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‘Oldest’ computer music unveiled – BBC News

The songs were captured by the BBC in the Autumn of 1951 during a visit to the University of Manchester.

The recording has been unveiled as part of the 60th Anniversary of “Baby”, the forerunner of all modern computers.

The tunes were played on a Ferranti Mark 1 computer, a commercial version of the Baby Machine.

sadly (for showing my age), I recognized all the gear he used and owned several pieces of it. In fact, I probably still have my scanjet 4C sitting in a box somewhere…

I also like the way he did the video, looks straight out of ’84

Big Ideas (don’t get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

electro-music.com :: View topic – Nomad 0.3 pre-release available for DL

The Nord Modular was the first major synth hardware with required software for programming it. It was extremely powerful. I own two! It was also the gear that soured me on the whole idea. Why?  Because, Clavia never upgraded the editor to work with OS X. There was a beta release, but it didn’t work that well. So now, that very expensive hardware is mostly worthless.

Luckily, some bright hackers decided not to let it lie: Nomad is nord editing software written in Java for OS X, PC and Linux.

What would have been better would have been if Clavia had released their software as open source, so that folks didn’t have to reverse engineer it.

This is why I won’t ever buy a Nord Modular G2, by the way.

So, Van Halen’s backing synth tracks were played back at the wrong sample rate during their biggest hit, and then it all goes horribly, beautifully wrong.

[via CreateDigitalMusic]

I was reading about the boomchik when I came across this page on Roger Linn’s site about instrument design. Nice to get his take on some of these old and new ideas.

[link]

Summer NAMM started yesterday and already there are a couple things worth mentioning…

This is the one that I’m most excited about. I’ve coveted the original Space Echo for quite a long time, but never could put down the cash to make one happen. Now, I can get somewhat close to it without having to get it repaired constantly or fretting about taking it out of the studio. This may be the first pedal I’ll have bought in years. [via harmony-central]

When I’ve done Intonarumori shows for the last couple of years, I’ve relied on my PowerBook and some external processing gear, mostly so I can run Live. I always fret over this, wondering if it makes for a boring show (it does) and worrying about a reboot or crash (hasn’t happened yet, but I’ve seen it happen to others). For the decade or so before I switched to my laptop, I’d used all gear to produce similar stuff live. Periodically, I think about being able to do that again. I’ve been following the Roland SP series for years, but haven’t plunked down the money yet. This one looks like it could be the one to make me switch back… [via Harmony-central]

This doesn’t come from NAMM, CDM posted about it. Trinity are working on a portable DAW based on linux and with a bunch of audio apps included. This is a kind of neat idea. I could see it useful for some folks, but for me the platform itself is more interesting than the DAW. It could also become my laptop replacement. A computer customized for audio that was really portable could be a game changer for musicians. Now, with a touch screen, and softsynths and a reaktor-like thing (Pd or whatever)… drool. The next step would be a similar device for VJs…

Apple – Pro – Profiles – Alan Pollard

These Apple profiles are usually interesting reads, even if they are the web equivalent of infomercials. I’m always a fan of reading about some of the interesting setups that the big-time musicians use. Bjork’s set-up isn’t too goofy, but it is interesting that she is integrating the more abstract UIs from the various tools that her band is using to make the electronic stuff more compelling to her audience. Also, it must be nice to be able to borrow one of the two react-tables in extistance and then bring it on a tour.

In the “do it because it is there” category…

The Covert Operators

So, MacWorld and CES were (iPhone and 108″ Plasmas aside) boring. NAMM didn’t have any major surprises. Here’s the stuff I found most interesting…

Apogee Electronics: Symphony, 32-channel PCI Card for the MacIntosh

Moog Freak Box, New Moogerfooger FreqBox model is in an effect category of its own

Novation announce Automap Universal for SL Series

Arturia Introduces Origin, their first hardware synth

Universal Audio introduces the UAD-XPander

korg’s new mini Kaoss Pad – My Favorite!

Korg introduces the Zero4 and Zero8 Performance Mixer.

For those who ever doubted that music gear porn wasn’t a serious addiction…

Kewl Gear Contest from NoiseFX