The chiptune music scene is basically rooted within the sounds of the unique Nintendo Sport Boy and the Commodore 64, whereas nonetheless welcoming a variety of different {hardware} underneath its basic umbrella. Nonetheless, few chip musicians present as much as a gig hauling a PDP-1. That’s maybe a disgrace, on condition that the Fifties period machine can produce stunning music—as demonstrated by [Peter Samson] and [Joe Lynch].
The video demonstration was recorded on the Pc Historical past Museum in Mountain View, California. [Peter Samson] is working the PDP-1, which is operating the Concord Compiler—which permits the machine to play 4 particular person voices. That is achieved by benefiting from the PDP-1’s program flags, that are seen as six mild bulbs on the management panel. Directions can be utilized to show these bulbs on and off. The Concord Compiler works by switching the bulbs on and off quick sufficient to create audible sq. waves when the sunshine bulb outputs are wired to a easy audio amplifier.
Utilizing Concord Compiler, [Joe] and [Peter] labored collectively to transcribe the music Olson by Boards of Canada to play on the PDP-1. The music is encoded on paper tape, and fed into the machine—which dutifully performs again the hauntingly stunning melody.
In case you’re within the code that achieved this, it’s blessedly obtainable through Github. In case you love tales about previous computer systems enjoying music, we’ve obtained these too. Video after the break.
[Thanks to Stephen Walters for the tip!]
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