CYGN-B

[ronhip]

Greg,

Unfortunately, I don't think the spiral was used at all during Rock 'n Roll. It was a completely animated number. I guess that someone was just playing with the controls when it was being recorded. Download the video below and you'll see no spirals at all. This was the CSDL version of the number.

https://media-archive.exploratorium....ring/EZH7jTTrD

Ron

Here is a demo of the spiral generator with all six control input features working reasonably correctly, as far as I can tell.

rock and roll
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaXHj5reCjk

Some flattening asymmetry is seen when the spiral sweeps left, which still needs investigation.

Here's a list of the bus activity of the red channel for this song. The inverted spiral XY signal is available, but it can be seen that inverted spirals do not appear on the red channel during this number.

bus activity for red channel (song begin to end):


image source: 3 triangle audio mod
image source: 0 fixed cycloid
image source: 3 triangle audio mod
image source: 0 fixed cycloid
image source: 3 triangle audio mod
image source: 0 fixed cycloid
image source: 3 triangle audio mod
image source: 0 fixed cycloid
image source: 3 triangle audio mod
image source: 0 fixed cycloid
image source: 4 variable cycloid
image source: 1 spiral / diamond
image source: 0 fixed cycloid
image source: 4 variable cycloid
image source: 1 spiral / diamond
image source: 0 fixed cycloid
image source: 1 spiral / diamond
image source: 0 fixed cycloid
image source: 1 spiral / diamond
image source: 0 fixed cycloid
image source: 1 spiral / diamond
image source: 0 fixed cycloid
image source: 1 spiral / diamond
image source: 0 fixed cycloid
image source: 1 spiral / diamond
image source: 0 fixed cycloid

[Greg]

Greg,

Unfortunately, I don't think the spiral was used at all during Rock 'n Roll. It was a completely animated number. I guess that someone was just playing with the controls when it was being recorded. Download the video below and you'll see no spirals at all. This was the CSDL version of the number.

https://media-archive.exploratorium....ring/EZH7jTTrD

Ron

Thank you, Ron. I always enjoy seeing alternate imaginings of the imagery for such a well known song. The PIN document you provided for Laserock Platinum, which has rock and roll as the finale, mentions triggering diamond spirals. There would not have been any of the animation seen the the CSDL version back in 1981 when I first saw this number in Laserock2. I'll be doing more to restore this number with the original triangle audio mod and dogloids. More to come.

[laserist]

A quick check on the show chronology page @ laserium.org shows Rock a Roll as the final number in six different shows beginning with Laserock II in 1980. I vaguely remember it. Definitely wasn't animated in 1980. I'm thinking a funky spiral number playing FM gain with a slow cycloid freq? It's all dim...

[Greg]

A quick check on the show chronology page @ laserium.org shows Rock a Roll as the final number in six different shows beginning with Laserock II in 1980. I vaguely remember it. Definitely wasn't animated in 1980. I'm thinking a funky spiral number playing FM gain with a slow cycloid freq? It's all dim...

That's a great starting point. I'll post results. My one second memory of a certain lick in this song: There is the spiral ramp, on joystick rotation. There is no gain on the image source, so we have a dot streaming repeatedly in one direction. A diffractive scan glass produces a field, so the audience has the illusion of traveling in a direction. The joystick is not moved until a certain part of the groove of the song happens, and then the the stick moves 180 degrees so to the viewer it looks like banking.

[lasermaster1977]

Greg,

Unfortunately, I don't think the spiral was used at all during Rock 'n Roll. It was a completely animated number. I guess that someone was just playing with the controls when it was being recorded. Download the video below and you'll see no spirals at all. This was the CSDL version of the number.

https://media-archive.exploratorium....ring/EZH7jTTrD

Ron

Thanks for sharing this historical jaw-dropping, archival Laserium video, Ron. I only saw the Laserium shows in '77 and '79 (Denver and OKC), all abstract except for maybe the logo in '79, and I couldn't swear about the logo because its been so long ago. Quite impressive.

[Greg]

Here is the results of the most exhaustive test of the 6b emulator to date. The number is rock and roll. No operator input, just the data. Heavy use of all spiral generator features. Image used is just a CYGN-A circle at maximum frequency. Brief appearances of CYGN-B and triangle audiomod. Colormod added by hand.

Link to the video is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMZdllrOaGA

Am I alone in seeing a suggestion of drums, cymbals, and sticks, and a big blazing Z at the end?

I'm not sure if the distortion present in the swept spiral signal is supposed to be like that.

Please chime in anyone, what would you do to perform this number? The performance instruction notes sounds like it was about spiral rate adjust and a showcase of colormod effects.

[laserist]

I'd cut the spiral rate down a bunch, joystick playing the overrides, the color mod will look better with a slower spiral ramp...

[Greg]

I'd cut the spiral rate down a bunch, joystick playing the overrides, the color mod will look better with a slower spiral ramp...

Quick update: Lots of work done on the software for the 6b emulator. The system is very close to being complete, meaning ready for applying to any segment of show and through the use of a few settings, full use can be made of the data including the dog bits to quickly build up polished, repeatable, presentable content using all the original image and offset sources.

Lowering the spiral rate provides a big improvement on the previously posted version of rock and roll. Wondering, given that the rate depends on the in and out rate control voltages which come from the 352, whereabouts is the lowest frequency for the spiral ramp one would expect to encounter? Like, did it ever go down below 0.5 Hz?

[laserist]

Bolero in Laserium I had a very slow spiral ramp near the beginning. Maybe less than 1/10 Hz. The rate also depends upon the fine freq control on the control panel, and "fine" was a relative thing...

[ronhip]

Bolero in Laserium I had a very slow spiral ramp near the beginning. Maybe less than 1/10 Hz. The rate also depends upon the fine freq control on the control panel, and "fine" was a relative thing...

I assume that you mean "Abaddon's Bolero" by ELP from Laserium 1... Yes, that may have been the slowest spiral used in any Laserium number. Talk about the artistic build-up of tension! Whew!

Ron