30 Mar
2012
30 Mar
'12
8:44 a.m.
On 29 Mar 2012 at 23:27, Eric Smith wrote:
Pontus Pihlgren wrote:
CDC was pretty tight with the military, particularly the Navy (it was
said that if Seymour conceived a new machine, the Navy would have its
order in before the blueprint was dry). The brass loved dog-and-pony
shows, in particular, being greeted with "Anchors Aweigh". I think
the whole business started with the 1604, but by the time the 3000
series was out, there were quite a few "computer orchestra" hits out,
including "The Stars and Stripes Forever" and "The Eyes of Texas",
with full percussion. It was impressive to see.
Here's one such recounting, describing how to make a tape drive sing
(not something that you can do with a streamer, however):
http://www.computer-history.info/Page1.dir/pages/Tymes.html
--Chuck
OT question: What was the first
"singing" computer peripheral ?
I suppose you mean a peripheral that wasn't originally intended for
sound production? The first public demonstrations of computers
playing music were in 1951, but the peripherals used were more or less
intended to produce sound.