Tymes: ...I found that if I gave a write command to
the tape unit and then aborted the write command before it got past the interrecord gap, I could
start and stop the tape as often as maybe 300 times a second, which is in the acoustic range.
So you could make a lot of noise with those things.
Hardy: He got them to play music.
Tymes: So I wrote the Stars and Stripes Forever. I used the console speaker for the piccolo.
It had a drum printer, which I used for the percussion. And I had a row of tape units all
synchronized so that they were all pulsing together for the trombones.
...
Tymes: We put the doors to the tape unit half way down so that they would radiate the sound
really good. And you could feel it in your chest. It would go bom, bom, ba bam bom. The
whole building would shake when that program ran.
wdfx|1 year ago
Me too: https://doug.lon.dev/fourays
and I have 2 units for sale here: https://reverb.com/uk/item/83277820-doug-lon-dev-fourays-pol...
082349872349872|1 year ago
https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/20...
Tymes: ...I found that if I gave a write command to the tape unit and then aborted the write command before it got past the interrecord gap, I could start and stop the tape as often as maybe 300 times a second, which is in the acoustic range. So you could make a lot of noise with those things.
Hardy: He got them to play music.
Tymes: So I wrote the Stars and Stripes Forever. I used the console speaker for the piccolo. It had a drum printer, which I used for the percussion. And I had a row of tape units all synchronized so that they were all pulsing together for the trombones.
...
Tymes: We put the doors to the tape unit half way down so that they would radiate the sound really good. And you could feel it in your chest. It would go bom, bom, ba bam bom. The whole building would shake when that program ran.
EDIT: a picture of this "expensive tracker" (~USD 30 million in 2024?) may be found in http://www.cap-lore.com/Hardware/steam_42-43.pdf