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Oldest Computer Music Unveiled

Posted by timothy on from the except-for-accidental-john-cage-bits dept.

drewmoney writes with a cool story from the BBC, which says that "A scratchy recording of Baa Baa Black Sheep and a truncated version of In the Mood are thought to be the oldest known recordings of computer generated music. The article also collects some other very interesting bits of computer history.

23 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Could be a fake. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    A recording of a song about sheep? Sounds to me like they might be trying to fleece the masses.

    1. Re:Could be a fake. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      A recording of a song about sheep? It sounds believable to me. The complexity of the song is completely similar with the latest trance/house/minimal music that fills stadiums in Europe.
    2. Re:Could be a fake. by JustOK · · Score: 5, Funny

      At least it didn't involve a goat in C#

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
    3. Re:Could be a fake. by dintech · · Score: 2, Funny

      Following one aborted attempt, a laughing presenter says: "The machine's obviously not in the mood."
      Clearly. The machine realised that the presenter was the worlds first digital music pirate. And to make matters worse, he was laughing like this:

      Yarrrrrrr!
  2. Re:As noted on Hack-A-Day... by Daimanta · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is Slashdot, begone with logic and truth!

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
  3. Sue Them? by PawNtheSandman · · Score: 5, Funny

    What is the statue of limitations before the RIAA can no longer try to cash in on those early IP pirates?

    1. Re:Sue Them? by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 4, Funny

      Psssst: "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "God Save The Queen" (aka "My Country Tis of Thee") are in the public domain. But don't tell anyone, we'll sue them anyway and see if anyone notices!

      Thanks,
      The RIAA

      --
      My blog
  4. Re:One thousand five hundred valves.. by jd · · Score: 2, Funny

    The music probably killed him. But what would you expect from such a scratchy rendition? It's almost as bad as the Formula 1 car engine version.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  5. Re:As noted on Hack-A-Day... by Myrddin+Wyllt · · Score: 5, Funny

    It does mention 'God Save The King', which is the same tune. You must have noticed that - why do you think they play that music at the Olympics when they hand out bronze medals?

    --
    [ ]Half Empty [ ]Half Full [x]Twice as big as it needs to be
  6. Re:Wrong. by Ucklak · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and The Alphabet song are the same.

    --
    if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
  7. One day my MIDI's will be historic too by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just thank God there is now a MIDI File Organizer that can help me preserve my old midi's and sort them by name using a simple 22-digit ID number.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  8. Re:Wrong. by k_187 · · Score: 4, Funny

    you just blew my mind man.

    --
    11 was a racehorse
    12 was 12
    1111 Race
    12112
  9. Lies by pengudeus · · Score: 4, Funny

    All sources point to this as the oldest computer music:

  10. Axel F, by Stewbacca by stewbacca · · Score: 2, Funny

    And here I thought my efforts of programming every note of Axel F (thanks to the band director who loaned me the score) into my Commodore 64 was the first computer music!

  11. Also included: by teneighty · · Score: 4, Funny

    The world's oldest RIAA subpoena.

  12. Re:Wrong. by Intron · · Score: 4, Funny

    If you leave out all the notes, it is also John Cage's 4'33".

    --
    Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
  13. Re:Wrong. by jason.sweet · · Score: 3, Funny

    God country tis F G, have you any wool...
    Make it stop!

  14. Obligatory by sexconker · · Score: 3, Funny

    Daisy, Daisy,
    give me your answer-do.
    I'm half crazy
    all for the love of you.

  15. 1024 bits? by unassimilatible · · Score: 3, Funny
    The memory was built from a Cathode Ray Tube and allowed scientists to program 1024 bits

    "1024 bits ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates

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    Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
  16. Re:Wrong. by OakDragon · · Score: 3, Funny
    An not to forget Hatless Atlas:

    ^<@<.@*
    }"_# |
    -@$&/_%
    !( @|=>
    ;`+$?^?
    ,#"~|)^G

    Translation:

    hat less at less point at star
    backbrace double base pound space bar
    dash at cash and slash base rate
    wow open tab at bar is great
    semi backquote plus cash huh DEL
    comma pound double tilde bar close BEL
    --
    Dark Reflection
  17. All I can say is... by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Funny

    It has a nice beat and you can dance to it.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  18. Ob. Blackadder by ross.w · · Score: 2, Funny

    Darling: Four verses! Four verses! I meant four verses! Look, I'm as British as Queen Victoria. Edmund: So your father's German, you're half German, and you married a German? Darling: (crying) No! No! Look, for God's sake, I'm not a German spy!!!

    --
    If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
  19. Re:Wrong. by Thorwak · · Score: 4, Funny

    Looks more like a busy NetHack situation to me :P

    --
    Connection closed by foreign host.