BRINGING FRESH VISUALS TO NOAH B’S LIVE-STREAMED SET
UKF Future Vision: Building Immersive Live-Stream VJ Experiences
Between 2021 and 2023, I had the privilege of producing multiple pre-recorded VJ sets for AEI Music and UKF’s prestigious Future Vision streaming series — a platform dedicated to pushing the boundaries of what live electronic music performance could look and feel like online. What began as a single commission grew into an ongoing creative partnership that consistently challenged me to evolve my craft.
The journey started with DJ Noah B, and that first project set the tone for everything that followed. UKF gave a clear but unrestrictive brief: to explore continuity and infinite possibilities through repetitive geometric, circular designs that carry the appearance of an optical illusion. notch That kind of open creative direction is exactly where I thrive. I wanted the visuals to feel purposeful rather than decorative — something that amplified the music rather than simply accompanying it.
Every project in the series followed a consistent production framework. I received footage of DJs performing their sets in front of a green screen, and from there, the real work began. I keyed out each DJ from the background, then designed and built entirely custom VJ set environments around them. The DJ footage itself wasn’t simply dropped into a scene — I meticulously manipulated and recoloured it, adjusting tones and textures so each performer felt like an organic part of the visual world I had constructed, rather than an element composited on top of it.
The technical backbone of these productions was Notch, a real-time rendering environment that gave me both the creative flexibility and the performance capability the project demanded. I knew from the outset that I wanted to build and record the entire set in Notch. Working within a real-time environment whilst also benefiting from recorded MIDI inputs meant I could take my time layering up lots of interactions without losing track of a live VJ’d feel. notch
That balance — between precision and spontaneity — was central to the aesthetic I was chasing. MIDI inputs were recorded and layered carefully, allowing me to programme nuanced, responsive interactions that reacted to the music’s energy and structure. The structure of the music led the main direction of what happened in each scene notch, which kept everything feeling grounded in the performance rather than disconnected from it. The result was something that looked and felt genuinely live, even though every element had been considered, refined, and recorded in advance.
For the Noah B set in particular, I kept the visual language intentionally restrained — simple but striking. After experimenting with modifiers and effects, these were controlled using MIDI to react with the live music directly. notch The ability to adapt within Notch as creative ideas developed in real time was invaluable. It’s a tool that gets out of your way and lets the work lead.
The response to the Noah B stream was overwhelmingly positive, and that momentum carried forward. I went on to produce immersive visual environments for many more artists across the series, each one its own distinct creative challenge. The experience also prompted the development of bespoke Notch blocks for future productions notch — a natural evolution that opened up even more possibilities for customisation and reuse across projects.
Looking back, the Future Vision series represents a defining chapter in how I approach large-scale visual storytelling for music. It pushed me to think more deeply about the relationship between image and sound, and reinforced my belief that the most powerful live visuals don’t just react to music — they breathe with it.