Teletype Music! A mechanical Christmas song.

In this short, • My Teletypes try to pe... , I coerced a teletype to play a Christmas song.This full video explains the process.
Original QST article: drive.google.com/file/d/1DROZ...
My corrected version is further down below.
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My corrected Jingle Bells Teletype score below:
----------
CuriousMarc's Jingle Bells for TTY
F stands for FIGS
X stands for LTRS
Z stands for Space
Cr is Carriage Return
Lf is Line Feed
Other letters are as typed
Don’t type the actual spaces, they are just for visual aid
----------
Cr Lf
FSFSFSXMFS FSFSXEFSFS FSFFSSXRRY
ZFFSFSFSFF SSFSFSFSSS
FSFSFSFSXC FSXHFSFSFS XRFSFSFSXI
FSFSFSFFSS XSTMASFSFS
FSFFSSFSFS FSSSFSFSFS FSXZANFSSS
FSFSFSFSXD ZAFSSSFSFS
FSFSXZHAFS SSFSFSFSFS FSFSFSSSFS
FSFSFSXP FFFSSS
FSFSFSFSFF FFFSSSFSFS
FSFSFFFFFS SSFSFSFSFS FSFSFSSSFS
FSFSFSFFFS XPFSFSFSXY
FSFSFSXZFS FSFSFFSSXN EWZYFSFSFS
FFSSFSFSFS SSFSFSFSFS
XEFSXAFSFS FSXRFSFSFS XZFSFSFSFF
SSXTOZALFS FSFSFFSSFS
FSFSSSFS FSFSFSXL
Cr Lf
----------------
Time stamps:
00:00 The original QST article
01:14 Trying the QST score
03:30 Upgrading to a Teletype orchestra
07:56 Editing the tape
14:18 Corrected tape rehearsal
16:36 Jingle Bells Teletype Performance

[@MacRetroFly-ef8cc]

Curios Marc entering the "Tattoo & Piercing Shop": "I need body piercing needles. Are you selling some?" "Sure! Do you need any help or advice? What do you want to do?" "Don't ask. Don't ask..." 😄

[@zeno2712]

When I was learning Algol 60 at school in 1973, we had an IBM teletype (maybe a Model 33?). We had to punch our programs onto tape and then post it to a local college that had an Elliott 4100. They would run the program and send the printout back by post. Getting the tape right before it was sent off was essential! I made up a small device that allowed me to accurately punch holes to correct errors as Marc did. Because the tape holes were on 0.1 inch centres, a piece of 0.1 inch Veroboard was perfect so I used that and a piece of Perspex to make a clamp that aligned with the sprocket holes so I could accurately punch the holes with a nail that I had shaped into a hole punch. It worked very well and saved me weeks of frustration - I was mainly writing a program for my physics project.

[@Richardincancale]

At university in 1975 and used an ASR33 to punch Algol and Fortran for our Elliott 903, which really was a personal computer. We loaded the compilers using a two pass process with a very fast tape reader, generating intermediate code and then the second compiler pass to make the load able tape. Then the loader and the loads left object tape and then… you tried to figure out why it didn’t work!

[@Richardincancale]

Back in the day (1970s) we had a tape splicer to correct mistakes in our computer programs. It used the sprocket holes to line up the tape, a razor to cut at exactly the right point, and special stickers with sprocket holes to connect sections of tape. There were two types of stickers, all solid (except for the sprocket holes) and a kind of ‘dibber’ to punch new holes via correctly positioned holes in the tape clamp, or ones with holes in every position to just connect two pieces of otherwise correct tape. Happy days!

[@CuriousMarc]

Boy, I **need** that contraption for Christmas!

[@Richardincancale]

@@CuriousMarc They seem to have almost disappeared from existence… There is a 5-hole punch / splicer on eBay right now, and self adhesive 8-hole splicing stickers…

[@dano6187]

No need to buy special equipment. You can make your own splice tape by putting a strip of scotch tape (the sticky kind) on a new paper tape and running it through the punch to punch all the holes. @@CuriousMarc

[@CuriousMarc]

On an ASR33 8-bit punch you could. But you can’t do that with the Model 19 or 14 5-bit punch. No way to open up the punch and have it punch in the middle, nor to feed an already punched portion through it without repunching it.

[@fgaviator]

Merry Teletype Christmas!

[@mike94560]

As a kid I had a borrowed Model 15. I just tuned in on a strong RTTY station when the dinner bell rang. I left the basement and went upstairs to eat. Imagine my surprise when I opened the basement door to go back down and I heard Jingle Bells playing. And that was 50 years ago.

