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Thread: whammie bar

  1. #1
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    Jun 2009
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    St. Louis, MO
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    Default whammie bar

    I'm wondering if anyone ever used something like a guitar "whammy bar" to do a sort of a vibrato effect on laser consoles back in the day?
    "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

  2. #2
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    May 2019
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    Isla Mujeres
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    Default

    We had sliders for amplitude (size), rotary switches for frequency multiples, and standard pots for phase adjustment on the PLL’s, touch pad switches to select wave shapes, analog joystick with multiple modes to bias the four galvo sets to swap quadrants or to rotate quadrants, and a couple of 10 turn pots with VLF oscillators for amplitude modulation. Never thought of a whammy bar control. I could envision a control that could be hacked from an old scanner (fried coils even) and use the position feedback circuit to control what ever you wanted. Nice smooth motion and magnetically centered.... heck you could attach a 90 degree shaft and a sliding weight like an old metronome and have a decaying oscillation that could be triggered by a tap and pre-tuned with the sliding weight. Oh no.... just envisioned a whole string of them arranged like a keyboard. Now see what you started....

  3. #3
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    Nov 2008
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    Cleveland Ohio
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    Default

    I plan to use the new radiator with a midi guitar and hope to map it along with floor pedals for expression, brightness, scale xy position maybe rotation, symmetry, numbers of copies.....lots of options.

    being able to PLAY laser will be incredible. Imagine a band that doesn’t make sound but works cooperatively to produce not just individual abstracts but cooperative interactive individual ones subtlety controlled by multiple people. Human vco modulators....

    new form of live art!

  4. #4
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    May 2019
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    Isla Mujeres
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    Default

    Some of these could be interestingly adapted...
    https://www.sparkfun.com/categories/143

    Gloves with flex sensors on each finger and wrist.
    Tuned reeds with piezoelectric vibration sensors or optical sensors.

    In vibration work I occasionally used a “reed tachometer”
    https://youtu.be/s5wgwvT8boc

    ever seen a “thermin”
    https://youtu.be/K6KbEnGnymk

    Or a different type of no touch control
    https://www.bannerengineering.com/za...Laser+distance


  5. #5
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    Apr 2009
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    North of Jackson Michigan USA
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by kecked View Post
    I plan to use the new radiator with a midi guitar and hope to map it along with floor pedals for expression, brightness, scale xy position maybe rotation, symmetry, numbers of copies.....lots of options.

    being able to PLAY laser will be incredible. Imagine a band that doesn’t make sound but works cooperatively to produce not just individual abstracts but cooperative interactive individual ones subtlety controlled by multiple people. Human vco modulators....

    new form of live art!
    Yes!! Make it so! Please.
    Runs with Lasers

  6. #6
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    Apr 2009
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    North of Jackson Michigan USA
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    Default

    ...
    ever seen a “thermin”
    https://youtu.be/K6KbEnGnymk


    This is what I used to control the lumia in my piece "Lasing Nang Talung" in Madison last year:

    http://mikegouldlaserartist.com/lntphotos.html
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-UtubOUPsE

    Also used a Kinect to control lumia at my museum piece "L is for Laser" at the Dow Museum of Science and Art in 2013.

    http://mikegouldlaserartist.com/Lisf...sforlaser.html

    For direct control, we use controllers built into lunchboxen:
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Cheers...Mike
    Runs with Lasers

  7. #7
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    Default

    Actually I'm bringing a thermin to hook up to lsx with me to SELEM.

    This one generates actual midi so it has increased possibilities PLUS the CV outputs.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bakI0ITCqQ

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by kecked View Post
    Actually I'm bringing a thermin to hook up to lsx with me to SELEM.

    This one generates actual midi so it has increased possibilities PLUS the CV outputs.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bakI0ITCqQ
    Excellent! Moog model? Remind me to tell you the story of my dinner with Bob Moog and our discussion of theremins.

    ...Mike
    Runs with Lasers

  9. #9
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    Default

    He was one of my instructors. That’s who I learned synthesis from as well as electronics. Long story

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by kecked View Post
    He was one of my instructors. That’s who I learned synthesis from as well as electronics. Long story
    Cool! We gotta talk at SELEM.

    ...Mike
    Runs with Lasers

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