Here’s another Sunday Synth Jam for you, hamageddon’s Nostromo – an audiovisual synth jam featuring Edirol CG8 Visual Synthesizer visuals and music by Klankombinat

This is a demo of Atari Video Music, a light synthesizer, by Electronic musician David Talento.

A Cyndustries/Modcan modular synth was used as the audio source. All audio and video changes done live in real time with no editing.

The Atari Video Music was introduced by Atari Inc. in 1976, and designed by the creator of the home version of Pong, Robert Brown. The idea was to create a visual exploration that could be implemented into a Hi-Fi stereo system.

As the legend goes, when Atari was on tour promoting the device, a Sears representative asked what they were smoking when they invented it. With that, a technician stepped forward holding up a lit joint.

The unit was in production for only a year.

If you’ve used the Atari Video Music system, leave a comment with your thoughts!

via legionhwp, wikipidia

It looks like analog video synthesis is starting to see the surge in experimentation that the Internet has brought to audio synthesis.

This is a preview of a Sergio Martinez’s DIY FPGA-based video synthesizer. Martinez connected the FPGA to an old computer monitor, and then recorded the images with a cheap webcam. The coloured dots are the  phosphor sub-pixels of the monitor.

Anybody know of combination audio/video synths? It would be interesting to see how you could combine the two to have the audio synth modulating the video.

Between 1971 and 1973, Dan Sandin designed and built the Sandin Image Processor (IP) a patch programmable analog computer for real-time manipulation of video inputs.

In other words – a modular synth for video.

The whole video is great – Sandin is a great communicator and the video reminds me about some of the great things of the seventies – like researchers in Viking hats.

This is one of the movies that document the early history of the research that resulted in the creation of the EVL Lab. Dan Sandin explains, in general terms, the functionality of the Sandin Analogue Image Processor (IP).

Sandin was an advocate of education and espoused a non-commercial philosophy, emphasizing a public access to processing methods and the machines that assist in generating the images. Accordingly, he placed the circuit board layouts for the IP with a commercial circuit board company and freely published schematics and other documentation.

The IP is a general-purpose patch programmable analogue computer, which is different from a regular digital computer, and is optimized to process video/television signals and sound. The video is processed through the IP “live” so that the viewer is able to see the effect on video signals. Initially the video is B&W, at the end Sandin debuts the ‘Color IP’.

The money quote: “Turn your sets to color now!

via videothing

OT: I’ve been getting more and more interested recently with developments in the area of generating video from or effected by audio.

The VGA Expropriator, an interesting DIY analog video synthesizer, caught my eye:

This “VGA Expropriator” will be the first in a series of proprietary analogue hardware devices which seek to explore the possibilities of digital/analogue hybrid technology in video/audio performance and studio production contexts. The first offering here is essentially a new design with its creative process making ample use of circuit-bending methodologies.

The main function of this device is to synthesize 2 audio inputs with a VGA input allowing audio waveforms to be viewed on a computer display. The results are very much like that of a dual-trace oscilloscope with vertical rather than horizontal beams. Internal patches can be used to combine the beams in a wide variety of ways making for a great many imagery possibilities.

There are some excellent seventiestastic video effects in the demos at the site. 

Edirol

In a musical context, a sampling synthesizer takes audio in or regenerates it from a wave generator and then modulates it with filters and amplifiers before outputting the sound. In a similar fashion the CG-8 can take in still images, create motion pictures from these and then modulate them with Modifiers and Fade Controllers. Designed to enhance live performance in today’s merging world of audio and visual, the CG-8 will allow DJ’s, musicians and visual artists to create stunning visual patches by easily operating knobs and controllers, just like synthesizers.

Starting from simple Picture files (JPEG’s) as the prime source, Stamp files (PNG) for overlays and then using built-in Computer Graphics effects, all stored on the internal 40GB hard drive, the CG-8 can add over 200 dramatic motion effects, plus a further 60 overlay effects, before sending the output signal to the Image Modifiers which will let you add further motion along X/Y/Z axes and control background color/hue shifting. The final modulation can also be set for rate, depth and waveform just like the LFO in a music synthesizer.

Capture of the initial Picture and Stamp files is straightforward via USB Compact Flash card reader, making the CG-8 a very powerful visual and motion processor of static images.

The users can choose to operate the CG-8 from twin D-beam controllers, an assignable X-Y pad, optional foot controllers, individual control knobs, and the 16 onboard trigger pads (also capable of storing patches).

Seamless connection with audio sources is also a key component of the CG-8 to unleash the creativity of musicians and visual performers. The CG-8 audio input, with adjustable frequency-selectable peak detection, will allow your visuals to modulate based on the incoming signal with several effects especially designed to respond to audio cues.

The CG-8 is fully MIDI compatible and will support Edirol and Roland V-LINK enabled instruments.