[@GeoffereyEakinsTech]

I bet it felt like magic! Thanks for sharing this!

[@landspide]

And on the 25th day of Christmas, blah blah blah, 2 teletypes, 1 Maestro Engineer, and a jingle for us to glee!

[@JamesHalfHorse]

I am glad you did this now. We would go to my grandfathers this time of year and friends would call his teletype. The lights would flash around the house, he would put the phone on the coupler and it would start hammering out a christmas message. I can even remember the warm machine oil smell right now. That was 40ish years ago. Thanks for the memories.

[@musiqtee]

Audio engineer since 1982…: Please make a multitrack recording of “Jingle Bells for three teletypes and a Juno 6” for posterity. Can be mixed in stereo and whatever surround system the future will bring…😅🎶🎅🏼 Merry Christmas & best wishes for 2024 from 🇳🇴 to Marc & team - you are just awesome… 💛

[@Colaholiker]

You gotta be careful when copying the program from the printed copy onto punch tape manually. You just had Usagi Electric in the lab, so you may end up with a Hellorld. 😂 Merry Christmas to you!

[@CuriousMarc]

Merrystmas!

[@larsbr4519]

When I started working at DataSaab back in 1974, we had a special small hand tool tool and small bits of tape, so you could add a piece of tape. And then push new holes, to save a worn-out bootstrap. God Jul och Gott nytt år from Sweden.

[@Damien.D]

very touching to hear this long forgotten music score being played again, with the correct instruments. I'm pretty sure that the guy who wrote it would have never imagined it will be heard decades later, and on a distant modern sibling of the teletype network... It's also nicely composed, the typed characters being part of the tune too. The @DeviceOrchestra also uses typewriters as percussions (snare and bass drum)

[@jeremiefaucher-goulet3365]

The floppotron has been challenged using paper, body piercing needles and a 50mA current loop

[@AmauryJacquot]

I would have expected Ken helping into building an ethernet connected contraption (say with a beaglebone) to control the punch, so as to be able to generate the tape from the comfort of a current computer 🤣

[@richardhole8429]

As a teen in the late 60s when I got my model 15 running my parents moved my bedroom to the other end of the house!

[@EVPaddy]

I’m glad I‘m young enough to have entered IT when sound was a bit better 😂

[@freddieastaire6312]

A Curious Marc Episode is an awesome Christmas Gift ❤ Merry Christmas to all of you! 🎉

[@bradnelson3595]

It's a Wonderful Lipe. It's a Womderfub Life. It's a Wonterfil Lofe. Teletype is hard. Can I borrow your hole punch, Mark?

[@fragglet]

"Jingle bells" is certainly the right song to use

[@Digital-Dan]

I am impressed that you have not only restored those machines, but brought them back to full reliability. Sturdy beasts.

[@fritzkinderhoffen2369]

Richard Feynman's calculators at Los Alamos did something similar to prank him. They had their equipment play a tune. He thought it a good joke. Merry Christmas to you and your elves.

[@brunoramey50]

- Hello, What's your name ? - CuriousMarc - What are you doing ? - I'm a musical instrument tuner - Which instrument ? - Teletype - Okay

[@justinmijnbuis]

The Mite teletype is a decidedly funky machine, hitting the backbeat quite well!

[@thesteelrodent1796]

there's nothing like TTYing a christmas tune. Merry Christmas Marc, to you and yours :)

[@Shineyongs.]

Playing Christmas carols using communication equipment that can be found in museums!!

[@IanDarley]

Merry Christmas.

[@graemedavidson499]

MERRYRYRYRYRY Christmas!

[@richardhole8429]

You guys are nuts. And what is more Christmassy than nuts! 2 thumbs up.

[@simontay4851]

Teletypes playing jingle bells.

[@richardhole8429]

And people think engineers are dull and without sense of humor!

[@624Dudley]

Marvelous! Merry Christmas Marc!

[@dhirun4]

Merry Christmas Marc, keep the great work coming

[@North49Radio]

Awesome! Merry Christmas Marc

[@tim0steele]

I remember sharing this tape using my Creed 7ERP on the 2m band in the UK. It was known as Jingle Bell. In those days you built your own TU (RTTY modem). I can still smell the oil. As someone else said, the easy way to edit was to read a tape, stop it before the error, key the new characters, then restart the reader after moving the tape past the error. Paper tape was cheap :)

[@mycosys]

Merry Curiosity!!

