> On Nov 17, 2016, at 3:44 PM, Kyle Owen <kylevo...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Thu, Nov 17, 2016 at 10:10 AM, Paul Koning <paulkon...@comcast.net> > wrote: > >> >> Interesting. From around 1975 or so, and worth learning about is the >> music synthesizer developed on the PLATO system at the University of >> Illinois by Sherwin Gooch. The hardware is described in great detail >> (including full schematics) in US Patent 4,206,675. The software includes >> a music code compiler, using a code somewhat like the one you referenced >> but different in details. I don't know if one borred from the other or if >> they are independent inventions. (Sherwin might remember.) >> >> A few years later PLATO added a 16 channel waveform synthesis device, >> controlled by the microprocessor in the terminals. It had a similar music >> code, plus support for a piano keyboard (with key velocity sensing) for >> music input with real time display of the score, as well as score >> printing. Not long after, Lippold Haken created a keyboard that's >> continuous rather than discrete (think of a keyboard like the fingerboard >> of a violin); a successor of that is still sold today. >> > > I'd be very interested in any sound samples, if anyone has any...I guess > that's perhaps unlikely.
Sound samples of the PLATO devices? I have somewhere an audio file made from a tape recording of the earlier one (the GSW, 4 channel square wave). And it's supported in the PLATO terminal emulator that talks to the Cyber1.org PLATO system. That almost certainly doesn't exactly reproduce the wave form; I haven't attempted to simulate the impulse response of the output circuit though I could certainly give that a try. As for the later device, I don't have any recordings but they might exist. Sherwin Gooch would be the most likely source, along with Lippold Haken. paul