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Started July 1st, 2014 · 5 replies · Latest reply by AlienXXX 9 years, 9 months ago
Hi there. When I was a child, my dad worked at IBM and would bring home these cassette tapes of programs that he had written and I used to put them in my tape recorder and just listen to the sounds. I've been looking for these sounds now for quite some time and can't seem to find them so was wondering if anyone might be able to help out with this request? Unfortunately, I can't tell you what model of computer he was working on or any of that stuff but I remember the tapes would start out with some long beeps like test tones, first a high one, and then a lower one, and then you'd hear what I can only describe as modem static. The pattern would repeat for a number of cycles until the last sound which was a rough sounding drone which would go on for a while. Thanks for any help with this request if possible.
Yes, these tapes would have sounded like a modem because it’s more or less the same principle of encoding binary data, at the blazing speed of 1200 baud (or slower!) Any binary data recorded on tape should produce similar sounds (it’s all zeroes and ones, after all) so if you know anyone who has any old Commodore 64/other 8-bit computer games, you could try recording those for some interesting glitch music.
By the way, I also have this:
http://www.freesound.org/people/copyc4t/sounds/172661/
It's from a synthesizer, not a home computer, but the "data to sounds" principle is of the same kind.
In terms of 'the sound' I can offer this
http://www.freesound.org/people/AlienXXX/sounds/84355/
But unfortunately, it is a fake: was created with a soft synth on my DAW, does not come from an actual computer cassette.
I used to have a spectrum. I gave it to my brother-in-law when he was still a kid. Maybe there are still some lost tapes at by in-laws. I can have a look, but this would only be in a couple of month's time or so.