OSC-1 Oscilloscope
Professional XY oscilloscope music platform — built-in synthesizer, 15 beam effects, 8 scope presets, MIDI control, laser DAC output, and video export.
OSC-1 is a professional XY oscilloscope in the browser. Play oscilloscope music, control a built-in synth, and output live to a laser DAC — no hardware oscilloscope required.
New to the medium? The OSC-1 overview explains how oscilloscope music is made, and how to make oscilloscope music takes you from a first Lissajous figure to laser output.
Who It's For
- Oscilloscope music fans who want to play and visualize the genre without hardware
- Musicians exploring XY synthesis and Lissajous visual music
- VJs and visual artists using XY vector graphics as a performance medium
- Laser artists who want to preview and stream oscilloscope music to a DAC in real-time
Key Features
- Responsive phosphor display — smooth beam motion, bloom, and afterglow
- 8 scope presets — Tektronix 465, HP 1740A, Vector Display, Amber CRT, Laser Sharp, and more
- 15 real-time XY beam effects — Rotate, Swirl, Vortex, Kaleidoscope, BitCrush, Polygonizer, and others
- Built-in Viktor NV-1 synthesizer — 3 oscillators, dual ADSR, LFO, 50+ presets, MIDI Learn
- Virtual keyboard — Polyphonic two-octave QWERTY keyboard
- Track library — Curated oscilloscope music for immediate playback
- MIDI and OSC control — one MIDI Learn button maps a controller knob or an OSC message, through the same OSC bridge as the laser tools and Audio Visualizers
- Laser DAC output — Helios (WebUSB direct), Ether Dream, LaserCube and IDN (Bridge); Studio tier, 3 free sessions — see Show OSC-1 on a laser projector
- ILDA export — Export the current frame as an ILDA file (Studio tier; 3 free clean exports a month below it)
- Video export — frame-accurate MP4/WebM rendering for loaded tracks, plus live-input recording
Show OSC-1 on a laser projector
Yes, you can: the same XY signal that draws on the scope can steer a laser projector's scanners. There are three ways to get it there. Stream it live from OSC-1 to a laser DAC, export an ILDA file for your laser software, or turn a stereo recording into an ILDA animation in BT Laser Studio. Creating and previewing are free. Live output to real hardware is a Studio feature, and every account includes 3 free output sessions to try it; the DAC Simulator is free on every plan.
A laser projects real beams. Read the Laser Safety guide and follow your projector's own limits, interlock and venue rules before any output. The on-screen preview is a composition aid; it does not make a setup safe.
Stream live to a laser DAC
Give OSC-1 a signal — load a stereo file, click SHARE TAB AUDIO, or play the synthesizer — and check the figure on the scope.
In the right-hand SYSTEM CONFIG column, scroll to LASER OUTPUT.
Select SIMULATOR and click CONNECT SIMULATOR. The preview under MODULE · SCOPE shows what a laser would receive. Set MIRRORS to PHYSICS and pick your SCANNER class to see how the mirrors will follow it.
Connect the real DAC. For a Helios, select HELIOS, click CONNECT HELIOS and choose it in the browser's USB picker; no Bridge or driver is needed, in Chrome or Edge. For an ETHER DREAM, LASERCUBE or IDN device, run the free macOS BeamTracer Bridge on the same Mac, pair it once, then pick the device.
Set Power limit, then use the safety dock along the bottom of the app: ARM and confirm, then START. BLACKOUT stops output.
When the signal stops moving, the laser turns off rather than holding a dot on one spot, and the dock reads Beam blanked: signal idle until the signal moves again. See When the signal stops.
Every control in the panel is described in Laser DAC Output; LaserCube setup is on the LaserCube page.
Export an ILDA file
Click EXPORT in the top bar.
Choose the ILDA tab, leave POINTS on SCANNER-SAFE so the frame fits your scanner, and click EXPORT ILDA FRAME.
Open the file in any laser software or player that reads ILDA Format 5.
This saves the current frame as one still frame, not an animation, and the file contains no audio. Clean ILDA export is a Studio feature; every other plan gets 3 clean exports a month, and the ILDA tab shows how many remain. See Export and Pricing.
Turn a recording into an ILDA animation
For a whole passage rather than one frame, use BT Laser Studio. Open Animation Studio, click the Oscilloscope tool, upload a stereo WAV, trim the section you want, click Add to Canvas, then Download ILDA. The full walkthrough is Oscilloscope Music in the laser docs, and Oscilloscope to Laser compares all three paths.
Three UI Modes
OSC-1 scales from casual listening to full performance rig:
Oscilloscope Mode
Audio playback, beam styling, scope presets, VU/spectrum monitors. The starting point.
Creator Mode
Adds generators, shape tools, video source input, and audio-reactive beam modulation.
Performance Mode
Adds the layer mixer, step sequencer, scene manager, and shape sampler for live shows.
Quick Navigation
Get Started
Play your first oscilloscope music track in under 2 minutes
Synth (Viktor NV-1)
3 oscillators, ADSR, LFO, and 50+ presets
Beam Effects
All 15 XY beam effects explained
Hardware
MIDI, OSC, and laser DAC setup
Settings
Visualizers, mappings, triggers, shortcuts, and saved shapes