19 Jun
2008
19 Jun
'08
4:06 p.m.
This is very cool:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7458479.stm
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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19 Jun
19 Jun
10:41 p.m.
Sellam Ismail wrote:
This is very cool:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7458479.stm
Unfortunately, no mention of how the machine produced the sound...
--
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/
Help our electronic games project: http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
A child borne of the home computer wars: http://trixter.wordpress.com/
20 Jun
20 Jun
12:07 a.m.
Unfortunately, no mention of how the machine produced
the sound...
I believe, but I'm not positive, that the a small amplifier with a
speaker were placed on one of the bits of a given register in the
machine, and the music program simply toggled the bit at various rates
to create different notes.
I know that this method was used on very many older computers, until it
was later realized (on machines that had higher clock rates) that
similar results could be generated simply by placing an AM radio near
the computer, and running different loops of various functions to cause
an AM carrier to be created and modulated to make the radio play music.
If anyone out there for sure knows how this particular music was created
on the Ferranti Mark I, it'd be great to find out.
Rick Bensene
The Old Calculator Museum
http://oldcalculatormuseum.com
12:15 a.m.
On Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 11:07 PM, Rick Bensene <rickb at bensene.com> wrote:
I believe, but I'm not positive, that the a small
amplifier with a
speaker were placed on one of the bits of a given register in the
machine, and the music program simply toggled the bit at various rates
to create different notes.
As seen on this (poor quality) video of the PDP-1 at the Computer
History Museum!
3:16 a.m.
On 20 Jun 2008, at 05:07, Rick Bensene wrote:
If anyone out there for sure knows how this particular
music was
created
on the Ferranti Mark I, it'd be great to find out.
My uncle Michael is the curator at the Manchester Museum of Science
and Industry responsible for programming the replica baby.
He wrote a nice little program that displays a sailing ship moving
through "memory" (cathode ray tube, remember) from right to left.
I'll ask him how the music was made and report back.
-Austin.
4:33 a.m.
New subject: [personal] Re: Earl(y|iest) recording of computer music
A speaker and amp of a reagister.
The Elliott 803b had a speaker on the control panel (at least ours did),
specifically there so you could "listen" to the machine and "see" what
it
was doing, odd noises meant problems. It did not take long for some bright
spark to program a few tunes. It could be turned off. Once newer machines
were installed the Elliott was reduced to playing tunes on visitor days, bit
of a come down !
Mike
Web - www.soemtron.org
Email - mike at soemtron.org
Looking for a PDP-7 (some hope!)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Leonard" <trixter at oldskool.org>
To: <General at mail.mobygames.com>; "Discussion at mail.mobygames.com:On-Topic
and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 3:41 AM
Subject: [personal] Re: Earl(y|iest) recording of computer music
Sellam Ismail wrote:
This is very cool:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7458479.stm
Unfortunately, no mention of how the machine produced the sound...
--
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/
Help our electronic games project: http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
A child borne of the home computer wars: http://trixter.wordpress.com/
5916
days inactive
5917
days old
5 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
austin＠ozpass.co.uk -
mike＠brickfieldspark.org -
rickb＠bensene.com -
sellam＠vintagetech.com -
silent700＠gmail.com -
trixter＠oldskool.org