John Tilp, Scott Anderson, and Daryll Davis would be the go to guys from my era...
John Tilp, Scott Anderson, and Daryll Davis would be the go to guys from my era...
"There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso
Here, from what I can surmise by looking at photos found on line, and frames from the Laserium video, are three graphics showing the panel layout and labeling of the three Encoder decks.
Legend would have it:
These decks were repositioned physically about the room depending on the needs of the number. Not always were all 3 decks used in a given number, but the 352 data came to tape only from the more squarish one. Patches could occur between decks. Up to three people, or six hands, were needed to operate all three decks.
One function of the Encoder was making something happen following a trigger signal and a delay.
Analog logic as such was used, whereby voltage level at a settable threshold gates further function.
Envelope followers are used to produce control signals from frequency bands given audio input. The previously rebuilt audio modulation board has something like that. I wonder how the two circuits would compare.
Various thoughts:
The faders and the grid of dip switches are obviously about composing words of 352 control data.
It can be seen there is a group of nand gates and inverters. Consider there is a rule about any gates being composed from other gates, and needing inverses to do so.
What were the groups of four bits with clear lines doing?
What is "efg" steps?
What is needed is for one of the aforementioned individuals to join our discussion and offer to walk us through an interesting patch or two. I could grab an address from a search and dispatch an email, though perhaps there might be other ideas.
Steve: I sent an email but haven't heard from you. I was looking forward to hearing you expound on the beauty of the topology of the schematic shown in the 6b-CLOSED_LOOP_SCAN_AMP.pdf file. I haven't looked at it super closely, but I'll get to it when I complete the Danube parts order.
The below is pure guess work...
There are 4 efg outs in two groups, and 4 sets of analog control banks. I'm guessing electronic function generator out and inverted out. The 3 inputs per BGYR might be clock inputs 1x, 2x, 3?4x...
The top left plugs, I'm guessing are the assignable outputs for the bottom left assignable dip switches.
These additional panels were the only ones ever built. (As far as I know) If they were really useful in a global sense I'd think they would have built at least one other set. Simply because single point failures suck in a production environment.
Last edited by laserist; 09-06-2022 at 17:23.
"There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso
A review of the historic DOG roms I received from Brian a while back, and the hex files that came before that, shows that Brian had already read and provided all the rom data potentially of interest, and my recent triumph of getting to the GQ-4X to work was to no purpose.
A comparison of the ROM dumps shows that, aside from different points data, the roms for starship, laserock2, inside Laserium, RockIt, and BillyThorp all have the same earlier and smaller version of the code.
The interesting code with the dogloids appears only on The Police rom, which fortunately exists and has been documented previously in this thread. It is now known that nothing of interest except points data remains in the rom dumps.
Was Inside Laserium a regular show with a setlist?
The rom collection includes some Intel 1702A labeled #1 and #2, and there is currently no configuration for this in the GQ-4X reader. I don't know what these might be.
On to more interesting things: I have BELAs memory expanded with flashed and installed microSd cards. Also the 351 data import function for BELA has been written. An audio synched replica of the signals that operated the spiral and danube boards is very close.
Greg,
Lots of stuff in the Laserium archive on "Inside Laserium". I have a video of the show (51 min), several videos of certain portions, and the complete soundtrack if you are interested. I very much enjoyed performing that show. It had a LOT of variety (and some award-wining pieces (thinks, Scott!).
Foreplay
Boston
Laserium II (1976)
Flight of the Bumblebee
Rimsky-Korsakov
Crystal Odyssey (1981)
Adagio - Op. 6 No. 8
Corelli
Laserium I (1973)
Toccata and Fugue in D
J. S. Bach
Rainbow Cadenza (1986)
Steam Forest
Andreas Vollenweider
Zodiacal Light (1989)
What You Need
INXS
Lasertrax (1986)
Kandinski
The Laughing Man - Adrian Belew
Inside Laserium (1995)
The Love Cats
The Cure
Laserock: into the 90's (1990)
Learning to Fly
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd: Now & Then (1988)
The Galaxy Song
Monty Python
Rock It (1990)
Mercury Blues
David Lindley
Laserock: into the 90's (1990)
Kiss of Life
Peter Gabriel
Genesis (1985)
Ron
Inside Laserium
Foreplay
Boston
Laserium II (1976)
Flight of the Bumblebee
Rimsky-Korsakov
Crystal Odyssey (1981)
Adagio - Op. 6 No. 8
Corelli
Laserium I (1973)
Toccata and Fugue in D
J. S. Bach
Rainbow Cadenza (1986)
Steam Forest
Andreas Vollenweider
Zodiacal Light (1989)
What You Need
INXS
Lasertrax (1986)
Kandinski
The Laughing Man - Adrian Belew
Inside Laserium (1995)
The Love Cats
The Cure
Laserock: into the 90's (1990)
Learning to Fly
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd: Now & Then (1988)
The Galaxy Song
Monty Python
Rock It (1990)
Mercury Blues
David Lindley
Laserock: into the 90's (1990)
Kiss of Life
Peter Gabriel
Genesis (1985)
Narration: Jim Ladd
"There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso
TheHermit,
I don't know if there is a copyright on that. Laser Images, the parent company, is gone, and Lumalaser purchased much of the hardware and trademark, but I don't think they hold the copyrights. Anyone who knows more (dsli_jon?) please add to (or correct) this information. If you aren't using it for profit, or implying that it is your work, I can't see much harm as long as you give credit and possibly point to the original.
Ron
"There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso