Laser growing up

[lasermaster1977]

Laser Images didn't remotely get into fourier analysis, we were much more likely to filter a square wave to get a sine wave. The analog cycloid generator (CYGN-A) was just three quadrature oscillators made up of three op-amps per oscillator. They did a decent job, and a slightly more expensive frequency potentiometer would have fixed my only small complaint.

I didn't think so, I doubt anyone did. I just thought it was a good YouTube vid that showed sine/cosine waves are fundamental circular functions and a square wave is just the sum of odd harmonic sine waves with each subsequent harmonic half the size of the former harmonic. I never grasped the Fourier series until this video demonstrated it brilliantly.

I always was a fan of the XR2206 and 8038 function generators for my stuff.

I downloaded the patent and am reading over. Thanks again for sharing.

[masterpj]

Laser display has been relatively the same for decades. There have been advances in projector design and better lasers and the occasional innovation. GITD, Beambrush, new transitions and effects, building mapping.... all for the most part rely on preprogrammed material.

going all the way back to the start, most laser art was on the fly temporary, and immersive to the operator. While programmed material is truly great, I just received my Radiator last night and I have to say I think we lost something with preprogrammed shows. Bring yourself directly into the experience is nothing short of ....well you have to experience it.

i think the radiator in combination with other tech will elevate laser once again to a fresh place in art. If you can you owe it to yourself to try it.

We lost something and gained something else: precision. and detail.. Detail like we have never seen before and a really deep delve spin into the nitty gritty.
Also: touchdesigner is a more live thing.


That being said a console is an unique world of its own and I do also agree we lost that when analog consoles vanished.

[laserist]

We lost something and gained something else: precision. and detail.. Detail like we have never seen before and a really deep delve spin into the nitty gritty.
Also: touchdesigner is a more live thing.


That being said a console is an unique world of its own and I do also agree we lost that when analog consoles vanished.

I don't agree, you can do amazing precision with analog slash clever. And precision isn't a panacea, too much precision can get in the way of a performance. But that doesn't matter. What matters is - when you perform a show 15 times a week for months and month on a machine that gives you the ability to improve, the show gets better - if you're bringing anything to the console in the first place...

[lasermaster1977]

I don't agree, you can do amazing precision with analog slash clever. And precision isn't a panacea, too much precision can get in the way of a performance. But that doesn't matter. What matters is - when you perform a show 15 times a week for months and month on a machine that gives you the ability to improve, the show gets better - if you're bringing anything to the console in the first place...

laserist makes a good point. Another advantageous feature an analog console provides is the built-in opportunity to "accidently" find a new captivating "visual event" while changing a dial/dials or switch(s) that might not of been planned or thought of in advance.

[Greg]

I'm wowed by that comment. I want to see a show like that again!

I became aware of rock and roll music at the same time as, and due to, becoming aware of Laserium, and it seemed obvious at the time that the one was the obvious and natural progression of the other. I only became aware of rock and roll concerts years later.

I was fortunate to gain some experience performing numbers from Starship and Laserock2 with the 351 data running. 351: Think of a timeline of control signals for the synthesizer on which the artist is performing, and which is synced to the audio. Of course it was as fun and expressive a thing to perform on as any rock and roll instrument, and much more unusual.

I perceived in shows of that era a sort of philosopy of the abstract visual narrative that just works in many numbers, as it naturally illustrates the structure of the accompanying music. It seems to go something like: There's this shape. It does these things. There's more than one. Maybe there is a phase inverted one. They do these things. And a little universe of just that one shape internally consistent with the song is observed.

[laserist]

There's some truth to the accidental lick thing. A number of times while running the stars for a laserium show I heard the laserist say, shit!, and something I'd never seen before happened on the dome that was cool... what happened was the laserist grabbed the wrong control and realized it was maybe the wrong control and looked down as he turned it instead of up - I'd say do it again... Sometimes you're lucky. Sometimes you're good.

The other thing that happens in a live show is you get bored, and actively look for how to do it better.

Another thing that happens is you realize that as cool as those color mod and chopper and everything else that you've done to plus that number are - the audience response isn't what it used to be. And when you clean all that other crap back out of the number the audience response goes back up.

[lasermaster1977]

There's some truth to the accidental lick thing.

I always performed with a co-laserist who was responsible to flipping certain beam flag switches or positioning the various lumia and diffraction grating wheels in the proper colors. With so many knobs and switches it was common for an error to be made that turned out to result in an unexpected, resounding audience response. We'd say to ourselves later, lets try to do that again next time as it is better than what we had been doing by rote.

Audience feedback that is enthusiastic vs. no response is akin to the performance energy a musician on stage feels and responds to. I've always maintained that controlling, aka performing, the visual laser presentation is akin to a musician performing with a musical instrument on stage.

One thing I later valued time-based image queueing or console switch flipping for was to ensure really important visual changes happened reliably on a given music que. Refining the programming based on audience feedback was still possible. All one had to do was remember to make programmatic changes in a timely manner.

[masterpj]

show design is super involved and you improve with every presented work .. so i disagree there would be no improvement on show design.
The amount of skills in making animations and graphics required and to grow in it is immense

[laserist]

Once you put a computer in the mix, things by definition can get maximally complex. Computers are like that. Your possibilities become endless. Still laying down the data track for the Laserium shows from way back when took months. Then a bunch of Laserist attempted to make the show their own night after night in front of their audiences. When you decouple the performance from real time it certainly gives infinitely more possibilities, but the things that are easy to do in real time are often hard to do on a timeline. And so, with infinite possibilities the shows tend to skew toward the kind of shows the tools support.

[lasermaster1977]

Once you put a computer in the mix, things by definition can get maximally complex. Computers are like that. Your possibilities become endless. Still laying down the data track for the Laserium shows from way back when took months. Then a bunch of Laserist attempted to make the show their own night after night in front of their audiences. When you decouple the performance from real time it certainly gives infinitely more possibilities, but the things that are easy to do in real time are often hard to do on a timeline. And so, with infinite possibilities the shows tend to skew toward the kind of shows the tools support.

I believe "putting a computer in the mix" has the potential for making things "maximally complex" but it does not have to. It greatly depends upon how the computer as a tool is used. If the only source for presentation material, excluding lumia, is computer generated content then it does become maximally complex because every 8-16 milliseconds must be intentionally defined as to what is happening on screen.

I contend, in the same vane as laserist, that a real-time human performance that determines the moment-by-moment visual experience has more presentation advantages than a solely computer pre-programmed, hands-off presentation. One partial exception I've seen to this is that which Swamidog has achieved with some of his truly outstanding, IMHO utterly outstanding LSX programming. But there is still one MAJOR difference between a pre-programmed 3 or 4 minute presentation and a continuous 45-50 minute laser show.

Tim Walsh and I started out as visual performers in planetariums about the same time, he in Ft. Worth and myself in Dallas. As a trained musician, an accomplished professional musician, he too brought to performing a 45-50 minute laser show the heart and sole of a real-time performance. His understanding and realization of this has demonstrably continued throughout his professional laserist career as well.

...and that's my two photons on the subject...;-)