Would you consider driving the laser with an audio signal directly, or are you seeking the chaos that the liquid will introduce?
There are a few options with using the ILDA interface of a laser, to drive directly with analogue signals (even straight audio!) or via some sort of transformation in either the analogue or digital realm
"Vector Synthesis" / "Oscilloscope Music" can be output via a laser, not just on an X/Y display... Here's some inspiration: https://www.instagram.com/_jestern_/
A friend's children were into gallium for a while. They stained things around the house that you wouldn't think are stainable. With enough work, I think they got most of it straightened out, but it's something to be aware of if you're experimenting.
Most music exists above 30-60 Hz, the upper frequency range our eyesight can resolve into something that is not blurred.
A "glowing string" won't give much of a representation of the music waveform.
blurred is fine, plus im aiming to represent the bass in the music more than anything, its for a club environment. nothing scientifically accurate, just a dancing glowing rope. i would also consider strobing the UV light which illuminates it, maybe at the same frequency as predominant bass frequency which could cause some standing waves to be come more legible.
I vibrate styrofoam beads at 72 hz in a long clear plastic pipe for dust collection. There are strange undulating stripes in the high velocity nodes of the ‘standing wave’ that might look rather intersting if that was mirror glitter or glow in the dark beads
My videos are too big or high resolution to post on this forum ( It looks really strange in slow motion )
Strobe lights with tuned water irrigation makes it look like it’s levitating as well
My videos are too big or high resolution to post on this forum ( It looks really strange in slow motion )
Strobe lights with tuned water irrigation makes it look like it’s levitating as well
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I am appreciating all of these ideas, nice to see it's not just hi-fi and music here 🙂
There are some Arduino based displays doing similar things. This one has the best description of the mechanism, but poor song choice.
This one has more interesting music
Single channel looks OK also
And this is the one that got me thinking along these lines - something of this scale could be interesting in a club with the right lighting, but would not be cheap. This is linked to the relevant part, so if you play it it'll take you right to the packing peanut based installation. I think they were trying to create sound also, so the fans are loud, which you obviously wouldn't want.
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