Test your Lasershow Designer (QM2K) Knowledge

[decix]

You can also do some nice things with 3D-Software and convert to laser...

[Jem]

I recently contacted Bill about the 'Al a carte' upgrades for LD2000. I have a QM2000.Net 'Intro'.

I have already upgraded to the full set of oscillators for the abstract generator, however, I quite fancied getting the ability to obtain colour blends after seeing DZ's example.

I'm sure Bill won't mind me posting the link he sent me that shows all the possible 'upgrades' just in case anyone else is interested:

http://www.pangolin.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13

Cheers

Jem

[decix]

@dz: Could you please supply the .LDS files (those with the 425 points and gradients already set) ?

[ElektroFreak]

Reading this thread makes me want to try sending the output from a certain 6 oscillator virtual synthesizer I have (Rob Papen Blue for those in the know about DAW software) to my soundcard DAC and see what kinds of crazy patterns I can come up with. That's basically all that abstract generator is.. a software synth with 3 oscillators for the X,Y output. Interesting.. I never really thought about how abstract generators work until now.

[buffo]

I never really thought about how abstract generators work until now.

Beware... The raw output from a signal generator can thrash your galvos pretty badly. The LD-2000 abstract generator has some filtering to prevent you from doing anything really dangerous, but even so it can produce abstracts that will tax even the most robust scanners. Raw output from a signal generator would be much more dangerous.

The Alphalite XC Pro abstract generator was always a lot of fun to play with, but it did not have any filtering at all, so you could get into trouble very quickly if you weren't careful. Playing with a multi-chanel syth is equally risky. Just keep your scan angle low, and if you start to hear your scanners squeal, stop!

But yeah, you can create some truly awesome patterns with an abstract generator. One of the features I liked about the Alphalite generator was that it would let you run the frequency rate up to insane speeds. Then you'd get all kinds of cool aliasing distortion when it was sampled at the much lower point speed rate, creating abstracts that looked like they had "hair" or "fur" on them. Hard to describe, but beautiful to watch. (Again, some of these patterns were hell on the scanners though.) You can't do this the same way with LD-2000's abstract generator, but I think there is a work around if you use an ilda file as the waveform instead of one of the presets. I just need to figure out which type of file to use to re-create it.

Adam

[ElektroFreak]

I've noticed that abstracts in general can be very hard on galvos. I play with LFI player's abstract generator often (it's AWESOME by the way, especially since it's free) and it's the only thing that makes my galvos even remotely warm. I can scan full-angle beams and graphics all day long and the galvo block stays cool, but with abstracts things heat up pretty quickly.

[flecom]

since we are talking about the pangolin abstract generator... i have a question, is there any way to change the color mod frame while the abstract is running? aka start the abstract with frame x and then a few seconds into it have an "effect" or something that changes it to color mod with frame y?

I know you could just start the pattern again with the new frame but it would be nice to be able to change the colors while its running

[allthatwhichis]

Do you mean in Showtime, during a show? I would just add the color cycle effect to the frame, or fade into frame y...

[flecom]

Do you mean in Showtime, during a show? I would just add the color cycle effect to the frame, or fade into frame y...

ya but i basically want for example, a pattern with red and blue and then have green blink in on the beat or something like that... fading between frames isnt really quick enough

another thing I was wondering about showtime is, is there a "razor" tool anywhere? basically say i have an animation thats 10000 frames long (like something imported from LC-ADAT) and want to cut out a section from the middle... i still have not found an effective/easy way of doing this

[buffo]

fading between frames isnt really quick enough

You can fade between frames in as little as 1/1000 of a second using showtime. That's not fast enough for you??? (Shorten the width of the frame bar in the timeline... You can make it as thin as you want, down to the limit of the resolution of the timeline editor, which should be 1/1000 of a second.)

is there a "razor" tool anywhere?

When you load the frame file you can select how many frames you want to load, and where in the file you want to start. So only load the frames you need, then save them back out as a separate file.

Alternately, you could load the entire frameset and then make a show with just the frames you need, and then save that show out as a string of ILDA frames... (Assuming you have save as ilda enabled on your LD-2000 package, that is.)

Adam