Altair 8800 - Video #29 - Music on an Altair 8800

Demonstration of music generation on an Altair 8800 computer. The original way through an AM radio, and also using "The Music System" from Processor Technology. Information about purchasing a replica of this board and free downloads of the software used in this video can be found on the web at DeRamp.com.

[@MrKylePopovich]

Hearing it play daisy, WOW just amazing. Good job, and thank you!!!

[@rcgldr]

Playing music on computers using AM radio's dates back to the late 1960's (some computers had speakers on them back in those days, so the AM radios were used as substitutes for computers without speakers). A few people figured out a way to record data and then used that data to pulse width modulate a speaker to reproduce more generic audio. Back in 1973, I used the "brake" on a high speed photo paper tape reader (600 characters per second) to generate the sound, eliminating the need for the AM radio. However, to surprise a few co-workers, I started with an AM radio with the volume turned off on the computer, then took the AM radio away. It took a while before the co-workers figured out where the sound was coming from.

[@HudsonGTV]

Can that speaker card be used with a Northstar Horizon?

[@j.k.parsons3095]

Wow! I miss those days of learning and innocence! I recall using an A.M. radio as a "SoundCard" for my early comps!

[@CromemcoZ2]

Built my first computer in 1978; an S-100 system similar to this Altair. But I ran into a problem. Everything was finished and ready to go, except my video card was back-ordered! A friend also had an S-100 computer, and we both had this music program deramp5113 demos at 7:00. So I go to my friend's house, turn on his AM radio, and memorized the noises his computer made at every prompt involved in loading and running the music program, both the noise made when the last command worked, and when it failed. When I went home, I could boot up my new computer, load and play music from my floppy drive with no video at all. :) That's what I did for about two weeks, until my video card (from Processor Technology, incidentally) arrived. Good times!

[@RosePhoto1]

First wireless I/O device. Cool.

[@WAQWBrentwood]

RosePhoto1 I'm going to say it's the first wireless personal computer output device. Unless someone had an AM radio hooked up as an audio data input using "cassette" formatted data (modem). (a CB in the '70s was Shortwave AM radio so, It's not impossible..)

[@edmundcramp4583]

I remember doing this on my IMSAI - nice to see it demonstrated again after all these years!

[@AppliedCryogenics]

I love vintage electronic music. Awesome video!

[@lionlinux]

it's like a flashback to my childhood!!! i was doing music on z80

[@zorinlynx]

That song, "Lay Down Sally" was brand new at the time, too; it came out in 1977. This is amazing. :)

[@mustang607]

The original program for this was 28 bytes of memory and manually entered in through the toggle switches. The each note used one byte of extra memory.

[@anu_start]

reminded me of hal's death scene in 2001 a space odyssey

[@WAQWBrentwood]

7h3 m057 4u71571c y0u7u83 Ch4n37 3v3r "Daisy Bell/Bicycle built for Two" is an 1892 tune that is THE first tune of digital media. It was used (not​ surprisingly by Bell Labs) in 1961 to demonstrate digital speech, it also appears in "2001" (likely in reference to it's '61 appearance..), So it gets the "record" for existing tune that was first digitized (since Digital Audio was at least theorized in the 1930s, I can't say it was the FIRST Digital recording,but it is the oldest digital "reinterpretation" of a known tune.)The "Fool on the Hill" by the Beatles (1967) has the honor of being the first digitaly generated known tune on a Personal computer, The subject of this video: Altair 8800.

[@karlament6939]

haaa lol yah no kidding

[@nek0mancer_uwu]

my how we've evolved. now we have special software (e.g. Vocaloid) specifically designed to create music (in a much more user-friendly manner, i might add)

[@El_Guapo74]

better than the PC speaker

[@thegreene3]

Cool. wow i was glad i was not wearing head phones. lol this is freaking sweet!

[@Technoid_Mutant]

I'm surprised no one mentioned that this song is "Daisy", a classic reference to a classic movie from a classic computer: 2001: A Space Odyssey. "Daisy" is the song HAL sang as he was being lobotomized by Dave, the fellow he'd just tried to kill.

[@richardbarrow2977]

the Movie was referencing bell labs when they developed methods for synthesizing music via computer, they used the "Daisy Bell" song as a demonstration

[@gr8fulfox488]

How is the pitch of the tones controlled? Does more data being transferred along the lines result in more EFI, which results in a higher tone? I would LOVE to see a breakdown of how this all works for armchair enthusiasts like myself.

[@eklipsegirl]

I read this on your website: Can the Altair Clone play "Fool on the Hill" and "Daisy?" The Clone properly runs the programs that caused the original Altair to play "music," but unfortunately, since the Clone does not emit unintended radiation in the AM band, you won't hear any music on your radio. So did you improve the Clone so that it can play music now, but couldn't before?

[@deramp5113]

eklipsegirl This is a real Altair 8800 in this video. The Clone cannot play through an AM radio, however, it can be used to play music using "The Music System" product which demonstrated in this video. I'll be putting up a follow-up video that shows the Clone working with "The Music System."

[@eklipsegirl]

deramp5113 I got it. What I didn't get was how do you connect that music board to the speaker?

[@mystica-subs]

The music board read bus signals from the altair bus slot; then connects likely with a simple RCA style audio connector at the end of the cord soldered on.

[@TedKekatos]

Great video series.. I just completed assembly of the altair 8800 clone. While running Daisy program, I do get music on the AM radio. Wondering if your CUTTER version is available for download somewhere... thanks.

[@deramp5113]

The CUTER monitor ported to the Altair as used in this video is in the ROMs directory on the Altair Clone support page. See altairclone.com/downloads/roms/CUTER%20for%20Altair/

[@NotSleepy]

got it.. thank you.

[@infinitecanadian]

Is it due to F.C.C. regulations that the Altair 8800 clone does not emit A.M. radiation?

[@deramp5113]

infinitecanadian The modern hardware inside the Clone has no external data or address bus, so it doesn't radiate much of anything even if I wanted it to. Yes, the FCC limits EMI, but the Clone was never close to hitting any FCC limits anyway.

[@infinitecanadian]

deramp5113 Ah, I see. Why hasn't it an external data or address bus (and do please forgive my ignorance)?

[@AureliusR]

@@infinitecanadian Because it's all done with a microcontroller, which generally do not have external address and data buses. All the ROM and RAM are on-chip.

[@infinitecanadian]

@@AureliusR I see.

[@karlament6939]

i remember the old punch card systems man is this computer old

[@mekkabeonik7462]

id love to flood the airwaves with stuff like this....

[@ThoriumHeavyIndustries]

Can´t give a like, since it´s 386 likes and I don´t want to ruin it :D

[@Valery0p5]

That's the old version of raspberry pi radio-from-electric-noise!

[@kingofthepod5169]

I was watching this on my Nokia 7.1 and my windows 10 ryzen machine went out of sleep mode for no reason.

[@joshuafountain1931]

Hmm , I guess it sounds like the Sinclair spectrum , maby better than the pc speaker

[@lionlinux]

this version of altair must to be using Z80 as Spectrum does

[@nullerrno]

"This video has been removed due to a copyright claim from Apple Corps."

[@hantusangap]

more to alarm category, not music