Virtual Light Machine

The Virtual Light Machine (VLM) is a lightsynth developed by Jeff Minter. It was installed into a number of electronics, including the Atari Jaguar CD and Nuon DVD players. It was also used by Kraftwerk on their seminal electronic music album Autobahn.

VLM, basically put, is very similar to what would later be seen in Winamp visualizations. When an audio CD is put into a VLM compatible device, the VLM loads, manifesting visualizations which appear on the screen that change with the music.

VLM versions

Three versions of the VLM software were released. VLM-1 is the version installed on the Atari Jaguar CD. Nuon players featured version VLM-2. VLM-3 was the basis of Unity, which was in turn upgraded to form the basis of Neon.

VLM in Nuon DVD players

Every Nuon player used the same version of VLM; however there were differences in the number of effects available between players.

The player released by Toshiba only featured 8 VLM effects, less than the Samsung DVDN-2000. The Samsung DVDN-2000 has a has higher resolution than the Toshiba player. The Samsung DVDN-501 has the most VLM effects (about 150) but these effects were presented in a lower resolution than the DVDN-2000.

RCA also released 2 Nuon DVD players that also featured VLM but these RCA players are missing many of the Nuon features that the Toshiba and Samsung players contain.