Com-Central.net

Just click the dang link, willya'?

...talkin' 'bout "chooglin", whatever that is. Do it, do it....

Thanks Ascout. Brought back memories...got to get this dust out my eye, making me tear up!

AH ! youth sentiment,
must confess have all the CCR albums that where released at this end of the pond

Wonderful!!!

CCR is frikkin' timeless.....

Gotta say I really like some of these vids that are utilizing very striking still images to get the author's mood across. The fractal images (colorful paisley-lookin' stuff which is computer modeling of complex equations) actually started to blend in with the nature scenes toward the end, in a way.

Matter of fact a quick story if I can bore y'all....

Take for example the images that had that wavering effect added to them, and imagine if you will that a computer program was developed to time the wavering and other effects to the music - going even further, let's say it could take input from the audio of that song, split it into 3 sections (bass, midrange and treble), and using those input channels, also play a slideshow of images (pictures, drawings, fractals, whatever you like) and apply a number of various effects such as color cycling, waving, splitting, pixelizing, etc to the images, subtle or strong, depending on volume and intensity of each channel, and in combination with each other, and also perfectly timed (driven by) the music. Imagine that there are about 100 possible effects and varying degrees of how each could be combined to yield a seemingly infinite combination of effects timed with the music....kind of like those old "color organ" speakers that had red, blue and yellow lights in them that flashed with drums, guitar, and vocals, but brought up to current standards.

Well anyway, such a device and software program existed way back in the 1980's ('83 or '85 or thereabouts) for the Amiga computer, which wasn't a powerhouse by today's standards but had pretty respectable dedicated graphics and sound processors. Was capable of 4,096 colors (not bad) and fairly hi-res images for the time (600x400 interlaced if I recall).

Seems these two rather eccentric but brilliant software engineers living in...umm....Humbolt county CA formed a company called "Visual Aurals", and developed this little stereo interface device that took stereo inputs (RCA jacks) and did the audio splitting, and the software program had all he effects (tons) and options for setting strength of effects and combinations, to the slideshow length and content. The result was called the "Mindlight Seven" (draw your own conclusions from the name) and it was extremely impressive for it's time. Matter of fact, even for this time - I've yet to see anything like it since. Anyhoo, it received quite a following particularly with certain crowds which favored psychedelic music and such mellow types of entertainment at private-type get-togethers and et cetera.

Of course lots of those folks didn't want to futz with a computer and all the associated gobblydegook back then, and it was easier for them to just pay someone to set it up and all, so it was an interesting time to be working as a computer systems consultant with a specialty in UNIX-based operating systems, which the Amiga also featured...yes it was quite a device.

So yes that video certainly did bring back some memories!

The important question

Do you still have the system and does it still work? (I thought the Amiga was a few years later (87-90) time frame but there were so many interesting machines coming out then

Yes n' no .... I sold my cherished Amiga 1000 but my oldest stepson still has the Amiga 500 that we got him and last I heard it still works. In hindsight you're probably right that it was a few years later than I said...had to be '86 at the earliest I'm sure now...I may have been drunk at the time....

The Mindlight 7 is in a box in the basement....