Would anyone have any recollection of this?

[Braindead3xl]

My all time favorite album, hands down, is an obscure record from 1980. It was the follow-up to the one-hit AOR album Children of the Sun by Billy Thorpe. The album, 21st Century Man, released in 1980, was intended to be "bigger and better" than the record that contained the 1979 hit that most people know from its bombastic "futuristic" spaceship sound effects that rocked every stereo shop across the country that year.

21st Century Man is an extended retelling the Children of the Sun saga with all new sounds. The producer, Spencer Proffer, made every effort to pull out all the stops on the production of this album, making it one of the very first 48-track recordings. They linked two MCI JH16 two-inch 24-track recorders and synchronized them by a timecode track on the master, driving playback of the slave, creating 47 usable tracks of audio. Having interviewed Spencer and a few of the players on the project, including mix engineer Larry Brown, I learned that the entire record was mixed in a marathon 48 hours the weekend before the album was due to the mastering plant on a Monday morning.

I've done the math and estimated that I've listened to this rock opera, from start to finish, no fewer than 10,000 times in my life. It goes without saying I know it well - right down to the spots in the recording that reveal flaws in the 1/4" stereo master tapes.

... Which brings me to my laser-related question ...

A laser show was created around the album, and I can find absolutely no documentation about this, aside from a sparse web page indicating that one did actually exist, and that at least a few spectators took it in. This page from laserium.org links to the track list of the show. I was fortunate enough to have obtained, after many years of searching, a near-virgin copy of a limited edition vinyl pressing of the laser show's soundtrack, which included narration to carry the story along to the uninitiated. I've captured it in high resolution PCM audio and uploaded it to YouTube where the compression gods had their way with its pristine sound.

Is there anyone in our circles who may have ANY information whatsoever about the laser show that went along with 21st Century Man? I'd be fascinated to learn anything whatsoever about the show that was put together to accompany the release of the album. 1980 was a long time ago, but I remember hearing this record for the very first time when I was 12 years old just like it was yesterday.

Thanks for any wisdom anyone may impart.

[Greg]

I don't have that show but I have a useless ROM dump from the DOG PROMs for that show.

[laserist]

Perhaps Ron H has something in his archie...

[Braindead3xl]

I don't have that show but I have a useless ROM dump from the DOG PROMs for that show.

Wow. I don't know what DOG PROMs are, but the fact that someone other than myself has knowledge of this show at all is amazing. So, I take it you had a hand in its presentation? Do you recall anything about it? It was before I had seen my first laser show, so I don't know what the technology in that day was like. Were they only patterns and beams, or was there animation? Was that pre-galvanometer? Stepper motors? I would love to hear more about what it may have been like! Was it RGB, or was 1980 too early for that?

[Greg]

Wow. I don't know what DOG PROMs are, but the fact that someone other than myself has knowledge of this show at all is amazing. So, I take it you had a hand in its presentation? Do you recall anything about it? It was before I had seen my first laser show, so I don't know what the technology in that day was like. Were they only patterns and beams, or was there animation? Was that pre-galvanometer? Stepper motors? I would love to hear more about what it may have been like! Was it RGB, or was 1980 too early for that?

Pleased to meet you Braindead3xl. I am an historian who studies laser shows, and laserist, the other poster so far on this thread, is a long serving and renowned performer of laser shows produced by the company called Laser Images Inc. Also, laserist is an expert on the technology this company used to produce their shows.

A DOG PROM is a chip that contains data and code for use by a very early and weirdly designed processor based point spitter called the Digital Offset Generator. The reason the Billy Thorpe PROM dump is useless is because there is no code in that dump that has not already been recovered from PROM chips for other shows.

[Braindead3xl]

A DOG PROM is a chip that contains data and code for use by a very early and weirdly designed processor based point spitter called the Digital Offset Generator. The reason the Billy Thorpe PROM dump is useless is because there is no code in that dump that has not already been recovered from PROM chips for other shows.

Fascinating! So, were these mostly RGB displays? Or single color? Were the colors merged to create 7 colors similar to TTL lasers of today? The point splitter doesn't sound like it was galvanometer driven, so perhaps it used stepper motors? I suspect the PPS was quite slow back then. I wonder if there was any animation of characters or images, or if it was mostly just "psychedelic" math-driven calculated patterns?

This is so interesting!

[Greg]

Fascinating! So, were these mostly RGB displays? Or single color? Were the colors merged to create 7 colors similar to TTL lasers of today?

Never was a convergence of fine physics so pretty as the Spectra Physics 168 Argon Ion Laser. It was the mixed gas Ar/Kr option that gave multiline output of red, green, yellow, and blue in shows of that era.

[Greg]

The point splitter doesn't sound like it was galvanometer driven, so perhaps it used stepper motors?

