Senior Member
I've thought about doing a pamphlet, that's where the 'Laserium, The Ghost in the Machine' line came up. There were a bunch of laserists from the 'Golden Age' of Laser Images, and since one of my claims to fame was being the youngest - I'm not sure it's my place.Originally Posted by kecked
"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
Senior Member
If the others that came before you don't or can't speak up...its your place (hint, hint, hint), if you want it. I know it would be appreciated.
I got a quick look inside the Laserium projector at the Gates Planetarium in '76 (and it was '76 not '77) as a result of attending a planetarium consortium conference at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The Gates management hosted us for the laser show. It was by sheer luck that I got a quick peek after the show when the operator decided he had to check something. The thing that struck me was how the relay rack cabinet provided an ideal means for folding the beam/prism optical path into a manageable space. A year or so later I got another peek at a Laserium projector at the Oklahoma City planetarium. It was even more crowded an compact that the first one.
I'm really grateful to Ivan, for what he and those who worked with him brought to fruition, this new form of light fantasies. I was also soooo lucky to be involved working at a 40' planetarium in Dallas at the time I went to the planetarium consortium in Boulder as it forever changed my life.
I may have mentioned this in earlier posts, I don't recall, but before the consortium trip, our planetarium director, who was an degreed astronomer and prolific producer of astronomy related planetarium shows, asked me (the techie of the group) to "let's do something with lasers, come up some laser effects!" He was all excited as he already new about Laserium at the Griffith Planetarium. I, however, did not, yet. I said, "what's a laser?" And so it began for me. :-)
Less than a year later, while in London, I saw there was a laser show at a theater named the Metropole (I believe). It was by General Scanning's main dude, Montegue something, named "Lovelight" . It was impressive fluid animation, much like we see today but I remember thinking, having seen Laserium...that's not a laser show.
Last edited by lasermaster1977; 11-03-2020 at 12:41.
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Everything depends on everything else
Senior Member
Ok, That made me laugh out loud. I'm similarly opinionated...snip
...that's not a laser show.
"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
Senior Member
There ya' go, now my day is complete. ;-)
Edit: We maybe should take this discussion to a new or different thread. I feel bad about this being Chris' Radiator thread. So I'll take the imitative and move to a new thread.
Last edited by lasermaster1977; 11-03-2020 at 15:49.
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Everything depends on everything else
Jr. Woodchuckington Janitor III, Esq.
Let me unpack this a little bit...
One of the things that I haven't talked about very much with the Radiator is its midi support. Radiator can accept external cc / nrpn midi for every single knob / button / led / function on the console. This includes triggering of presets.
In this video I used LSX to sequence and send midi triggers to the Radiator and create a laser show. All the laser effects are being generated in real time by the Radiator. The last midi event on the timeline activates the "Blackout" mode on the Radiator and kills the laser output. Look for the blinking red light near the upper right on the Radiator.
Even though this show is automated, all the controls on the Radiator are still live. At any time, I could grab a control and manipulate the laser projection. This makes sequenced / live hybrid laser shows very quick and easy to create.
Full documentation on the Radiator's midi implementation is in the manual.
https://www.neoncaptain.com/uploads/...l_20201013.pdf
suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness.
Senior Member
I love it, love it, love it!
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Everything depends on everything else
Senior Member
This is something I did a while ago. It's four virtual scanners doing the exact same image with different sizes and fixed rotation. The variation in color mod is due to where the pickoff for that scanner was relative to the other pickoffs and the gain of the colormod signal. You could do this with cloned images. Having X and Y master gain before the fixed rotation function gives you the elongation along the axis of the fixed rotation instead of aligned with the scanner x or y axis. The base image is an spinning triangle (done with two quadrature osc.) with a third much lower frequency higher gain quadrature osc. The fixed rotation causes two of the scans to appear to move in the opposite direction from the other two. It matters where the function takes place in the signal path.
"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
Senior Member
Nice! I can now build an Arduino-driven MIDI source to manipulate the knobs, presets, and other settings randomly so I can just set-and-forget and enjoy the show set to music with my friends and family, instead of being glued to the control panel.I'll also have it Bluetooth enabled and write a mobile app to control the randomness.
Jr. Woodchuckington Janitor III, Esq.
do it!
you could even build a look up table of presets vs. bpm and do some really fun things.
Nice! I can now build an Arduino-driven MIDI source to manipulate the knobs, presets, and other settings randomly so I can just set-and-forget and enjoy the show set to music with my friends and family, instead of being glued to the control panel.
suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness.
Senior Member
Oh, I totally plan to!do it!
you could even build a look up table of presets vs. bpm and do some really fun things.
We just moved, so I have yet to set up my workbench, tools, and parts, but once I get that done (after some rehab and painting work), I'll get right on that.
Oh, and I guess I need a Radiator.
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