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Re: [microsound] North American Time Capsule 1967

From: Ian Guthrie Yeager <iyeager@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Is the date 1967 to be taken at face value...
Does anyone else have any experience with very early digital equipmnt,
esp. music that uses it, etc?

According to Wergo's CD "Computer Music Currents 13" the first piece of computer-generated music was Silver Scale made in 1957 by Newman Gutman, so digital music dates back at least that far. The accompanying book describes some of the techniques which basically involved writing programs to generate a series of pulses which were stored and then run through a D-A converter (12 bit if I recall correctly). So the "very early digital equipment" would have been big mainframe computers and D-A converters probably made by Bell Labs. Pretty much the same as today, but much slower and bulkier.

I was thrilled to discover a
dumpster full of record albums on Friday last. I managed to salvage a
goodly collection of Stockhausen in mint condition.


Wow, congratulations!
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