No, this isnt the control panel for some WWII era drum machine, but it's not that far off. CSIRAC was Australias first digital computer and possibly the first computer used to play music. Although its output was pretty crude, even by the standards of 1950's electronic music, it was a good few years ahead of its time. This is a pdf link to an much more in-depth article from the Spring 2004 issue of the Computer Music Journal.
2/13/2007
CSIRAC: The First Computer Music
No, this isnt the control panel for some WWII era drum machine, but it's not that far off. CSIRAC was Australias first digital computer and possibly the first computer used to play music. Although its output was pretty crude, even by the standards of 1950's electronic music, it was a good few years ahead of its time. This is a pdf link to an much more in-depth article from the Spring 2004 issue of the Computer Music Journal.
I like the "Drum Writing Power" section.
ReplyDeleteAussie, aussie, aussie!
ReplyDeleteHeh, not usually into the yobbo oi thing either, but I'm in the States at the moment and was feeling home sick :)
ReplyDeleteOn Aus: though there's still alot of cool stuff being done (like Frostwave's Modular Analog Effects, Robin Whittle's DevilFish TB-303 mods, and even Lake Technology, it's not like back in the day:
* The first polyphonic digital sampling synthesiser was the Australian-produced Fairlight CMI which was first available in 1979.
* According to Switched On
(Electronic music instrument prototypes of the 20th century):
In 1967 the Australian composer Don Banks was living and working in London. He approached three friends and colleagues who had been building their own electronic instruments, for advice on electronic music. Don was aware of modular systems such as the Moog and wished to begin experimenting with electronic music, but access to and affordability of these types of modular systems was prohibitive. Peter Zinovieff, David Cockerell, Tristram Cary and Don Banks continued this meeting at the pub where it was agreed they would build Banks a useful synthesiser for £50. The EMS VCS 1 is the result of that venture into designing and building a useful and portable electronic music synthesiser.
Brew low cost beer. The amount of time you spend on brewing beer makes the small difference in cost between "just OK" ingredients and top quality ingredients a minor point. Either way, the cost of brewing a 5 gallon batch is much cheaper than buying a couple of cases of beer in the store.
ReplyDeleteBeer is made of cheap ingredients, so it doesn't hurt to buy the best. Surprisingly, the cheapest way to brew beer gives you the best results: all grain brewing is the cheapest way to brew when grain is bought in bulk.
You do need a grain mill and a mash tun, so there is a small investment in equipment needed. But you should be able to brew excellent quality beer for less than $2 per gallon, and you could brew a mild ale for as little as $1 per gallon, or less than 10 cents per bottle (one gallon is about 10-1/2 12oz bottles). Most of my pilsners are about $1.50 a gallon brews.
Other ways to reduce the cost of your beer are by growing your own hops and reusing yeast from the fermenter. Easy to do, and it means that I don't have to buy yeast more than once every half year or so. The hops should last e through most of the winter brews. So all you need is grain, which is about $0.70 per pound in a bulk purchase (much of the cost is in shipping).
Beer Brewing Equipment Basic, simple, cheap equipment that gets the job done. Sometimes it adds to the challenge. But through the mystique of brewing and remember that illiterate alewives brewed for centuries using tried and true recipes and procedures before the dawn of kegerators, ph meters or hydrometers.
Beer Keg Brewing. After using bottles for years, you can jump to the corny keg (Cornelius keg). This is an important step because it makes brewing so much easier. You can still bottle, but just a few bottles per batch, and use a corny keg to fill the bottles. You can use corny kegs as secondary fermenting vessels. You can try out method where you leave the beer in the primary for about two weeks until it clears nicely, and then UPI carefully siphon it over to a corny, avoiding transferring any trub.
beer is good, but wtf? comments spam
ReplyDeleteMe need new musicthing post.
ReplyDeleteThis blog is SO DEAD. Not even a funeral or moment of silence, just death by neglect.
ReplyDeleteGoodbye, Music Thing, it was fun while it lasted. And a big middle finger for not announcing your own retirement.
[deletes bookmark]
K Tom---take your time. whatever. Yeah it hurts if you don't post anymore cuz we're all addicts because your blog WAS THAT GOOD! if you have a life I can't hate you you for having to pursue it! Hope everything is awesome for you, babe.
ReplyDelete