The point spitter, normally called the DOG card, had a 6500 family processor, eight eight bit DACs, and was quite a capable digital image synthesizer that output some of the earliest graphic frames in laser show history. As well, the device could generate a small catalog of cycloids and motion paths for other cycloids, and was used heavily by the larger system for generating static points called offsets. It didn't have anything directly to do with motors, galvos, or servos.

[lasermaster1977]

Interesting.

I also had a planetarium laser show, "Laser Floss", that incorporated Billy Thorpe's 6min. 44sec. "Children of the Sun" during 1980. It was attractive for planetarium and laser effects rendering.

[TheHermit]

Do you recall anything about it? It was before I had seen my first laser show, so I don't know what the technology in that day was like. Were they only patterns and beams, or was there animation? Was that pre-galvanometer? Stepper motors? I would love to hear more about what it may have been like! Was it RGB, or was 1980 too early for that?

Laserium shows began at Griffith Park's planetarium in 1972. I 'experienced' my 1st in 1977, before becoming a London Planetarium laserist the following year.
The RYGB laser was a 1 watt Spectra Physics 164 krypton ion gas, with broadband optics and optimized gas pressure to produce the 4 distinct colors. Laser Images didn't 'mix' colors, individually. They had a unique method that used a prism to separate the RYGB beams, with another to restore a parallel beam path. Between the 2 prisms, was a galvo, aka 'beam torquer', which translated them across 'pick-off' mirrors (similar to knife edging' in reverse), prior to being redirected onto the 4 pairs of galvos to create 'colormod'.
As I recall, the 4 X/Y pairs of galvos were initially open loop General Scanning GS124 galvos, which produced abstract complex Lissajous images, called 'cycloids'.
There were also cloudlike interference effects, called 'lumia', which were produced by projecting beams through textured glass and/or diffraction gratings.
Another 'burn' effect was created by reflecting a beam off the surface of melting Mylar.
Animated wireframes came along later ~1980, with GS 120PD galvos, with positional feedback, which enabled 'accurate' scanning of irregular shapes and sharp corners. Animated graphics were a game changer, literally from "WOW! I've never seen anything like that!" to "Why aren't they realistic 3D holograms, like in Star Wars?"
Instead of freeing one's mind to escape the real world, animated graphics only burden the mind to relate primitive shapes against something real. The brain is so preoccupied with trying to establish lyrical associations that the 'bird has flown', the que had passed, and the viewer needed to play catch up just to get back into the groove. Animated graphics become boring, the instant they're recognized.
'Visual music' could only be witnessed within laser shows. Dancing cycloids are beyond average imaginations, void of expectations, and uniquely fascinating, like being mesmerized by the dancing flames of a campfire. That's why enthusiastic audiences kept returning, eager to see more. The music was great and everyone had a great night out.
Mixed gas kr/ar lasers soon followed. But, ion gas lasers >1W were very expensive, required 30 amp, 3 phase power, and 30 gal/min water cooling @ 30 psi. That rendered them unaffordable for amateur enthusiasts and strictly commercial, mostly for corporate advertising.
Beyond the permanent installations, within pristine planetarium domes, doing laser shows was a completely different matter. There are safety requirements, regulations, variances, beam path/exposure documentation, local pre-show inspections, and operator licenses just to get one's foot in the door before producing public shows.
Fragile, hand blown glass tubes had to be manhandled on top of 10 ft towers. During winter tours, the water had to be blown out after every gig, to avoid freezing. Insurance companies wouldn't cover them. 'Elite' laser operators weren't considered as being part of the regular lighting crew, but outside contractors, consuming the production's lighting budgets.... just for a few minutes of razzle-dazzle. Us vs them. Rise & shine @ 7am, finish the get-out ~2am. Sleep on the bus overnight, then do it all over again.
Modern, inexpensive, hassle free RGB diode laser projectors saved the laser entertainment industry, as we know it.
Only tech nerds require math to 'drive' cycloids. Harmonic waveforms have existed since before alpha and will continue long beyond omega. Neither birds nor musicians require math to enjoy the phenomena of music. Visual music is only another means of expression.
Abstract laser effects are still alive, thanks to the enthusiasm of some fellow 'old school' laserists on this forum. We're not interested in animated graphics.
We're simply reviving our unforgettable joy of playing visual music, just like every other dedicated musician, still searching for those 'lost chords' and rhythms of trance... for the price of a home entertainment system (already, 1/2 way there, from the get-go)
Christopher Short's YT videos are among the finest examples, of that essence.
As Greg mentioned, Laserist is the leading authority on Laserium equipment. I went freelance in 1980 and developed my own gear until 1988. Now, I'm back at it, strictly with abstracts and purely as a labor of love.
Your personal path is yours to choose:
a) a career of plotting wireframes for profit, to appease some client's ego , or
b) being a dedicated laser artist, pioneering unforeseen new realms of creativity.
The price tags of tools, palettes and brushes have only improved over the passage of time, making the pleasure even more accessible.
Thank you for your interest.