[@skizzofly]

super video Marc! Merry xmas!

[@portcruiser]

Merveiileux , Marc ! Merci et Joyeux Noel !

[@ifitsrusteditsmine]

Merry Xmas to you Marc, and thank you for so many hours of wonder and entertainment

[@matthewnirenberg]

Merry Christmas Marc

[@islandhopperstuart]

Merry Christmas Marc! RYRYRYRYRYRY.....

[@Quad_Awesome]

This is my favorite Christmas video this year.

[@your_utube]

Blessed Christmas and God bless the whole retro computer team!

[@ReneKnuvers74rk]

Merry Christmas from the Netherlands, Marc and the rest of the team!

[@DerKlemm-Crafter]

Merry Christmas!

[@messedupfmj]

Merry Christmas Marc🎄, thank you to you and all of the crew for the amazing things you all find for us to learn about!

[@tony359]

Merry Christmas to you all!

[@ShainAndrews]

Surprised... I am not. Merry Christmas everybody!

[@av_kovko]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Curious Marc!

[@thebiggerbyte5991]

Excellent! A most CuriousMarc Christmas gift! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!🌲

[@hanznel8488]

My favourite nerd channel. Love you guys, and a merry Christmas to everyone. Looking forward to all the videos of the new year.

[@AmiPurple]

Merry Christmas to you all and your marvelous machines and a happy New year to you all

[@johncloar1692]

Merry Christmas to all of the Curious Mark Family and Team.

[@alanclarke4646]

Merry Christmas, Marc.

[@tuppyglossop222]

Made my day. Merry xmas and a happy new year...

[@MLX1401]

The most wholesome, ear-piercing seasonal delight I've missed the TTYs so much!!! Happy Holidays to all Lab meters, printers, readers, repros, writers, plotters, drives, calculators and computers! And to the whole Curious Team, of course 😊

[@PCBWay]

Happy New Year, Marc! 🥳

[@neilsmith5762]

Merry Xmas and have a great new year.

[@HPM2024]

Well done Sir. From : KD8ONJ, Merry Christmas.

Un très joyeux Noël à toi aussi, Marc!

[@chriholt]

Merry Christmas and a Joyeux Noël to you, your family and the whole Curious Marc team!

[@bryanb3352]

I sometimes have a dream where I have to get a sequence of something correct and never can because something keeps messing up. Thanks for the nightmare fuel, Marc!

[@halfben7991]

Beautiful

[@michaelmiller641]

Wonderful! Merry teletypemas!

[@92Hidden]

Merry christmas and a happy new year to alsl

[@zoidberg552]

Merry Xmas and best wishes from Lithuania 🌲

[@andersslangerup7464]

Merry Christmas 😊

[@TubeTimeUS]

Merry Christmas! 🔔

[@paulmorley1225]

Merry Christmas to Marc and all of his elfs!

[@hymermobiler]

Great fun Merry Christmas to you all!

[@dri50]

OK - I envision a MIDI interface from the keyboard to the teletype. It will convert certain MIDI "sounds" to Teletype sounds for "live" performances !

[@rnts08]

@lookmumnocomputer and he'll do it 110%

[@maskddingo1779]

Ooo Juno 6!

[@PRRGG1]

Wow memories. Remember when newsrooms used to install microphones JUST for the teletype sound to use in the audio mix just under the person reading the news.

[@muadeeb]

Very excellent rendition of Vive le Vent. Thank you, Marc

[@jamesbrewer3020]

Merry Christmas

[@bigsarge2085]

Incredible.

[@td4dotnet]

All the best wishes Marc, thanks for all your great content!! Sadly Santa didn't bring me a teletype but I got a VNA! :-D

[@TheDoctorhuw]

Wonderful unnecessary cacophony, Just fantastic Merry Christmas, & Thank you.

[@johnm7723]

Happy New Year to all of you. A bright star in an often dull 2023. Looking forward to 2024 and an even brighter and perhaps peaceful year. You guys rock (can't believe I just typed that).

[@roberthayes6329]

🎄Merry Christmas🎅

[@68hoffman]

kool merry x-mas every one :)

[@BlackHoleForge]

Each teletype becomes a new musical instrument in a midi track. Mix in some stepper motor control, and you could have a full on orchestra.

