Neon 360: Synesthesia at it's finest
version 1.1
Written by Leo Loikkanen
Copyleft 2006
Edits: re-wrote Part 2 in it's entirity, shortened the history of
light synthesizers a bit, sad really.
Neon is copyrighted to Llamasoft
Disclaimer:
You are free to edit this document, as long as it is done with
taste. I would like the results being emailed to me, or in case you
have edited the whole document, the edited document, so that i may
post it on my website.
Authors of comments and additions are encouraged to add their name on
the credits, however, the authors must promise, that their writing is
also allowed to be edited, to point errors and so on.
Part 1: What IS Neon?
Neon, in all it's simplicity, is an interactive light synthesizer,
created by Jeff Minter and Ivan Zorzin (a.k.a. Yak and Gilesgoat) for
the Xbox 360 home entertainment system. When compared to the
visualisations on Winamp, or maybe in iTunes, it is clear that Neon is
far superior to it's counter parts in the terms of responsiveness and
interactivity. What makes Neon so fabulous, is the fact, that it's
intended for many people to use at once. up to four people can control
Neon at the same time, controlling different aspects of it, and create
lightshows unseen before in Computer entertainment today.
HOwever, Neon is not first of it's kind. Mr. Minter started to work on
light synthesizers on the Commodore 64. In Fact, it was Mr.Minter who
first coined the phrase "Light synthesizer". It all began with
Psychedelia, a simple Lightsynthesizer done for commodore 64, and also
ported for the ZX Spectrum and some other home computers of that
era. The legend goes, that the algorithm, which was used to create the
light patterns, came to Minter while he was Jogging. The legend also
goes, that once he wrote the algorithm to the computer and tried it
out, it did exactly what he had had in his head.
Of course, Psychedelia was just the first part of the future Light
synthesizers that were to came after. After Psychedelia, there was
Colourspace. A 16-bit Light synthesizer done for the Commodore miga
and Atari ST synthesizers. Improvements made since Psychedelia, were
mouse control, updated(?) algorithm, more colours (16-bit computer,
duh) and some nice strobe effects and background images. After
Psychedelia came Trip-A-Tron. A Light synthesizer made for the Atari
ST. This was actually a sequel of some sorts to the Colourspace. This
time, you could even make your own effects with Key Macro Language (or
KML for short).
Part 2: Using Neon, Emotion/Machine interface
Unlike static visualisisers, Neon allows people to have complete
control over theeffects that which it produces. Thus, it is giving
people the possibility to use Neon as they feel, and as they would
like it to be. NO more watching as the computer calculates the times
where the effect spins over it's own axis, this time, the user can
control everything, from camera, to feedback to psychedelia/boingy to
starfield. It is truly, Llamasoft's thus far sophisticated light
synthesizer.
The joy of Neon is not limited to a single user mode, as it in fact
needs 4 people each with his/hers* own controller, because 1 controller is assigned to use 1
aspect of Neon. Controller 1 acts as the camera/Effect changer,
Controller 2, acts as Feedback, Controller 3, acts as
Psychedelia/Boingy and Controller 4 acts as Tunnel/starfield control.
With 4 people in place, and logged in, the real fun can begin. Each
effect handles the user commands differently, encouraging people to
explore the effects to their fullest. Note, though, that not all
effects respond the default settings of the controller (or so i have
heard....), giving the people more joy in finding out what a
controller does in each effect.
It should be noted, that some aspects of the effects are displayed,
when the Neon is running on automation. The automation, having control
in all aspects of neon effects, can also activate, for example, oingy,
utilising it the way it sees fit to the music being played at the time
of the use.
Notes about beat detection
The Beat detection in Neon is one of the most sophisticated uses of it that i have seen, and it works wonderfully from bass thumping let-me-break-your-head-with-mine club songs, to the mellow and serene sounds of Pink Floyd. The Beat detection is by no means running wild on each and every song, oh no, it is so sophisticated, that it even reggonises the frequency and volume of each beat, or so my esearch would give the idea of. NOte however, that i only posess one controller, and because of this, I have Not been able to conduct such in-depth experiments as i would have liked to.
Notes about Music
Neon works great for all kinds of music. So far, I have played Billy Idol, Laika & The Cosmonauts, Frank Zappa/Mothers of Invention, Pink Floyd, The Residents and Oziric Tentacles. What's amazing is that Neon reacts in it's own way to these genres of mucis which are palyed by these BAnds. When being Fed Through Billy Idol, the effects go overdrive, because of the fast Guitars and Drums. When Played The Resdients, however, the effects are much calmer, in regard of the slower tempo, which The Residents are known of.
I have to admit, that as of yet, I have not experimented with CLassical music, although I intend to do that in some point (if the gods smile upon me). It was rumoured, that Leonard Tramiel used VLM-2* to Classical music, and was excited about how well it reacted to the music itself.
(There's also a legend that the pop artist prince tried out Yak's VLM-0, which was coded on custom made dual processor computer. The Legend goes that he plugged his guitar in, and wailed it about, just to see how VLM reacted to his guitarplay. There's no video nor audio proof of this though....)