAS is the low res preview,” says Wilson, “[…] the fact that you can loop a few seconds of VEGAS and work on it as it’s looping without having to render means that you feel like your making music rather then editing video.”
Marching to the Beat of a Different Drum Machine
Ironically (or maybe fittingly), you may heard his music without ever having heard of Eclectic Method. Whilst talking about analog music, he mentioned:
“Actually some of the stuff I’ve done out there in a “traditional” form doesn’t even bare my name because I’ve done it as part of a team or have signed some document promising I wouldn’t say it was me.”
It fits that the DJ who utilizes doors slamming and tires screeching to inspire people’s dancing also released an entire video to people slamming his music. But we think the confusion is part of the fun. It’s hard to choose to handle his work as music and only listen. Instead, we get distracted and eventually end up watching it like a clip. Take a look at the keen eye involved in the mash-up Wilson made, entitled “The Wes Anderson Mixtape”.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that he can’t get you dancing during the disco’s prime time.
So if you’d like to get mixes of everything from hip hop to various forms of house to dubstep along with captivating visuals, make sure to stop by Eclectic Method’s YouTube channel. And if his work has inspired you to create art of your own, you can learn about and download a free 30-day trial version of VEGAS Pro 14 here.