[@McTroyd]

Love it! Maybe for next year, tune the bells to different notes, and get "Usagi Electric" David to mux them on his Centurion for a teletype chorus. Merry Christmas! 🎄

[@justincaldarella]

Love the channel! Can we get some more milspec content please? Happy Holidays!

[@CuriousMarc]

Yes, more mil analog-mechanical goodness coming soon

[@jdos2]

I always preferred the "half puncher" on the model 28 - it allowed easy looping without tape by just hooking the tapes together by what would otherwise be the chaff. Fun video, Marc!

[@gordonwedman3179]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and all your Elves. Look forward to new videos in 2024.

[@rsmrsm2000]

uuuuuuaaaaaauuuuuu fantastic

[@nesagljivic]

CM , marry X-mas!

[@ptonpc]

Merry Xmas and a great new year to you all!

[@russellhltn1396]

I thought there was a way to edit the tape by playing the old one back and punching a new one. Stop prior to the first error, hand key the correction on they keyboard, the open the reader and advance the tape past the error and continue. It works in normal situations, but I'm not sure but what it might "eat" some the spacing characters (FIGS).

[@jumpstar9000]

So cool!!! 🎉❤

[@eduardoschubert5738]

awesome.

[@fabiomuzzi7047]

Now if you just managed to have 2 ttys in sync with different bells and different punch tapes feed to them, you could actually also play two different notes with the bells.

[@k-c]

I imagine that these things must be mind blowing back then

[@pappakilo3965]

Merry Christmas! An interesting video. It makes me think... For my 2nd or 3rd Motorola 68k assembly language assignment at college around 30 years ago I had to program the board's speaker to play Jingle Bells using interrupts to set the tones and time between notes. In another couple of decades will somebody resurrect that 'old microprocessor' technology to do the same on an ancient college SBC?

[@pglick123]

When I was a kid, I spent much time in a switch-bar central office. The mechanical noise of all your Teletypes running has a similar clatter. The central office noise was often from "trouble" cards being printed. I was 8, I would often read the cards and busy out "troubled" circuits. I started early!

[@jank330]

Thanks!

[@CuriousMarc]

Thank YOU!

[@jlwilliams]

This is exactly what KZbin was made for. Well, this and cats. Thank you!

[@chuckinwyoming8526]

I wrote a paper tape editor for a numeric controlled Bridgeport milling machine in 1977. Written in BASIC running on multi user IBM System 360 main frame using remote dial up 300 BAUD acoustic MODEM CRT terminal or 110 BAUD Model 33 teletype. The NC mill ignored the RUBOUT punches every time you backed up and corrected an OOPS. But was still very difficult to directly type a paper tape to create a perfect NC program. Any extra RUBOUT punches would mess up your musical bell timing. Common practice was to create short parts of the NC program then use the teletype's tape duplication function to create a final long tape from the short sections. The editor was great for creating long and complex machine control tapes with no errors. Sorry I don't have the editor's code anymore.....

[@danmenes3143]

Now you need to wire Baudot-to-midi and midi-to-Baudot interfaces, and you'll give Martin of Wintergatan a run for his money!

[@nmccw3245]

Je vous souhaite un joyeux Noël Marc

[@juliankandlhofer7553]

i wonder if you could tune the bells of the different machines to the individual notes to play 🤔 sounds a bit monotonous as it is :D merry Christmas 🎄:)

[@zebo-the-fat]

I was just going to say the same thing!

[@edgeeffect]

"Monotonus" 😂😂😂

[@ludmilascoles1195]

You need a chad tool. I will see if I have one in the back 😅

[@jaende910]

Another very special and funny episode. Go on, go on. But . . . at least I would have expected you to write the text on your PC, which you then connect to the tape punch with a nice coded program. merry Christmas to you all and keep on the good work.;-)😇

[@CuriousMarc]

I hesitated on that one. I thought I would get there fastest with the Whisper Writer, but that did not pan out. Next fastest was to simply enter it by hand (it was late at night already). Then programming and making a driver for 5-bit high current 45.5 bauds loop would have been the alternate, but way slower to get there, you are talking a day at least.

[@jaende910]

@@CuriousMarc Yes sure, but why would you take the easy handtyping way when you can do it the dificult, but elegant way😇

[@jaende910]

@@CuriousMarc Off Course. But this problem brought me back to 1979. I just build my first computer, based on the S-100 boards. (which I had to import from USA to the Netherlands) And I got hold of a Teletype ASR 33 with reader and punch. I build the hardware current source (20mA Ithink) and wrote the driver in assembler(8080)😃