Symphony For Dot Matrix Printers

nico_DNS writes: ""The Symphony for dot matrix printers is a work which transforms obsolete office technology into an instrument for musical performance. The Symphony focuses the listener's attention on a nearly forgotten technology: the dot-matrix printer. Specifically, it employs the noises the printers make as the sole sound source for a musical composition. Leaving the constituent elements untouched, the process imposes a new order upon them, reorganizing the sounds along a musical structure. ""

Comments

hp scanjet 5p

[matticus]

reminds me of the HP Scanjet Easter Egg-

set scanner to SCSI ID #0
boot system while holding down Scan button

you will hear "Ode to Joy" as Beethoven intended it-with the scan motor's whine :)

The horror...

[Golias]

Stuff like this almost makes me wish I could go back in time to the beginning of the century, so I could hunt down all the minimalist composers and kill them.

(by stabbing them over and over again... for several minutes... in the same location... with almost imperceptible variations to my rhythm... until those listening to the murder would fall into a trance-like state of understanding the structure of what I am doing.)

Playing music on printers is older than most of us

[drinkypoo]

From "Mechanical Music Digest(tm) Archives":
http://www.foxtai l.com/Archives/Digests/199812/1998.12.15.09.html

I heard that some joker put a print file in the hopper which contained the image of the print chain. When _all_ the hammers struck the chain at the same instant it dislodged from its drive wheels and flew through the plastic window of the machine. The repairman muttered, "I've seen this problem before. Wonder what causes it?" Even then there were "viruses" running around to wreck havoc upon the unsuspecting. -- Robbie

Except that was probably someone trying to do a cannon shot...

(Also from the same source): Introduction & Line Printer Music.

Since I can't seem to find anything really good on line printer music, I'll share some anecdotes which were shared with me.

The "chain" on line printers (which holds the letters) used to have all the characters in ASCII (or EBCDIC, I presume) order. Notably, A-Za-z was present in unadulterated form. The problem with this is that anyone printing A-Za-z (interpolate for yourself, please) would fire 52 solenoids at once, frequently blowing the power supply (Or as mentioned in an article linked above) firing the chain out of the printer. The solution was to move the characters around the chain and have the printer translate by means of a lookup table (presumably). In any case, some people did go through the effort to figure out where the characters had been moved to on some printers, but this effectively killed line printer music. How do you do a good cannon shot without being able to fire them all at once?

In any case, it's much the same as using a dot matrix printer; You fire off combinations of characters to generate different sounds. The thing here is that making music with line printers dates from the early seventies if not sooner; Since I'm from the late seventies, it predates me. People were making music with line printers before dot matrix printers existed.

It's worthwhile to never forget your roots.

Symphony for 9 and 24 Pins? Look out ELO!

[orpheus]

Symphony for Dot Matrix?

Man-oh-man, it must be Friday, 'cuz I read something totally different

Sympathy for Dot Matrix
(to the tune of "Sympathy for the Devil" By Mick Jagger/Keith Richards)

Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a past that you must face
I've been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man's soul and faith

I was around when TRS-80s
Had their moment of dubious fame
Made Damn sure that Tandy
Washed their hands and sealed your fate.

CHORUS
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game

I stuck around in adding machines
When the computer saw the time to change
I handled carbons and NCR's
As the lasers screamed in vain

Built like a tank
Held a general's rank
When line printers raged
And the toner stank

CHORUS

I watched with glee
While compatibility
and the price you paid
Were the laser's grave

You always knew
What screwed your CRT
It was EMI
From the DMP

Let me please introduce myself
I'm a past that you must face
And I'm the best for preprinted forms
That can't be filled in any other way

CHORUS

Just as every box is a terminal
Most of your print queue is text
I'm noisy as Hell
Just call me Lucifer
'Cause for some jobs I'm still the best

So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I'll lay your forms to waste.

CHORUS

Tell me baby, what's my name
Tell me honey, baby guess my name
Tell me baby, what's my name
Tell you one time, you're to blame

Ooo, who -- Ooo, who -- Ooo, who -- Ooo, who -- who
Ooo, who -- Ooo, who -- Ooo, who -- Ooo, who -- who
Oh, yeah

What's my name
Tell me, baby, what's my name
Tell me, sweetie, what's my name

Ooo, who -- Ooo, who -- Ooo, who -- Ooo, who -- who
Ooo, who -- Ooo, who -- Ooo, who -- Ooo, who -- who
Oh, yeah

Reminds You Of Something? LOOK HERE!

[ArcticChicken]

You know, *every* time someone here on Slashdot talks about an old freeware or public-domain program for the PC and how they wish they still had it, I've found the program within about 5 minutes.

Hey, all you nostalgics! Go here:

OAK Software Repository

Right from the main page, go to the section called PC/Blue Disk Library, and go to the PCBLUE subdirectory. Then download the big master index (pbcat.zip). Find the archive file that holds the software you're looking for (trust me, they're all in there), and enjoy!

In your particular case, you're thinking of the "PianoMan" software. There were actually many, many different tunes available with that program, not just the William Tell Overture (a.k.a. the Lone Ranger's theme song). The PianoMan program had the ability to generate COM files from the included music (MUS) files. That's why the Lone Ranger song got distributed so much more than the entire PianoMan package.

Rest assured, if you download Volume 216 from the above archive, and then spend about 2 minutes reading the PianoMan documentation, you'll be able to re-generate that Lone Ranger tune/program.