Conference napalm::commusic_v1

64.0. "DEC PDP8 Music Program" by CRVAX1::KAPLOW () Wed Feb 13 1985 17:38

	I just started looking at this file, and have yet to see
anything about my introduction to computer music. The first computer
performed music that I ever heard was on a PDP-12 while I was a student
at Northwestern University in the early to mid 70's. It had its own
built in speaker, and one could generate sound effects with it, or use
it to tell what the system was doing if you were in hearing distance of
the box. After watching 2001 at the Friday nite flicks, we went over to
the computer lab to hear the 12 play (but not sing) "Daisy". The real
music was done on a PDP-8. For these, you placed a radio next to the
processor, and listened to the "interference" that it generated. There
were several programs that we had then. One was a standalone program
that played a composition called "The Well Tempered PDP-8", using an
ASR33 teletype as drum and bell accompanyment. Another (PDP-8 MUSIC) was
much more flexible, and you could "program" various songs that it would
play. It was a great crowd gatherer during open house night. We also had
someone who built special hardware (primitave by todays standards I'm
sure) that used a pare of DACs and could synthesize different wave
shapes to produce different instruments. I don't know whatever happened
to his hardware or software. The PDP-8 MUSIC program is still available
from DECUS as 8-804. I have it on DECtape, and am making arrangements
with a friend to run it, and tape all of the music on standard cassette,
so I can recall the good old days without needing a huge monster in my
living room. 

1)  Has anyone already done this? 

2)  Does anyone have any additional music for this program or other 
	PDP-8 music programs? 

3)  Is anyone else interested in this relatively antique form of
	computer music.

	I am more interested in the nostalga of this, rather than 
getting into the state of the art computer music that the rest of you 
seem to be into. I have a PDT-150, and would also be interested in 
anything that can be done with this unit. A while back, I was looking to 
connect R/C equipment to it, using several bits in the modem port as 5 
bits of input and 3 bits of output. Perhaps these bits, turned on and 
off at the right times could be genertate music of a sort. I also have a 
ROBIN, but don't use it for anything other than a terminal for the PDT.

I had a null job for RTS-8 on the PDP-12 that played the theme
song from Star Wars.

Please put it in the tuneshed.

Jim Stratton

I worked with Honeywell DDP516 computers while in the Coast Guard. We had
several music programs on paper tape that would play on an AM radio such
all time favorites as Amazing Grace. I had to fix the buggers, so I'd just
leave the radio on and listen for the sound of an "end pass" from the
diagnostic. I wish I had made recordings of these sounds now, as it's getting
hard to find people that remember core memory, let alone music from computers
broadcast (narrowcast?) on AM radios. I suppose only hardware nuts with
ears attached to their grey matter could appreciate the sounds years after
the novelty of a computer doing anything slightly artistic wears off.

If anyone has made recordings of this type of musical expression, please
drop me a line at:

Seymour J. Brown
DCO-216
DCVAX::SBROWN
DTN 341-2751

If Cage can play radios......