Announcing: "The Radiator"

[Greg]

ADAT captures it like a champ. LCADAT or LSX tools converts to frames

Thanks for bringing my attention to the ADAT solution route. I know little of this aspect of laser display technology, so the following presumptions may be arising more from bias than from fact. After some searching and reading,
I'm getting the idea of user modified pro audio ADC hardware, and somewhere in there fiber optics and S-VHS tapes are / were involved?

I noticed the LSX page on the innolasers site mentions "analog-synthesized 3D abstracts" from what appears to be software. Not sure if I've understood correctly, or what is meant by this.

Here's the bias, though I'm open to suggestions: I like the idea of the Radiator and have been checking off features needed before I buy one. Being able to input ILDA, use the Radiator internal functions for color and intensity control, and record the output, seems like would be the smallest footprint for meeting all my current requirements.

[swamidog]

Thanks for bringing my attention to the ADAT solution route. I know little of this aspect of laser display technology, so the following presumptions may be arising more from bias than from fact. After some searching and reading,
I'm getting the idea of user modified pro audio ADC hardware, and somewhere in there fiber optics and S-VHS tapes are / were involved?

I noticed the LSX page on the innolasers site mentions "analog-synthesized 3D abstracts" from what appears to be software. Not sure if I've understood correctly, or what is meant by this.

Here's the bias, though I'm open to suggestions: I like the idea of the Radiator and have been checking off features needed before I buy one. Being able to input ILDA, use the Radiator internal functions for color and intensity control, and record the output, seems like would be the smallest footprint for meeting all my current requirements.

LSX has a virtual oscillator based abstract generator. As does most laser control software. It's a little more exposed than most software and you can control it with user inputted mathematical expression. It's quite powerful and poorly documented. I kind of love it.

[Greg]

All good, not complaining. It's a semantic point: if the oscillators are "virtual" meaning calculated in software, then it's not analog synthesized as stated on the site.

[swamidog]

All good, not complaining. It's a semantic point: if the oscillators are "virtual" meaning calculated in software, then it's not analog synthesized as stated on the site.

i totally agree.

[polishedball]

All good, not complaining. It's a semantic point: if the oscillators are "virtual" meaning calculated in software, then it's not analog synthesized as stated on the site.

Sadly LSX seems all but abandoned anyhow, but yep wrong.

On the ADAT side look at doing some reading on DZ's site. His boxes will let you record to a wav file without needing an ADAT unit. This is one of his interface units, but offers others if using real ADAT type equipment. http://www.aldebaran-systems.com/WaveUSB.htm

[gjwinter]

I moved to recording all my shows onto multitrack WAV files 6 years ago. Then I playback shows using a DAW like Reaper or Ableton Live. I also include SMPTE timecode as an audio track to run lighting and lumia effects via DMX. There is very little to go wrong when playing back shows and everything stays in perfect sync all the time! I use 15 tracks to send WAV data to two x-y scanners (Kvant 3400) for the screen and one effects projector (homemade 9W RGB) under the screen.

To do this I modified RME audio interfaces to record direct DC and playback direct DC. It's really easy to convert a DAC to playback DC and some ADC/DACS have this ability built in (like MOTU and Antelope Audio) if you don't want to modify your own equipment. See more: https://en.antelopeaudio.com/2020/04...ording-synths/

For sources I use LD2000, Beyond, The Radiator and of course my home brew Max For Live modules inside of Ableton. Nothing will go obsolete with this method. Have fun!

[james]

Did you know you can convert an ilda file to 6 channel wave directly in LaserBoy?

The opposite is also true. Wave to ilda.

[gjwinter]

Yes I have used the program LaserBoy to convert ILDA still images made in LD2000 saved in ILDA format and made them into WAV format to use in my MAX MSP Max for Live wavetables! Thank you for that What sucks is that you cannot save images created in Beyond to ILDA format - I don't like that about Beyond. If anyone knows a work around for this, please let me know.

When I record my shows into a DAW, I playback the imagery in real time and record it. Just like I used to create abstract shows at the planetarium in the late 1980's. I "perform" the controls to the music. Now I mostly use parameters in Ableton Live to make things go to the music. I plan to use CV controls in Ableton to control parameters within the Radiator to time things to music.

[shivahoj]

Hello, I did a quick synopsis of the old and new manuals of the radiator.
You can browse the files side by side.
Download, unzip, double click.

It should render fine in any browser.
Hope this helps all the curious people.

The differences are only the mention of ILDA in (Page 18) and minor changes in Transformer source.

One error I found, already in the old manual: on Page 50, Midi CC6 is NOT Mod P3, but instead Data entry MSB(Page 57)
I like how they gave clear voltage ranges for the CV in, these Voltages are unfortunately not standardised...

[tertior]

I like how they gave clear voltage ranges for the CV in, these Voltages are unfortunately not standardised...

CV it's : 0 and +5 V, or -5 V and + 5 V or 0V and +10 V.; in radiator it's -5V to 5 V or in IDLA -2.5V to 2;5V so it's good ?