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Researchers Restore the First Recording of Computer-Generated Music (bbc.co.uk)

Posted by BeauHD on from the beep-boop dept.

BoxRec writes: Alan Turing was part of a team who created the earliest known recording of music produced by a computer. It starts with a few bars of God Save the Queen, a snippet of Baa Baa Black Sheep and then Glenn Miller's swing hit In The Mood. The recording was captured by the BBC in the Autumn of 1951 on a 12-inch (30.5cm) acetate disc. But when Professor Jack Copeland of the University of Canterbury in Christchurch and composer Jason Long discovered the disc, the audio on the disc had been distorted. In a blog post for the British Library, Copeland and Long said it "gave at best only a rough impression of how the computer sounded." BBC News reports: "By analyzing the recording, Copeland and Long realized it was playing at the wrong speed, possibly as a result of the recorder's turntable running too quickly as the acetate was cut. As they knew the notes the computer was actually capable of playing, the pair were able to calculate exactly by how much the recording needed to be speeded up in order to exactly match the sound made by the Ferranti Mark 1. They also removed extraneous noise from the recording -- though not the engineer's voice. 'It was a beautiful moment when we first heard the true sound of Turing's computer,' Copeland and Long wrote. Now anyone can hear it in all its somewhat ramshackle glory."

3 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Shame it doesn't mention the engineers name by Viol8 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    She sounds like she's enjoying herself. and has a lovely voice. Who says woman are kept out of computing by men? They were some of the early pioneers.

    1. Re:Shame it doesn't mention the engineers name by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Why are the people most likely to complain about "SJW" also the most likely to drag up this sort of topic at every available opportunity? It's almost like you're on the warpath, fighting about some sort of social issue.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
  2. No one cares. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Only LUDDITES care about LUDDITE computer-generated LUDDITE music. Modern app appers only listen to appy app music!

    Apps!