Thread View: alt.sys.pdp10
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Started by werme@werme.ne.m
Thu, 01 Jul 1999 00:00
Music of the -10s (and other systems)
Author: werme@werme.ne.m
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 1999 00:00
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 1999 00:00
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jmfbahciv@aol.com writes:
>In article <7l94j5$7nm$1@autumn.news.rcn.net>,
> "Larry S. Samberg" <larry-samberg@sonoma-systems.com> wrote:
>>I did something like this in 1972 on the KA-10 at Stevens. We built a
>device
>>called an MK-10.
>Is that what Sandy Libman ran on the KI when he was supposed
>to be running his scripts?
IIRC, Sandy just used the age-old trick of putting a FM radio by the
computer.
That seemed a little obsolete to me. At C-MU, circa 1973 the AI lab
built a 9 bit DAC as part of a PDP-10 peripheral used by the speech
recognition folks. Others wrote a music editing system that displayed
on the ARDS (think Tektronix storage tube). I helped out a little
with the assembler code in the registers that did the voice mixing
(think 4 9 bit bytes). Someone else transcribed Scott Joplin's Maple
Leaf Rag.
Stanford Univ had a music group that worked on PDP-6 and PDP-10 well
before then.
Harvard had a 6 bit DAC created by tapping a PDP-1's console lights with
a resistor array.
I regressed myself a bit in my post-DEC days. I joined a small company
that produced the first letter quality dot matrix printer (Sanders
Technology, not to be confused with Sanders Associates). We had a PDP-11
and fortran, so I used TECO to create a font with 1/2" characters tuned to
over an octave, and another TECO program to convert a music description
language into the print file. It had to handle bi-directional printing,
a space beteen notes, etc. I think you might be able to find an account
I posted to USENET in pre-Web days that someone saved in a file that is
now HTML.
The first song I wrote was "A Bicycle Built for Two", the first song
ever _sung_ by a computer. (Trivia question - where have most people heard
it?) It was also a good choice, as our competition were Daisy wheel
printers.
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do!
I'm half crazy, all for the love of you.
It won't be a stylish marriage,
I can't afford a carriage,
but you'll look sweet, upon the seat
of a bicycle built for two.
I also did Christmas carols and played them over the PA system, and
La Marsellaise before a French customer came to visit.
--
Ric Werme | http://people.ne.mediaone.net/werme
werme@nospam.mediaone.net | http://www.cyberportal.net/werme
^^^^^^^ delete
Re: Music of the -10s (and other systems)
Author: jeverett@wwa.DEF
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 1999 00:00
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 1999 00:00
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In article <IgCe3.9112$Wr1.231256@wbnws01.ne.mediaone.net>, werme@werme.ne.mediaone.net says... > >>In article <7l94j5$7nm$1@autumn.news.rcn.net>, >> "Larry S. Samberg" <larry-samberg@sonoma-systems.com> wrote: > >>>I did something like this in 1972 on the KA-10 at Stevens. We built a >>device >>>called an MK-10. > >That seemed a little obsolete to me. At C-MU, circa 1973 the AI lab >built a 9 bit DAC as part of a PDP-10 peripheral used by the speech >recognition folks. Music on the PDP-6/10 predates this by some number of years. I recall working the DEC booth at SJCC (I think) at the Pru Center sometime around 1967. Prominent features of the booth; The Teddy Bear (complete with freshly pressed bow-tie) and a recording of J.S. Bach's "Little Fugue in G minor" generated on the -6. It played over and over and over again. To this day as soon as I hear it I immediately think back to that show/conference. BTW, does there still exist anywhere the text of KO's (in)famous Teddy Bear memo? -- jeverett<AT>wwa<DOT>com (John Everett) http://www.wwa.com/~jeverett
Re: Music of the -10s (and other systems)
Author: patrick@klos.com
Date: Fri, 02 Jul 1999 00:00
Date: Fri, 02 Jul 1999 00:00
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In article <IgCe3.9112$Wr1.231256@wbnws01.ne.mediaone.net>,
Ric Werme <werme@werme.ne.mediaone.net> wrote:
>The first song I wrote was "A Bicycle Built for Two", the first song
>ever _sung_ by a computer. (Trivia question - where have most people heard
>it?)
Didn't HAL sing that in the 2001 Space Oddessy??
============================================================================
Patrick Klos Email: patrick@klos.com
Klos Technologies, Inc. Web: http://www.klos.com/
============================================================================
Re: Music of the -10s (and other systems)
Author: bh@anarres.CS.Be
Date: Fri, 02 Jul 1999 00:00
Date: Fri, 02 Jul 1999 00:00
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patrick@klos.com (Patrick Klos) writes: >In article <IgCe3.9112$Wr1.231256@wbnws01.ne.mediaone.net>, >Ric Werme <werme@werme.ne.mediaone.net> wrote: >>The first song I wrote was "A Bicycle Built for Two", the first song >>ever _sung_ by a computer. (Trivia question - where have most people heard >>it?) > >Didn't HAL sing that in the 2001 Space Oddessy?? The version in 2001, I'm pretty sure, is the one from Max Matthews at Bell Labs. Am I confused, or did Ric copy Max, or vice versa, or is this a remarkable coincidence?
Re: Music of the -10s (and other systems)
Author: werme@werme.ne.m
Date: Sat, 03 Jul 1999 00:00
Date: Sat, 03 Jul 1999 00:00
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bh@anarres.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Brian Harvey) writes:
>patrick@klos.com (Patrick Klos) writes:
>>In article <IgCe3.9112$Wr1.231256@wbnws01.ne.mediaone.net>,
>>Ric Werme <werme@werme.ne.mediaone.net> wrote:
>>>The first song I wrote was "A Bicycle Built for Two", the first song
>>>ever _sung_ by a computer. (Trivia question - where have most people heard
>>>it?)
