31 Oct
2008
31 Oct
'08
12:12 p.m.
On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 7:47 AM, Dave Phillips <dlphillips(a)woh.rr.com> wrote:
For no reason beyond boredom I decided to pester this
list with an OT
topic or two. So, without further delay:
What was your first computer ?
And for extra points:
What was the first music/sound software you used that really hooked you
into this making-music-with-computers fad ?
In the 70s, somehow I got a hold of a Xerox Parc published paper on
creating music manuscripts with the Alto. I think I called them and
they sent me a copy of the (bounded) paper. I'd have to dig into my
archives to see what exactly it said and the computer it used. The
document had a blue cover and a picture of a musical keyboard on the
front - if anyone has ever seen it.
Then, while a music student at Indiana University (still in the
mid-70s), I heard about Don Byrd's [1] music printing machine at the
(now) Informatics department. I visited Don and he was happy to show
me a rather large computer and how it worked. I was impressed, not
knowing anything about computers. Unfortunately, Xenakis left before I
attended I.U.
I wasn't able to afford any of that hardware -- of course -- and so my
first computer was an Atari 800.
[1] http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/donbyrd/
--
Brad Fuller