Videosynth and Atari Video music

[Arthur Harrison]

Bill wrote:

>Is anyone familiar with the Atari 'Video Music' device that was made in the
>mid 70's? I've got one of the things, but I've never hooked it up.

>Basically, the unit hooks up to your color TV, and accepts an audio input
>ala color organ. It appears to have a plethora of controls on the front
>panel for various modulation schemes. Does anyone know what its supposed to
>do?

Yup, I've got one of those units, too.  We used to use them for stage shows.
It divides the screen into identical sections, such as 4 x 4, 8 x 4, and
other
combinations, and produces various geometric color patterns which respond
mainly to audio amplitude.

I recall that there was some band-splitting, kinda like the old
"color-organs,"
and one or two automatic modes would alternate the pattern selections from
herring-bone to cross hatch to bars, etc.

Very cool, even by today's standards, IMHO. The only problem is that they
tend to die on the shelf for some mysterious reason, although I suspect that
the cheap LSI IC socket may be the culprit.  Both of our units seemed to
just
go bad while sitting disconnected in storage.

Art