Bytemarks
Trippy '70s effects now on computer

By Burt Lum

For the moment, let's imagine we time-warp ourselves to a college dorm party circa 1976. Posters of Bruce Lee and J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" adorn the beige room walls. The stereo is blasting the latest vinyl of Ohio Players and Earth, Wind and Fire. With each beat of the music, you not only feel it in your bones but can watch the pulsating lights from the box near the speakers.

In those days, having been there, that was considered "trippy." Those light boxes were sparkling, multicolored bursts of fireworks that synchronized to the music. It created a hypnotic, near trance-like experience much like those other period devices, such as lava lamps and disco balls.

Fast-forward to 2001 and one glaring difference is the pervasiveness of the Internet. College students nowadays can download music off the Web or listen to it on Internet-only radio stations. But the more things change, the more they stay the same. Like those synchronized light boxes: There's an Internet version that's just as hypnotic.

Windows Media Player and Real Player both pack a feature called visualizations. When I discovered this, I was mesmerized. The visualization is a pre-programmed algorithm that runs on the player. What's cool are the visual designs these algorithms create and their pulsating synchronicity with the music. These images can vary from infinite tunnels to colorful starbursts.

If you want more than the default visualizations you can download new plugins for your favorite player from windowsmedia.com/mg/visualizations.asp or www.real.com/rjcentral/visualizations/. The number of visualizations continues to grow as more programmers get into it. There are even plugins for your Winamp player, Windows popular default MP3 player. Just go to www.funkyfx.com and download the latest FunkyFX v2.50b.

It won't be long before these visual creations run on custom monitors, perhaps built into the speakers or right into your wireless Internet goggles. Then we can all trip to the light fantastic. ;-)

Burt Lum, cyber-citizen and self-anointed tour guide to the Internet frontier, is one click away at burt@brouhaha.net.