CYGN-B

[Greg]

Here's video excerpts of the XY from an ADAT show that has undergone optical transfer, download to PC, and then conversion to 16 bit 22050, and which is seen here entering my system as an image source. There is synchronization between the imported art and the original audio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IfcmTTFnM8

The numbers these excerpts appear in are these two videos, courtesy of Ron probably.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ICqFhFvHdg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1rICUGSULU

I'm of the view, previously expressed by others, that all are welcome to create cartoons using laser. But it doesn't mean I want to watch them.

Except my adherence to that view may have been shaken by When You're Strange. In this number appears frighteningly psychedelic laser cartoons most expertly done. Having this number pop out of passages of mostly abstracts heightens the effect. I really want to post this argument shifting animation that recently fell out of a previously received gift. I'll hold off for now though, and make another round of communication efforts with potential stakeholders to offer the opportunity to request I not publish it.

[ronhip]

Greg,

Thanks for the shout-out, but I can't really take credit for the videos. My OCD efforts were strictly aimed at preservation. In the final days of Laser Images, I visited the "mothership" in Van Nuys. The office was being downsized at that point, and everything was in complete chaos. I noticed boxes and boxes of slides, video tapes, films and other ephemera scattered about willy-nilly. I knew these precious things would disappear, get misplaced, or overlooked in the down-sizing work, so I told Ivan I was going to steal all that stuff for preservation. Fortunately, he did not object. I loaded my minivan to the gills and made for San Francisco and the months and months of organizing, digitizing, and metadata tagging all that stuff. Jon also dropped off items I had missed, so he was also very helpful in the archiving project.

Real credit for this material goes to the talented artists, engineers, and support staff who actually created the shows and other material. Credit also goes to Scott Anderson for taking my archival efforts, improving them, and posting them on Youtube where you pointed to their existence. Scott has been a tireless promoter of Laserium and created many many of the unique looks of the classic laser show.

I agree with you that "People Are Strange" is an exception to the rule, but there are others. For instance "Kandinsky" (The Laughing Man by Adrian Belew) that appeared in "Inside Laserium" (1995) is also an example of abstract animation. I believe this was an ILDA award winner...

See it here thanks to Scott who also created this piece.

Ron


in the

Here's video excerpts of the XY from an ADAT show that has undergone optical transfer, download to PC, and then conversion to 16 bit 22050, and which is seen here entering my system as an image source. There is synchronization between the imported art and the original audio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IfcmTTFnM8

The numbers these excerpts appear in are these two videos, courtesy of Ron probably.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ICqFhFvHdg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1rICUGSULU

I'm of the view, previously expressed by others, that all are welcome to create cartoons using laser. But it doesn't mean I want to watch them.

Except my adherence to that view may have been shaken by When You're Strange. In this number appears frighteningly psychedelic laser cartoons most expertly done. Having this number pop out of passages of mostly abstracts heightens the effect. I really want to post this argument shifting animation that recently fell out of a previously received gift. I'll hold off for now though, and make another round of communication efforts with potential stakeholders to offer the opportunity to request I not publish it.

[lasermaster1977]

Wow, I am awestruck. Thanks to Greg and especially Ron for the truly significant contributions you have both made. Ron for preservation of LI works and Greg for their resurrection and rebirth.

As a proclaimed laser artist, I've always contended that there is a place for blending the surreal abstract laser images with those genre's of computer generated graphics, be they 2D or 3D-to-2D conversions or simple 2Ds, be they abstractions or otherwise. "When Your Strange" hits the mark, in my view, of a compelling and complimentary blend, a desirable balance of the two in the "less is more" fashion. "Kandinsky" is one of the best, if not THE best, totally 3D-to-2D choreographies in this standalone format. Ron, thanks for sharing! Greg, keep up the inspiring work that you've dedicated yourself to do!

Wow

[Greg]

Oops, I got the song title wrong. It's People Are Strange. I'm presently concerned with the following question regarding the XYIntensity tracks on the ADAT tapes:

Is there anything within the 352 data frame that could be used to discern which of the R Y G B channels receive the XYI signals, instead of their regular buss assigned signals such as variable cycloid, triangle audiomod, invert spiral, etc.?

[laserist]

After my time, but originally the adig was selected as a fixed cycloid via a rotary switch on the remote panel. The xyi data was connected through the adig board. There's a block diagram that shows the adig connected as a image rotation, spiral, and audiomod source too. All of those except rotation look to have been selected via rotary switch in the diagram. As I've mentioned before, it got harder and harder to do the shows, and harder and harder to learn to be a laserist as time and modifications went by...

[Greg]

I was concerned at first that usable 352 could not be obtained from the ADAT tapes. The algorithm that worked fine with both processed and unprocessed signals from the 4 track wouldn't produce frames. The problem seems to be an unfaithful signal on all the ADAT tapes except one, and that produces some ambiguous values when time between zero crossings is counted. A new algorithm captured about half of the expected frames, but there was noise from incorrectly read bits. I got the algorithm fixed though, and now about a third of expected data frames are detected, with noise problems reduced to an acceptable level. So sweeps of the data are in some cases steppier than they should be, but for the most part the choreography is perfectly intact.

[laserist]

I've seen adat tapes where the zero crossing were messed up. You could write some code to clean it up as a preprocess to your translation, or just ignore zero crossings that are shorter than 90% of the possible intervals. (The messy zero crossings were in the center of the actual zero crossing as I recall...)

[laserist]

Sounds like you had pots with badly designed center taps. There weren't supposed to be center taps on Laserium's joystick pots. I never experienced a skip at the center of laserium's joysticks. I'm a a loss trying to come up with another cause...

[Greg]

Here's a video of the intensity track doing what it is supposed to. Audio had to be removed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OAtIUapuwI

[Greg]

Here are comparison views of 352 signals from ADAT and 1/4" 4 track. The frame header skulking around zero in the ADAT signal is an obvious culprit of some decoding problems.

Roj: Yes, I think so.

General commentary: I'm seeing a lot of cycloids in the XYI tracks. Some look like they are regular 6B analog or digital cycloids played with a skilled hand and a clean pot. Others are more sophisticated. I wonder if these were originally written in computer code, or if some higher level of system programming was in place. I'm not sure if the Choreographics system is the whole story.