10 Years Battle of the Bits

The most epic battle in the chipmusic world has been raging on for 10 consecutive years now. Happy Birthday, battleofthebits.org!

[album] Untitled Game Boy EP by Jellica

Very, very pleased to announce this new EP by another of my absolute favourite artists, Jellica. These are some of the most beautiful and unique chiptune works I've ever come across. And as Jellica hasn't released anything in quite a while, I'm extremely happy to see this.

[album] Sunday Groove by Vince Kaichan

New jazzy grooves from Vince Kaichan (ex VCMG). Horray, super smooth!

CSIRAC Was Not The First: Rewriting Computer Music History Once Again

For many years it was believed that the first experiments in computer music were done by Max Mathews at Bell Labs in 1957. In the early 2000s however, a research team concerned with the history of the CSIRAC mainframe at the University of Sidney, Australia found documents confirming a musical performance by that machine on August 7th-9th, 1951. Also, in 2008 the BBC unveiled a hidden gem from their archives: A computer music recording from autumn of 1951, done by Christopher Strachey on the Ferranti Mark I at the University of Manchester just a few weeks after the Sidney performance.

In fact, Geoff Hill's 1951 experiments have held the status of the first computer music in history ever since. However, according to my most recent research, it's time to change the record once again.

The UNIVAC I control panel, designed in part by Betty Holberton

In May 1990, the Charles Babbage Institute, the Smithsonian Institution, and
the Unisys Corporation brought together many of the pioneers and masterminds behind the UNIVAC I computer for a commemoratory Univac Conference. During the main panel, the attention suddenly turns to the little lpudspeaker that was installed on the machine for diagnostic purposes. Louis D. Wilson recalls:

When we were testing BINAC out, we were working two shifts and we worked all night long, and we had a radio going. After a while we noticed that you could recognize the pattern of what was happening at the moment by listening to the static on the radio. So I installed a detector in the console and an amplifier and a speaker so that you could deliberately listen to these things.

At this point, Frances E. "Betty" Holberton starts to wonder:

Does anybody know who actually wrote the first generator for the UNIVAC or for any computer that played music? [...] Herb Finney?

Morgan W. Huff responds:

Herb Finney, Air Force. Office of the Air Comptroller.

Hmm, interesting, but that doesn't really help us, since nobody puts a date on it. What does help us however is the conversation between Wilson and Holberton that now follows:

WILSON: Well, if you remember it, the dedication party, when we got the first machine running, John Mauchly programmed...

HOLBERTON: No, I programmed that.

WILSON: Oh, did you do that?

HOLBERTON: I certainly did. It was supposed to have been a surprise, and we did it at 2 o'clock in the morning. There were some engineers working on the BINAC and they heard it. It was actually an interpretive routine. It only had eight notes and it played "For he's a jolly good fellow," or something like that. But it was supposed to have been a surprise and it wasn't.

That "dedication party" Wilson mentions can indeed be dated. It's the dedication event of the completion of the first successful UNIVAC I installation for the US Census Bureau, which took place on June 14th, 1951.

Frances E. "Betty" Holberton

In fact computer music history might go back as far as the early days of the BINAC computer, but unfortunately we may never know. Betty Holberton is not around to tell her story anymore, she passed away in 2001; and I have yet to find more information about Louis Wilson or the mysterious Herb Finney. So, for the time being, the date of June 14th, 1951, may stand as the first ever public demonstration of computer music.

All quotes in this article are taken from the transcript of the 1990 Univac Conference at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, pages 72-73. The transcript as well as the original audio recordings can be found here.

[album] PSG Series 3 by Tomy

Pulling all his tricks, Sega wizard Tomy has released a fresh batch of Master System (SN76489) tunes. Again, over 90 minutes of high quality, vgm-inspired material. Grab the free download before the bandcamp counter runs out!

[album] Teh Art of Party Trolling by Jankenpopp

Lowtoy Netlabel has released a new crazy album by Jankenpopp, one of the masterminds behind Windows93. Made on, err, le Game Boy.

Here's what you're getting yourself into if you're gonna click on download:

And now, download and party hard!

[music] Collection of Japanese MODs from 1999-2001

Fellow chiptuner maak has posted a collection of Japanese MODs, ITs and XMs from the years 1999-2001. Rescued from an old CD, it contains 300 MB worth of rare and obscure works, many of which might be previously unknown to the western world.

download

[demo] Stellar by Kpacku

Kpacku has released a new beautiful mini-demo for the ZX Spectrum 128K. The lovely music was made by one of my all-time favourite AY musicians, nq.
The prod took second place in the 8bit compo at Multimatograf this weekend.

download and discuss

[music] Hi Fi Sky by LMan

Talking about SID music, here's something that's definately not from this planet:

Yes, that really is just one single SID, using the 2 SIDvoice/ 3 digivoice player by The Human Code Machine and some ingenious sound design by LMan/MultiStyle Labs.

download/discuss

[demo] GoatLight by Fairlight & Offence & Noice

Here's a neat new C64 prod by the Fairlight/Offence/Noice allstars gang. A bit scroller-heavy, but has some great effects as well. And the music is rad.
Also, 3rd place in the oldskool compo at this year's Revision demoparty.

download/discuss