Restoring the first recording of computer music (2018)

In case the embedded SoundCloud player refuses to show up, here's a direct link: https://soundcloud.com/the-british-library/first-recording-o...

> It was a challenge to write routines that would keep the computer tolerably in tune, since the Mark II could only approximate the true pitch of many notes: for instance the true pitch of G3 is 196 Hertz but the closest frequency that the Mark II could generate was well off the note at 198.41 Hertz.

There are several notes that sounds significantly out of tune, a bit similar to a beginner violinist. Which is kind of poetic in a way. The first computer to play music (in 1951!) had not mastered it yet.

More technical detail and background here:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/alan-turing-how-his-universal-mach...

Tangential: Usagi Electric plays Doom on a Bendix G-15:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no0CkQk7id0

it plays "God Save the King"