>>
>>Didn't HAL sing that in the 2001 Space Oddessy??
Yes, that's what I had in mind. I sent better comments back to Patrick,
becuse I thought he just Emailed me. Post or Email, not both, please!
>The version in 2001, I'm pretty sure, is the one from Max Matthews at
>Bell Labs. Am I confused, or did Ric copy Max, or vice versa, or is
>this a remarkable coincidence?
I heard the Bell Labs effort while I was in High School, the movie 2001
came out when I was a freshman at C-MU (1968). Fortunately I guessed what
HAL was about to sing. If I hadn't, I probably wouild have burst out
laughing when the song started. Given that was the most emotional point
of the movie, I might have given geeks a bad rap!
I copied Max - even if our competition's print elements were golf balls,
I would have had our dot matrix printer play Daisy. The only other
possible song I would program first is "Doe, a deer", but only because
I don't need to look at sheet music to do it.
I always wanted to do Bach's "Little Fugue", with each printer carrying
a different line. The only challenge in keeping things in sync would
be starting the data stream to all printers automatically. I think the
printers started preparing the next pass while the head was finishing the
previous.
-Ric
--
Ric Werme | http://people.ne.mediaone.net/werme
werme@nospam.mediaone.net | http://www.cyberportal.net/werme
^^^^^^^ delete
Re: Music of the -10s (and other systems)
Author: jmfbahciv@aol.co
Date: Sat, 03 Jul 1999 00:00
Date: Sat, 03 Jul 1999 00:00
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In article <4mRe3.2008$el4.78793@ord-read.news.verio.net>, jeverett@wwa.DEFEAT.UCE.BOTS.com (John Everett) wrote: >In article <IgCe3.9112$Wr1.231256@wbnws01.ne.mediaone.net>, >werme@werme.ne.mediaone.net says... >> >>>In article <7l94j5$7nm$1@autumn.news.rcn.net>, >>> "Larry S. Samberg" <larry-samberg@sonoma-systems.com> wrote: >> >>>>I did something like this in 1972 on the KA-10 at Stevens. We built a >>>device >>>>called an MK-10. >> >>That seemed a little obsolete to me. At C-MU, circa 1973 the AI lab >>built a 9 bit DAC as part of a PDP-10 peripheral used by the speech >>recognition folks. > >Music on the PDP-6/10 predates this by some number of years. I recall >working the DEC booth at SJCC (I think) at the Pru Center sometime around >1967. Prominent features of the booth; The Teddy Bear (complete with freshly >pressed bow-tie) and a recording of J.S. Bach's "Little Fugue in G minor" >generated on the -6. It played over and over and over again. To this day as >soon as I hear it I immediately think back to that show/conference. > >BTW, does there still exist anywhere the text of KO's (in)famous Teddy Bear >memo? > Now that tiggles a bit of my memory, but, for the life of me, I can't remember what that was. Please put this person out of misery and explain, John :-). /BAH Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.
Re: Music of the -10s (and other systems)
Author: jeverett@wwa.DEF
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 1999 00:00
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 1999 00:00
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In article <7lkpme$n03$1@autumn.news.rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com says... > >>BTW, does there still exist anywhere the text of KO's (in)famous Teddy >Bear >>memo? >> >Now that tiggles a bit of my memory, but, for the life of me, I >can't remember what that was. Please put this person out >of misery and explain, John :-). Back in the early/mid '60s, there was a Teddy Bear prominently featured in the DEC booth at every trade show. I guess it was to symbolize the "cute and fuzzy" nature of DEC as opposed to Big Blue and the seven dwarves. After one such show, KO wrote an evaluation of the booth. He was particularly critical of the appearance of the bear, and wanted to make sure that someone took responsibility for brushing his fur and making sure his bow-tie (which I seem to recall was plaid) was freshly pressed before each show. Soon thereafter the bear disappeared into the annals of DEC history. -- jeverett<AT>wwa<DOT>com (John Everett) http://www.wwa.com/~jeverett
Re: Music of the -10s (and other systems)
Author: werme@werme.ne.m
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 1999 00:00
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 1999 00:00
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jeverett@wwa.DEFEAT.UCE.BOTS.com (John Everett) writes:
>Back in the early/mid '60s, there was a Teddy Bear prominently featured in
>the DEC booth at every trade show. I guess it was to symbolize the "cute and
>fuzzy" nature of DEC as opposed to Big Blue and the seven dwarves. After one
>such show, KO wrote an evaluation of the booth. He was particularly critical
>of the appearance of the bear, and wanted to make sure that someone took
>responsibility for brushing his fur and making sure his bow-tie (which I
>seem to recall was plaid) was freshly pressed before each show. Soon
>thereafter the bear disappeared into the annals of DEC history.
Hmm, My stuffed Tux (the Linux mascot) doesn't have a bowtie. That would
be a good addition for Linux on Alpha. I guess it would have to match a
Red Hat. :-)
--
Ric Werme | http://people.ne.mediaone.net/werme
werme@nospam.mediaone.net | http://www.cyberportal.net/werme
^^^^^^^ delete
Re: Music of the -10s (and other systems)
Author: wilson@dbit.com
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 1999 00:00
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 1999 00:00
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In article <hpMf3.12648$Wr1.290315@wbnws01.ne.mediaone.net>, Ric Werme <werme@werme.ne.mediaone.net> wrote: >Hmm, My stuffed Tux (the Linux mascot) doesn't have a bowtie. That would >be a good addition for Linux on Alpha. Somehow I feel sure Berke Breathed would sue! John Wilson D Bit
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