For our performance this evening, we will be placing transistor radios close to this desktop PC. You will hear EMI from the various circuits inside the computer, sounds of un-doctored ordinary internal processes. Tuning, proximity, angle, and AM/FM setting each affect the sound produced by the receiver instruments, as each musician “plays” them.
Referring to the program, we will perform: “The Writable Floppy” (in A), “Chanson de L’install”, Seagate’s “Partition in Two Parts”, “The Mandelbrot Waltz”, and conclude with “Low Level Format in C".
And now, we present The Celeron Radio Orchestra's “Concerto for Canon”…-- Amos Kito, Oct 12 2003 Symphony for dot matrix printers http://www.sat.qc.c...atrix/en/intro.htmlMechanical, not electromagnetic [Brummo, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] The Well Tempered PDP-8/L http://is3.com/ftf/...es/arch/000238.html [Brummo, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] The Sounds of Space http://www.visitwim...y/spacesounds.shtml"Music of the Spheres" [phoenix, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Listening to Leonids http://science.nasa...2001/ast26nov_1.htmSome people claim they can hear these VLF frequencies. [phoenix, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Eerie Sounds of Space http://eis.jpl.nasa...1/20010104-ia-a.cfmRadio waves captured by the Cassini probe. [phoenix, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] McGreevy ground-based VLF recordings http://image.gsfc.n.../sounds/sounds.htmlThe sounds of electromagnatism. [phoenix, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Tempest for Eliza http://www.erikyyy.de/tempest/Broadcast computer audio via your monitor. Not the program I mention in my first anno, but if you search this page you'll find someone else who remembers the program I do mention. Look at some of the other comments, too. [phoenix, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Swept RF Tagging Project http://www.media.mit.edu/resenv/tags.htmlSlightly off topic, but interesting [Brummo, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Kronos Quartet- Sun Rings http://www.npr.org/...ure.php?wfId=930399The Kronos Quartet recently went on a tour playing a piece based on sounds picked up by space probes. [evilmathgenius, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] WiFi Theremin http://www.boingboi...ine_wifi_there.htmlI'm pickin' up Good Vibrations... [AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jan 25 2005] "A Simple Text File" by Man or Astroman http://www.allmusic...l=50:ji6zef5khg86~T30 second sample requires Windows Media Player [krelnik, Jan 25 2005] I like. I used to know a blind computer user who used this technique to detect when his computer had locked up.-- krelnik, Oct 12 2003 Neat. +-- Pseudonym #3, Oct 12 2003 Interesting. +-- half, Oct 12 2003 linkage: or perhaps "Sympathy for Dot Matrix Printers"?-- Eugene, Oct 12 2003 Close call in the 70s, on a PDP-8, by reading/writing memory and thus affecting nearby AM radio receivers. Check out the link for some samples.
(Edit: 13 October)-- Brummo, Oct 12 2003 It would be kinda cheating to write a program that produced a real tune, or a rhythm for the Printer Sympathy :), at least with this idea (to use hand-held radios somewhat like theremins). But those links are indeed cool.-- Amos Kito, Oct 12 2003 I remember a program that did just this for the TRS-80 or Commodore-64. The program ran simple instructions within the computer which gave off established RF noise which, in turn, could be picked up by a nearby radio. The "music" it played was pre-programmed, if I recall correctly.-- phoenix, Oct 13 2003 Friend of mine did a trance track in the early 90s (didn't we all) called "PrinterX", containing a sample of a dot matrix printer going back and forth. And there's a dot matrix sample on one of the tracks on Public Enemy's "Fear Of A Black Planet"-- BunsenHoneydew, Jan 25 2005 The band "Man or Astroman?" in 2000 recorded an entire song called "A Simple Text File" that is just that -- a particular text file being printed on a particular dot matrix printer. It is more melodic than you might guess.-- krelnik, Jan 25 2005 random, halfbakery